The history of BBC children's programming

This week I've been reading an interesting book called Children's Television in Britain by Buckingham et al. A section of the book is dedicated to the history of the BBC children's department; and as I am tailoring my programme towards BBC requirements, I thought it should be worthwhile to make some notes here about the department's changing priorities.

(I do hope this isn't too plagiarizey. It seems like a lot, but it's a summary of 30 pages of information).

1948 - 1956: The Early Years

• 1948: the first regular children's programme, For the Children, began. At this time, the BBC only broadcast for a few hours a day, so the programme was relegated to 16:00 - 17:00 on Sundays. This led to complaints that it would stop children from going to Sunday school.
• Children's programming was seen as a litmus test for the value of taxpayer-funded television. The aim was therefore to provide a shining example of the motto "educate, inform, entertain".
• However, there was chronic underfunding, and it was very common to hear producers say "it's only children". There was not even money for film to shoot outside the studio.
• This was an era of new theories of child development. The newly established NHS monitored children's developmental targets, and classrooms were divided by age for the first time. This influenced the Children's Department's thinking. A 1947 memo noted: "it is bad for a child to look at a programme which he cannot understand.
• Therefore, broadcasting completely closed down between programming blocks, to stop preschoolers from watching older children's programming, and to stop children from watching adult programming.
• 1951 - 1956: Department head Freda Lingstrom aimed to "enlighten" children through exposure to high culture such as classic novels. She hated anything American, animator, scar or "vulgar". She fought for the rights of children's programming, saying that it should be treated equally to adults' programming. However, her programming was criticized for being too boring and theatrical. Viewing figures suffered because children preferred to watch adult programming instead.
• 1954: children's programming started to be broadcast on weekdays.

1956 - 1964: Competition with ITV

• During this period, TV ownership grew from 30% of households to 66%. There was therefore more of a need to appeal to the masses.
• 1955: ITV began broadcasting. Their ethos was the opposite of "educate, inform, entertain": they wanted to appeal to the lowest common denominator in order to maximises advertising revenue. 
• BBC thought ITV's programming was low-brow, with too much American content (which was "too commercial"). But in order to compete, they did buy some American content and focussed on light entertainment.
• 1957: ITV had a 70% audience share. They lobbied the Government to have the evening shutdown abolished, in order to maximise ad revenue. Therefore the gap between children's and adults' programming was removed.
• ITV Children's had a higher budget than BBC. They had some big hits, such as Popeye and Robin Hood, and an adventure film every day.
• In response, BBC Department head Owen Reed secured funding to hire more producers and to commission their own cinematic adventure films. He abandoned showing programming in age order, and put the adventure films at the top of the schedule, in an attempt to steal audiences from ITV. However, the films failed due to a still-low budget and incompetent producers.
• Reed acknowledged that teenagers did not want to watch children's programming, so he abolished programming for 11-to-16-year-olds.
• 1960: BBC adult programming had much improved, and they were once again the dominant channel. But audience share for children's programming was as low as 15%.
• The new Director General, Stuart Hood, was therefore hostile towards the Children's department, saying that it was "too bloody middle-class" He took away all drama production, telling Reed that "the days of actors dressing up in costumes are numbered."
• By 1964, the Children's department was completely closed down, in favour of "family programming".

1964 - 1967: The Missing Years

• The head of the Family Programmes Department, Doreen Stephens, believed that it was no longer appropriate to protect children from reality by keeping them ignorant. She therefore mixed together children's and adult programming, and celebrated children's right to choose what they watched.
• Only a few children's programmes remained, all of them quite cheap. The department was able to focus on these remaining programmes and greatly improve their quality: Blue Peter, Play School, Jackanory, Crackerjack, etc.
• However, the decision to abolish children's drama was unsuccessful. With the exception of Doctor Who, children found "family" drama too boring or complicated.
• Meanwhile, the BBC's status had much improved. Their finances had increased greatly, as had their prestige thanks to the Government awarding them the license for BBC 2. 
• ITV responded to the crisis by going through a major restructuring. No longer following the "lowest common denominator" path, they decided to focus on quality programming, which included a strong, well-funded children's department.
• The BBC therefore decided to reinstate their Children's Department.

1967 - 1980: The Renaissance

• The new Children's Department, headed by Monica Sims, found itself with nearly nothing left. Her first major achievement was to restore children's drama.
• 1972: with generous funding, the Department worked its way up to 14 hours a week of drama, light entertainment, outside broadcasts, news, cartoons, music, magazine programmes, etc. Children's programming reflected the full gamut of adult programming.
• Sims encouraged experimentation, and gave producers "the right to fail once in a while."
• Sims appealed to children by representing environments that they were familiar with, allowing them to be more questioning and critical of the world around them.
• She refused to buy Sesame Street, saying that it had no connection to life in Britain, and was too segmented and frantic, not giving children the time to think for themselves.
• 1976: Multi-Coloured Swap Shop was the Department's first Saturday morning programme, introducing a much less formal environment, letting the audience take part by phoning in. The focus was on the presenter's personalities, children's real interests and culture, and pop music.  However, it was considered "safe" compared to ITV's Tiswas.
• 1978: the new Department head, Edward Barnes, noted the importance of reaching out to children from deprived homes. He believed that he could save them from becoming "the proles of tomorrow" by fostering an interest in educational programming. For example, Newsround would train them to grow up with an interest in the news.
• 1978: Grange Hill was the first attempt to represent working-class life and children's real problems. It was very controversial with parents, but started a trend of "tougher" programming into the 80s.

BUCKINGHAM et al (1999). Children's Television in Britain: History, Discourse and Policy. London: British Film Institute.