Happy Birthday Play School! 50 amazing facts to celebrate the children's TV stalwart - Mirror Online Happy Birthday Play School! 50 amazing facts to celebrate the children's TV stalwart Celebrate the 50th anniversary of everyone's favourite children's TV show Share Get celebs updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email You'd be hard pushed to find someone who hasn't got a fond memory of Play School growing up. While many children's show come and go like Teletubbies, the Tweenies and In the Night Garden, there's been one mainstay on British TV since, well, forever - or at least 50 years. Created by Joy Whitby, pre-school series Play School accidentally became the first programme ever to be seen on brand new channel BBC Two after a power cut interrupted the planned schedule. Making its debut on the day after BBC Two’s launch – 21st April 1964 – the series ran for 24 years up until March 1988. It launched the careers of many of its presenters including Brian Cant, Carol Chell, Johnny Ball, Derek Griffiths and Floella Benjamin.

Play School was ahead of its time with its cheerful combination of songs, dances and lively presenters, accompanied by a cast of toys and pets. Play School even holds the distinction of being the first children’s programme ever to be seen in colour on BBC Two and the first children’s programme ever to feature a black host with Paul Danquah. Even Hollywood royalty appeared on the show with Emma Thompson's parents Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law hosting the show. To celebrate the 50th Anniversary, Play School will be part of a special exhibition commemorating Children’s BBC – Here’s One We Made Earlier due to open at The Lowry in Manchester in July. And campaigning audience advocacy group, the Children’s Media Foundation, are supporting a special reunion for all those who worked on or were involved with the iconic children’s show. “Play School was absolutely ahead of its time in terms of its content, production techniques and presenting style”, says Anna Home, OBE, former head of BBC Children’s, previously a Play School researcher and now chair of the Children’s Media Foundation.

“You only have to look at today’s children’s programming to see how it has inspired generations of presenters and programme-makers way beyond its 24 years on screen.” Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law both appeared on Play School (Photo: Rex) Check out 50 facts to celebrate Play School's 50th anniversary below Play School was originally commissioned when Michael Peacock, the Chief of Programmes for BBC Two who had two young children of his own, was looking to redress the lack of nursery age programming on air. The thinking behind the programme’s title was that ‘play is the child’s first school’. Play School was the very first programme to appear on BBC Two on 21st April 1964. Play School only became the first programme to be shown on BBC Two accidentally, after a massive power cut blacked out the previous day’s launch schedule. Play School ran for 24 years, right up until March 1988. There were 5,692 editions of Play School transmitted in total. Only 1,900 editions of Play School have survived in the BBC archives.

Play School was the first children’s programme to be shown in colour on BBC Two in May 1968. Play School’s revolutionary mixture of fun, games, songs and live presenters was a big hit. In the seventies it regularly attracted around 5 million viewers. There were a total of 104 presenters – mostly actors, comedians and singers. The Play School presenters always presented as pairs. The programme’s producers frequently mixed up the pairs to provide a different onscreen chemistry. The very first Play School was presented by Virginia Stride and Gordon Rollings. Play School presenters included Brian Cant, Johnny Ball, Floella Benjamin, Derek Griffiths and husband and wife team Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law (the parents of OSCAR winning actress Emma Thompson). The longest serving presenters were Carol Chell (763 episodes), Brian Cant (620), Julie Stevens (600), Johnny Ball and Chloe Ashcroft (545 each). Video Loading Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8Cancel Play now Brian Cant is seen by many as the “face” of Play School.

His first appearance was on 4th May 1964 and his last appearance was on 19th July 1985. Only four presenters (Brian Cant, Carol Chell, Johnny Ball and Chloe Ashcroft) had the distinction of appearing in all three decades - 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Play School was the first children’s programme in the UK to feature a black host. Paul Danquah, from Guyana, presented the programme from January to June 1965. Play School presenting alumni who subsequently moved behind the camera include Brian Jameson (who went on to create and produce children’s favourite Balamory) and Iain Lauchlan (who went on to co-devise and produce pre-school hit series The Tweenies). Play School had 12 foreign presenters: Rick Jones (Canadian), Marla Landi (Italian), Paul Danquah and Carmen Munroe (Guyanese), Dibbs Mather, Diane Dorgan, Don Spencer (Australian), Jon Skolmen and Vibeke Sæther (Norwegian), Miguel Vila (Spanish) and Evelyn Skinner and Janine Barry (New Zealanders).

During the theme tune of Play School there was a deliberate break. This was to allow viewers to shout out what day it was. The original toys were Humpty, Hamble, Jemima the Ragdoll and Teddy. Teddy was stolen in 1970 and replaced by Big Ted and Little Ted while Hamble was replaced in November 1986 by a black doll called Poppy. After Play School ended, the toys went on display at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford. All except Hamble who has not been seen since her axing in 1986. Big Ted was apparently a favourite with comedian Eric Morecambe who allegedly used to visit the toys when filming with Ernie Wise in a nearby studio. Video Loading Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8Cancel Play now Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers was BBC Television’s first male make up artist and was photographed for the front cover of BBC’s in-house newspaper Ariel curling Hamble’s hair. Although the Hamble doll had been available to buy from retailers like Woolworths, by the time Play School was in its prime it was believed there were only two in Britain.

The other was owned by a woman in Chester, who would hire it to the BBC for £40 a week whenever the Play School regular was injured. Recently a vintage 1960s Hamble appeared on e-bay and was sold for £199 but no-one could verify if it was ever used on the programme. Poor Hamble was allegedly unpopular with both the audience and presenters, with Play School regulars speaking of kicking her across the studio and worse. Presenter Brian Cant considered Humpty to be his favourite of the toys because “you could always have a conversation”. Johnny Silvo also liked Humpty but confessed to sometimes playing football with him around the studio! A rocking horse named Dapple was first shown on Play School in May 1965 and made several appearances over the decades. Humpty’s country cousin made a single appearance on Christmas Day 1971. Dumpty was brown and fatter than his urban cousin.

Each day had a different theme: Monday - Useful Box Day; Tuesday - Dressing Up Day; Wednesday - Pet’s Day; Thursday - Imagination Day; Friday - Science Day Play School’s first outside broadcast was on 13th October 1964 when the programme came from Cuttlepool Farm in Knowle, Warwickshire. The Play School pets included a cockatoo (Katoo), rabbits (including Buffy, Mopsy, Peter, Benjamin and Becky), two goldfish (Bit and Bob), several mice and a guinea pig called Lizzie. The Play School pets were originally sourced by Harrods pet buyers Ken Exall and Anna Thompson and from 1965-88 were looked after by Wendy Duggan, a fellow of the Royal Zoological Society. Working with the Play School pets was no walk in the park. The mice were said to be dangerous and cockatoo Katoo once bit presenter Johnny Ball, causing him to utter a non child-friendly expletive on camera! Video Loading Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8Cancel Play now Play School was known for its music and songs.

Perhaps the best known pianists were Bill Blezard, accompanist to Marlene Dietrich and Joyce Grenfell, who played for 20 years from 1964-84 and Royal College of Music graduate Jonathan Cohen who performed on the show for 20 years from 1967-1987. Novelist, poet and former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen worked as a script-writer and director on Play School from 1970 to 1971. In each episode of Play School a story was shown, introduced by the telling of the time on the big clock and accompanied by a woodwind and glockenspiel jingle. “The long hand is pointing straight up, so that’s something o’clock and the short hand is pointing to the number two. So today the clock says: Two O’clock!” Play School was hit by various strikes in the late 1970s and early 1980s. An ongoing dispute between the show workers and the studio electricians about who would operate the switch to turn on the small revolve beneath the famous Play School clock flared into a full-blown walk out.

One disgruntled fan who wrote in to complain was a six-year old David Mitchell, now better known for his comedy partnership with Robert Webb. Talent queuing up over the years to read the Play School story included Athene Seyler, David Kossoff, Ted Moult, George Melly, Elizabeth Welch, Percy Edwards, Mollie Sugden, Richard Baker, Roy Castle, William Mervyn, Edna Doré, Rolf Harris, Val Doonican, Sam Kydd, Clive Dunn, James Blades, Spike Milligan, Quentin Blake, Martin Jarvis, Cilla Black and Ruth Madoc. When Cilla Black read the story she originally started in a posh, constrained accent and was delighted to be asked by the director to read it in her more distinctive Liverpudlian tones. The majority of Play School episodes were recorded at BBC Television Centre from 1968-88, though its first home was Riverside Studios in West London. However if the studios were busy it was recorded in BBC Birmingham or BBC Manchester instead. In every episode of Play School, viewers were invited to watch a film of everyday life by choosing to go through one of three windows – square, round or arched.

A triangular window was added in September 1983. Play School was transmitted in Australia and New Zealand before both countries starting making their own local versions. Other countries transmitting their own versions, based on a kit supplied by Play School, included Canada, Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Austria and Israel. Play School was known as Giocagio in Italy, Das Kleine Haus in Austria and Polka Dot Door in Canada. The foreign versions of Play School all followed the same format including two presenters, a clock and three windows. But every single broadcaster dropped Hamble from the toy line up! Video Loading Play School (UK TV series) Play School (UK TV series) infobox television network = BBC2 (1964 &ndash; 1988) first_aired = starring = num_episodes = | "Play School" is a famous long-running British children's television series devised by Nicko Spalding. It was produced by the BBC 11 March 1988 . It accidentally became the first ever programme to be shown on the fledgling BBC2 after a power cut halted the opening night's programming (and later it became the first children's programme to be shown in colour by that channel).

"Play School" originally appeared on weekdays at 11am on BBC2 and later acquired a mid-afternoon BBC1 repeat. It was superseded in October 1988 Playdays . When the BBC scrapped the afternoon edition of Play School in 1985, to make way for a variety of children's programmes in the afternoon, a Sunday morning compilation was launched called "Hallo Again!" There were several opening sequences for Play School, the first one "A house with a door, windows 1 2 3 4, ready to knock? Turn the lock - It's Play School" This changed in the early seventies to "A house with a door, 1 2 3 4, ready to play, what's the day? It's..." In this version blinds opened on the windows as the numbers were said. Out went the blinds at towards the end of the 1970s and the word "windows" was added before "1 2 3 4" The final opening sequence involved a multicoloured house with no apparent windows. This was used from 1983 until the end of the programme.

This saw the most radical revamp of the programme overall ( not just in the opening titles ). The opening legend then became " Get ready - to play. What's the day? It's..." Presenters The first show was presented by Virginia Stride . Other presenters throughout the 24-year run included Brian Cant Stuart Bradley . In many cases five programmes would be produced in the space of two days, with one day of rehearsal and one day of recording. Toys The presenters were accompanied by a supporting cast of cuddly toys and dolls. The five regulars included: * Big Ted and Little Ted, teddy bear s. * Jemima, a ragdoll with long red and white striped legs. * Hamble, a rather dirty and ordinary plastic doll. It was one of the five original dolls, but was replaced by Poppy. Hamble was chosen as representative of a more "downtrodden", humble background than the " middle-class " associations that the teddy bears had. [Joyce Whitby, Creator of Play School, Children's TV on Trial.

BBC Television, broadcast May 28 * Humpty, a dark green large egg-shaped soft toy with green trousers, to look like Humpty Dumpty from the nursery rhyme * Poppy, a black doll who replaced Hamble in the later years of the series in response to changing attitudes in society (the Hamble doll was also getting rather fragile at this point.) A rocking horse named Dapple was also seen in some episodes, when a particular song or item suggested it. Pets The pets were cared for by Wendy Duggan, sister-in-law of children's TV presenter Tony Hart . Contents of the show A section of each episode was the video excursion into the outside world taken through one of three windows: the young viewers were invited to guess whether the round, square, or arched window would be chosen that day. A triangular window was added in 1983 . Very often the film would be of a factory producing something such as chocolate biscuits, or of a domestic industry such as refuse collection.

At the beginning of the 1983 revamp, the windows were now referred to as "shapes" as in "let's have a look through one of the shapes..." After the shapes being moved to a spinning disc, the programme went back to using windows which resembled those used in the late 70s, albeit with the addition of the triangular window. Each episode would also include a short story read from a book, introduced by checking the time on a clock. Normally the clock would show either an hour or a half hour. Both the clock and the three window option lives on in the children's programme " Tikkabilla ", which borrows much from "Play School", while a similar choice of portal into a film clip was provided by the abdomen-mounted video displays in the children's show " Teletubbies There would also be songs and stories. From , "Play School" also had a sister programme, called " Play Away *"25 Minutes Peace - Celebrating Play School" (BBC TV programme, 1979) External links imdb title|id=0236919|title=Play School "(BBC) Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Salmon-striped Frog Look at other dictionaries: Dear John (UK TV series) — For the American sitcom of the same name, see Dear John (U.S. TV series). Dear John Genre Situation comedy Written by John Sullivan … Wikipedia Me Too! (UK TV series) — Me Too! Genre Children s Starring Jane McCarry Rosemary Amoani Chris McCausland Donald Cameron Matthew McVarish Elaine McKenzie Ellis Samantha Seager Ross Allan Joyce Galugbo Michelle Rodley Country of origin … Wikipedia Cracker (UK TV series) — Cracker Format Drama Created by Jimmy McGovern Starring Robbie Coltran … Wikipedia School's Out (TV series) — infobox television show name = School s Out format = Game show runtime = 35 minutes creator = Hugh Rycroft and Jeremy Salsby presenter = Danny Wallace country = UK network = BBC One num series = 2 num episodes = 14 (as of 1 September 2007) air… … Wikipedia Play School — is an educational television programme for pre school aged children that is produced in many countries.

* Play School (UK TV series) the original BBC production * Play School (Australian TV series) an Australian Broadcasting Corporation… … Wikipedia Play School (New Zealand TV series) — Infobox Television show name = Play School caption = format = Childrens camera = Multi Camera picture format = PAL runtime = creator = starring = opentheme = country = NZL network = TVNZ first aired = 1970s last aired = 1993 website = imdb id =… … Wikipedia One Tree Hill (TV series) — One Tree Hill Intertitle, seasons 1–4; 8 Genre Drama, Sports Format Teen drama … Wikipedia Charlie and Lola (TV series) — Charlie and Lola Format Animated television series Created by Lauren Child Developed by Lauren Child Kitty Taylor … Wikipedia Friday Night Lights (TV series) — infobox television show name = Friday Night Lights format = Drama, Teen drama runtime = 43 Minutes (Approximately) developer = Peter Berg executive producer= Brian Grazer David Nevins starring = Kyle Chandler Connie Britton Zach Gilford Minka… … Wikipedia The Worst Witch (TV series) — Infobox Television show name = The Worst Witch caption = DVD Cover of the 1st Three Episodes of Series One show name 2

 = genre = Children s Fantasy Magic creator = director = Alex Kirby Stefan Pleszczynski creative director = developer =… … Wikipedia 16+ Play School – TV Cream On BBC2 from 1964 to 1988 and BBC1 Here is a house… It was all so nearly so very different.

Had things gone as planned, the first programme seen on BBC2 would have been a news report about The Beatles being thrown off a bus or something. Instead, thanks to a power cut, that honour ended up going to a wonky self-drawing house and pair of grown adults hopping about in a bare white studio pretending to be farm animals. Though that description probably also applied to at least one of the experimental dramas that clogged up early BBC2, this was Play School, the token concession to a pre-school viewing audience, and as such very much in line with the ‘progressive thinking’ endorsed by its parent channel. Created by Joy Whitby, Play School was intended as a sort of televisual embodiment of trendy new approaches to primary educational hoo-hah, with deft deployment of basic alphanumeric skills through the medium of songs, stories, windows, toys, and – of course – male and female teacherish presentational teams taking huge exaggerated strides all over the place.

And from that very first day on BBC2, Play School established the regular-as-clockwork format that would last almost right through to the end – cheery introductory sequence – originally unwhistleable call-and-response flutey extemporisation over a thick-lined house straight out of a sixties ‘libraries only’ storybook, with the show’s name rendered in Carnaby Street-esque asymmetrical lettering crammed awkwardly within alongside a space-filling Mary Quant-style asterisk – with much-loved “Here is a house/Here is a door/Windows – 1, 2, 3, 4/Ready to knock?/Turn the lock!/it’s Play School!” spiel; ‘Hello!’-spouting presenters dropping not particularly cryptic hints of what they’d be looking at today; prop-and-illustration-assisted storytelling introduced by a rotating clock with relevant bric-a-brac item underneath; invitation to guess which window (round, arched or square) we’d be taking a harp glissando-heralded vision-mixed voyage through in order to watch a film about milliners at work or similar; singalong song with appropriate physical exertions usually performed in cahoots with soft toy co-stars; interaction with

 generally unexciting pets; and fond farewells issued until ‘next time’, which for many was usually the afternoon repeat on BBC1.

Here is a door… Initially the above was undertaken by presenters with vague but longstanding association with the children’s department (Gordon Rollings, Eric Thompson, Phyllida Law, Anne Morrish), alongside sundry bedazzled drama school graduates who rose to the challenge of being thrown a cardboard box and told to row out to sea (Brian Cant, Virginia Stride, Carole Ward), and, more puzzlingly, Canadian eco-aware folkie Rick Jones and Beatle pal standup comic Johnny Ball. Joining them, but of course, were those oft-parodied toys – initially bespoke cloth creations the perma-sixties-looking nursery-rhyme evocation figure stroke novelty football Humpty and polka-dot pop-art ragdoll Jemima; unloved Queen-visaged lump of commercially-available ugly plastic Hamble, purchased from Woolworths in an early display of anti-License Fee protestor angering in the name of reaching out to viewers from the lower end of the economic spectrum; and, at first, a tragically-forgotten one-size-fits-all ‘Teddy’.

Nominally also part of the gang, but far less frequently seen, was creepy Olde English full-size rocking horse Dapple, seemingly only ever called into service when the props men could actually be arsed shifting it. For all its forward-thinkingness and informality, Play School was still a bit of a formal experience in those early days, due in no small part to rigid adherence to a strict Theme Of The Day rota system and the constraints of a worryingly invasive obsession with having everything rhyme. As the decade went on, these were unsurprisingly dropped, while the presenters – late sixties recruits including hyperactive headcase Julie Stevens and erstwhile chart-topper with The Four Pennies Lionel Morton – were encouraged to ‘be themselves’ a bit more, which basically involved Jones and Morton getting to belt out a few singer-songwriter ballads and vaguely hallucinogenic self-penned stories, but it was with the dawn of the seventies that things really started to change.

Windows, one, two, three, four… While the house took advantage of the glorious possibilities of colour television by acquiring a couple of barely-distinguishable shades of greyish-blue, before somebody saw sense and slapped a retina-infuriating combination of orange and red on top of it instead, in came a bunch of failed and failing acid-folkies after a bit of extra cash to prop up their almost defunct musical careers by essentially doing much the same only in front of the camera – Derek Griffiths, Jonnie Silvo, Miranda Connell, and most famously the winsome Toni Arthur, reputedly selected after she was spotted prancing about a folk club in sparkly hotpants by a male producer, and who would go on to set many an uncomprehending pre-adolescent heart a-flutter.

Like their friends-in-quasi-hallucinatory-acoustics Rick and Lionel, they had a large number of songs sitting idle in their back pockets which could be repurposed accordingly (though not always quite as repurposed as all that – one notorious ditty has a noticeably (cough) ‘pharmaceutical’ take on the appreciation of Sympathy For The Devil-esque tribal rhythms, while one of the above recruits has since admitted to more or less setting real-life witchy runes to music), leading to a brief but glorious time when Play School was somewhat akin to a ‘shallow end’ equivalent of Bob Harris’ late-night Radio 1 whisperings. It’s also a sobering thought that, had things been only slightly different, Nick Drake might have ended up adjusting his tunings in the vicinity of Dapple.

Meanwhile ‘Teddy’ quietly disappeared, darkly reputed to have been stolen by persons still unknown, to be replaced by the more familiar pairing of Big Ted and Little Ted (though Hamble, hated even by the presenters who were not above subjecting her to repair-occasioning physical abuse, somehow always survived), while the introduction of glossy colour and higher definition led to Play School becoming arguably the definitive BBC ‘white void’ show, further detached from reality by its strangely unpersonal opening and closing titles. Ready to knock?… While Play School remained resolutely unaffected by the ‘year zero’ ravages of punk rock, and even its most deeply progtastic presenters were given a much smoother ride than their contemporaries in Barclay James Harvest, there is no denying that the mid-late seventies saw the show’s true golden age. Particularly when under the stewardship of zen-endorsing producer Michael Cole, everything that was good about the show previously was streamlined into a bright, colourful and boisterous affair with more than a hint of surrealist wit.

Joining the established roster of presenters – and as likely to be seen singing Penny Lane (accompanied by Little Ted as ‘the fireman’, whose ‘portrait of The Queen’ was about twenty times too large to fit in his pocket) or specially-composed efforts about a fussy crow that would only sit on a specific chimney pot, or the famously over-wordy tale of ‘Little Ted Bear’ and his efforts to climb ‘the perpendicular wall’, and all of it under the instantly-recognisable musical direction of Jonathan Cohen – were thesps Chloe Ashcroft, Carol Leader and Jon Glover, radio comics Maggie Henderson and Fred Harris (whose concurrent presence in The Burkiss Way was always a source of mental taxation for the target audience), and most famously of all Floella Benjamin, who added an enthusiastic touch of awareness of other cultures, delivered with frighteningly limitless reserves of energy and, it has to be said, equally frightening amounts of beads in her hair.

Meanwhile, in tandem with the arrival of the more familiar proto-Acid Jazz theme music, the house bulked out sideways as if flattened by a hammer and repainted itself in slightly more tasteful shades of black, orange and yellow, before ditching everything but the colour scheme a couple of years later and rebuilding itself from scratch as the iconic chunkily-rendered ‘no sharp edges’ stylised effort, while the studio was graced (if that’s the right word) by the presence of Kattoo, a snarling bad-tempered cockatiel whose earwax-shifting shriek must be indelibly imprinted on the subconscious of a generation. Turn the lock… Though they’ve all got their own write-ups on here, and rightly so, it’s worth mentioning the impressive catalogue of spinoffs that Play School gave rise to during this time. Sales of the show to overseas broadcasters in ‘kit’ form (i.e.

they got a box of scripts and films and a Humpty decked out in ‘poison’ colour scheme) generated so much revenue that the excess ended up being channelled into Play Away , a weekend revue hoedown for slightly older viewers, with the presenters literally falling over themselves to dress up in silly costumes and tell pun-driven ice lolly stick standard gags. This in turn led to Johnny Ball-instigated pantomime-riffing retelling of historical sagas Cabbages And Kings , which in turn led to his innumerable number-driven offerings (and lest we forget, which to be honest we usually do, Johnny Ball Games), while Derek Griffiths conducted experiments in ultra-minimalism by repurposing old Play School stories and songs with a couple of basic props for Ring-A-Ding, and Fred Harris and Maggie Henderson traded absurdist repartee with old socks in the magisterial Ragtime , and it’s often forgotten that a certain Bod began his televisual wanderings within the confines of that one-two-three-four-windowed house. It couldn’t last forever though.

Come the early eighties, ITV suddenly started to take their children’s programming a lot more seriously, leading to a worrying ratings challenge for that not-that-all-important-really afternoon repeat. The answer, or so it seemed to those in charge, was to make Play School into a more modernist knockabout comedy affair in the style of, well, a second Play Away. Out went Hamble, traditional tales, and much of the educational drive; in came culturally aware (and, more importantly, less ugly) ethnic doll Poppy, madcap sock puppets Bingo and Cuckoo who came perilously close to infringing the copyright of The Banana Splits on two counts, a Heath Robinson-like Screwball Scramble-style mechanical clock, and recurring sketches, most notably puppet-rendered Breakfast Time parody TTV (later, with the addition of diseased puppet Scragtag, the genesis of one of the least distinguished spinoffs, and indeed least distinguished TV programmes full stop, of all time). To make way for this, a lot of the older presenters were shown the door too, replaced by young upstarts such as Ben Thomas, Wayne Jackman, Iain Lauchlan, Liz Watts and Sheelagh Gilby.

Less well remembered from this intake is short-stay Doctor Who-reinventer in waiting Russell T. Davies, presumably hounded out of his post by militant fans of the ‘classic’ house grumbling “RTD MUST GO!”. Reflecting this drive for modernisation, said house became bedecked in colourful painty swirls and more akin to something you might have seen in the logo of a DIY superstore, while the music was replaced with something similar but a bit more bold and jazzy and modishly replete with Flying Pickets-style ‘psh-psssssh!’ percussion. It’s Play Schoo… oh. It didn’t catch on, of course (though it was bloody funny at times), and a couple of years later a determined effort was made to return to the familiar core Play School values and some of the earlier presenters were even brought back on board (but not Hamble), but it was too late – the show had lost a lot of friends, and was ironically by now too tied to an earlier age to survive the major boot up the arse that Children’s BBC as a whole received in the mid-eighties.

Headlines pleaded, columnists tutted (including one Victoria Coren, who at least was barely old enough to have stopped watching it herself), but to no avail – Play School had taken its last trip through the arched window, and perhaps given that its cancellation came before the age of Birtism it had the best send-off it possibly could have done. In its place came Playbus , which was something else altogether… And through the Square Window, it’s the presenters! PATRICK ABERNETHY Little-recalled lugubrious-looking Father Stone-faced character of the ‘dour moustache’ persuasion, who cunningly subverted his appearance by throwing himself into silly-voiced storytelling with aplomb. BRUCE ALLEN Adam Buxton-resembling man of mystery who seemingly dropped off the face of television straight after leaving Play School. Invariably tagged ‘current whereabouts unknown’ when newspapers run that old group shot of presenters.

TONI ARTHUR Thigh length boot-favouring ‘bit of phwoar’ and former hardcore folkie who gave up a life of plainsong wailing about the misfortunes of Henry VIII’s wives to spend virtually the entire duration of the seventies grinning around no-budget children’s television sets. Later graduated to ‘serious’ presenting (ie TV-am and Woman’s Hour) and subsequently behind-the-scenes wizardry in theatre. CHLOE ASHCROFT No-nonsense straightman-esque ‘just the facts’ storyteller always ready to raise a ‘let’s get on with it’ eyebrow at the viewer in response to any off-script flights of lunacy, apparently saving all of that for her decidedly more manic Play Away persona. Later moved sideways to tedious See Saw drudgery Hokey Cokey and the far more pleasingly oddball Pie In The Sky. Also, as boring Doctor Who fans have contractually bound us to boringly point out, appeared in a boring Doctor Who story. JOHNNY BALL Frenzied fast-talking comedic polymath who oddly came to Play School via the supper club standup circuit.

Famously presented what were possibly the only Making Learning Fun shows to actually succeed in making learning fun, Think Of A Number, Think Again, Think Backwards, Think This Way etc, wherein ambitious depictions of complicated scientific conceit using oversized prop pencils and swinging bags of salt were very much the order of the day. BEN BAZELL Jobbing actor with a curious speciality in portraying that most seventies of cliches, the Villainous German In A Suit. Possibly selected on account of even at his most immersed in said roles, still not appearing as villainous as Hamble. FLOELLA BENJAMIN Vaulted over childhood ambition to become Britain’s first black female bank manager by graduating from original cast productions of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar to become pioneer of cultural diversity in mainstream entertainment, breaking down cultural walls by sheer weight of hyperactive force and singing calypso-lite reggae-inflected songs about global themes to audiences who were too young to know any different (and later waving aside further pointless taboos by continuing to present the show whilst extremely heavily pregnant). Also had a lot of beads in her hair.

WILLIAM BLEZARD Original resident pianist who moonlighted as the ivory-basher of choice of Noel Coward, Marlene Dietrich and Joyce Grenfell, the latter of whom only accepted an invitation to dine at Buckingham Palace on condition Blezard was invited too. Luckily, he didn’t mistake The Queen for Hamble. STUART BRADLEY Fresh-faced latterday recruit and one of the few to survive the transition to Playbus, also seen and/or heard on the likes of Words & Pictures and Catterpillar Trail. Now runs a corporate video production company that has Humpty on its board of directors. No, really. BRIAN CANT Discovered playing a figure on a Roman urn for schools’ TV, and hired by a producer who thought he’d enjoy doing other equally offbeat things in the name of educative broadcasting. With a stridently-voiced personality and take-no-prisoners belief that whoever you were, you were going to watch and join in and have fun and no arguments, Brian Cant came to embody everything that was great about Play School.

Also the driving force behind Play Away, and anecdotage-fuelled semi-‘canon’ Bric A Brac, and lent his vocal talents to those series set in and around Trumptonshire. CAROL CHELL Plaudit-bombarded drama student who was given the House-ular come hither about three minutes after graduating and remained with the show for the remainder of its screen life. Much given to Christmas Tape-friendly innuendo-laden camera-winking delivery of purportedly innocent lines. Later a big cheese in the world of satellite broadcasting. GORDON CLYDE West End board-treader – who appeared alongside Phil Silvers in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum – with a sideline in Stilgoesque topical satirical ditties as frequently essayed on Radio 4 shows. Discovered by Michael Winner, apparently. JONATHAN COHEN Electric Piano-adoring permanent resident of the BBC’s children’s studios for decades on end, contributing to about eight hundred million other programmes in addition to lengthy associations with Plays School and Away. Also enjoyed a stint as baton-wielding public face of legendary schools effort Music Time.

KATE COPSTICK Big-spectacled rising star of the Bottom Right On Blankety Blank firmament, also seen on On The Waterfront and sundry other junior madcappery before making the unexpected sideways career move of becoming the nation’s foremost expert on erotic literature. MIRANDA CONNELL Mild-mannered actress/dancer/folkie type who nevertheless always looked on the back of the Play School albums as though she’d just stepped straight out of London’s hippest mod-psych nightspot. Rumours that the bad trip-inducing orange and red house was inspired by one of her far-out crazy acid prophecies were probably just made up as a joke for this page. BRIAN CROUCHER Better known to TV audiences for playing intergalactic psychotic Travis in Blake’s 7, homophobic swindling thug Ted Hills in EastEnders, Harry The Bastard in Bottom, and that bloke who snarled “give it to a robot!” in uber-controversial Doctor Who And The Robots Of Death, and therefore ideally suited to singing ‘Well Jemima, Let’s Go Shopping’.

SIMON DAVIES One of the last ever new presenters, arriving shortly before it all ended and subsequently parachuted into both Playbus and Sophie Aldred co-helmed CBBC Factutainment masterpiece Corners. Now doing voiceover duties on ‘Web 2.0’ Play School-riffing effort Tikkabilla. PERCY EDWARDS Bird-twitterer extraordinaire usually to be found in his natural habitat of the ‘panel show’, but regularly roped in to Play School whenever a story or an extremely limited outside broadcast needed some bird-twittering magic sprinkled on top. SHEELAGH GILBEY Edutainment-cheerleading real-life expert in pre-school learning, who also presented offbeat make-your-own-entertainment puzzlement Do It! and the decidedly improving Zig Zag.

DEREK GRIFFITHS Rubber-limbed renaissance man who arrived at Play School after learning the ropes with the RSC, the folky singer-songwriter scene, and a mild excursion into topical satire, and found his many and varied talents could be put to even greater use within its confines, not least an audially-alarming ability to improvise ‘free jazz’ scat-yodelling around whatever song he’d been given to sing. Such versatility made him a natural choice for all of the main spinoffs (including one of his own, the busked-storytelling ‘prop comedy’ extravaganza Ring-A-Ding) as well as narration and/or presentation duties on the likes of Heads & Tails, Bod and Look & Read, usually also furnishing them with full-length musical soundtracks to boot. Kept up his comedic leanings throughout Play School tenure, meaning that he could also regularly be spotted in cahoots with Frankie Howerd, Marty Feldman, the Private Eye mob and Alf Garnett, as well as playing no end of visiting African princes on the likes of Terry & June, and answering audience-put posers on popular science show Don’t Ask Me.

JANE HARDY Long-serving and enthusiastic type of the modishly Julie Covington-ish brutally cropped hair persuasion. ANNE MORRISH Perma-startled-looking ‘serious actress’ for whom Play School (and indeed Jackanory) was just a brief experimental interlude between regular appearances in blockbusting BBC Sci-Fi-Tinged Dramas Of The Week and a long, long list of costume drama credits. Also appeared concurrently in Churchill’s People, which she probably won’t appreciate us mentioning. LIONEL MORTON Erstwhile lead-crooner with close-harmony chart-toppers from the weedier end of the ‘Beat Boom’ spectrum The Four Pennies, who turned to Humpty and company after a couple of now uber-collectable solo singles flopped, and brought with him a chiming-with-the-times combination of big hair, loud shirts, and – perhaps most importantly – the theme song for Play Away. JENNIFER NADEN Mysterious sixties-bouffanted mainstay of the early days, whose only other credits appear to be on ropey and probably deservedly forgotten ITV lunchtime efforts where nobody can remember anything beyond the not-particularly-inspired title.

VALERIE PITTS Early presenter who became an influential guiding force in the classical music world after marrying Georg Solti and later a panellist on Face The Music. Has sadly yet to arrange ‘I Like Peace, I Like Quiet’ for a sixty piece orchestra. GORDON ROLLINGS Narrator of The Herbs, the man who dodges a Ringo-thrown dart in A Hard Day’s Night, dog-accompanied John Smiths advertiser, The Bed Sitting Room, Rhubarb Rhubarb, The Persuaders!, Sykes, Worzel Gummidge, Kelly Monteith, Give My Regards To Broad Street, Bloodbath At The House Of Death and Play School presenter too. His CV practically writes TV Cream for us! JOHNNY SILVO Former permanent resident on all those Light Programme shows called The Folk Of Folk and what have you, once toted alongside Sandy Denny as an acoustic guitar-wielding One To Watch, who rolled up on Play School in cahoots with regular bassist/percussionist Dave Moses.

LUCIE SKEAPING Klezmer-toting cheerleader for Early Music cunningly disguised as Total Babe, photogenic properties (rather than the plainsong-promoting) also leading to fronting duties on Take Two, Get Set For Summer and Pob’s Programme. It’s (Sic Gloria) Mundi! DON SPENCER Rolf Harris-aping Aussie sportsman turned singer (who performed the closing theme from Fireball XL5) turned UK-based children’s TV presenter, always noticeably more clean-cut-looking than his contemporaries and a little too enthusiastic for songs and films about sporting derring-do. Post-Play School, lent his vocal talents to such undistinguished vehicles as Over The Moon, Animal Fair and Hokey Cokey. JULIE STEVENS Manic whirlwind of energy who disguised past as a hastily-ditched Avengers girl by whizzing around the Play School set almost too quickly for the cameras to keep up with. Suggested presenter-wide adoption of dungarees as uniform of choice after drawing admiring comments on her selected knicker colour. Also regularly heard trading vocals with Derek Griffiths on Look And Read.

VIRGINIA STRIDE Former Z-Cars regular roped in as first female presenter and thus primary occupant of that oft-repeated opening clip, very much of the ‘pretty frock’ school of substitute schooling that dominated the early days but would soon be left behind, though she adopted a somewhat snazzier haircut as the primary stooge (alongside John Sergeant) in Alan Bennett’s legendary sketch show vehicle, On The Margin. BEN THOMAS Variably-bearded Griffiths-esque prime mover in the sideshunt towards ‘zany’, whose Cuckoo-assisted crimes were more than atoned for by portrayal of a confusing alien in Pie In The Sky. ERIC THOMPSON Long-serving contributor whose work on the show has been rightly and understandably overshadowed by a certain voiceover job he got as a result of his Play School yarn-spinning… CHRIS TRANCHELL Serious acting type who emerged from the Old Vic (where he was a contemporary of Patrick Stewart) and eventually found his way into Survivors, where a scene featuring him playing guitar oddly led to an invitation Play School-wards. Notorious for using Humpty as a makeshift football during studio downtime.

CAROLE WARD Former ITC stock actress, usually to be found in the challenging roles of ‘Receptionist’ and ‘Nurse’, who went on to forge a lucrative sideline in compiling most of the Play School books. LIZ WATTS Barbara Dickson-barnetted mainstay of the final years much given to comic repartee with ‘Cuckoo’; later the voice of the irritating Lizzie on Playbus. Play School - Do You Remember? Play School Television > Play School If the mention of the name Hamble still brings you out in a cold sweat then you are probably one of the huge number of children whose early years were shaped by the long-running and truly iconic Play School. Not only did it start the careers of some of Britain’s best-loved television personalities but it also took its place in BBC history for a quite unexpected reason. It was the first ever programme to be broadcast on BBC2, although it wasn’t planned that way.

The launch night of the channel, 19 April 1964, was scuppered by a power cut due to a fire at Battersea Power Station and apart from a few short announcements from a newsreader (which came via the BBC’s news facility at Alexandra Palace, which wasn’t affected by the outage) no programmes went out that evening. At 11am the following morning things were back up and running, and the programme originally scheduled to go out at that time was Play School. And so it started: ‘Here’s a house, here’s a door. Windows: 1,2,3,4. Ready to knock? Turn the lock: it’s Play School.’ Presenting the first show were Virginia Stride and Gordon Rollings , and the roll call of other people prepared to jump about in brightly coloured dungarees to entertain pre-schoolers is long and filled with familiar names.

Different duos appeared daily to keep it fresh; over the years you’d have seen Rick Jones (also famous for Fingerbobs ), everyone’s favourite Brian Cant (who was a part of the show for 21 out of its 24 years), creator of the Magic Roundabout Eric Thompson and his wife, the actress Phylida Law , eccentric maths whiz Johnny Ball , multi-talented children’s television stalwart Derek Griffiths , Carol Leader , Toni Arthur , Kate Copstick …the list goes on and on. Marla Landi has probably the most impressive and varied CV out of the former Play School presenters; during her career she has been a film actress, a top model with several magazine covers in her portfolio and the owner of a successful wig company, as well as being made a Knight of the Italian Republic for services to her culture within the UK. Almost as important to the show as the presenters were the toys, and so famous were they it’s a fair bet that most people could still name them as well. In the beginning the soft toy area of the show featured just one Teddy, but some ne’er-do-well stole him during the ‘70s and he was never seen again.

The Play School team then decided two bears were better than one and the cuddly duo of Big Ted and Little Ted (presumably this was to help the presenters demonstrate the art of opposites) arrived and settled in. At the risk of insulting teddy lovers everywhere they were fairly generic bears with no visible personality, even when they were occasionally dressed up in some kind of comical outfit. Jemima was a ragdoll with Aunt Sally-like painted cheeks; generally dressed like some kind of small Victorian girl in floaty dresses she always came across as a bit wet. If that is something you can accuse a doll of being of course. Humpty was a cheerful green Gonk-style toy, with the proportions of the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. He was adorned in a jovial pair of green and white checked trousers which he wore very high up on his body. Perhaps Simon Cowell used to watch Play School?

Hamble - oh come on, there must be something positive to say about Hamble…Mind you, even the presenters of Play School admitting hating the small, slightly creepy plastic doll, stating that she was ‘too rigid to be cuddled’, although it’s more likely to be the fact that her weird staring eyes made her reminiscent of Chucky, the doll from the film Child’s Play. Who knows what she got up to when the studio lights were off? Joy Whitby, the creator and producer of Play School called her ‘a very ugly, beaten-about doll,’ and Law added ‘If I got frustrated, I’d punch Hamble, the doll with the squashed face.’ Hamble didn’t stand a chance really. Hamble was replaced in the 1980s by Poppy, a black doll brought in supposedly to reflect a more balanced ethical mix (not sure what race Humpty was supposed to be representing here…) and to strengthen the Hamble/Chucky theory even more Hamble mysteriously disappeared after being fired from her showbiz role (insert creepy Chucky laugh here).

Apart from songs, games and a story, each show also featured a short film about simple events; something being made in a factory, the hustle and bustle of a café or animal frolicking, for example. These were accessed by the camera zooming through another of Play School’s iconic images; the windows. Originally they were round, square and arched, with a triangle window being added in 1983. When Play School finished its long run in 1988, some of the key moments of the programme were held on to and later transferred to other BBC children’s shows. The theme of the windows being used as portals to the outside world would later be found in Tikkabilla, a show very similar to Play School, and which also featured a similar clock to the one Play School used for simple pre-school time-telling. Much-loved toddler television the Teletubbies also used the same idea, allowing films to be viewed through the screens on the four characters’ tummies. Play School was recorded mostly at the BBC Television Centre, although sometimes at the BBC studios in either Birmingham or Manchester if London was occupied. It was a fairly rigorous schedule; two days would see up to five programmes being rehearsed and recorded.

In 1971 a sister programme, Play Away, began broadcasting, aimed at a slightly older audience, and with a very catchy theme tune. It ran for 13 years with many of the Play School presenters taking their turn on the new programme, alongside then unknown celebrities like Tony Robinson ( Blackadder’s Baldrick) and Jeremy Irons (hard to take his acclaimed career seriously when you’ve also seen him prancing about in a jaunty top hat next to a woman in a tutu telling a terrible joke). Play School has a few accolades to its name; the afore-mentioned opener of BBC2 and the first children’s programme to be broadcast in colour on the channel but above that it entertained and educated children for 24 years, and for that it deserves to be remembered. But Hamble doesn’t. TV ARK | Children's TV | BBC Programmes M-R The Magic Roundabout 1966 BBC TV Produced in France by Serge Danot and shown first on French TV in 1963. When the series arrived in the UK the narration was wittily re-dubbed by Eric Thompson, who also re-wrote the scripts for a British audience.

Mary, Mungo & Midge 1969 BBC TV/John Ryan The adventures of a young girl called Mary, who lives in a high-rise flat with her dog, Mungo and pet mouse, Midge. Mr Benn 1971 BBC TV/Zephyr Films Mr Benn, of 52 Festive Road in London, discovers magical adventures at the back of a costume shop. Created and written by David McKee and narrated by Ray Brooks. Muffin the Mule Song and dance with Muffin the puppet mule. Created and hosted by Annette Mills. Multi-Coloured Swap Shop 1976 BBC TV Noel Edmonds, John Craven, Keith Chegwin and Maggie Philbin were your hosts for this Saturday morning show, which ran from 1976 to 1982 on BBC1. Noah and Nelly in SkylArk 1976 Roobarb Enterprises All aboard the SkylArk! There's nothing normal about nutty Noah's ark. The animals didn't come on two by two, but with two heads instead! There's Rose the elephants, Ronald the gorillas and William the hippos, to name but a few...

Paddington 1975 FilmFair London Sir Michael Hordern narrated this animated series about a Peruvian bear who was found by the Brown family at Paddington Railway station. The Perishers 1979 Bill Melendez Productions Created by Maurice Dodd and drawn by Dennis Collins, this cartoon was based on the popular comic strip featured in the Daily Mirror. Picture Book Patricia Driscoll introduces. Picture Book was the Watch With Mother programme for Mondays. Play Away 1975 BBC TV Brian Cant, Toni Arthur and Jeremy Irons appear in this 1975 edition of Play Away. Never mind the weather, get it together! The classic theme features on these rather jolly closing credits. Playbus 1988 BBC TV This was the official replacement for Play School, which ended in 1988. It was later renamed 'Playdays'. Play School 1983 BBC TV Launched in 1964, Play School had the honour of being the first programme transmitted on BBC2. Amongst the many presenters, who could forget the toys? Big Ted and Little Ted, Jemima, Humpty and Hamble (later replaced by Poppy).

The series notched up a total of 5739 episodes! Pogles' Wood 1966 SmallFilms Created and written by Oliver Postgate, Pogles' Wood focused on the day-to-day happenings in the yokel life of the industrious Mr Pogle, his wife, their son Pippin and pet squirrel Tog, who all lived in a tree in the heart of the forest. Postman Pat 1983 Woodland Animations The daily adventures of Pat, the rural postman accompanied by Jess, his black and white cat. 13 episodes were produced, and were repeated many times throughout the 1980's. Rag, Tag & Bobtail Reg, Tag & Bobtail was the Watch With Mother programme for Thursdays. Rentaghost 1975 BBC TV When your mansion house needs haunting, who you gonna call? Rentaghost! Bob Block created and wrote the series which began in 1975 and ran for 58 episodes until 1984.

Roobarb 1974 Roobarb Enterprises Complete with wobbly-style animation, Roobarb was all about the battles of a green dog (Roobarb) and a pink cat (Custard). The series was narrated by Richard Briers. This page has been written and presented by Mark McMillan. The information presented on this page has been researched by me on behalf of TV ARK and is offered in good faith, correct to the best of my knowledge. If any factual errors have appeared here inadvertently, then I would be delighted to hear from anyone wishing to offer corrections. All opinions expressed are my own and no offence is intended. Should they be a cause of concern or distress to any readers, please inform me immediately so that I can remove or amend them accordingly.

Question: In the UK children's TV series Playschool, what was the name of the black doll which replaced Hamble in the 1980s?
Answer: Poppy