Watch with Mother

Last updated

Watch with Mother
Watch with mother.png
The opening titles from 1952. The film was reversed so the title appeared to flower.
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
Running time15 minutes
Original release
Network BBC1
Release1952 (1952) –
1978 (1978), 26 years

Watch with Mother was a cycle of children's programmes created by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird. Broadcast by BBC Television from 1952 until 1975, it was the first BBC television series aimed specifically at pre-school children, a development of BBC radio's equivalent Listen with Mother , which had begun two years earlier. In accordance with its intended target audience of pre-school children viewing with their mothers, Watch with Mother was initially broadcast between 3:45 pm and 4:00 pm, post-afternoon nap and before the older children came home from school. [1]

Contents

The choice of Watch with Mother for the title of the series was intended "to deflect fears that television might become a nursemaid to children and encourage bad mothering". [2]

Show cycles

Although Andy Pandy had been regularly broadcast every week since mid-1950 (normally on Tuesdays), [3] and was joined by Flower Pot Men in December 1952 (normally on Wednesdays), [4] the name Watch with Mother was not adopted until April 1953, [5] shortly before the programming was expanded to three afternoons a week with the addition of Rag, Tag and Bobtail that September. [6] The "classic" cycle of shows was in place by September 1955, with the first showing of The Woodentops . [2]

Broadcast at 1:30 pm each day, [7] it comprised: [2]

Each of the five classic shows actually consisted of only a very small number of episodes, all made on film – and all in black-and-white. Typically, not more than 26 programmes were filmed for each show, this being sufficient for a run of six months as there was only one broadcast per week. The aim was to provide children's programming on the cheap: the BBC Children's department had an extremely tiny budget, and needed a collection of films which could be endlessly repeated, typically in six-monthly cycles, for its undemanding pre-school age audience.

From April 1963, Watch with Mother was moved to 10.45am (with a further slot at 1.30pm from September 1963). Tales of the Riverbank joined the Watch with Mother Monday slot in December 1963, and caused worries that the original five shows would be replaced. [8]

Subsequent shows that occupied the Watch with Mother slot were as follows:

After 1978 – Name change and later developments

In 1978, the Watch with Mother title was dropped, as it was considered to be dated, and the strand was known as See-Saw from 1980 to 1990. [2] A Watch with Mother video became a best-seller in 1987, and was followed by a second and a third in 1989 and a 'best of' in 1993.[ citation needed ]

A 45rpm promotional single was available to radio disc jockeys, for promo only, entitled "Flob-A-Dob-A-Ben", in 1987. The single was not released on general release and was played often as a novelty record by Radio Trent on the Andy Marriott Television Show.[ citation needed ]

In the early 2000s, the shows Andy Pandy and Flower Pot Men were remade as stop motion animations (the latter as Bill and Ben ), which aired on CBeebies.[ citation needed ]

UK VHS releases (1987–1993)

Between 1987 and 1993, four compilation videos with Watch with Mother shows have been released by the BBC.

VHS NameRelease YearEpisodes
Watch with Mother (BBCV 4091)5 October 1987
  • Picture Book: "Paper Lanterns"
  • Andy Pandy: "Pram"

  • Flowerpot Men: "Seeds"
  • Rag, Tag and Bobtail: "The Hazel Twig"

  • The Woodentops: "Introduction"
Watch with Mother 2 (BBCV 4286)2 October 1989
  • Picture Book: "Bush Baby"
  • Andy Pandy: "The Cart"

  • Flowerpot Men: "The Potato Man"
  • Rag, Tag and Bobtail: "Snowballs"

  • The Woodentops: "Horseshoe"
Watch with Mother: The Next Generation
(BBCV 4280)		2 October 1989
  • Tales of The Riverbank: "A Ride in Guinea's Jeep"

  • Pogles Wood: "Honey Bees"
  • The Herbs: "Strawberry Picking"

  • Mary Mungo and Midge: "The Crane"
  • Barnaby: "The Circus"
The Very Best of Watch with Mother
(BBCV 4966)		5 April 1993
  • Andy Pandy: "Tricycle"
  • Flowerpot Men: "Icicles"

  • Camberwick Green: "Mickey Murphy the Baker"

  • Muffin the Mule: Muffin and the Squeaking Shoes

  • The Woodentops: "The Party"

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Young Doctors</i> Australian medical soap opera television series (1976–1983)

The Young Doctors is an Australian early-evening soap opera originally broadcast on the Nine Network and produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation, it aired from Monday 8 November 1976 until Wednesday 30 March 1983. The series is primarily set in the fictional Albert Memorial Hospital, as well as the restaurant/nightclub Bunny's Place, and is fundamentally concerned with the romances and relations between younger members of the hospital staff, rather than typical medical issues and procedures.

<i>Andy Pandy</i> British childrens TV series (1950–1970, 2002)

Andy Pandy is a British children's television series that aired on BBC Television in 1950. Originally live, a series of 26 filmed programmes was shown until 1970, when a new series of 13 episodes was made. This series was based upon a comic strip of the same name.

Springbok Radio was a South African nationwide radio station that operated from 1950 to 1985.

Pogles' Wood is an animated British children's television show produced by Smallfilms between 1965 and 1967, first broadcast by the BBC between 1965 and 1968.

<i>Picture Book</i> (TV series) British childrens television series (1955–1963)

Picture Book is a BBC children's TV series created by Freda Lingstrom, first broadcast in 1955. It was the Monday programme in the Watch with Mother cycle. Initially introduced by Patricia Driscoll, the programme encouraged children to make things; Driscoll's catch phrase was "Do you think you could do this? – I am sure you could if you tried". She left the programme in 1957 to play the part of Maid Marian in the ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood. Patricia Driscoll's episodes were repeated until 1963 when they were replaced by a new series of episodes with Vera McKechnie. The programme ran until December 1965 and replaced in the Monday slot by Camberwick Green in January 1966.

Pippin was a UK children's comic, published by Polystyle Publications between 1966 and 1986, featuring characters from British pre-school television programmes. Stories were generally of four or eight numbered panels, with a short sentence below each illustration, although some stories did appear in prose form.

Freda Violet Lingstrom OBE was a BBC Television producer and executive, responsible for pioneering children's programmes in the early 1950s. She and her friend Maria Bird together created Andy Pandy and The Flower Pot Men.

Top of the Form was a BBC radio and television quiz show for teams from secondary schools in the United Kingdom which ran for 38 years, from 1948 to 1986.

This is a list of British television related events from 1965.

This is a list of British television related events from 1964.

This is a list of British television related events from 1958.

This is a list of British television related events from 1957.

This is a list of British television related events from 1953.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audrey Atterbury</span> British puppeteer

Audrey Selma Atterbury was a British puppeteer best known for her work on the 1950s pioneering BBC children's series Andy Pandy.

The Official Chart is a long-running United Kingdom music chart programme, airing each Friday afternoon on BBC Radio 1. It airs the UK Singles Chart compiled by the Official Charts Company.

Maria Edith Bird was a South–African born British producer.

Singing Together was a BBC Radio schools series which ran from 25 September 1939 to 29 March 2001, with repeats until 25 June 2004. Its origins were in Community Singing which was considered necessary at the outbreak of the Second World War following the mass evacuation of children.

This is a timeline of notable events relating to BBC Radio 1, a British national radio station which began in September 1967.

A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Radio 3, a British national radio station which began broadcasting in September 1967.

This is a timeline of the history of the broadcasting of children's programmes on BBC Television.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Burton 1956, p. 307.
  2. 1 2 3 4 McGown, Alistair, Watch With Mother, BFI Screenonline, retrieved 22 June 2012
  3. ↑ "Search Results – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  4. ↑ "Search Results – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  5. ↑ "Search Results – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  6. ↑ "Search Results – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  7. ↑ Marcus, Laurence (2005), Complete Watch With Mother / See-Saw Guide 1953 – 1988, Television Heaven, archived from the original on 10 February 2009
  8. ↑ Worthington, TJ (November 2006). "Of Finger Mice and Mr. Men - The Story of Watch with Mother Part Three: Now Where Shall we Find the Pogles?". Off the Telly. Retrieved 3 September 2023.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.