Play School did it for me

Monday was useful box day.
Tuesday just had to be dressing up day.
Pets figured on a Wednesday.
Thursday was rest day and the week finished on a flourish with science on a Friday.

Such was my week as a young child.

I was brought up according to the BBC Children's Programme of Play School. I attribute this early grounding as complimentary to my loving family in forming the personality and character that I have become today. The ethos of the programme was that play is the first school and I tried to continue this with my own children in their formative years.

Play School was a phenomena, a fresh and pioneering approach in what was clearly a rather staid and middle class medium of very posh, very white, clipped voices working with longstanding, traditional material delivered coldly and mechanically. The launch of the revolutionary new series in April 1964 was aimed at the under 5's age group and established in the prime spot  until it was controversially axed from the schedules in 1988.

I can still recall the opening music and invitation behind the lyrics of "A House, with a door, windows 1,2,3,4. Ready to Play, Whats's the day?".It is hard to believe that the first broadcasts were in black and white and in the days before auto-cues everything was rehearsed and learned and delivered live. This gave a sharp, fresh,realistic and very natural atmosphere with the rough edges and ad lib approach appealing to small children.

The presenters improvised songs and were encouraged to write their own material. Music featured with a pianist in the studio responding instantly to provide a sound accompaniment behind stories of animals or characters.

In addition to the human contingent there were also five much loved toy characters led by the rotund, upholstered Humpty Dumpty, Big Ted and Little Ted, the rag doll Jemima and the frumpy and disturbingly ugly Hamble. The props men in the studio often recounted their own myths centred on the toys, in particular the scurrilous rumour that whatever the order of placing them in their box at night they always found Hamble under the two Teds in the morning. Her morals were in question although in reality her head often fell off and many found her dirty. Jemima on the other hand had her own fan club and young children would write in asking why she was never allowed to win any of the games. She was, being a rag doll, difficult to sit up in practice, not helped by her heavy china face.

An important element in the individual programmes was the use of the three windows through which a segment of film on an educational or general interest was shown. There was a real art in the pause of the presenter to create excitement and get the children, in their own homes, to make a guess as to which window would be used, the round, square or arched. It appears that adults even place wagers between themselves on the issue of the window on any particular day.

In my viewing years the main presenters were Brian Cant, Johnny Ball, Floella Benjamin and Toni Arthur. They emphasised the diversity of the programme at a time when non-white faces were still very rarely seen and regional accents similarly remained unheard.

Another important characteristic of Play School was the direct delivery of the presenters to the camera and with their eye contact making each and every viewing child feel as though they were the exclusive audience.

Brian Cant's background was as an actor. He recalls that at his audition he was asked to sit in a cardboard box and imagine that he was rowing. His improvised hooking of a custard filled wellington boot got him the job. Floella Benjamin was also classically trained and now sits in the House of Commons as a Baroness. The music came from a graduate of the Royal Academy, Toni Arthur had been part of a well known folk duo and Johnny Ball also went on to greater things after his 16 years of Play School.

Early Awards were won and the format was exported to Europe and Australasia. In the days before exploitation and commercialism the fundamental model of the programme was studied by those seeking to break into the promising market for children's TV. The developers of Sesame Street visited to learn the secrets of Play School's success.

There has been an endless debate which still rattles on today about the appropriate format for this sector of early years TV broadcasting. Competition was strong from US Imports mainly Cartoons and with producers under the impression that entertainment had to be ever more zany, noisy, outrageous, extreme and explicit in some respects.

We should not forget that the other part of the equation, the children were changing with peer pressure, fashion and the influence of advertising later to be largely replaced by computers and social media. There were attempts to modernise Play School but it's time was up by 1988 and a new successor was launched by the name of Playbus.

I have fond memories of Play School from my own childhood. I learnt to tell the time on the large faced clock, to be enthused about education in those first fun lessons and to absorb happily and willingly those skills which have proven to be of great benefit in my later years.