Do you live in a town? Was it Bill or was it Ben? Who is The Phantom Phlan Plinger? Can you guess what is in it today? Why don’t you just switch off your television set and go out and do something less boring instead?

They’re questions that will be familiar to anyone who grew up during the golden age of children’s television, from the launch of ITV in the mid-fifties right through to ITV and the BBC – and Channel 4 – repositioning their output with a government paper on the future of broadcasting on the horizon in the mid-eighties, which in turn would give a whole new generation a whole new golden age of their own. There is something special about those early years, though – and it’s a story that never seems to get told properly. It’s remember this and laugh at that, but you’ll rarely find any discussion about the background to the best loved shows or how they evolved and took the rest of television along with them as everything literally went from black and white into colour. You won’t find anyone musing on why we remember some shows and not others, and how that might or might not relate to what was going on in our everyday lives, all the way from the rise of Margaret Thatcher to the ongoing dispute over the best Cornetto flavour; or, perhaps more importantly, what it was actually like to watch them at the time.

It was a time that saw the messy rise of Saturday morning television, a craze for near-the-knuckle spooky serials that often rivalled the ‘X’-certificate horror and crime thrillers of the day, the mind-bending influence of pop art and psychedelia, and the Tracy Brothers jetting off in a blast of visual effects that had Hollywood producers seething with envy. It gave the world Bagpuss, Cheggers, Hamble, Metal Mickey, Marmalade Atkins and Zebedee, and right throughout it all, the Blue Peter team kept on painting over brand labels on washing up liquid bottles as though they hadn’t noticed a single thing.

Covering comedy, drama, factual entertainment, quiz shows, dubbed serials, those offbeat animations before the news and more, The Golden Age Of Children’s TV takes a humorous and nostalgic look at how the most fondly remembered children’s programmes ended up on our screens while not forgetting to keep an eye on some of the less well remembered ones too, as well as at what was going on over on the other side of the screen as viewers dropped their Sherbet Fountain in excitement and got sent to bed before Top Of The Pops. More importantly, it takes that look from the perspective of the actual audience these shows were intended for. Never mind the jokes we’ve all heard about what the people who made them might have been smoking – were they actually fun to watch or not??

There’s in-depth chapters on the stories behind Swap Shop, Tiswas, Thunderbirds, Jackanory, Clangers, Camberwick Green, Trumpton, Chigley, Educating Marmalade, Blue Peter, Magpie, The Adventure Game, Captain Zep – Space Detective, The Box Of Delights, The Singing Ringing Tree, Look And Read and The Magic Roundabout, thoughts on the short-lived rivalry between Look-In and Beeb, how the announcers handled those awkward gaps between the programmes and what that Girl and Clown playing noughts and crosses were all about, everything from The Goodies to Crown Court that wasn’t actually for children but we all watched them anyway, and plenty of familiar names including Play School, Play Away, Bagpuss, Chorlton And The Wheelies, Grange Hill, A Handful Of Songs, Willo The Wisp, Roobarb, Battle Of The Planets, The Red Hand Gang, We Are The Champions, The Changes, Belle And Sebastian, Big John Little John, Follyfoot, Jossy’s Giants, Dramarama, The Flashing Blade, Children Of The Stones, The Owl Service, Cheggers Plays Pop, Moondial, Screen Test, Crackerjack!, Ace Of Wands, Why Don’t You…?, Razzmatazz, Press Gang, The Book Tower, Vision On, Captain Pugwash, Metal Mickey, The Tomorrow People, Jigsaw, Emu’s Broadcasting Company, Rat On The Road, Rentaghost, Pigeon Street, Fingerbobs, The Ghosts Of Motley Hall, Animal Magic, Button Moon, Rainbow, Stingray, Bod, Pogles’ Wood, Jamie And The Magic Torch, Danger Mouse, Think Of A Number, Chock-A-Block, Pipkins, Record Breakers, Mr. Benn, Mary, Mungo And Midge, John Craven’s Newsround, Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons, Cloppa Castle, The Herbs, Joe 90, Wizbit and tons more.

There are also plenty of less familiar names including Zokko!, The Mersey Pirate, Alias The Jester, Simon In The Land Of Chalk Drawings, Noah And Nelly In SkylArk, Barbapapa, Come Back Lucy, Ulysses 31, Into The Labyrinth, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Jimbo And The Jet Set, Crystal Tipps And Alistair, The Moon Stallion, California Fever, The Paper Lads, Oscar, Kina And The Laser, Pathfinders In Space, Beat The Teacher, The Legend Of Tim Tyler, Murphy’s Mob, The Krankies Electronic Komic, The Secret Of Steel City, Ghost In The Water, Timeslip, Go With Noakes, Kim & Co, The Boy Who Won The Pools, Aliens In The Family, Freewheelers, Once Upon A Time… Man, Clapperboard, The Banana Splits, Play Chess, Arthur Of The Britons, Hong Kong Phooey, The Song And The Story, Stilgoe’s On, Do Not Adjust Your Set, Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It, The Lost Islands, King Of The Castle, Film Fun, Paperplay, Behind The Bike Sheds, On Safari, Puzzle Trail, Barnaby, BAD Boyes, Smith And Goody, End Of Part One, Gideon, Sara And Hoppity, Sally And Jake, Galloping Galaxies!, Stainless Steel And The Star Spies, Puddle Lane, Teddy Edward, Little Blue, Ragdolly Anna, Hickory House, Oscar The Rabbit In Rubbidge, Wil Cwac Cwac, The Sunday Gang, The Magic Ball, Animal Kwackers, Cockleshell Bay, Tottie: The Story Of A Doll’s House, Anita In Jumbleland, Data Run, Topper’s Tales, Chips’ Comic, Pob’s Programme, Saturday Starship and – of course – Hey! It’s My Birthday Too!…

With a mixture of facts and fun, toys and games, school and holidays, news and pop music and sweets and crisps, this is the real story of the shows that we all still quote from even now. It may be baggy, and a bit loose at the seams, but Emily will love it. THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT!!!!!!!

You can get The Golden Age Of Children’s TV from Waterstones here, Amazon here, from the Kindle Store here, directly from Black And White Publishing here or in all good bookshops. Hopefully with a Book Tower Recommended Read sticker!

If you want to know more about what you can expect to find in The Golden Age Of Children’s TV, you can hear me talking to Richard Herring about it on Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast about it here:

There’s an in-store interview I did for Dead Ink Books with Andy Miller from Backlisted here:.

There’s also a tie-in The Golden Age Of Children’s TV podcast, starting with a chat with Garreth Hirons about his responses to reading it here:

Estelle Hargraves on No. 73, Gabby Hutchinson Crouch on Press Gang, Jonny Morris on Crackerjack!, Mic Wright on Around The World With Willy Fog and Garreth Hirons on Trap Door.

Joanne Sheppard on The Baker Street Boys, Ben Baker on Round The Bend, Ricardo Autobahn on Rainbow, Carrie Dunn on Maid Marian And Her Merry Men and Georgy Jamieson on Bod.

Donna Rees on Mr. Benn, Chris Shaw on Film Fun, Suzy Robinson on The Wombles, Lydia Mizon on Fun House and Deborah Tracey on Emu’s All-Live Pink Windmill Show.

Jane Hill on Blue Peter, Melanie Williams on Jamie And The Magic Torch, Phil Norman on Pipkins, Una McCormack on The Children Of Green Knowe and Grace Dent on Bagpuss.

Bibi Lynch on Playbus, Rose Ruane on Bric-A-Brac, Anna Cale on Press Gang, Vikki Gregorich on Ulysses 31 and Bob Fischer on The Owl Service.

Emma Burnell on Grange Hill, Mark Thompson on Running Scared, Al Kennedy on Count Duckula, Justin Lewis on Emu’s Broadcasting Company and Genevieve Jenner on Faerie Tale Theatre.

Lisa Parker and Andrew Trowbridge on Animal Kwackers, Adam S. Leslie on Mysterious Cities Of Gold, Paul Abbott on Transformers, Mark Griffiths on Noggin The Nog, Tom Williamson on Blockbusters and Joel Morris on Scooby Doo, Where Are You!.

Juliet Brando on Orm And Cheep, John Rain on Grange Hill, Steve O’Brien on Bagpuss, Stephen O’Brien on Press Gang and Tim Worthington on The Magic Roundabout.

If you’d prefer to hear me on the radio playing and talking about some rarely heard children’s television theme singles, however, then you can find that here:

…and if you’re still reading, it’s time to take Smith And Goody’s advice and have a look at a book. Preferably The Golden Age Of Children’s TV!

© Tim Worthington.
Please don’t copy this only with more italics and exclamation marks.