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Timeline of children's television on ITV

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This is a timeline of children's programming on the British ITV network and ITV Digital Channels. The timeline starts in 1980 or earlier when ITV launched its first branding for children's programming, although programmes for children had been broadcast on ITV from the earliest years of the network.

1950s–1970s

[edit]
  • 1956–1958
    • No events.
  • 1959
  • 1960
    • No events.
  • 1962
    • 29 April – Supercar broadcasts the 39th and final episode.
    • 28 October – Debut of Gerry Anderson's puppet show Fireball XL5 the last ITV children's programme shot in black and white by AP Films.
  • 1963
    • 27 October – The 39th and final episode of Fireball XL5 broadcasts.
  • 1964
    • 4 October – Debut of Gerry Anderson's puppet show Stingray. ("Standby for Action!") ITV's first children's programme shot in colour by AP Films and the second programme featuring a roman numeral copyright year on the programme's intro credits copyrighted the previous year or previous two years on the programme's intro credits.
  • 1965
    • 27 June – ("Anything can happen before the 40th episode") The final episode of Stingray was broadcast, 39 episodes were shown and broadcast in total.
    • 30 September – Debut of Gerry Anderson's puppet show Thunderbirds ("5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Thunderbirds Are Go!") ITV's second children's programme shot in colour by AP Films and featuring a roman numeral copyright from the previous year on the programme's intro credits.
  • 1966
    • 25 December – Thunderbirds comes to an end on Christmas Day coincidently after 32 episodes in total.
  • 1967
    • 29 September – Debut of Gerry Anderson's puppet show Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons following the success of Thunderbirds, Stingray and other shows. ITV's third children's programme shot in colour by AP Films.
  • 1968
    • 14 May – The 32nd and final episode of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons broadcasts.
    • 30 July –
      • Magpie debuts on ITV to compete with the long-running BBC children's show Blue Peter.
      • Sooty is shown for the first time on ITV, it transferred from the BBC after it came to an end on Christmas Day of the previous year.
    • 29 September – Debut of Gerry Anderson's puppet show Joe 90 ITV's fourth children's programme shot in colour by AP Films.
  • 1969
    • 20 April – Joe 90 comes to an end after 30 episodes broadcast in total.
    • 21 September – Debut of Gerry Anderson's last ever puppet show The Secret Service ITV's fifth and final children's programme shot in colour by AP Films. Ends after 13 episodes broadcast by 14 December.
  • 1970
    • 7 March – The American children's show H.R. Pufnstuf first airs on selected ITV regions.[1]
    • 13 November – The Colour Strike begins when ITV staff refuse to work with colour television equipment following a dispute over pay with their management.
  • 1971
    • 3 February – After nearly three months, the ITV Colour Strike ends and programmes resume being made in colour.
  • 1972
    • December – The TV special of The Cat in the Hat broadcasts on ITV in the UK over a year after being broadcast on CBS in the USA.
  • 1973
    • 1 January – A new year begins coincidental to the start of Pipkins.
  • 1974
    • 5 January – The first edition of Saturday morning children’s magazine show Tiswas is broadcast. It runs throughout the morning on ITV.
  • 1975
    • 1 January – Dr. Seuss on the Loose broadcasts on ITV in the UK over a year after being broadcast on CBS in the USA.
    • 2 September – Children's game show Runaround broadcasts for the first time on ITV.
  • 1976
    • 26 September – Debut of a children's television series about people on wheels with a heroic dragon Chorlton and the Wheelies on ITV.
  • 1977–1978
    • No events.
  • 1979
    • 10 August – No ITV programmes broadcast for eleven successive weeks due to a technicians strike.
    • 24 October – ITV begins broadcasting again after eleven weeks of industrial strike action by technicians. Beginning with a new series of The Muppet Show. ITV also begins showing the fourth and final series of Quatermass, featuring Professor Bernard Quatermass. The title character is played by John Mills.

1980s

[edit]
  • 1980
    • 6 June – The final edition of Magpie airs on ITV. The magazine format show, intended to compete with the BBC's Blue Peter ends after twelve years.[2]
    • 29 December – ITV launches its first branded children's slot when it launches Watch It!. The programmes are broadcast on weekdays between 4:15 pm to 5:15 pm and even though the block is produced by ATV, the links are presented live by the duty continuity announcer in each ITV region.[3]
  • 1981
    • 7 September – Runaround broadcasts for the final time.
    • 29 December – Pipkins is broadcast for the final time.
  • 1982
    • 5 January – Let's Pretend, the replacement programme for Pipkins, airs for the first time.
    • 3 April – The final edition of Saturday morning programme Tiswas is shown on ITV the following week after the last ever Multi-Coloured Swap Shop on BBC1. It had aired, albeit originally as a regional programme made by ATV, since 1974.
  • 1983
    • 3 January – Children's ITV is launched, replacing Watch It!. Programmes begin fifteen minutes earlier, at 4pm, the extra time being filled by a repeat of one of the pre-school programmes shown at lunchtime the same day. The slot is presented on a national basis and programmes are linked by an in-vision presenter. The links are pre-recorded in advance in a small studio at a London facility called Molinare, using a single locked-off camera and the presenter, usually from the world of children's television, changes on a monthly basis.
    • 1 February – ITV's breakfast television service TV-am launches and children's programmes are a major part of the service, especially at the weekend.
    • 1 April – Roland Rat makes his first appearance on TV-am.[4] Created by David Claridge and launched by TV-am Children's editor Anne Wood to entertain younger viewers during the Easter holidays.[5] Roland is generally regarded as TV-am's saviour, being described as "the only rat to join a sinking ship".[6]
    • April – No. 73 launches nationally as ITV's Saturday morning children's show. It had launched the previous year as a regional programme by TVS.
  • 1984
    • 9 October – The children's series based on the books by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry and narrated by Ringo Starr, Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends makes its debut on ITV, becoming one of the most successful children's TV programmes of all time since Postman Pat first went to air on the BBC three years earlier. The show will move to one future station, Cartoon Network, in the mid-1990s, before returning to terrestrial television in 2003 and moving to its new permanent future station Channel 5 three years later.
    • 13 October – TV-am launches a new Saturday morning children's series called the Wide Awake Club. The live programme replaces pre-recorded shows such as Data Run and SPLAT.[7][8]
  • 1985
    • 14 September – Wide Awake Club is extended and now runs for almost two hours, from 7:30 am until 9:25 am.
    • 26 September – Mooncat and Co (formerly known as Get Up and Go!) is broadcast for the final time.
    • 3 October – Roland Rat, the puppet rodent who saved an ailing TV-am transfers to the BBC.[9] With only a week until October half term was due to start, TV-am launches Wacaday, a spin-off of the existing and successful Saturday morning programme, Wide Awake Club.
    • 4 October – Puddle Lane, the replacement programme for Get Up and Go!/Mooncat and Co, airs for the first time.
  • 1986
    • 3 May – The first edition of Get Fresh airs. It alternates with No. 73 as ITV's Saturday morning children's magazine series for the next two years.
  • 1987
    • 1 June – Live presentation of Children's ITV is launched and is presented by former Central announcers Gary Terzza and Debbie Shore.[10]
  • 1988
    • 27 March – No. 73 airs for the final time. It had been known as 7T3 since January.
    • 3 September – Motormouth launches as ITV's new Saturday morning children's programme.[11][12]
  • 1989
    • 24 February – Debut of the children's game show Fun House on Children's ITV, presented by Pat Sharp.
    • April – The Wide Awake Club is renamed WAC '90. It is broadcast from Granada's studios in Manchester rather than from TV-am's London studios.
    • 3 April – The independent production company Stonewall Productions wins the contract to produce Children's ITV presentation. They choose not to use a fixed set, but instead present links from various areas of Central's headquarters at Broad Street in Birmingham, utilising a rotating team of presenters which includes Clive Warren (now a DJ), Jeanne Downs (a singer), Jerry Foulkes (a producer who left Children's ITV on 22 December 1989) and a large puppet dog called Scally (who started out with Mark during his last few months).
    • 3 September – The Disney Club airs for the first time. Produced by Scottish Television and went out on Sundays at 9:25 am and runs mainly between September and April.

1990s

[edit]
  • 1991
    • 9 April – Central wins back the contract to produce the continuity links, choosing to revert links back to a small in-vision studio and using one regular presenter, Tommy Boyd.
    • September – Children's programme Hey, Hey, it's Saturday! is axed. It is replaced the following week by TV Mayhem.
    • November – Following the loss of its franchise, TV-am scraps all of its original children's programming, replacing it with a new Saturday morning block for children called Cartoon World which as the name suggests, only showed cartoons.
  • 1992
    • 6 March – After twenty years and 1002 episodes, the final new edition of Rainbow airs. The long-running series ends due to its producer Thames Television losing its ITV franchise. Repeats continue to be shown until the end of the year.
    • 4 April – The final edition of the Saturday morning show Motormouth airs.[11][12] The programme ends following the announcement that TVS will lose its ITV franchise at the end of 1992.[13]
    • 5 September – The first edition of ITV's new Saturday morning show What's Up Doc? airs. It alternates with Gimme 5 as their Saturday morning children's show.
    • December – Cartoon World on TV-am ends.
  • 1993
    • 1 January – Good Morning Television (GMTV) takes over the breakfast television franchise from TV-am and like its predecessor, children's programmes dominate weekend programming. Among the programmes is Saturday Disney which overlaps past its 9:25 am cut-off time. It continues to be produced by Scottish Television which was one of the owners of them at the time. Also, a programme for younger children, Rise and Shine airs from 6 am until the start of Saturday Disney.
    • 5 January – The children's series Wizadora makes its debut on ITV.
    • 8 January – The children's comedy programme ZZZap! makes its debut on Children's ITV, starring the 'show you how its done gloves', known as the Handymen, Richard Waites as the trouble-causing Cuthbert Lilly and the sneaky villain Tricky Dicky, and Neil Buchanan as the smartest artist Smart Arty.
    • 15 February – In-vision presentation is dropped by the first Network Centre controller of children's and daytime programming Dawn Airey (a former Central management trainee) with Steven Ryde providing live out-of-vision continuity links featuring a wide variety of animated characters.
    • 6 September – CITV's afternoon slot is extended to start at 3:30 pm, when ITV network centre decided to move the pre-school children's slot from 12:10 pm. Around the same time, the Children's ITV name is changed to CITV, having been used in some form or another since the previous year.
  • 1994
    • 7 January –
      • The children's series The Magic House makes its debut on ITV following the success of Wizadora.
      • ZZZap! returns for a new series on ITV with a new segment called "Daisy Dares You", Daisy being played by Deborah McCallum. The "Tricky Dicky" and "Smart Arty" segments have been updated with a magic pen being used to draw pictures that come to life.
    • 10 January – The classic children's series Rainbow is relaunched with a new format, made by Tetra Films by for HTV. However, the new series is not well received and is axed a year later and subsequently replaced by Rainbow Days.
    • 12 January – A new children's Halloween-themed game show Terror Towers debuts on ITV's programming block CITV.
  • 1995
    • January – The Disney Club moves back once again to 9:25 am with Disney Adventures starting at 8 am with Sally Gray presenting.
    • 29 April – The final edition of Saturday morning show What's Up Doc? airs. It is replaced the following week by a new programme, Scratchy & Co..
    • 2 September – Gladiators: Train 2 Win debuts as a children's spin-off of Gladiators.
  • 1996
    • 30 March – Saturday Disney airs on GMTV for the final time.
    • 13 April – Wake Up in the Wild Room airs on GMTV for the first time set in a Jungle-Themed studio with a similar programming system to earlier shows from TV-am and GMTV like the Wide Awake Club, Hey, Hey, it's Saturday!, Cartoon World, Saturday Disney, Disney Adventures and The Disney Club.
  • 1997
    • No events.
  • 1998
    • 7 March – Wake Up in the Wild Room airs on GMTV for the final time.
    • 14 March – Diggit launches as GMTV's flagship children's programming block. It is broadcast from 7:10 am to 9:25 am on Saturdays and 8 am to 9:25 am on Sundays. Additional editions on Bank Holidays and Summer holidays were shown under the name Diggit Extra.
    • 25 April – Scratchy & Co. airs for the final time.
    • 26 April – The Disney Club ends after nearly nine years,[14] it was replaced by Diggit which launched a month earlier. Road Hog ends at the same time after under a year.
    • 26 May – A new in-vision service is introduced by the new controller of ITV children's output, Nigel Pickard. Stephen Mulhern and Danielle Nicholls are the new presentation team.
    • 29 August – SMTV Live makes its debut as ITV's Saturday morning children's programme, presented by Ant & Dec and Cat Deeley.
    • 15 November – The public launch of digital terrestrial TV in the UK takes place with the launch of OnDigital and as part of the 19-channel line-up, Carlton creates three new channels for the platform, including a daytime channel for children, Carlton Kids.
  • 1999
    • 4 January – GMTV2 launches during the breakfast downtime of ITV2 and children's programmes form a major part of the new service.[15]
    • 7 September – ZZZap! returns for a new series on ITV with a new character called Minnie The Mini Magician, played by Sophie Aldred; she is in training and wears an L-plate around her neck to show this.

2000s

[edit]
  • 2000
    • 31 January – Carlton Kids stops broadcasting.[16]
  • 2001
    • CITV's budget is cut by 17% due to the advertising recession, leading to CITV's controller Janie Grace publicly criticising Carlton and Granada Television, then the main controlling forces in the network for underinvestment in ITV's children's service.[17]
    • A new strand for pre-school children is introduced from 3:25 pm every afternoon under the name "CITV's Telly Tots". The in-house presentation is dropped and replaced with a CGI animated town using a plane, a car and a postbox as its mascots. A child voiceover is used to introduce its pre-school shows.[18]
  • 2002
    • Further cuts take place during 2002, bringing the total cutback to 25% of the overall budget.[19]
  • 2003
    • January – Diggit is relaunched as Diggin' It.
    • 27 December – SMTV Live airs for the last time ever. It is either cancelled or axed due to falling ratings.[20]
  • 2004
    • 10 January – The first edition of ITV's new Saturday morning children's programme Ministry of Mayhem airs, it would later be shown on CITV to replace SMTV Live.[21]
    • 31 August – All in-vision continuity is replaced by voiceovers, ahead of the closure of its presentation and transmission facilities in Birmingham.
  • 2005
    • 5 February – Diggin' It and Up on The Roof are merged into a new programme called Toonattik. It airs on Saturdays and Sundays from 7:25 am until GMTV's closedown at 9:25 am.
    • Further cutbacks to children's programming on ITV take place.[22]
  • 2006
    • 7 January – Ministry of Mayhem is relaunched as Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown.
    • 11 March – CITV Channel launches on Freeview, Home Choice and Telewest. It starts broadcasting on Sky on 8 May and on NTL on 6 June.
    • June – ITV closes down its in-house children's production unit, as part of their then on-going process of restructuring ITV Productions and blames the closure on the competitive production environment, though ITV denied any intention of ditching its children's programming from its network schedule.[23]
    • 1 July – After nearly 25 years, ITV ends its broadcasting of children's programmes on its flagship channel (with the exception of GMTV simulcasts) when it airs the final edition of Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown, as from the following week, cookery programmes air on ITV on Saturday mornings.
    • At the end of 2006, CITV ends on ITV after 23 years on the air, with the exception of GMTV simulcasts.
  • 2007–2008
    • No events.
  • 2009
    • 2 November – CITV is relaunched, with a new logo and new branding to match ITV1 as part of ITV plc's corporate look. Mini CITV is launched to house CITV's pre-school programming, competing as a rival to CBeebies.

2010s

[edit]
  • 2010
    • 26 December – The final edition of Toonattik airs.
  • 2011
    • No events.
  • 2012
    • 21 December – CITV goes live for the first time in six years with a special 45-minute edition of Text Santa.
  • 2013
    • 7 January – The Mini CITV name and the Mini mascots are dropped from on-screen use, thus ending the rivalry with CBeebies.
    • 14 January – CITV gets a new logo to match its rebranded sister channels.
  • 2014
    • 18 January – The first edition of weekend breakfast show Scrambled! airs after three years of when Toonattik came to an end alongside Action Stations.
  • 2015
    • 7 January – CITV withdraws from all of its pre-school programmes from both its weekday and weekend schedules with the exception of Sooty.
  • 2016
    • 21 February – CITV's broadcast hours are extended into the early evening with programmes continuing until 9pm rather than 6 pm.[citation needed]
  • 2017
    • No events.
  • 2018
    • 3 September – LittleBe launches on ITVBe as a rival to CBeebies. It airs at the start of the day and is aimed at 2-6 year-olds.[24] The block airs at 9 am to 12 pm on weekends and weekdays and Sooty is moved from CITV to LittleBe.
  • 2019
    • October – CITV partner with the BFI in their Young Audiences Content Fund to deliver more UK originated programming.

2020s

[edit]
  • 2020
    • No events.
  • 2021
    • 11 April – The final edition of Scrambled! airs.
  • 2022
    • No events.
  • 2023
    • 10 March – ITV Plc announces plans to wind down the CITV channel and transition its children's output to a predominantly online model.[25][26]
    • 27 August – CITV children's block is broadcast on the ITV network (as part of ITV Breakfast) for the final time, ending the Children's ITV/CITV strand within the national ITV network after 40 years and withdrawing the last regular scheduled provision of programmes made for children on the network.[27]
    • 1 September – The CITV channel closes, with programmes moving to ITVX.
    • 2 September – CITV moves over to ITV2 as morning block, providing linear broadcasting of ITVX Kids shows from ITVX. The block is scheduled to broadcast everyday between 5 am and 9 am.[28][29][30]
    • 1 October – CITV's 602 Freesat slot was removed, a month after the channel's closure.
  • 2025
    • 9 June – The children's block on ITV2 is reduced to under two hours, airing from 6:00 am to 7:45 am.[32]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Search".
  2. ^ Sheridan, Simon (2004). The A-Z of Classic Children's Television: From Alberto Frog to Zebedee. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. pp. 156–159. ISBN 1903111277.
  3. ^ "[no title cited]". Television and Radio. The Times. 29 December 1980. [full citation needed]
  4. ^ "Roland Rat Superstar". Ratfans.com. 1983-04-01. Retrieved 2014-05-20.
  5. ^ "Anne Wood C.B.E. – The Children's Media Foundation". Thechildrensmediafoundation.org. Retrieved 2014-05-20.
  6. ^ Westcott, Matt (12 January 2015). "Car Torque with TV rodent superstar Roland Rat". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  7. ^ Pelley, Rich (20 July 2020). "Timmy Mallett and Michaela Strachan: how we made Wide Awake Club". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  8. ^ Tait, Derek (2019). A 1980s Childhood. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1445692418. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  9. ^ Hewson, David (3 October 1985). "Roland Rat joins Wogan at the BBC". The Times. News International. p. 3.
  10. ^ Timeline: CITV from start to finish
  11. ^ a b "Sat Kids". Paulmorris.co.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2009.
  12. ^ a b "Saturday Morning TV". screenonline. 26 August 1996. Retrieved 21 April 2009.
  13. ^ "What's Up Doc?: TVS: TXN 1992". YouTube. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  14. ^ BFI.org
  15. ^ thesearethedays (25 February 2018). "GMTV2 starts Monday 4th January 1999". Retrieved 8 May 2019 – via YouTube.
  16. ^ "Discovery channels boost ONdigital". The Independent. 22 December 1999. Archived from the original on 2022-05-07.
  17. ^ Brown, Maggie (1 November 2001). "ITV kids' shows at risk". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  18. ^ Brown, Maggie (12 November 2001). "Suffer the children". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  19. ^ Deans, Jason (20 November 2001). "BBC chief calls for strong CITV". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  20. ^ Wilkes, Neil (2003-08-21). "'SM:tv Live' axed after five years". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  21. ^ "Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern 'almost unrecognisable' in Ministry of Mayhem throwback snap". Woman Magazine. 11 October 2018. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  22. ^ "Tough times for kids TV". Broadcast Now. 24 February 2005. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  23. ^ Holmwood, Leigh (20 June 2006). "ITV to end kids' TV production". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  24. ^ "ITV set to reintroduce pre-school block". TBI Vision. 2018-07-04. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  25. ^ Wilkes, Neil (2023-03-10)."ITV to close down CITV Channel this autumn", Media Mole
  26. ^ ITV to supercharge kids offering on ITVX
  27. ^ "Changes to ITV1 and ITV2 after CITV closure", RXTVinfo
  28. ^ Wilkes, Neil (2023-03-10)."ITV to close down CITV Channel this autumn", Media Mole
  29. ^ ITV to supercharge kids offering on ITVX
  30. ^ Newsdesk1, RXTV (24 August 2023). "Changes to ITV1 and ITV2 after CITV closure > RXTV info". Retrieved 3 September 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  31. ^ "Broadcasting U-turns of 2024". RXTV. 2025-01-01. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  32. ^ https://rxtvinfo.com/2025/itv-reduces-kids-tv-slot-in-itv2-revamp/
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