Children's Hour

For other uses, see The Children's Hour (disambiguation).

Children's Hour, initially The Children's Hour, was the BBC's principal recreational service for children (as distinct from "Broadcasts to Schools") which began during the period when radio was the only medium of broadcasting.

Children's Hour was broadcast from 1922 to 1964, originally from the BBC's Birmingham station 5IT, soon joined by other regional stations, then in the BBC Regional Programme, before transferring to its final home, the new BBC Home Service, at the outbreak of the second World War. Parts of the programme were also rebroadcast by the BBC World Service. For the last three years of its life (from 17 April 1961 until 27 March 1964) Children's Hour was no longer used, the programmes in its timeslot going out under the umbrella heading of For the Young.

The programme takes its name from a verse by Longfellow: "Between the dark and the daylight, When the night is beginning to lower, Comes a pause in the day's occupations, That is known as the Children's Hour."

Broadcast history

In the United Kingdom, Children's Hour was broadcast from 5 pm to 6 pm every day of the week.

It was founded by Cecil Lewis, or Uncle Caractacus, L. Stanton Jefferies, Rex Palmer and Arthur Burrows. From 1923 to 1934, the majority of listeners, few at all then, were part of “Radio Circles”, clubs that maintained the BBC’s connection to their audience. Birthday greetings were given out until 1933, excised due to overwhelming demand. In 1926 it was decided that the majority of presenters would drop the “Auntie” and “Uncle” from their titles.

However, Derek McCulloch would retain his identity as “Uncle Mac”. He was closely involved with the programme from 1929, and ran the department from 1933 until 1950, when he had to resign for health reasons. From 1928 to 1960, Children's Hour in Scotland was organised and presented by Kathleen Garscadden, known as Auntie Kathleen, whose popularity brought crowds to the radio station in Glasgow. By 1933 however, many of the local versions of Children's Hour were replaced by regional broadcasts of London production.

From 1928 to 1960 Request Week determined what were the most popular Children's Hour programmes. Toytown was #1 for 25 years, with various popular choices trailing behind being Zoo Man, Jennings at School, Norman and Henry Bones (which ended Children's Hour) Out with Romany, Worzel Gummidge and Winnie the Pooh.

The programme's closure was decided in 1964 by Frank Gillard following an enormous decline in listenership—by the end of 1963, the number of listeners had fallen to 25,000. Gillard said that most of them were "middle-aged and elderly ladies who liked to be reminded of the golden days of their youth", and that young listeners had instead turned to watching television, listening to the BBC Light Programme or to pirate radio. There was considerable complaint about the closing of the service and questions were raised in Parliament.

Programmes

Among popular series on Children's Hour were:

• Jennings at School
• Just So Stories
• Toytown
• Mary Plain
• Norman and Henry Bones
• Nature Parliament
• Out with Romany
• Cowleaze Farm
• Sherlock Holmes
• Worzel Gummidge
• Winnie the Pooh
• Counterspy
• Tinker and Tapp, Inc.

People

Among actors and presenters who were famous for their work on Children's Hour were:

• Peggy Bacon as producer and presenter ("Aunty Peggy") from 1947
• Arthur Burrows ('Uncle Arthur' - also the first London wireless Uncle)
• Violet Carson
• David Davis
• Norman Ellison, aka Nomad the Naturalist
• Rev George Bramwell Evens, aka Romany
• Carleton Hobbs
• Rupert Gould ('The Stargazer')
• Derek McCulloch ('Uncle Mac')
• Kathleen Garsgadden ('Auntie Kathleen')
• Jon Pertwee
• Wilfred Pickles
• David Seth-Smith, aka The Zoo Man
• Olive Shapley
• Norman Shelley
• Stephen King-Hall
• William Glynne-Jones
• Gladys Young

L. Stanton Jefferies composed music for some early programmes.