{"id":3157,"date":"2015-08-31T23:58:29","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T22:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3157"},"modified":"2015-09-01T00:02:19","modified_gmt":"2015-08-31T23:02:19","slug":"watch-with-father-prologue-camberwick-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3157","title":{"rendered":"Watch With Father, Prologue: Camberwick Green"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday 3 April 1978, when I was three, the BBC began\u00a0once again to repeat\u00a0Camberwick Green<\/em>, the everyday tale of stop-motion folk. \u00a0The chances are good that I was watching.<\/p>\n

For one thing,\u00a0if you wanted to watch pre-school TV in Britain in the late 70s – or,\u00a0for that matter, if you wanted to put your child in\u00a0front\u00a0it – then your options were pretty limited. \u00a0There were only three channels. And there were no video recorders. (Well, there were, but you probably didn’t have one.) So if you\u00a0wanted to watch it, you had to watch it live.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And, relatively speaking, there wasn’t very much of it. \u00a0There was the venerable\u00a0Play School<\/em> on BBC2 at 11am. \u00a0There was\u00a0Camberwick Green<\/em>, or something of that ilk, in a 15 minute slot after the news. \u00a0(Other occupants of this slot, in the first week of April 1978,\u00a0were\u00a0Ragtime<\/em>,\u00a0Bagpuss<\/em>,\u00a0Chigley<\/em>, and\u00a0How Do You Do?<\/em>). \u00a0And then,\u00a0at around 4pm, there was the same episode of\u00a0Play School<\/em> again.\u00a0Over on ITV, there would probably have been an episode of\u00a0Rainbow<\/em>\u00a0at lunchtime.<\/p>\n

The point being, if you wanted to watch these, you had to build them into your schedule. \u00a0The fact that\u00a0Play School<\/em> was\u00a0an oasis in the otherwise non-existent BBC2 morning schedule may go some way to explaining why so many\u00a0children of the 70s have such vivid memories of the test card. \u00a0There were very few shows to watch; they were a landmark\u00a0in your day; and pretty much everyone of your generation would remember\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

And not just that. \u00a0Pre-school TV in Britain was static for a remarkably long time. \u00a0The\u00a0Play School\u00a0<\/em>format ran from 1964 to 1988. \u00a0The thirteen episodes of\u00a0Camberwick Green<\/em> first entertained the toddlers of Britain in January\u00a01966; they continued to be repeated regularly, in essentially the same time slot, until\u00a0June\u00a01985. \u00a0The tiny viewers of 1985\u00a0would, in many cases, have been\u00a0accompanied by parents who had watched the same\u00a0episodes as toddlers themselves. \u00a0This was not unusual. \u00a0Bagpuss<\/em> (13 episodes) was repeated regularly from 1974 to 1986;\u00a0The\u00a0<\/em>Wombles<\/i> (60 episodes, admittedly) aired from 1973 to 1989; The Clangers<\/em> (26 episodes) from 1969 to 1986. \u00a0The fourteen episodes of\u00a0Mr Benn<\/em>\u00a0first aired\u00a0in 1971 and were still being repeated as late as\u00a02000.<\/p>\n

So we’re talking about a really quite small number of programmes (let alone formats) which\u00a0introduced generations of British people to television, and\u00a0started the process of teaching them video literacy.<\/p>\n

Things have changed. \u00a0Now, there are entire channels devoted to pre-school television. \u00a0If you have Sky, you could – potentially –\u00a0sit your pre-schooler in front of Disney Junior, Nick Jr, Tiny Pop, Nick Jr Too, Cartoonito, or something called BabyTV. \u00a0Curiously, as I write this – at 11.20pm at night – most of these channels are still broadcasting. \u00a0Who can possibly be watching? \u00a0The children of shift workers?<\/p>\n

Alongside those\u00a0is CBeebies, the BBC’s channel for children of 6 and under – older children are gently invited to go next door to CBBC – which is not stupid enough to broadcast\u00a0at night, but does offer 13 hours a day of television for very young viewers. \u00a0And of course, if you\u00a0really\u00a0absolutely have to confront your screaming infant with a moving picture of Iggle Piggle at three in the morning, there’s always iPlayer.<\/p>\n

CBeebies launched as a separate channel in 2002. \u00a0That’s\u00a0given it enough time to build up a\u00a0substantial back catalogue, allowing it to fill its acres of airtime without much resort to the archive. \u00a0The\u00a0shift to 16:9 and HD no doubt presents problems with using some older material too. \u00a0A couple of hardy veteran shows are hanging in there. \u00a0Teletubbies<\/em>\u00a0is still shown daily – at 6am, admittedly, but that’s\u00a0not such a graveyard slot where\u00a0toddlers are concerned. \u00a0The Tweenies<\/em> is still in regular circulation. \u00a0But otherwise, CBeebies\u00a0is largely full of its own commissions. \u00a0After all, being a BBC channel, they don’t rely heavily on imports. \u00a0(Co-productions are okay – so no to Sesame Street<\/em>, but yes to\u00a0The Furchester Hotel<\/em>.) \u00a0And they certainly don’t go for cartoons\u00a0that exist to sell toys (though it’s apparently fine for a\u00a0show to\u00a0spawn<\/em>\u00a0toys). \u00a0They’ve got a public service remit, by god.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0resulting channel\u00a0is\u00a0an interesting beast, as we’ll be seeing over the coming posts in this series. \u00a0Alongside some shows that would sit happily enough on rival schedules, there’s a lot of educational\u00a0shows, ranging from introductory cooking to basic philosophy;\u00a0animations ranging from the straightforward to the virtually inexplicable; the\u00a0one-man entertainment empire of Mr Tumble; and the sort-of dream-like programmes that only get commissioned\u00a0by channels aiming at the extremely young, for them to look back on\u00a0as teenagers and wonder – what\u00a0was\u00a0that<\/em> all about? \u00a0It’s big on station branding,\u00a0with in-vision continuity announcers, and regular guest appearances\u00a0between shows that sometimes give the whole thing a pantheistic feel. \u00a0It feels like a station that takes great pride in its mission. \u00a0Some of its shows feel like labours of love.<\/p>\n

The other thing that has changed since 1978 is that I am no longer a pre-school child. \u00a0I’m watching with one. \u00a0And of course, about half the assumed audience for CBeebies is adults. \u00a0The experience of watching pre-school TV as an adult is very different – though not one that you’re likely to have for the first time as a parent. \u00a0Back in the days when it wasn’t ghettoised to a separate channel, children’s programming could probably assume a fair\u00a0number of bleary students watching.<\/p>\n

Channel 4\u00a0presumably had\u00a0that audience in mind when they inexplicably decided to repeat\u00a0Camberwick Green <\/em>again in 1994, when\u00a0\u00a0I was a student. \u00a0The Windy Miller episode came as a bit of a surprise. \u00a0Obviously, you expect it to be dated. \u00a0But I was not entirely expecting the narrator to start talking about how Windy Miller’s business is in decline\u00a0due to the rise of industrialised farming. \u00a0Then Windy produces a jug of his home-brew cider and proceeds to\u00a0drink himself into unconsciousness. \u00a0Here it is on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n

The cider thing is particularly strange, not\u00a0simply because it’s cider, but because\u00a0it\u00a0turns out to have virtually nothing to\u00a0do with the plot. \u00a0That plot basically involves the baker urgently needing flour from Windy’s mill, the wind not blowing,\u00a0and\u00a0Windy apparently\u00a0saving the day by enlisting the local army to join him in whistling for the wind in the traditional manner. \u00a0Broadly, the\u00a0story is one of the\u00a0old-fashioned\u00a0man being vindicated for sticking to his old-fashioned\u00a0ways. \u00a0Except that the narrator seems sceptical that it’s anything more than a coincidence, and viewed from that perspective, it’s a story about an alcoholic luddite\u00a0with delusions of weather control. \u00a0I’m fairly sure that’s not how it came across on\u00a0first viewing.<\/p>\n

YouTube also\u00a0has the\u00a0episode about Farmer Jonathan Bell<\/a>. \u00a0Bell, the modern industrialised farmer – who is portrayed throughout the episode as a perfectly nice, pleasant man – discovers that the local\u00a0villagers are buying fewer of his eggs. \u00a0Investigations reveal that they are buying instead from Windy Miller’s free range operation,\u00a0because free range eggs are nicer. \u00a0Windy points out that he cannot scale up his operation to truly compete and that Bell can still sell all his eggs to the major distribution chains, so they\u00a0\u00a0can both happily coexist.<\/p>\n

This discussion of free range farming and industrialised economies of scale complete, the narrator concludes the episode with this\u00a0address to Bell: “Hello, Farmer Bell! \u00a0Are you selling all your eggs now? \u00a0I expect you’re sorry that the people in Camberwick Green think that your eggs aren’t as nice as Windy’s. \u00a0Never mind! \u00a0You are giving more eggs to more people more cheaply than he can. \u00a0And that’s a great thing. \u00a0And you are the most modern farmer in Camberwick Green. \u00a0Goodbye, Farmer Bell!” \u00a0I’m fairly sure it didn’t seem so passive aggressive when I was three.<\/p>\n

Watching these shows as an adult, with a child in tow, can be\u00a0an interesting experience in double think. \u00a0\u00a0What you are getting from it\u00a0is likely to be very different from what he is. \u00a0Sometimes you will find yourself making your own entertainment. \u00a0But just as often, trying to see\u00a0it from his perspective – one stripped of all baggage and context, and with no real frame of reference to judge any of this stuff as “weird” –\u00a0can be fascinating in itself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Perhaps\u00a0the first programme you sit down deliberately to watch with your first child will be one aimed at the youngest children of all. \u00a0This is logical. \u00a0This is the show aimed at your child. \u00a0This is\u00a0a famous, successful show that you had heard of even before you had The Child. \u00a0He’s bound to like it.<\/p>\n

This is\u00a0going to be a culture shock.<\/p>\n

Next\u00a0time:\u00a0In The Night Garden<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday 3 April 1978, when I was three, the BBC began\u00a0once again to repeat\u00a0Camberwick Green, the everyday tale of stop-motion folk. \u00a0The chances are good that I was watching. For one thing,\u00a0if you wanted to watch pre-school TV in Britain in the late 70s – or,\u00a0for that matter, if you wanted to put your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-watch-with-father"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3157"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3170,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157\/revisions\/3170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}