Compiled by Malcy B.  from the pages of the Radio Times.

Verified at the BBC Written Archives Centre.

This 15-minute slot for pre-school children has featured some very popular series over the years broadcast during the day on BBC-1.

1 - Through The Years:

Watch with Mother was the BBC’s umbrella title of individual programmes shown on television to compliment the popular radio programme Listen With Mother. From 1946 programmes were under the umbrella title of  For The Children which had made famous Muffin The Mule with Annette Mills. In 1950 it was replaced with a few experimental transmissions of Andy Pandy under the  banner For The Very Young. From the summer of 1950 Tuesdays became a regular day for Andy Pandy and it was shown once a week at 3.45pm until the summer of 1952 when it was shown on Thursdays as well for a while. In December 1952 The Flowerpot Men joined this new afternoon slot. By 1953 the new umbrella title of Watch With Mother was born and Rag Tag & Bobtail joined the set in September of that year.

February 1955 saw Patricia Driscoll turning the very first pages of Picture Book.

The Woodentops arrived in December 1955 to complete the week with a different programme shown each day. Watch With Mother was now showing programmes for pre-school children five days a week.

Monday - Picture Book.

Tuesday - Andy Pandy.

Wednesday - The Flowerpot Men. (Bill and Ben).

Thursday - Rag, Tag & Bobtail.

Friday - The Woodentops.

This line-up of programmes remained the same into the mid-1960’s. The 15-minute time slot however was moved back from 3.45pm to 2.30pm by 1959.

In 1962 the slot was moved three times, 2.00pm, 10.30am and back to 2.30pm again. By the autumn of 1963 two slots a day had emerged with Watch With Mother now going out at 10.45am in the mornings and at 1.30pm lunchtimes. As there were only the five programmes available they were shuffled around so that in the 1.30pm slot Rag Tag & Bobtail was on Monday. The Woodentops on Tuesday. Picture Book on Wednesday. Andy Pandy on Thursday and The Flowerpot Men were on Friday. By late 1963 Tales Of The Riverbank was put in as part of the next generation of Watch With Mother programmes. Soon to be followed by The Pogles, Bizzy Lizzy,  Joe and The Herbs.

By 1966 just the 1.30pm lunchtime slot remained and this continued until 1973 when it   was moved forward to 1.45pm. The arrival of Colour Television to BBC-1 in Oct/Nov 1969 meant more new series made in colour entering the fray.  Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley. Not forgetting Mary Mungo & Midge of course. The black and white episodes of Andy Pandy were virtually worn out by now and so 13 new colour episodes were made and first shown from 5th January 1970.  13 new episodes of Joe were also made in colour and they were phased in from 23rd February 1971. Popular series Mr.Benn began in 1971 and Fingerbobs in 1972.

Up until now Watch With Mother had been purely a weekday programme. But from 1972 a 15-minute slot was allocated to 9.00am on Saturdays and a lunchtime early afternoon slot around 1.15pm or 1.55pm on Sundays.

During 1972 signs of the Watch With Mother banner in the Radio Times were becoming less and less until in 1973 the umbrella title had completely disappeared.

1974 saw the birth of the all-time classic Bagpuss, followed by Bod and The Mister Men in 1975 and The Flumps in 1977. By 1978 the Saturday slot had gone and the Sunday slot was put back to 9.00am. The Monday to Friday slot remained at 1.45pm with 1.30pm during the summer months. In October 1980 the See-Saw banner appeared in the Radio Times for the first time for the programmes King Rollo and Bric-A-Brac.

Postman Pat made its debut in 1981.

The time slots remained as they were until 1985 when See Saw was dropped on Sundays. Reverting back to being a Monday to Friday programme again with a 1.45pm or 1.50pm slot. There were a few See-Saw favourites featured in the extra afternoon slot at 3.55pm or 4.20pm under the banner of Children’s BBC. Programmes like Bertha, Pigeon Street and Pie In The Sky would be shown around 4pm along with a new generation of programmes not under the See-Saw banner like Caterpillar Trail, Jimbo & The Jet Set and Whizz.

Fireman Sam made it debut in 1987 after a few showings on the Welsh Channel S4C.

By 1986 the See-Saw banner was showing signs of diminishing.  In the Autumn of 1987 the See-Saw series was moved across to BBC-2 and took a 1.20pm or 1.25pm lunchtime slot only. One of the last programmes to be shown with a See-Saw banner in the Radio Times of December 1988 was The Adventures Of Spot.

From 1989 the See-Saw banner had gone completely and although programmes such as Postman Pat, Mr. Benn, and Pie In The Sky were to continue in this lunchtime slot of 1.00pm (1989), 1.20pm (1990) etc and throughout the 1990’s on BBC-2, the slot was now placed under the Children’s BBC banner and hosted a new range of programmes like Greenclaws, Joshua Jones, The Brollys, Philomena’s Cat, PC Pinkerton, etc. not listed in detail here as they are out of the Golden Era of Watch With Mother and See-Saw programming 1953 – 1988.

PLEASE COME AND JOIN OUR MESSAGE BOARD AND ASK QUESTIONS, REMINISCE, OR DISCUSS ANY OF THESE PROGRAMMES  at:

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/watchwithmother

On the following pages is a comprehensive guide to all the shows and their original transmission dates. Please use the navigation box in the top right-hand corner of this page.