Watch With Mother
 Picture
Book, Andy Pandy, The Flowerpot Men, Rag, Tag & Bobtail and
The Woodentops . . . These are my earliest memories of TV. Sad
isn't it? Although Watch with Mother was a major innovation at the
time.
This general title for a series of five individual programs was
the first planned combination of entertainment and education on
British television, specifically designed for very small children,
and each day with it's own flavour.
Along with BBC radio's Listen with Mother, which began in 1950,
Watch With Mother represented a shift in BBC policy to make
programs, both on radio and television, for this very young
audience.
Picture Book was the first segment produced and it screened on
Mondays (featuring Bizzy Lizzy and Sausage the dachshund). Andy
Pandy followed on Tuesdays at 3:45pm. Next up came The Flowerpot
Men which ran in the same slot on Wednesdays.
A story about a hedgehog, a mouse and a rabbit called Rag, Tag
and Bobtail screened in the Thursday slot and on Friday was The
Woodentops . This was a wooden family (as the name would suggest!)
who scared me to death when I was a lad.
 In the 1960s and 1970s a new stream of programs were invented
for the series (eg: Pogle's Wood, Trumpton, Tales From The
Riverbank, The Herbs, and Mary, Mungo and Midge). Later still came
Mr Benn and Bagpuss.
However, there was still significant emotional investment in
the older programs.
For example, there was much concern in 1965
when viewers thought that Camberwick Green was to replace Andy
Pandy and The Flowerpot Men.
Doreen Stephens, head of BBC Family
Programs, reassured the audience stating that they would be shown,
although less frequently until 1970.
Sadly all good things must come to an end, and Watch With
Mother was eventually taken off-air and replaced by See-Saw in
1980.
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