Play School

Play School was a British children's television series produced by the BBC which ran from 21 April 1964 until 11 March 1988. It was created by Joy Whitby and was aimed at preschool children. Each programme followed a broad theme and consisted of songs, stories and activities with presenters in the studio, along with a short film introduced through either the square, round or arched window in the set. The programme spawned numerous spin-offs in Britain and other countries and involved many presenters and musicians during its run. Despite a revamp in 1983, Play School maintained the same basic formula throughout its 24-year history, but changes to the BBC's children's output led to the programme's cancellation in 1988, when it was replaced by Playbus, which soon became Playdays. Broadcast history Play School originally appeared on weekdays at 11am on BBC2 and received holiday runs on BBC1 in Summer 1964 and 1965, later acquiring a mid-afternoon BBC1 repeat as the opening programme of BBC1's teatime children's schedule. The morning showing was transferred to BBC1 in September 1983 when BBC Schools programming transferred to BBC2 and was shown 30 minutes earlier, at 10.30am. It remained in that slot even after daytime television was launched in October 1986 and continued to be broadcast at that time until it was superseded in October 1988 by Playbus. When the BBC scrapped the afternoon edition of Play School in April 1985, to make way for a variety of children's programmes in the afternoon, a Sunday morning compilation was launched called Hello Again!.