"Down with this sort of thing..." Careful now...

There will be another entry here from my fare fingers soon, but for some time I have been thinking about my future of writing about Light Entertainment. With Operation Yewtree going on and more arrests by the day, I will admit it has been hard to be motivated to write about stars without the fear they would be arrested or some story would come out about them.

Whatever you think about the whole thing is up to you, though in sometimes I have been taking a break from this and I think this is the right time to put across the positive side of Light Entertainment and Television. People may think it has been clouded by certain aspects, though it has brought us some of this country's most defining people and personalities. The embarrassment factor is there that the public have watched these personalities and they have become fallen idols overnight, but let's not forget they were the ones who entertained us and that others have done so with a grey leaden skies above them.

The world and shape of Light Entertainment may have changed by recent events, but there cannot be at any point the sort of pontification which has gone on so far. Idol rumors has caused for lawyer to be called in, some people have been sued for what they have said on social network sights. What actual may appear as a joke, might be truth but yet it could be non-truth. Now people have equated this to a suing culture, which maybe right or wrong, though in what we believe and think can be changed just like that. It maybe simple to say sometimes with so many names flying about, it might a case of the little boy who cried wolf. But in terms what it does can be said to hindrance to some and also yet others.

If there is justice to be done for people who have done crimes, let it be done and dealt with by the relevant authorities. By almost becoming vigilante journalists on this matter, it may only cloudy the water by putting names out in the open which may not be true, with experiences of vigilante justice around naming and shaming of people and seeing what effect it can have, plus also when it goes wrong because of innuendo and rumour, people should be very careful what they say with on going investigations.

Free speech should be always there, but when it can hinder it can make even more of a mess...

Hitting the target - The history and development of Bullseye

Thursday night sees the last episode in the first ever series of Bullseye which has been shown by Challenge TV over the past couple of weeks, but the game show which was there at the end is a world away from the first episode of the first series. In and around studios of television companies of the late 70's, game shows were in production or going into production at that time the BBC had The Generation Game and the new to air Blankety Blank to name two. Throughout ITV of all the franchises, they each had a show in production from the major contributors such as ATV and Thames, the likes of Celebrity Squares and Give Us A Clue were astride the schedules. The more minor companies like Anglia would have one or even two shows offering big prizes, on the one hand Sale of the Century with Nicholas Parsons and the other Gambit with Fred Dinenage.

With these shows flying about set Andrew Wood thinking about what was the perfect game show, taking time to look at their nuances. The appeal of the shows were something in themselves, regularly they were topping the television ratings. But what was making people write in to take part on a regular basis, was it the taking part? The competition or just winning the prizes? It was clear that the format itself was important, the more clearer the better for the viewer to follow at home but also for the host to understand the rules as the programme went along. The problem with so many going into production was that ideas were being used up ten to the dozen, whether imported from American formats or thought up to make original ideas, premises of shows were the same but tweaked to suits their own style and rules. Wood's idea was to come up with something that had never been seen before in any game show before, to feel familiar but be new enough to surprise people.

What was come up with was a format which was not seen before, the 1970's had seen darts become a major television sport in its own right and because of this more and more people were playing in pubs and social clubs throughout the country. Overtime Wood developed this idea into a format, however with great competition from other formats being invented and also imported, it was really hard to get an idea seen to a head of light entertainment at any channel or company at that time. So Wood decided to go a name who had been a presenter of a successful show which was Norman Vaughan previously host of the Golden Shot, knowing that Vaughan might have some clout to get the Bullseye idea seen. As far as a deal went, Wood said if Vaughan could make the new idea seen by someone and if it goes into production that he could present it but if you don't get the presenter's job that Vaughan would be given a cut of all future revenue accruing as being a co-creator of Bullseye.

Thanks to Vaughan's links to ATV in Birmingham, the Bullseye idea was seen by Jon Scoffield, the station head of Light Entertainment at the time. The brief synopsis on a piece of paper presented to Scoffield was “A contestant throws a dart at a categorised board and is then asked a question on whatever he hits.” Scoffield took a look at it, rather then just baffling the presentation by giving an explanation by Wood, Scoffield just requested the idea to be seen as it went along just like it would almost be on the screen. The idea Scoffield liked, but the kick in the stomach was to come for Vaughan when Scoffield said he didn't like Vaughan for the presenter's job. Now having being the co-creator of Bullseye meant that Vaughan would taking a cut of any earnings from the programme, so the search was on for first a presenter and secondly a producer plus a director. The original plan for the presenter was to get Birmingham-based comedian Dave Ismay to film the pilot in 1980, Ismay had been a warm-up man for many of the ATV game shows and had made appearances on other shows such as 3-2-1 and the Golden Shot. Being around these shows meant Ismay could get a feel for how they worked and see how the hosts of each of them worked. Such was his closeness to The Golden Shot, he had seen the master of the game show Bob Monkhouse close at hand. So he seemed a natural choice to be the host, though a director was still needed.

Peter Harris, a well respected director of many types of shows had been working at ATV since the 1960's. In his time, he had directed Crossroads, helped launch Tiswas in 1974, at that time of the early 80's, he was most famous for directing the Muppet Show since 1977. This gave him lots of acclaim and is created on helping Jim Henson's creations come to the screens for a family audience, but come 1980 he had moved on to launching another of ATV's new game shows when he was the first director of Family Fortunes. So having launched that show and made it a success, Harris was called to Jon Scoffield's office to choose what he wanted to do next and there he was given three choices. One was Runaround, newly brought to ATV to possibly relaunch on Central Television in 1982 where Lewis Rudd, the new head of children's television had brought it with him from Southern Television, some unknown format, but possibly Chris Tarrant's O.T.T. which was in development and also Bullseye. Harris chose Bullseye because he was brought up in a public house during his formative years, so thought it was a good choice to take in this case.

The parts of this jigsaw were coming together, but then something was to happen which was throw the planning into chaos. With Dave Ismay, the host of the pilot for Bullseye, Peter Harris had met up with him to finalise details on when the pilot was to be filmed. But when Harris stated the dates, Ismay said he could not do them because he was on a cruise line entertaining the passengers. With the dates stuck and the studio time booked, there was no real way they could cancel the dates. So they offered it to Jim Bowen, famous at that time for his appearances on The Comedians and also as the comic foil for Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson on Thames Television's children's programme You Must be Joking. Bowen accepted the position as host, so it was on to development of the format. Though when finally Bowen met Harris, it was a great relationship as presenter and director, but on the first sighting of each other, Bowen was impressed by Harris who was immaculately dressed himself at the Grovenor Hotel in Birmingham. It was only after a while when Bowen had cottoned on about arriving at a coloured pink hotel building and seemingly flamboyant character, that they were going to hone the format to Bullseye in a Gay Club. But this broke the ice between them both and they got the format ready for the pilot to be filmed.

The series itself went to air on Monday the 21^st of September 1981, but these were not the first two episodes to be filmed which were shown first, actually it was the third ever episode filmed. By their both their own admissions that the first two were awful with Bowen being too nervously, fluffing the rules of the game and the nadir of when talking to a couple during the contestant's introduction when told that a person had been unemployed for two years, naturally Bowen had replied “Smashing...” without out no malice with the contest themselves looking daggers at Bowen for doing so. With that the decision to boost Bowen's confidence that the episodes would be scrapped and wiped, thus getting the production crew on his side. With the episodes having been filmed, they had to give the contestants who had won the prizes on both of them to them. One of which they won a caravan on, so they had to give it to the contestants. Compared to the cost of doing this, the value of junking the first two episodes filmed was far greater.

Looking back at the first series of 1981, using the original titles of Bully coming down from his pub sign to play darts, though the titles are different in one significant feature. During the titles there are lots of women with nipples prevalent, whether this was a nod to the cheeky pub nature of the game or an in-joke by graphic designer Chris Wroe, by the third series these images have been edited out where cue to pressure from high up the command chain or just a change attitude at when the programme was being broadcast on a Sunday afternoon in difference to a Monday evening slot. Though the basics of the game are there, the rules themselves seem over complicated. In the category board, the partner of the dart player has to pick the value of the question they want their dart playing partner to hit, ranging from ten, twenty, thirty or fifty for the bull itself rather just a category and the value of the question being for instance twenty pounds plus the bonus amount as well.

But well even before for the game has started, a nearest to the bull board is used to determine the order of play, the board consisting of concentric sections is also called upon if there is a tie, making sometimes the gameplay in these early editions hard to keep up with. Though the pound for pounds second round is a strange affair as the darts players through for the highest scores, rather then being on a pounds for points basis like in later series, the dart players partners can choose question to the value of twenty pounds, fifty or one hundred and one pounds. Whether this was a nod to the start darts scores of 301 or 501 for instance, is not quite revealed during the game play. But it is possible for a couple to have only won maybe only thirty pounds when they get to the prize board, meaning that couples will want to always gamble for the star prize every time with it being a brand new car, caravan or even a speedboat compared to winning the ubiquitous prize of a clock for every room in your house. The first series was seemingly to encourage the players to go for the star prize every time with every little jeopardy of an big amount of money accrued or prizes won at all.

During this series Jim Bowen is charged with doing everything as in asking the questions and taking care of the scoring as well, but sometimes with so much to do he has to rely on other off camera to help him with this, plus also inadvertently putting off players by making jokes of them and when they are throwing, though this seems like putting them at ease, most times it has the opposite effect. Bowen in this first series, does seem jittery about what he is meant to be doing at times, not quite knowing what's coming next. One significant event was to happen during the first series, which was to shape the whole programme from then on. During the series, the voice-over had been ATV Today's Nick Owen out of vision introducing the contestants and also with Bowen doing the scoring, it seemed that the show need some help from someone in the darting know. On the thirteenth edition came Tony Green, then a professional darts player but also as a darts referee as well.

It was this meeting with Harris and Green's own personality which lead to him joining the programme not only for his distinctive voice but also his darts refereeing as well. Out of vision for the first couple of years, Green's role grew bigger and bigger eventually becoming a foil for Bowen's jokes. But by doing this, it showed that the programme was more professional and also had respect for the darts players themselves. The charity throw which Green had been a part of was slowly changed away from just professional darts players in series three, with also celebrities who played darts coming into the mix as well, with them getting a sixty point head start to help boost up the funds if they were to score a relatively small amount of points to be coverted into pounds for charity.

The celebrities who came on were an eclectic mixture from George Best and Jimmy Greaves from the world of Football, 'Mighty' Mo Morland from the Roly Polys, Kenny Lynch and Jimmy Cricket plus from Bullseye own world co-creator Norman Vaughan and also former voice-over artist for the programme Nick Owen, who by 1983 had joined TV-AM. This type of thing combined with best darts players of the day, who by now were household names made Bullseye a hit with viewers. But this was not always so, in 1981 when the programme was placed on Monday evenings after Crossroads, they inherited an audience of thirteen million viewers, but slowly the viewers started to ebb away and by show six, the viewership was down to just over six million viewers but something remarkable happened from show eight as the viewers returned, if it was through sheer curiosity to see how bad this game show was or at that time Terry Wogan would say about it on his Radio Two show, thus people being curious would switch on it see what Terry was going on about and somehow they stuck the show.

Bullseye in itself had been become a 'cult' game show before people had even thought of the term, such like The Golden Shot had been moved from Saturday nights to a Sunday afternoon slot. Bullseye benefited from the same thing happening to it, it its own world even strange things couple happen oblivious to the host even. In the episode where George Best throws for charity, after the programme come back from the advertisement break, in the audience are a group of pensioners passing around a tupperware tube of sandwiches to feed themselves between them. Surreal this may seem, but these things endeared the programme to its viewership, by embracing a warts and all approach to being a game show.

This itself was almost being an anti-game show, wanting to more rougher them some of the more expensive productions going into studios such as LWT's Play Your Cards Right or Punchlines, more homely then Yorkshire's 3-2-1. In earlier series, the losing contestants would get a brass dart shaped chalk holder and also a set of darts plus whatever money they had won, later getting a keyring as well. But like with Yorkshire's 3-2-1, the programme wanted something unique to give away as a constellation prize, the Kirkstall Lane based production gave away a ceramic Dusty Bin to contestants, so it was decided that Bullseye should go down the same route and Peter Harris decided the programme should give away to contestants a 'Bendy Bully', though at first Jim Bowen thought this was not a good idea as it seemed that it would be rubbing salt into the wounds of losing contestants, by giving them something which appeared to be a bit of tat. But Harris decided that it was a good idea to do this and after having graphic designer Chris Wroe make up one as a trial model, he gave the go ahead to mass produce the item to give them away to every contestant who played the game. This in itself became another cult item, for the programme to build its reputation on.

"101 with six darts, three for you and three for you..."

With success comes decline, by the mid 1990's the show was starting to look somewhat dated against newer shows, even with more of a risked gamble introduced to the end game of just winning 'Bus Fare Home', the viewers had been drifting away from the programme and a move to Saturday teatimes did not help the production at all, with the programme beaten by twenty year-old repeats of Dad's Army and what ever else the BBC had to offer and they had to offer a new type of game show which had never been done before one based on a burgeoning sport, that was Big Break. All the traits were there in that show for the BBC which Bullseye had been doing ten years earlier. Even Carlton developed Tenball, a derivative of snooker and pool to replace Bullseye, in a move which had seen ITV going from stone age to space age in just two weeks. By now the schedules were dominated with brash, flash shows done on bigger budgets or Gladiators being only one example. Seemingly Bullseye was old hat, but until when ITV revived it for one week to take in the Gameshow Marathon season in 2005 to celebrate some of ITV's best ever game shows hosted by Ant and Dec, so popular was the edition of Bullseye it came back for the next series of the Gameshow Marathon presented by Vernon Kay.

With the rise of Challenge TV on cable and satellite television at that time, this lead to two new series of the programme presented by former contestant of the show Dave Spikey, who by now had become a successful comedian, regaining a cult audience once again the Bullseye story had gone quiet until Challenge TV had moved onto the Freeview platform in 2011, with them showing old editions of the programme from the early 1990's and the audience who remember the show came back to it once again prompting the purchase of the third, fourth and fifth series of the programme from 1983, 1984 and 1985 respectively. Eventually in 2013, they started to showed the first two series of the programme and as I write this, they are coming to end of series one.

But one thing can be certain, for all of its years its been a 'Super, Smashing, Great' ride to get where the programme is today and with talk of the original format being tweaked again, it may not have been the last we've seen of Bully yet...

Are the kids still alright? BBC Children's Broadcasting at 90

February 2013 sees the 90^th anniversary of children's broadcasting on the BBC, from its earliest days on the radio through children's hour. Its origins come from a broadcast gave by A.E. Thompson, an Birmingham based engineer on their station based there did a short spot for children on February, 5^th 1922 and it lead to other stations around the country doing their own broadcasts for children. With the success of this, came the first London based Children's Hour on December, 23^rd 1922. These early shows were mix of song, stories and poems performed by senior members of the presentation team for each stations being referred to as 'Aunts and Uncles'.

By the start of 1923, Children's Hour became a feature of the daily schedule and the audience grew over time. But with this came need for the programmes to be more structured, so the appointment of Ella Fitzgerald as the Central Organiser of Children's Hour for London and the other provinces responsible for finding relevant material for the programmes, however in December 1923 it was decided that various 'Aunts and Uncles' would have set times of appearing on the programmes and also the structure of the productions would be more rigid and less spontaneous.

In April 1925, C.E. Hodges was appointed with the task to unite the programmes together, though the idea was put forward to drop the moniker Auntie or Uncle making the programmes more formal, however protests from parents and children made the identities still exist but not encouraged any more than that. Though C.E. Hodges was in charge of the production, there were people at each regional station to oversee the conduct of their station. 1930's were to see the loss of several Children's Hour programmes from the regions as the programmes merged into one as by the outbreak of World War Two saw the staff move to Bristol to make the programmes from there, but with only one programme during Monday to Friday but by September 1939, weekday programmes resume by only for half an hour at first. There was a conflict because of the quality of material not seemingly being of a good enough quality seen by some of the presenters, though the regional stations were themselves not happy with the amount of time they were given to their features on the programmes.

As the end of the war itself came, that radio was facing something new with the resumption of television. With Children's Hour, though the actual length of the programmes were usually under an hour long. But were on seven days a week with Sundays usually with a more religious theme itself. The production had now become part of the Entertainment Division of BBC Radio with audiences still at a high peak under W.E. Davies who became the Head of Children's Hour in 1953. The effect of television was now beginning to have an effect on audiences as over the decade, slowly they ebbed away to the magic box in the corner. Growth of television's overall audience meant that Children were more like to be watching what the BBC would be offering, plus with Independent Television starting in 1955, it meant that radio had to compete even more for listeners.

With the BBC offering Children's Television, the style of presentation may have seen almost trying to be apart from the normal BBC presentation, with the 1960's including a short film insert played out before the programmes started to declare they had begun. Trying to forge some sort of separate identity for the service, meant that there was a clear boundary of what the programmes were within children's hour. Stretching originally for an hour between 5pm and 6pm, between 1946 when television resumed after the Second World War and 1957.

At some points between this period and the early 1960's, ITV's offerings were winning against the BBC's significantly. In a review of the children's output, there was a need that a radical overhaul was needed in the service both agreed by the Director General Hugh Carlton-Greene and Stuart Hood, the controller of the Television Service. They thought the output was too middle class and self-serving. The majority of new television viewers coming from working class and more diverse backgrounds. This meant that shows like Crackerjack being a variety show for children became part of the Light Entertainment group of programmes, which made the programme even better and it grew over time with Leslie Crowther in charge from 1964 onwards to the end of the decade and children's drama would also go to the relevant adult department from 1961, but in January 1964 was to see a change in programmes for children as the Children's Department was axed for a new 'Family Programmes Unit' to have a larger then before remit under new head Doreen Stephens. Though this helped new shows flourish and existing ones expand.

"It's Friday... It's five o'clock.. It's Crackerjack!"

Blue Peter which had launched in 1958 was undergoing a change where actor John Noakes joined Valerie Singleton and original presenter Christopher Trace in December 1965. But it was only when Peter Purves replaced Trace in 1967 that a new age of Blue Peter was born, by teaming Singleton, Noakes and Purves together that then something clicked between the three of them. Where the programme may have seen staid to some people there were occasional nods that the social backdrop to the programme was changing and that the young viewers were changing as well. The programme got a second edition as reward for its continuing success under the team of Editor Biddy Baxter and also with Edward Barnes as well, though at this time with Blue Peter settling down with Noakes, Purves and Singleton, Biddy Baxter came up with a proposal for a new magazine for older children to be made by Blue Peter's own production team focussing on items which were of a more stranger nature. To be called 'John Bull'.

This was to be the big brother or sister to Blue Peter with Britt Allcroft later to be famous for adapting and creating the Thomas the Tank Engine stories for television and also Terrence Edmond, an actor who was famous at that time for appearing in Z-Cars in which his character had been killed off from the series. Completing the team was John Noakes, to be used on location as a presenter. But the style of the pilot was jarring, the recognised formula of Blue Peter combined with the spirit of the 1960's was a bit too much as the pilot seemed disjointed in its style. Though it is interesting that sort of style was used by Thames for Magpie when that launched in July 1968, that it may have been seen as template inadvertently for the show itself.

Though the 1960's were to see the BBC put their own mark on Children's Programmes, offering the alternative to ITV. One such programme was Bristol-based production Tom Tom, whilst ITV and Southern Television had How, this science based series presented by Jeremy Carrad and John Earle with roving reporter Norman Tozer started in 1965 and with new technology and the space age in full effect, but it did produce some memorable moments in its five year history as author Louis Barfe remembers. “The main things that spring to mind are that when the SS Great Britain returned to Bristol, my father-in-law Colin Godman, who worked on the series did an OB into Tom Tom of it just before it came up the Avon into dock. Being live, it doesn't survive, sadly.”

The output itself relied on only a few home grown productions at this time, there was a time when seventy-five percent of an afternoon's viewing would have been imported with animation from Hanna Barbara and filmed live action series in Champion, The Wonder Horse and also Skippy, a mainstay of the schedule. Plus also European made dramas such as White Horses and Belle and Sebastian to name but two, amongst this all a gentle series which drew upon the BBC's links with Bristol Zoo, made for a series which would live long in the memories of those who saw it.

Animal Magic started in 1962, with the antics of the animals and also zoo keeper Johnny, Johnny Morris. The premise of Morris doing his rounds at the zoo, allowed children to meet the animal and with Morris's skills, he gave voices to them as well. In comparable to ITV's Zoo Quest, this was a different format with everything during the 1960's filmed with the programme later to move into the studio. Teaching through entertainment was its message, for children who may have not seen animals in a zoo, this was a first chance to do so. Morris' own character made him hugely popular and likeable, so much so that the programme lasted through the 60's, the whole of the 1970's and until 1983 when it was decided a new breed of wildlife programmes for children would be thought of with Morris' later assistant Terry Nutkins joining that new production, The Real Wild Show. But much of that programme and also Wildtrack as well, owed much to Johnny Morris paving the way for them.

But what about the modern age? Children's BBC has now left BBC 1 and BBC 2, moving full time to their own channels in CBBC Channel and Cbeebies, I decided to ask three people who have been there, seen it and done it. Sarah Greene, former Blue Peter and also Saturday morning television presenter, Richard Marson, former editor of Blue Peter and now a BBC Producer and also Steve Ryde, former producer of Children's ITV presentation and also a BBC Children's producer. Though in these times, what did they think are or were the most influential children's programmes ever? Richard Marson remembers “I suppose I would have to say Blue Peter - and not just for the obvious personal reasons. I think it must be the most influential because it has endured so long and - in the heyday certainly - was a big part of the lives of millions of children. There were the rituals of the appeal, Christmas, the makes, the action films and the summer expedition - the window on the world. But more than the presenters, pets and items themselves, the influence extended to the way in which many factual programmes are structured and made (much modern factual TV owes a lot to the classic BP approach - look at The One Show as a current example). They were good principles too - let the audience reach up (never talk down) and have a rich mix. Above everything, ensure that each programme or film had at least one 'killer' fact - what are now known as 'water cooler' moments.”

Blue Peter from the 1960's with Chris, John and Val

Sarah Greene herself was part of the 60^th Anniversary celebrations in 1983 and this was an exciting time not only for the children's department but herself in meeting one of the icons of children's television on the BBC “I can mainly remember it for meeting the creator of Muffin the Mule! Though as far as the most influential shows go then John Craven's Newsround for bringing the news, sometimes harrowing events and explaining them to children in not a condescending way. Also Blue Peter, which dealt with so many different topics over the years, educating children and also the appeals as well which helped many good causes over the years.”

Children's Drama has always been a key part of the schedule, from the likes of Russell T. Davies creating new and exciting drama to the screens and also with the Sunday Teatime drama slot as well. Sarah Greene continues “Children's drama has always been important from the adaptations of The Railway Children, to The Swish of the Curtain, Grange Hill & Byker Grove as well. These productions have shown that both historical and contemporary dramas play an important role in children's television and have done for many years.”

Though for producer Steve Ryde his most influential programme comes from another planet completely “I think it's different for everybody. Whichever show makes a connection and stays with you throughout your life. 'Grange Hill' was certainly a breakthrough, tackling tricky real life subjects for the first time on kid's TV. Blue Peter deserves a mention for its longevity and tenacity. Tracey Beaker has been a more recent phenomenon and has engaged so many viewers over so many years; this would have to be contender for the title. Well written, acted and produced.

The most influential BBC kid's show for me? The Adventure Game. I loved the good humoured commitment of the celebrity contestants, the improvised nature of it and the world they created. It had genuine jeopardy; the vortex was simple but gripping.”

Children's television can be a hive of creativity for production staff with little budgets compared to the bigger departments, though for those people who have been involved what do they think of this from their standpoint? Richard Marson continues “You can do amazing things with a small budget (and people do and always have done in children's tv, which has never been well funded) but there is no substitute for a bigger budget and better facilities. Why should children have shows made in smaller studios with fewer resources? Alas it's a reality - again, look at BP - which used to regularly command big studios and now seems to spend most of its time in a much smaller space which then has a direct effect on the scale and ambition of the items you can do in the studio.”

Certainly it is a help to have a bigger budget but as Steve Ryde points out “It's always better to have more resources. It's entirely possible to be creative with a larger budget. Creativity is vital whatever the budget.”

But over the years has seen children's television develop into a multi-channel, multi-million pound industry. Now children have a greater choice of channels and channels dedicated to them which broadcast for twelve hours a day. With the moving of children's television off the two main BBC channels and also from ITV in the past couple of years, means that the channels have got a lot more new technology to compete against. From a public point of view there was a small outcry at both times when it was announced that it was going to happen, but is it a case of nostalgia from adults who remember the days of strong schedules full of programming or is it a rose-tinted view of what happened? Steve Ryde speak on the matter “If a show still works, is relevant and watched then long may it continue. Every show, no matter how great an idea in the first place must come to an end or should radically re-invent itself to survive. Tradition for its own sake feels like nostalgic adults trying to hang on to their childhood, which isn’t necessarily the best thing for the new audiences.”

Richard Marson continues “Inevitably. Many more hours have to be filled - which means programmes now must have a longer shelf life, standing up to many repeats. Budgets have shrunk. Competition is now fierce (most of it not TV - video games, Youtube, streaming, music etc.) But original home grown production is, though there has been an inevitable loss of range and quality because of these factors - across the board, TV is now very risk averse and, other than some token exceptions, really first class and original factual and drama has shrunk in scale and quality.

He continues “Yes, there is a lot of fantasy and adventure material - and much of this is very good of its kind - but there is little contemporary drama reflecting the lives of modern children. Tracy Beaker and its spin-offs are not enough. Period drama (other than in a fantasy context like Leonardo) - especially adaptations - just doesn't happen - too expensive and niche. Fear of losing an audience means that factual and entertainment content is often pitched pretty low level. Again there are exceptions but there is a depressing sameness about much of the content these days. I was very against the move to introduce a ceiling of 12 to CBBC - I think this excludes a lot of the audience of 12-16 year olds who can still be counted as children in many ways but who are effectively excluded.”

But as Richard Marson puts it “Scheduling becomes less of an issue as children are always at the forefront of technology and just expect to be able to access what they like on i-player or streaming services.”

Steve Ryde says on the same subject “Viewing figures would suggest that Saturday morning kids TV as we remember it is no longer relevant. Kids can find cartoons 24 hours a day and they don’t hold the novelty value they had when we were kids. Back in the 70’s, 80’s and up to the late 90’s Saturday mornings on BBC 1 and ITV were one of the few opportunities to find shows aimed at you. As for kids’ shows these days on BBC One and BBC Two, the recent change feels like we’ve lost something (to people of a certain age), but the kids go to the dedicated channels anyway. As long as these channels continue to be funded properly and creative risks are taken the genre will thrive and evolve.”

So as we look on over 90 years of Children's broadcasting on the BBC, from John Craven, through Ant and Dec, also Val/Lesley, Pete and John, Noel Edmonds onto Dick and Dom. With children's television attracting the likes of Peter Serafinowicz and Vic Reeves to perform and bring their sense of humour to the screens in the past few years alone, I have to admit even at the age of 34, to see the likes of the best comedians performing in programmes, that even I tune in. But the stars have always been there, Roy Castle with Johnny Ball, Tony Hart, Zoe Ball, Clive Dunn, Floella Benjamin, Toni Arthur. The kids have always been alright and remain as new programmes continue to fascinate into the future.

"Coming up after this break.." The story and art of Continuity Announcing from those who have done it themselves

For all of its changes in presentation, style and even with new channels launching all the time, there is one thing that stays the same and has done since day one of television itself and that is the continuity announcer. But these people are lot more then just informing viewers of what may be coming up on any given channel at one time, the actual art of continuity is something to behold itself.

The earliest days of television saw the announcers themselves become celebrities themselves, but the idea of continuity announcing was seen as continuation of what people would have been used to say at a music hall or a theatre where a compère would announce the next act. Where as television was an extension of this theory, announcers were used to announced what act was coming next, a procession of items rather then programmes meaning there could be a singer with a cookery item in the next bit. Their job would be to sometimes to list the whole evening's programming in one slot, so that viewers knew what would be coming up during the evening, sticking rigidly watching the little box in the corner bringing themselves entertainment.

With the constant appearances in-between the programming, the faces doing the announcements became more and more recognisable, the first voice being Leslie Mitchell announcing on the 2^nd November 1936 debut of the BBC's television and uniquely as well he was the first ever voice heard on Independent Television in September 1955 launching Associated-Rediffusion. Mitchell himself had been a trainee stockbroker and because of his good looks and rich voice started to get him parts in stage productions. As we'll see later, certain things can have a way of making a strange fate for people and how they became continuity announcers.

Carrying on with Leslie Mitchell, he started appearing on BBC Radio in 1932 and joined the staff at the corporation in 1934 starring as a announcer and producer on variety shows. Come 1936 though he was picked as one of the faces for the new BBC television service, though as war broke out, his voice was used by the Movietone News for their newsreels informing people what was happening during this turbulent time even with this fame appearing in a Will Hay film, The Black Sheep of Whitehall as himself. By the end of the war he sensed that commercial television would eventually come to these shores, Mitchell travelled to the United States to see how commercial television worked over there and particularly the style of promotion used for the programmes and the networks themselves.

All of this came in handy when he moved to Associated-Rediffusion in 1955 becoming their senior announcer and appearing on screen chairing discussions and also having input over the 'talks' department with his previous experience of this coming from being the compere of Picture Page for the BBC. By 1958 he had taken the decision to go freelance allowing him to jointly narrate the BBC's 25^th anniversary of television in 1961 and also presenting Tyne Tees' 'Those Wonderful TV Times' between 1976 and 1978.

Along with Mitchell in the first three announcers on the new BBC television service were Elizabeth Cowell and the woman who at the outbreak of the Second World War made the final announcement that the service would be closing down for the duration and also the opening announcement in 1946, which was "Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?" where the last programme before the close the cartoon Mickey's Gala Premiere which had been the last programme before the service had been suspended in 1939.

Such was Bligh fame she would be see somewhat as a daredevil, having been filmed racing around in a motorbike's sidecar and even getting a fireman's lift! These things endured herself to the public and the fan mail came flooded in, even with Cowell the press described them at the time as 'Twin Paragons', Bligh's career much like Mitchell's stretched into the 1970's but in the 1950's she was the presenter of Television for Deaf Children seen as a forerunner to Vision On and was also a presenter on Thames Television's Good Afternoon as well, similarly moving across to the London ITV company much like Leslie Mitchell had back in the mid-1950's.

The early days has established continuity as a key factor in television's make up with some many names coming through it to become presenters in their own right such as Michael Aspel and Anne Greig as well, both starting announcing the programmes eventually becoming the ones who presented them. Memorably Sylvia Peters is another name who became a familiar face to the public during post war times, the BBC themselves had their announcers in-vision at the time allowing the public to see a familiar face night in, night out. The sense by the mid 1950's that ITV was using more voices out of shot over their each companies branding meant the BBC had to change and slowly by 1963 when one of the last recorded in-vision announcements at that time leading into that year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Though there was still in-vision announcing on ITV but out of vision continuity on BBC and ITV were becoming prevalent as the battle for viewers was hotting up, for example some ITV companies making a conscious decision to have only out of vision announcements with presentation consisting of slides and identities. BBC 1 and 2 had disappeared behind their identities with announcers being in voice only, however with ITV being made up of a regional system, each company went for a different approach to this. Here it was that the regional faces became celebrities in their own right as former LWT and Channel 4 continuity announcer Trish Bertram explains “I started at a time when working in-vision was about to change. Back then, my senior colleagues had a modicum of fame, were invited to open fetes, etc. and received a lot of fan mail. Such is the power of television.”

Trish had an unusual route in becoming a continuity announcer, she takes up the story herself “I blagged my way in! No radio or acting background and only a small awareness of television. I was a theatre struck teenager. I went to the Central School of Speech and Drama to study stage management and technical theatre and embarked on a career as a stage manager, finishing up at the National Theatre. The job included having to make the backstage and front of house calls ("The curtain will rise in .....3 minutes" ). A lot of actors would remark on my deep tones and suggest that I 'did something' with my voice. I knew I didn't want to be an actress - I saw too many talented ones struggle to earn a living. Then my fellow student and flatmate from my course at Central wrote to me and said she'd got a job as a continuity announcer at Westward Television . 'You were the one with the unusual voice' she said, 'why don't you have a go'? That friend was Fern Britton and she put the idea into my head.”

She continues “After that, I started paying more attention to television and the people who linked the programmes. I made a cassette tape at home and sent it to the BBC and around the ITV network. ( There were no satellite and digital channels in those days - no Channel 4 or 5 ) I still have my rejection letter file to this day!”

But for Tony Currie, the former Scottish Television and current BBC Scotland announcer had a more conventional route into the job himself “I started in radio – running my own attic radio station at the age of eleven, and having produced and presented a weekly show on KPFK in Los Angeles, I was first voice on radio Clyde when it opened in 1973. STV literally poached me from Clyde in 1976.”The route of radio and acting seemed an obvious route to go when thinking about becoming a continuity announcer, though for current STV announcer Derek Smith his ambition had shown from an early age “I grew up with Grampian and STV and wanted to be a Continuity Announcer for either station from about the age of fourteen. Both stations were very different in styles of presentation.

I wrote to Kennedy Thomson in 1982 who was the Senior Announcer at Grampian and he Invited me to the studios to have a look round and I met him and fellow announcer Lesley Macleod she was on duty that evening .I was so excited about my visit to Grampian and I have to admit it was everything and more that I dreamed of. Meeting Kennedy and Lesley and seeing the continuity studio was just the most amazing experience. I was quite shocked at the size of the studio though I didn’t realise it would be so small.

I had also written to STV’s Senior Announcer Tony Currie at the same time and he very kindly Invited me into STV to spend the whole day with him again it was a great experience that would shape my future. Tony bought me lunch took me on a tour of the whole studio complex at STV and he also let me sit in the hot seat it was just a dream come true for me I remember seeing the STV clock and being shocked that the STV logo in the continuity studio was attached to a piece of fishing gut! Another highlight was meeting Paul Coia who was the late shift announcer. I remember Tony escorting me out of the studio and I just didn’t want to go! It was overwhelming to walk back into Studio E at Cowcaddens twenty three years later to start announcing for STV.

Tony advised me to get some experience in Hospital Radio which I did at Stracathro Hospital near Brechin. I only went there twice though as I lived in Perth and it was quite a distance to travel. I had no aspirations to be a DJ or an Actor and the announcers that were at Grampian and STV all came from those backgrounds.” But Derek's route was just like Trish's one unsual, he continues “So I went off in another direction I joined British Airways as Cabin Crew I still had my continuity dream though. To cut a long story short and moving on a decade. I found out Grampian were looking for a Continutiy Announcer in 1995. I applied got all the way through to the second set of auditions and down to the last three but sadly It wasn’t to be.

However I did get some good feedback from Grampian and the experience drove me forward and put me back on track. I was lucky to gain experience Presenting for BA TV I also did some voluntary news reading at QFM in Glasgow to gain live experience. That lead to me getting my first Continuity job at The Travel Channel in 1999. I was then selected to be on the first team of announcers on The Biography Channel when it launched in the UK in 2000.The same year I joined Radio Forth as a freelance Newsreader .(Whilst still travelling the world for BA as Cabin Crew) For me though the goal was always STV that was my dream.”

Being a continuity announcer can be tough at times, it may seem to the untrained as just a person talking into a microphone but they are there at a moment's notice ready to go live when there is a fault in a programme, the pace and tone of an announcement is always important. Introducing any serious news bulletin or newsflash is sacrosanct, the ability of the announcer to come maybe from an entertainment programme into a news bulletin which may contain news which might be harrowing is one which is important. During significant times the announcer is called on at moment's notice when schedules may need to be changed at the last minute to do live announcing. Trish Bertram remembers one such occasion in August 1997 “1997 - the hardest shift of my life. I'd been on duty late the night before. The news had broken that Diana, Princess of Wales had been in a car crash in Paris. I'd stayed up watching news bulletins when I got home as I knew that this was going to seriously affect work the next day. Went to bed about 0200 after news updates saying she'd been taken to hospital.

The next day my morning lie in was interrupted at 0800 by my boss calling to say that I had to get in straight away. Diana had died. That day I was on air from 0925 until midnight or so and was networked for most of the day until the early evening when everyone went local again with their own announcers. There was no schedule and we didn't know from one hour to the next what we were going to do. Decisions were being made on high as we went from hour to hour .As we were the nominated contractor for the network for the weekend it was up to us to lead the rest of the network and transmit nationally. One of our promo producers and I made up menus slides on the transmission caption generator.

When we knew when we were opting in and out of ITN ( decided as we went along in tandem with ITN) - we just made up 'ITV' slides and found appropriate music to fill the gaps, with me talking over them.

For me it was not only about thinking on my feet but also about finding the 'right tone' . But everyone I worked with that day was brilliant and our presentation management back up were amazing - it was a real team effort. That was certainly the day when I really earned my money.”

For Tony Currie it was another significant moment in history that he will remember “I was on duty on 9/11 – in fact expecting a quiet afternoon shift, a group of announcers were with me and I was filming a private video for the farewell party for an colleague who was leaving. The filming was cancelled and I went straight into the pres suite for the rest of the evening.”

It was both of their professionalism and thinking on their feet at times when the mood of the nation was sombre which saw the viewers through those very hard days, showing that continuity announcing was most key part of broadcasting right to the present day, their skills were able to pull this off at a time when others needed reassurance from a friendly voice as to what was going on.

Though over the years there has always been the choice of if a channel should use in-vision continuity or out of vision, when in the later 1980's most stations decided to use out of vision continuity, it was commonly thought apart from a few ITV stations and other channels that the days on the in-vision announcement had gone into the past. With Channel 4 launching in 1982, out of vision announcing was there from day one when Paul Coia launched the station nearly fifty years to the day when the BBC television launched. From the days of Leslie Mitchell, this was something new, this was the future.

At around the same time Trish Bertram applied to one of the most sort after jobs in television which was to find herself at the start of launch of Channel 4 breaking new ground in the process as she explains “Around that time (1982) Esther Rantzen decided to audition for a new That's Life presenting team and hold nationwide auditions. Anyone could apply - no experience required. She was certainly ahead of the X factor with that idea. So I applied. I must have written a good letter as I found myself on a short list of 100 out of thousands of applicants.”

She continues “Then I went through a lengthy audition process at the BBC's Lime Grove studios as the numbers were whittled down. Finally I was down to the last 3 girls for the one female place on the team. In the end I was runner up to Joanna Monroe. It was the right decision as I was beginning to feel I had bitten off more than I could chew. But Esther was brilliant, very encouraging and said I could use her name as a reference in case she could help.

After that I took Esther at her word and wrote back to everyone I had originally contacted, shamelessly using her name. Doors began to open - thank you Esther! One of the companies who replied was LWT. Channel 4 was about to launch in November that year and the ITV network were going to sell their advertising and transmit their commercial breaks in return for their investment into it.

LWT decided that live announcer cover for their C4 breaks would be a wise thing. They were the only company to do this - but they also viewed it as a way to train up announcers for their own output in what would be a relatively low key environment. The job required only 2 or 3 A/Vs ( alternative viewing announcements) per shift, plus the announcer would have to dive in and rabbit on about the TV times to fill the holes if the acr machines playing the comms broke down ( which they did – often!).”

But the announcers are back up by people who know their jobs and help the announcers themselves when things go wrong, they are the Transmission Controllers. These people operate the presentation suite who are responsible for continuity and punctual play out of scheduled programmes. With out of vision announcing, as Tony Currie says “I liked in-vision announcing but although it allowed transmission controllers some flexibility when things went awry, it required slapping on make up, making sure you were impeccably dressed, and knew your script inside out. It’s a lot easier to sit in a pair of old jeans at a desk and talk while you’re in control of the faders!”

As Trish Bertram continues from before about joining the announcing team at LWT “So - I auditioned for LWT and was lucky to be taken on as one of two Channel 4 cover announcers the week Channel 4 launched. I was thrown in at the deep end and learned on the job. Very scary. There were 3 transmission controllers whose brains I picked shamelessly and who gave me a fantastic grounding in television transmission. Malcolm, Jenny and Tony - I owe you a great deal to this day.

Also - as C4's comm breaks were sometimes undersold, the announcer would also be used to read live low budget slide + announcer commercials for local businesses. One I had to read for an Indian restaurant had the tag line : " Ram Parkash Sonderdash - remember the name". And I always have! Another I had to do made a bit of broadcasting history as the first ever 'gay' commercial on tv . It was a 10" slide with live announcer v/o for a London magazine called City Gay.”

This proved that Channel 4 was breaking new ground, in their programming and also their advertisements, the continuity announcer was called on to voice over slides for advertisements, which at the start of Channel 4 was vital to allow the channel to sell some advertising when the Equity union refused their members to appear in advertisements on the channel which similarly happened during the launch of TV-AM during the next year.

But what about moments which the viewers remember the continuity more then the programmes themselves? How does the continuity announcer cope with those moments when it all goes wrong or maybe it goes right and makes unforgettable television? BBC Scotland and former STV announcer Tony Currie recalls one moment of which “Christmas Eve 1984 when a last minute OB link failure meant I had to fill in vision for around half an hour …. Then apologise over hymns as we only had sound …. Then do another six minutes in vision at the end to explain that a gale force wind had blown STV’s microwave dishes off beam. I found the next day that my performance (after I’d read through the TV Times I started singing Christmas Carols and telling jokes) had also been networked. I was told that I’d got three times the ratings they’d expected for the planned Watchnight Service.”

Though for Trish Bertram it was making an unexpected appearance one of the BBC's biggest shows of the year which was most memorable “Well I particularly remember were appearing on Children in Need live from the LWT studio in 1989. In those days television was a bit more relaxed than it is now. I was on late duty that night. We were watching Children in Need on the BBC monitor. ( We always kept an eye on the competition!) The transmission controllers and engineers I was working with had the idea to ring up BBC Elstree and tell them that if they put me in vision, we would have a whip round and send them some money. BBC transmission and the Children in Need production team liked the idea. A bit of furious line repatching and technical jiggery pokery and then I was on - going out on the BBC live from the LWT studio, merrily wishing Children in Need well on behalf of LWT. And yes - we did send them some money! And no, our bosses weren't cross at us arranging this late night stunt!”

Though we should leave the last word to the announcers themselves about what the best thing about being a continuity announcer is, first STV announcer Derek Smith “Xmas day is a big deal for STV with millions of viewers tuning in to see their favourite programmes and it’s great honour to be Invited into peoples homes to introduce some of the biggest shows such as Corrie,The X Factor and Downton Abbey not just on Xmas day though but all year round too and that’s what I love about being a Continuity Announcer.

I also enjoy writing short punchy scripts which reflect each programme I believe creating compelling content is crucial and key in connecting with our viewers. Working in a live situation is also another great aspect of the job as there is nothing else quite like it and there is only the one chance to get it right.”

and finally Trish Bertram “The best experience for me was being part of the transmission and presentation team. It is a collaborative job - you really are part of the jigsaw puzzle - no room for 'egos' or any idea that the announcer is 'the star' of the output. You really aren't! There was always a sense of satisfaction at the end of a shift if things had gone well. Particularly if it had been a tricky one ( eg. an live OB overrun or unexpected events that caused the schedule to change). You really feel as if you have earned your money then and done the job properly. One of my LWT bosses always used to say " I don't pay you for what you say - I pay you for what you do when it goes wrong' ) The other part is that I never stopped feeling lucky that I was, in essence, 'paid to talk' - but, as every announcer knows, there's far more to it than that.”

One thing is certain, they maybe seen to be just talking for money but there is a lot more to the job and lots more people behind the scenes to make sure the programmes get to air safely. Whether its in vision or out of vision, they are the people who link the programmes together and without them the sense of television being just a series of images spliced together gives some humanity to the day's viewing.

The World Around Us from those who studying it - The Story of Natural History Broadcasting

Over the years television has informed, educated and entertained in equal measure, but the education has been the cornerstone as it has transported us to the four corners of the world with experts as our guides. The natural world been in full effect since the dawn of the

television age, but the 1950's is where the first real programming to do with natural history started and one name like today at the beginning was David Attenborough, brother to Lord Richard Attenborough and also younger brother John. His formative years shaped his future direction, with his love of collecting specimens would continue through childhood and when one of his adoptive sisters gave him a piece of amber filled with creature from the prehistoric age, this charged his interest even more, even using it come back to in a later programme nearly fifty years later.

After being educated in Leicester and after winning a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge where he got a degree in natural sciences plus also studying zoology and geology as well. In 1947 he got called up for national serve with the Royal Navy based North Wales and the Firth of Forth over a two year period. But after leaving the navy Attenborough took on a job editing scientific textbooks for children. Though 1950 was to have change in career for him when he applied for a job becoming a radio talks producer. But it was his CV which caught the eye of Mary Adams, the head of the talks department dealing with factual programming. Though even though Attenborough did not even own a television set, he accepted a place on a three month training course and in 1952, he joined the BBC full time.

His first natural history programme for the BBC, The Pattern of Animals combined the dual roles of producer but more importantly presenter. The programme itself was studio bound, but with animals from London Zoo coming into the studio, the naturalist Julian Huxley discussed topics such as camouflage, aposematism and also the art of natural courtship between animals. Although this programme may not be remembered as much to the wider general public, it did have an effect as through the programme Attenborough met the zoo's

curator of the reptile house Jack Lester and they decided to make a series about an animal collection expedition. From the idea came Zoo Quest, first broadcast in 1954, the original idea was for Lester to present the programme but owing to ill health him step in at the last minute. The success of the series saw the public notice Attenborough for the first time, but later in 1957 the BBC set up the Natural History Unit in Bristol responsible for some of the most dramatic, breathtaking television, surprising David Attenborough was not a part of its initial set up, he declined as he did not move his young family from London, but instead he set up his own Travel and Exploration Unit which produced Zoo Quest, as well as the Travellers' Tales and Adventure series.

Just as the BBC were starting to corner the market in Natural History documentaries and films, in another corner of the UK at the start of the 1960's, ITV and Anglia Television in particular developed the Survival series of wildlife films. The originator was Aubrey Buxton, later Baron Buxton of Alsa, himself a founding director of Anglia Television. Though the origins of Survival came from Buxton's own regional nature programme Countryman in the summer of 1960, but he saw this as an opportunity to develop what he had been doing with Countryman as a natural history strand for ITV. The first programme in the Survival series was broadcast in February, 1961 called The London Scene saw Buxton visiting St James' Park, a derelict bomb site and other London locations as well. This first programme was made with the support of Associated Rediffusion who provided facilities for the filming and the editing as well.

A second film was more closer to home in East Anglia looking one of the rarest British birds, the avocet. Closely associated with these films was Sir Peter Scott, who became the series' scientific adviser as well as introducing and narrating some of the early films. Scott, the only child of the Arctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott and the sculptor Kathleen Bruce. When his father died in March 1912, Peter Scott was only two and in Robert Scott's last letter to his wife he wrote “make the boy interested in natural history if you can; it is better then games.” So it was almost fate, that he went into this field. Along with David Attenborough, he is credited in being one of the pioneers of natural history on television. Such was his influence, he was one of the founders of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

As Survival went from strength to strength during the 1960's, there were a regular appearance of the half hour films in the schedules. During 1963, a film, The New Ark which was narrated by Prince Philip had won a golden Nymph at the Monte Carlo Television Festival, which lead to himself presenting a film about the Galapagos Islands entitled The Encharted Isles in 1967 and in itself was one of the first hour long specials which became a key component in the series. By the colourization of ITV in 1969, Survival was a key programme to show of the new technology as many of the films had already been filmed in colour and were readily available to all the network companies.

But colour television itself was to help the BBC in their coverage of nature documentaries as well, with colour starting on BBC Two in 1967 and one of its advocates being David Attenborough, who at this time was controller of the channel itself. Though with being controller of BBC Two, he did have a clause in his contract to be able to make programmes on an occasional basis. In 1965, he filmed elephants in Tanzania and 1969 saw him making a three part series on the cultural history of the island of Bali. During 1971, he joined the first western expedition to remote highland valley to seek out a lost tribe. Though at this time he had thought the story of evolution for a natural subject for a landmark series, sharing his idea with Chris Parsons, a wildlife film maker based at the Bristol based Natural History Unit. As Parsons though about the idea, he came up with Life

on Earth. Though Attenborough himself would want to present the series himself, but he could not whilst in a senior BBC management role. So the idea went on the back burner for now.

The early seventies, saw ITV's Survival series break into the American market, through the new Prime Time Access Rule which had come into affect for major network stations affiliates, by how much network programming they could take. Thus allowing the free time to be taken up by imported programming, usually cultural and documentary material and with Survival being a beneficiary of this policy. But with the rules on ownership and sponsorship of programming being different in the United States market, lead to one of the first Survival specials to be broadcast over the Atlantic about the beaver to be sponsorsed by the Quaker Oats company and the deal of this sponsorship lead to the advertising agency of JWT to take more of an interest in the films itself, necessitating a new company to be formed by JWT and Anglia Television called Survival Anglia for the documentaries and footage to be sold to which ever stations wanted them and thus becoming the first UK television series to form their own company in America.

Though around this time David Attenborough had resigned from his management role at the BBC, after rising so quickly up the ranks to a senior management position, when his name was suggested for the position of Director General. But he had no appetite for the top job wanting to get back to his natural history roots, when he did resign his position, Attenborough became a freelance broadcaster and started work on his next project which was to be a pre-arranged trip to Indonesia with a film crew from the Natural History Unit which became Eastwards with Attenborough, looking at the wildlife of that area but in different to his earlier Zoo Quest series, this time animal collecting element was not included in the programmes as sensibilities had changed since the 1950's on those issues.

On his return, the scripts for the Life on Earth series were starting to be written, though because of the scale of such a grand scale of the project that the BBC had to partner on the project with an American network to gain sufficient finances to fund the project. In the meanwhile he proceeded with a number of other projects for television including 1975's The Tribal Eye looking at tribal art, The Explorers about the voyages of discovery and Fabulous Animals which was a series for children looking at cryptozoology featuring mythical creatures such as the Griffin. Finally, finance for the Life on Earth series was sealed with Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting in the United States and during 1976, the series went into production.

At the same time, Survival on ITV was getting bigger and bigger audiences for their specials and overseas sales were helping Anglia to put more money back into its funds, so thus being able to make bigger and better wildlife documentaries. Survival Anglia based in New York won a Queen's Award to Industry in 1974, showing how much the productions were rated in not only their quality but also the way they were helping the economy as well. Though output rose more then twenty five per cent for the half hour shows being distributed to the major networks and the production unit was expanded to reflect this. The half hour shows were packaged to the American market as The World of Survival, voiced by actor John Forsythe from 1971 to 1982 and later on the hour specials were shown by PBS in their Nature strand.

But it was during 1974 and 1975, that the programme was to have two of its most notable films. The Year of the Wildebeest and Safari by Balloon, filmed by Kenya based film maker Alan Root who worked along his then wife Joan as well, showed that wildlife film making could be on an epic scale as well as well as using the narrative style as well. Their 1974 The Year of the Wildebeest showed the story of the migration of the herds across the African plains and also the river of the Serengeti as well. Using a hot air balloon to film the migration, gave rise to another idea for another film in 1975's Safari by Balloon looking at the animals of the plains and mountains in East Africa, which also featured the first-ever hot air balloon flight over Mount Kilimanjaro as part of the film itself. Though the Roots were to feature heavily in some of the most notable films in Survival's history, the 1967 film The Enchanted Isles which featured Prince Philip was filmed by the Roots and was brought by the NBC network in the United States for $430,000 and it became the first-ever natural history film to shown on American television, leading the way for others.

By the late 1978, the domination of both the Attenborough and also Survival films were to be broken by a man new to television, but one not easy to forget. In 1978 Dr David Bellamy of the University of Durham made his first-ever television series for Thames television looking at botany from a new perspective. His seeming down to earth manner appealed to viewers, as well as his easy presentation style in conveying facts and also unique speech patterns as well. Through out the next decade, Bellamy was to be a regular face on television presenting programmes from all over the world with one of his finest being Bellamy at the Top of the World, focussing on the nature and wonder of the great white north in 1987. Though this proved that other ITV companies could make natural history programmes themselves and add to the already burgeoning reputation of Survival.

1979, was to see after three years in the making, the first broadcast episode of the epic Life on Earth series. The style of the film-making would influence both future documentaries and also their film-makers as well, though every subject was treated seriously and this gained the scientific community's seal of approval and let Attenborough and his film crew have access to many places unseen by film-makers before and also experience their work first hand. One such scientist, Dian Fossey and her research group allowed the Life on Earth crew to film the mountain gorillas, making for one of the most iconic scenes ever seen on television as David Attenborough got up close and personal with the Gorillas themselves, with them accepting as one of their own. If it wasn't for this series and its techniques which set the industry standard and also Survival the world would have not been seen in the same way again. Through the next eleven years over two more series, The Living Planet and The Trials of Life brought the whole Life trilogy to a close. Life in the Freeze in 1993 focussed on Antarctica, the first-ever television series to focus on that region's own natural history. The Trials of Life, looked at the behaviour of animal throughout their lives, though this was not without out complaints from viewers on scenes of what they saw violent and gory, although this was natural behaviour in the animal kingdom.

As the new millennium approached, the Survival series was struggling. For many years, the flagship since 1989, the Survival unit had moved back to Norwich from its previous London base and with Anglia brought by MAI who owned Meridian Television, the emphasis changed to presenter led wildlife documentaries with new to television experts Steve Irwin and Nigel Marvin being two of them, the specials kept on being made and shown but they were shifting around the schedules pretty much like quicksand and the programme was seemingly losing its footing. When in 1995, a series called Predators presented by Gaby Roslin was commissioned, it gained to good viewing figures in a early Sunday evening slot though a second series was not commissioned at all. Over at the BBC, David Attenborough had a new series looking at The Private Life of Plants and with time lapse photography, he was able to show the plants in their true form, growing and also procreating as well.

So natural history have been a key part of the schedules for sixty years now on the BBC, ITV even revived the Survival brand with Ray Mears as a presenter, but it has been the new technology which has come in to show our world like never before, such as in High Definition television and also 3D to bring the world closer to us. The world seemingly has got smaller, but with the likes of David Attenborough to guides though the undiscovered parts, there is still much to learn.