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Watch With Mother Classic BBC Children's Television

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Watch With Mother. Classic BBC children's television from the 1950s and 1960s

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...

If you can remember this, then you remember the BBC children's TV series Watch With Mother. These television programmes were produced in a more innocent age of child hood. No wall to wall news with images of violence and destruction. No Facebook and Bebo. No such thing as a Tweenager. No pester power advertising. Quintessentially British. One of the first things I ever remember as a child was the UK TV series Watch With Mother. The programme always began with the flower image opening up and a memorable tune.

The phrase "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin was actually used on the precursor to the TV series - Listen With Mother
It was the brainchild of Freda Lingstrom who was head of BBC children's TV in 1951. She was a staunch advocate of the BBCs Reithian values of Inform Educate and Entertain.

My favourite Watch With Mother programme was The Flower Pot Men The main characters, Bill and Ben, spoke in a gobbledy gook language of their own. A language that is immortalised with the phrase 'Flob A Lob'
My younger brother had to be stopped from watching The Flower Pot Men for a while because he started to talk like them!

Contents at a Glance

Andy Pandy Childhood memories
The Disappearance of Childhood
Freda Lingstrom
Toxic Childhood: How The Modern World Is...
Picture Book
Andy Pandy

Initially broadcast in 1950

The original series was made up of 5 programmes, Picture Book, Andy Pandy, The Flower pot Men, Rag Tag and Bobtail and The Woodentops.

A second series started in the late 60s with additional characters and stories such as Tales of the River Bank with Hammy the Hamster.

Andy Pandy was pioneered by puppeteer Audrey Atterbury

An Urban Myth has it that Freda Lingstrom was so attached (sic) to the puppets Bill and Ben that when the series ended she had them buried at the bottom of her garden

The series ended in 1980

The Disappearance of Childhood

Amazon reviewer says "'The Disappearance of Childhood' was first published a quarter of a century ago, but is becoming (sadly) more up to date with every passing day"

Freda Lingstrom

The broadcast visionary behind Watch With Mother

Screen On Line biography

Toxic Childhood: How The Modern World Is Damaging Our Children And What We Can Do About It

Picture Book

Do you think you could do this?

Originally Introduced by Patricia Driscoll who went on to play Maid Marion with Richard Greene's Robin Hood Her catchphrase 'do you think you could do this?' became famous.

watch With Mother Picture Book Opening titles: by adman1957 | video info

25 ratings | 37,097 views

curated content from YouTube

Andy Pandy

Andy Pandy's coming to play

As a child there was something quite 'hypnotic' about the the letter blocks turning in the title sequence. This was a first introduction to naughty and good with the the often badly behaved teddy.

andy pandy: by Farven | video info

205 ratings | 290,578 views

curated content from YouTube

Blog Posts About Andy Pandy

Watch With Mother fans

Andy Murray will soon be as big as the Bay City Rollers: Here in Oz, the boy Murray done good and I'm firmly of the opinion that back home and indeed, all over the globe, Andy-Pandy-monium is set to become the biggest tartan phenomenon since the Bay City Rollers squeezed into their high-waisted sta-pres ...
Building work begins on new £2m Portchester Community Centre: DIGGING IN Fareham council leader Cllr Sean Woodward, centre, cuts the turf of the community centre with Joshua Fletcher, three, and friends from Andy Pandy pre-school, and Cllr Ray Ellis, right, from the county council.
The gems of kids' TV: If Thunderbirds, the Sooty show and Andy Pandy in black and white trigger misty-eyed reminiscences, it's safe to say you are older than me. Our own children, now ranging from ages 14 to three, were blessed ? and some would say cursed ? by the invention ...
TV controller educated in town dies at 96: And in April, 1961, he was made controller of television programmes at the BBC, which he did during the era of cutting-edge programmes such as 'That Was The Week That Was', 'Dr Who' and the cop show that made Dixon of Dock Green look like Andy Pandy, ...

Andy Pandy VHS tape

The Flower Pot Men

Bill and Ben

The best episodes were when they went through the gap in the fence. The house with eyes still gives me the creeps! Three classic stories were also written by Hilda Brabban

ATV - "Bill & Ben The Flower Pot Men": by SassyGirrrl420 | video info

405 ratings | 394,111 views

curated content from YouTube

Bill and Ben Blog Posts

Watch With Mother Fans

'Everything about him was big' – even the turnout at his funeral: Among them was comic Bobby Davro, who produced three pictures of him and Dave on a TV sketch show, including one of the pair dressed as Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men. Davro said: "I first met big Dave 30 years ago when he was compering a show.
Fun theatre series ready to take off at academy: Bill and Ben the flower pot men will be coming on Saturday, May 5, in the form of Sunflowers And Sheds, by M6 Theatre Company. In June, Birdhouse Children's Theatre Festival will include three shows as well as workshops and street theatre.
Movies briefs: Now he maintains the clocks and dreams of completing his father's project, a mechanical man. With Chloe Grace Moretz as a young girl who befriends Hugo; Ben Kingsley as her guardian, a toy shop owner; Sacha Baron Cohen as the Station Inspector and Jude ...
Entertainment listings: $8-$27, 604-736-2616, seizieme.ca ""Almighty Voice and His Wife The story of a Cree man arrested for killing a cow without a licence, and the ensuing manhunt. By Native Earth Performing Arts . Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island . Feb. 1-4 .

Bill and Ben VHS tape

Rag Tag and Bobtail

Simply innocent and enchanting story telling. I loved these characters

Watch with Mother - Rag, Tag and Bobtail (1957) pt 1: by graemefield01 | video info

90 ratings | 55,226 views

curated content from YouTube

The Woodentops

The family introduction at the start was a standard. Immortalised by the line "And last of all the biggest spotty dog you ever did see!"

The Woodentops 1958: by Duvmasta | video info

72 ratings | 97,329 views

curated content from YouTube

The Woodentops Blog Posts

Look at it this way - January 20, 2012: Not my time, I was more Sparky and the Magic Piano, Torchy Battery Boy, the Woodentops and Watch with Mother. I even bagged a bagatelle for my mum in memory of the year we outed Santa and helper bearing a much bigger version of the game rattling ...

Watch with your Mother

Looks like this is only available on VHS

Watch With Mother

Watch With Mother

Just Andy Pandy

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!

More background to this wonderful series

image creditMuseum of Broadcast Communications

Whirligig

Television Heaven

TV Classics

Facebook Fans of Watch With Mother

Facebook group Watch With Mother

Children's Televsion

People Who Care About Children's Television

The Television Mom: A personal take on children's tv programming.
My Kids TV: Site dedicated to the quality of childrens TV
Too Much TV Harms Toddlers: The more TV a toddler watches, the higher the likelihood they will do badly at school and have poor health at the age of 10

The Story of Broadcasting House: Home of the BBC

Are you coming to play?

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Reply

Lemming13 Jun 23, 2011 @ 4:28 am | delete

I admit, I hated the Woodentops. But Bill and Ben still rock. Cool lens.

Reply

debnet Mar 2, 2011 @ 12:02 pm | delete

Oh happy memories! I love3ed all from Series one especially Rag, Tag and Bobtail... or should it be the Wooden Tops... or maybe Andy Pandy! There again Bill and Ben were pretty cool! Fab lens with some great memories. Flob A Lob :)

Reply

Tipi Dec 16, 2010 @ 10:31 pm | delete

What wonderful childhood memories, thank you for sharing them with us. The Rag, Tag and Bobtail voice reminds me of Mrs. Doubtfire. Sweet!

Reply

CDT Oct 15, 2009 @ 5:41 am | delete

Fabulous stuff...just the mention of the words "Andy Pandy" take me back to a time when life was a LOT less complicated and so much nicer :)

Being called "Louise", I got nicknamed "Looby Lou"...which over time became (somewhat inevitably!) "Loopy Lou" - which is one of my pseudonyms elsewhere in cyberspace :)

Kids TV today could learn an awful lot from the kind of gentle programmes we watched when we were little people - it doesn't have to be all bright colours and non-stop action :)

Great lens - shame You Tube have pulled some of the vids though :(

Reply

reasonablerobinson Sep 10, 2009 @ 4:40 am | in reply to 0ctavias0fferings | delete

Could be worth something on eBay Katherine, but perhaps letting it go would be too difficult! :)
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