1950s children's TV

grannyactivist that sounds terrible - I imagine you must go away for Christmas now after all those fires? Or maybe just sit in the dark with nothing plugged in?

Actually the first two fires were very exciting and were quickly extinguished and the third happened after I'd left home. Our home was a complete danger zone when I was a child; lots of burns on the carpet from cinders, electrical appliances with no plugs so wires stuck directly into sockets, mum curling her hair with the poker taken straight from the fire.......oh, those were the days!
And The Woodentops on TV....aaah.

Yikes, G A! It gets worse!

No, no....I'm telling you the good bits!!

Strewth!

Oh crikey; yes, we used to rent our tellies. I used to be fascinated looking at the back of them with all the valves and suchlike. And the smell of poker singed hair [I can smell it now]. I used to get red blotches on my legs from sitting too close to the coal fire [no fire guard ]. How did we survive? And [I was thinking this last night when I put the dustbin out] I never ever remember feeling cold. Not once. And all we had was one coal fire and no insulation...oh, we did have paraffin heaters, and I loved the blue flame and the wick and the smell.

Did you have the electric iron plugged into the light fitting GA ? That was always a good one! This is getting very Monty Python we used to take our clothes to bed with us in the winter so they'd be warm enough to put on in the morning. It was real luxury when we got a paraffin heater and didn't have to spend hours getting the coal fire to light in the morning and we didn't have to walk up to the station to collect coal in the pram (I've got no idea why we did that!)

You lot had electric irons ! Not flat irons??

Are you lot all younger than me? or perhaps from a 'better off' family. By the time we had a TV at home I was way too old for all these children's programmes.

TV reached Scotland in 1952 when I was 11. I remember that night, leaving Brownies early so that we could watch the inaugural programme. I was a bit too old for the young children's programmes but the neighbour's toddler came round to watch Andy Pandy and the Flowerpot Men. Mum watched an afternoon programme called Leisure and Pleasure - remember Marguerite Patten? Strikes me that we have two generations of grans here!

Like you Granny23 I was to old to watch the children's programme as a child, but always watched them with MY children, we actually sat down and watched them together, and talked about them. We also had childrens comics which we read together and talked about. When the children were babies, they would have their afternoon nap and I would watch the Womens Hour programme - there was an Eileen someone who did gentle exercises, a man, can't remember his name, showed us how to do simple carpentry and another women demonstrated sewing skills. It was a gentle time, and something I enjoyed. Of the children's programmes Wooden Tops was definitely my favourite, but couldn't stand Rag Tag and Bobtail, funny old world.

My gran used a flat ironTegan in fact she used two. One wood be keeping hot at the side of the fire ready for when the one she was using got too cold.
Eileen Fowler was the exercise lady PRINTMISS my mother hated her because she didn't approve of exercise! Was the carpentry man Barry Bucknell, or did he come later?
Don't forget the interludes either! My favourite was the white kitten(s?) I suppose there must be great, great, great, great, great, grandchild kittens somewhere in the world

Urgh! One WOULD be keeping hot

Eloethan and Ana I have never come across anyone before who remembers
The Red Grass. We didn't have a TV and I watched some episodes on a friends TV. Can you remember any of the story? Didn't the grass hurt if it touched you? I think it must have been about 1959 1960 but I'm not sure.
I love this thread.

Described as 'terrifying' . Never heard of this one. Wonder if it was shown in a different area [like Pathfinders].

No trace of it anywhere. Looks as if it was so scary they destroyed all copies of it. I'll ask on 'Missing Episodes'.

I watched lots of things with Gerald Flood. And Hereward the Wake, and The Children of the New Forest. I'm sure these programmes shaped me as a human being, but I suppose children now have far more access to everything than we had and don't need them so much.

Crackerjack was another favourite of mine - original series presented by a youthful Eamonn Andrews. Liked the bit was when the children were loaded up with cabbages...

Sorry about the mistake...

I think it was Crackerjack that had the Badger Club. My sister won a badge and had her photograph on the next week's show. That was a big thing in those pre-Blue Peter days.

Wasn't the Badger Club on one of the nature programmes anno ? I remember having on of the badges, but can't remember the programme.

I've just read this thread and was thinking of asking if anyone remembered 'The Red Grass' and there were mentions. Wow. It was the one programme I remember as being so scary - I think it was a serial story of some evil creeping grass. We didn't have a telly till I was around 10 or so - it must have been early 60s I think. Good to know others found it so memorable.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Grass_(TV_series)

It's stayed in my mind all these years, Sel - especially one scene when a girl put her hand in the grass 'tank' and it attacked her...

Me too Ana - I just remember coming home from school and being terrified. Great stuff. I doubt it would be allowed now