70s Kids' TV Shows: 30 We All Watched

Three channels, one television in the house, and a slot after school that everybody in the country watched at the same time.

These are the shows that filled it.

The Smallfilms classics

• Bagpuss - thirteen episodes only, first shown in 1974, and regularly voted the best British children's programme ever made. Everybody assumes there were hundreds.
• The Clangers - knitted mice on a small blue planet, whistling in swanee whistle, narrated by Oliver Postgate. Ran from 1969 into the seventies.
• Ivor the Engine - a small green locomotive in the top left-hand corner of Wales, remade in colour for the seventies.
• Noggin the Nog - Norse sagas for five year olds, and far stranger than anybody remembers.
• Pogles' Wood - Smallfilms again, and the one that quietly frightened people.

The animation and puppets

• Mr Benn - the bowler-hatted man, the costume shop, and 'as if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared'. Thirteen episodes, and again everyone remembers more.
• Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley - Gordon Murray's trilogy, with the Trumpton fire brigade roll call everyone can still recite.
• The Wombles - Wimbledon Common, Mike Batt's songs, and a genuine chart career.
• Roobarb - the scribbly green dog, animated in wobbling felt tip, with a theme tune you can hear right now.
• Paddington - the stop-motion bear against flat drawn backgrounds, narrated by Michael Hordern.
• Mary, Mungo and Midge, Crystal Tipps and Alistair, and The Magic Roundabout with Eric Thompson's narration written over the French animation rather than translated from it.

The live shows

• Rainbow - Zippy, George and Bungle, from 1972, on ITV.
• Play School - the round window, the arched window and the square window, and the toys: Humpty, Jemima, Big Ted and Little Ted.
• Blue Peter - already old by the seventies, with John Noakes, Valerie Singleton, Peter Purves and Shep.
• Multi-Coloured Swap Shop - from 1976, the first big Saturday morning show, with Noel Edmonds and a phone number children actually rang.
• Tiswas - the anarchic ITV answer, with Chris Tarrant, Sally James, the Phantom Flan Flinger and a cage.
• Magpie - ITV's Blue Peter, and the show you watched if you were on that side.
• Jackanory - one person, one chair, one book, and it worked for twenty-five years.

Drama and the rest

• Grange Hill - started 1978, and immediately caused a row about whether children's television should show a comprehensive as it actually was.
• Children of the Stones - 1977, on ITV, and still one of the most genuinely unsettling things ever made for children.
• The Tomorrow People, Catweazle, Follyfoot and The Adventures of Black Beauty.
• Why Don't You? - the show that spent every school holiday telling you to switch it off and go and do something less boring instead.
• Screen Test, Record Breakers with Roy Castle, and Animal Magic with Johnny Morris doing all the voices.
• Vision On, with Tony Hart, the gallery and Morph arriving at the end of the decade.

Shop cards

How to write it so it lands

• Bagpuss and Mr Benn had thirteen episodes each. Everyone is astonished.
• Tiswas or Swap Shop marks you as clearly as anything.
• Children of the Stones is still frightening. Watch it as an adult.

Where to shop next

• 80s kids' TV shows
• 90s kids' TV shows
• Saturday morning TV
• After-school TV
• Kids' TV presenters we all remember
• Scariest kids' TV moments
• Christmas TV of the 70s, 80s and 90s
• Bank holiday films that were always on
• Puppets and animation we grew up with
• ITV or BBC childhood
• TV theme tunes quiz
• Adverts we can all still recite
• Test card, Ceefax and the three-channel years
• Soap moments that stopped the country
• Nostalgic quiz questions
• Growing up in the 80s and 90s
• Playground games we all played
• 80s and 90s party ideas
• Free feel good tools
• Shop cards
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Birthday cards for kids
• Pin badges
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What were the most popular kids' TV shows in the 70s?

Bagpuss, Mr Benn, The Clangers, The Wombles, Rainbow, Play School, Blue Peter, Magpie, Jackanory, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop and Tiswas were the ones almost every British child watched.

How many episodes of Bagpuss were there?

Only thirteen, first broadcast in 1974. It has been repeated so often that most people assume there were hundreds.

What was the difference between Tiswas and Swap Shop?

Both were Saturday morning shows running against each other. Swap Shop on BBC was the organised one with phone-ins and swaps; Tiswas on ITV was the chaotic one with buckets of water and the Phantom Flan Flinger.

What was the Trumpton fire brigade roll call?

Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb - and most people who watched it in the seventies can still say it without pausing.

Do you sell DVDs or TV merchandise?

No - we make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. This is written for the pleasure of remembering it, and the only products on this page are our own cards.