ITV Or BBC Childhood: Which Side Were You On?

With two channels making children's programmes, every slot was a straight choice, and the choice your household made shaped what you remember.

Here are the head-to-heads.

Saturday morning

• Swap Shop, BBC, organised, phone-ins, Noel Edmonds.
• Tiswas, ITV, chaotic, water, the Phantom Flan Flinger.
• Going Live! versus Motormouth in the late eighties.
• Live & Kicking versus SM:TV Live in the late nineties, which SM:TV eventually won.
• The Swap Shop side grew up thinking Tiswas children were feral. They were correct.

The magazine shows

• Blue Peter, BBC - badges, appeals, sticky-backed plastic, and a genuine institution.
• Magpie, ITV - faster, cooler, with a rock theme tune by the Spencer Davis Group under a pseudonym.
• Blue Peter had pets and a totaliser. Magpie had a motorbike.
• Blue Peter is still going. Magpie ended in 1980.
• Nobody who watched Magpie has ever fully forgiven this.

Pre-school

• Play School, BBC - the windows, the clock, Humpty and Jemima.
• Rainbow, ITV - Zippy, George, Bungle and the songs.
• Playdays and Teletubbies later on the BBC.
• Rosie and Jim and the Ragdoll shows on the BBC.
• Pipkins, Button Moon and Rainbow on ITV, which were odder and better for it.

What each side got

• BBC: no adverts, better continuity, Grange Hill, Newsround, Blue Peter and the Broom Cupboard.
• ITV: adverts, which meant you knew every jingle, plus Knightmare, Fun House, Rainbow, Tiswas and Press Gang.
• ITV had regions, so your childhood television actually differed by where you lived - Granada, Yorkshire, Tyne Tees, HTV, Anglia and the rest.
• The BBC had continuity announcers you recognised; ITV had different ones depending on the county.
• Most households drifted between them. Almost nobody admits this.

Shop cards

How to write it so it lands

• Magpie ended in 1980 and Blue Peter is still going. That still rankles.
• ITV children remember every advert jingle. BBC children don't.
• Your ITV region genuinely changed your childhood television.

Where to shop next

• 70s kids' TV shows
• 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
• 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 was the ITV version of Blue Peter?

Magpie, which ran from 1968 to 1980. It was faster and considered cooler, with a theme tune recorded by the Spencer Davis Group under the name The Murgatroyd Band.

Was Tiswas or Swap Shop better?

They were opposites rather than rivals in quality - Swap Shop on BBC was organised and phone-in based, Tiswas on ITV was chaotic and had a large adult audience. Which one you watched is a genuine generational marker.

Did ITV children's TV differ by region?

Yes. ITV was a network of regional companies, so continuity, some local programmes and scheduling varied between Granada, Yorkshire, Tyne Tees, HTV, Anglia and the rest.

What was Children's ITV?

The branded afternoon children's block launched in 1983, with in-vision presenters linking the programmes, running against the BBC's Broom Cupboard.

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.