This is an article in support of the campaign Anne Wood wrote for the Sun Newspaper.
I have always believed that our children deserve the best TV – it’s good for them. All kinds of programmes from news to comedy and drama, just like adult TV. Children get as much value from a good TV programme as from a good book.
British TV is rightly admired all over the world and we are proud that programmes like Teletubbies – now exported to 120 countries – are making children smile. But now the future of British children’s TV industry is under threat.
Why is this when there are more than 20 channels for children? The truth is that these channels cannot afford to make their own programmes.
ITV and Channel 4 are not making children’s programmes any more. The BBC and Channel 5 are cutting back. Where will our children’s programmes come from in the future? More and more broadcasters are turning to sources of cheap TV. Cheap TV means programmes made outside the UK, often animation from the Far East or America.
Quality programmes that we and our children have grown up with will become a thing of the past. We have got used to a tradition of good programmes that are designed for children living in the UK today. These programmes will be squeezed off our screens because broadcasters no longer value them, or will pay for them.
Children have the right to a television service designed for them here in the UK. Making good television for children is important work, and we in Britain are good at it.
We are entering a new digital world. Children love this world. They can control it. It can take them to many different places. We should use this opportunity to make good things happen for our children.
Children need stories that help them understand the world. They need programmes that show them different points of view. They need their own news programmes that help them not to be afraid. They need more dramas that show the world they live in. They need programmes to help them learn and programmes to help them relax. In short, children need the same service that adults enjoy. Instead of grasping this opportunity to become world leaders we are falling back on cheap imports.
Research shows that children get real benefits from good quality programmes, but also that violent or fast-action cartoons can be damaging. Now, more than ever, we should be concentrating on making good programmes. To make these programmes requires training. Training needs time. Time is money. Good television doesn’t come cheap, so it all comes down to how we spend the money that is available. Because it is not valued enough, children’s TV is the first area to be cut.
Other countries value children’s television differently and are finding ways of safeguarding its future. We need to wake up to the value of what we still have before it is too late. We are lucky to have organisations like the Voice of the Listener and Viewer, and the Save Children’s TV campaign. Both of these are working hard on behalf of children’s TV and need our support.
We do not want to be left behind, only looking back on a golden age of children’s television. We should be looking forward to a new world where the UK is at the cutting edge of the children’s television industry.
Parents understand the need to use resources in the best way for their children. The government’s Ofcom report spells out what children’s TV programme-makers have known for a long time. We must look after our children’s TV industry. It is good for our economy and it’s good for our children’s future.
Anne Wood came to television from education, via publishing, and could see no reason why children’s TV should not be of the same quality as a good children’s book. “Children, their dreams and feelings, their ready enthusiasm, their vulnerability, their essential humanity and their sense of fun…” was the inspiration for setting up Ragdoll in 1984.
By this time, Anne was already a TV producer of long standing having produced several award winning series for Yorkshire TV such as “Book Tower” and “Ragdolly Anna” (inspired by her daughter’s lover for a very special ragdoll). She had also been “Head of children’s” at TVAM producing “Roland Rat” and “Rub-a-dub-tub”.
The huge following that developed for these programmes gave Anne Wood an inkling of the gap between children’s needs and the provision of good television for them.
Since that time, Anne has devised and created innovative and pioneering programmes for younger children. All of these programmes fulfil Anne’s driving principle “I want children to be happy inside – in this uncertain world they need to feel secure and loved, only in this way can they grow into confident and creative individuals”.
The continuing worldwide success of Ragdoll programmes bear witness to the truth of this belief.
Anne was made a Fellow of the Royal Society and won The Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year Award in 1998. Two years later in 2000, she received a Special BAFTA for her outstanding contribution to children’s television and received her CBE for services to Children’s Broadcasting. In 2003, she was awarded The Olswang Business Award from Women In Film and Television and in March 2007, she received the Harvey Lee Award for her outstanding contribution to broadcasting from the Broadcasting Press Guild.
