Every child who lived in the 1970s and 1980s will love Richard Marson‘s latest book, Box of Delights, a treasure trove of stories and memories about BBC television’s programmes for the younger viewer.
Across 540 pages, Marson delves into thirty years of programming, from the end of the 1960s and the opening of BBC2, to the fragmented provision of the late 1990s.
Those decades, from 1970 to 1989, gave us titles we still revere today. Think Play School, Jackanory, Take Hart, The Record Breakers, Blue Peter, Jigsaw, John Craven’s Newsround, Multi Colored Swap Swap, Screen Test, Grange Hill, and numerous dramas which brought literature and storytelling to our screens.
Every chapter gives a new insight into what happened before and behind the camera, right up to the executives who made the decisions. Presenters, producers, and technicians recall their part in what can only be called a golden age of children’s viewing.
The personalities who were placed in front of the cameras are still household names to us: Brian Cant, Johnny Ball, Terry Nutkins, Tony Hart, John Craven, Derek Griffiths, Peter Duncan, Simon Groom, Keith Chegwin, Roy Castle, Noel Edmonds, and Michael Rodd.
The BBC in this period never underestimated its audience and built up a strong, viable alternative to the new upstarts at ITV.
Whether allowing children to take part in programmes (Blue Peter, Take Hart, Swap Shop) or finding ways to share educational facts without being too academic (Think of a Number, The Record Breakers), this really was our generation’s Box of Delights.
As was the case with Marson’s other books on Blue Peter and Upstairs, Downstairs, his enthusiasm comes through on every page.
He’s informative and occasionally irreverent, taking a clear chronological approach while taking a cheeky peek behind office doors and on locations.
Put simply, it is hard to put this book down – and I haven’t even seen the illustrations, having a review PDF to work from!
Every time a programme title is mentioned, it brings back a memory, whether of the classic serial or the quirkiest of quiz shows.
Marson is also quick to make connections between show ideas that moved into adult-focused primetime, including what became the nature series …Watch.
He allows the personalities of all involved to be drawn in detail, even if it is sometimes to their detriment.
I can’t be the only reader longing to watch all this material again, and I have been watching some shows online, such as Play School, Blue Peter and a drama or two to connect with my self of four and five decades ago.
A lot of the programmes were sadly wiped, some as late as the 1990s, in what could be called cultural vandalism rather than practical pragmatism.
Stories of child stars nearly drowning, of boozy presenters, of on-camera snafus, and professional rivalries sit alongside in-depth analysis of each programme.
There’s a definite audience for this kind of research and nostalgia.
The Box of Delights by Richard Marson was released in a limited-edition hardback by Ten Acre Publishing, and is now available as a paperback.