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RW
Robert Williams Founding member
Does anyone know the reason the See-Saw strand permanently moved to BBC Two in June 1987? I'm unsure if it was because BBC One's new daytime schedule was becoming cluttered with children's programmes, with the Children's BBC birthday morning and afternoon slots, or because See-Saw had been moved to Two on several occasions.

The closest Two had to regular children's programming after losing Play School and Play Away was You and Me, which was technically a school's programme that moved from BBC One as part of the Daytime on Two strand: I remember the IBA doing something similar with ITV Schools programming that same year, when it was moved to Channel 4 from September 14th, so the ITV franchises could fully branch out their daytime schedules.


The scheduling of the See-Saw slot had been discussed earlier in the year on the Radio Times letters page, where a reader complained that the scheduled slot of 1.50-2.05 always ran late (noting in particular that on 19th January, Hokey Cokey didn't finish until almost 2.10) and thus clashed with the programmes for young children shown daily at 2.02 on BBC2 as part of Daytime on Two (such as You and Me, Words and Pictures, Storytime).

The move of See-Saw took place in the first week of Wimbledon, but one reason for making the move permanent may have been to solve that scheduling clash.
TM
ToasterMan
The scheduling of the See-Saw slot had been discussed earlier in the year on the Radio Times letters page, where a reader complained that the scheduled slot of 1.50-2.05 always ran late (noting in particular that on 19th January, Hokey Cokey didn't finish until almost 2.10) and thus clashed with the programmes for young children shown daily at 2.02 on BBC2 as part of Daytime on Two (such as You and Me, Words and Pictures, Storytime).

The move of See-Saw took place in the first week of Wimbledon, but one reason for making the move permanent may have been to solve that scheduling clash.

I do know in the penultimate week on BBC One, it moved to BBC Two on June 12th.


Here's a clip from January 19th, note the Children's BBC ident was used to introduce the strand after the Daytime schedule was introduced, I imagine this was also used for the first few months on BBC Two:
TV
iloveTV1
They have acknowledged the new presenter of Blue Peter on TV now, but we still don’t know the identity. Extremely low fanfare for some
Reason.
LO
loydy
It's definitely a brand new presenter for Blue Peter. Not sure why the fanfare is not so big though - probably because of them being in lockdown they can't go as big as they'd hope? I imagine there will be press on the day.
DM
DeMarkay
The fanfare isn't big, simply because... how do I put this - No one cares.

There's more important things going on in the world.

Not in a rude way.
Last edited by DeMarkay on 12 May 2020 5:50pm
JB
JasonB
The fanfare isn't big, simply because... how do I put this - No one cares.

There's more important things going on in the world.


I didn't even know Blue Peter was still in production...
SW
Steve Williams
They have acknowledged the new presenter of Blue Peter on TV now, but we still don’t know the identity. Extremely low fanfare for some
Reason.


There is a bit of a clue in the EPG for next week's episode.
JO
Josh
I can only see "Blue Peter: Standby - It's Competition Time!" with a generic description currently.
TV
iloveTV1
Josh posted:
I can only see "Blue Peter: Standby - It's Competition Time!" with a generic description currently.


That is the episode for 21st May.
CL
classicnewcbbc
This is what it now says on Blue Peter
Lindsey, Richie and Mwaksy launch a competition that will blow you away.

so im guessing the new presenter could be Mwaksy from BBC Sport
NT
NorthTonight
Does anyone know the reason the See-Saw strand permanently moved to BBC Two in June 1987? I'm unsure if it was because BBC One's new daytime schedule was becoming cluttered with children's programmes, with the Children's BBC birthday morning and afternoon slots, or because See-Saw had been moved to Two on several occasions.

The closest Two had to regular children's programming after losing Play School and Play Away was You and Me, which was technically a school's programme that moved from BBC One as part of the Daytime on Two strand: I remember the IBA doing something similar with ITV Schools programming that same year, when it was moved to Channel 4 from September 14th, so the ITV franchises could fully branch out their daytime schedules.


The scheduling of the See-Saw slot had been discussed earlier in the year on the Radio Times letters page, where a reader complained that the scheduled slot of 1.50-2.05 always ran late (noting in particular that on 19th January, Hokey Cokey didn't finish until almost 2.10) and thus clashed with the programmes for young children shown daily at 2.02 on BBC2 as part of Daytime on Two (such as You and Me, Words and Pictures, Storytime).

The move of See-Saw took place in the first week of Wimbledon, but one reason for making the move permanent may have been to solve that scheduling clash.


I remember the complaint prior to that in the Radio Times, had been that when the full daytime service launched on BBC One in late October, the See-Saw slot was reduced to ten minutes instead of fifteen. So for example, the Little Miss and Mister Men, were just edited down to the Little Miss, and other ten minute offerings such as Bric-a-Brac and Stop-Go! which were usually paired with King Rollo and Gran respectively, were shown on its own. King Rollo and Gran, at five minutes each, were then paired as the Friday offering, and Animal Fair was the other programme that was shown during that week.

In the weeks leading up to this Bertha had been “ stripped “ across the whole week, which was out of the ordinary for the See-Saw slot. They probably had to fill time as the start of October would have seen the start of a “ new “ cycle of programmes for the last thirteen weeks of the year.

By January 1987, the fifteen minute offerings were restored on BBC One, until the aforementioned move to BBC Two.
BR
Brekkie
One thing we all realise when looking back on shows of that era is many of them had only one or two series of 13 episodes, so what was the SeeSaw policy of the time - was it generally just one or two new series a week?

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