See-Saw (1980-1989)

One of the last series to be broadcast under the "See-Saw" strand name on BBC Two was Chris and Crumble. Details regarding the programme remain largely scarce, but from what I know: it centered around a girl named Chris and a pink mop-like creature named Crumble, who explored the world through their unique ways.

It was narrated by the late Peter Hawkins, who was a few years before facing retirement, and according to the BBC Genome archive, was only repeated once and never again after early 1990. The only surviving footage of this series at the moment is the title sequence, but no full episodes have surfaced online.



Also, note how they were still using the old style BBC "TWO" slide design to introduce the "See-Saw" strand, even though this was nearly a month after the new Paintbox slides were introduced, which goes to show how irrelevant it became after the introduction of Children's BBC.

Seven years after the BBC retired the 20-year old Watch with Mother name, a new attempt at an umbrella branding for Children's programming was introduced from October 1980, with See-Saw. Primarily consisting of repeats, but also new series for the under-five's: it was most famous in its early years for the slide captions featuring the characters from each programme standing on a See-Saw.


See-Saw would be further reinforced a year later by the arrival of a tie-in magazine called Buttons, which ran in its original form until January 1990 and gained an annual in 1982, finally as a very short-lived tabloid format for only a few weeks; (essentially a precursor to Toybox, which has survived in various formats to this day).


Following the arrival of Children's BBC in September 1985, the See-Saw name looked increasingly out-of-place: the strand itself moving to BBC Two in 1987, after the daytime schedules and birthday mornings slot were introduced to BBC One. Later in the year, the name only existed through slides, continuity announcements and Radio Times listings, as the Children's BBC idents were used to introduce the strand, before the See-Saw name was dropped on-screen for good in 1989.

Strangely, I recall the CBBC presenters: (specifically Simon Parkin), referring to the CBBC Two lunchtime strand as See-Saw as late as 1991, a few months after the Radio Times listings stopped referring to the programmes as part of See-Saw.

Interestingly before the words “ A See-Saw programme “ were used in the Radio Times, the billing “ See-Saw “ was first used for the double bill of King Rollo and Bric-a-Brac.

On the original See-Saw slides only Chock-a-Block and more bizarrely Chigley featured no characters sitting on the see-saw. Over the Moon and How Do You Do? didn’t last very long into the change to See-Saw.

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It didn't show 'archive' programmes, they were the pre-school programmes of their day. Some had been shown for many years, but that doesn't make them archive


I remember See-Saw vaguely as it and the programmes it brought in were launched the autumn I started school. Which meant that I missed out on all the shiny new programmes like Postman Pat and Pigeon Street.

Posts from See-Saw (1980-1989) have been merged into this topic.

Gosh that Buttons cover gave me chills as it's something I'd completely forgotten about. It's brought back memories of that and Rainbow comic which I used to collect as a young child.

Buttons was a tie-in to Play School though, I'm sure.

A rare sighting of Over the Moon, complete with Kim Goody theme tune. Also a slight mix up with the holding slides 😆

https://youtu.be/iucdZgwMOeI

They did use the tag-line “ For Play School children “ even for a good while after the programme had stopped. ( Could have been referring to their age target market I suppose! ). There was also the footer from about 1988 that said “ Based on programmes from Children’s BBC “ with the three letters stylised in the brand logo of the time.

I recall the launch of the See-Saw branding in 1980 - for some reason I associate the memory with BBC Two, but of course it didn’t move channels until years later. I think it was occasionally ousted to BBC Two when cricket or other special programming was on One.

You and Me, never part of See-Saw, was also shown on BBC One during term times, but was never billed as a schools programme and was introduced with standard BBC One continuity. When schools programmes moved to BBC Two in 1983, You and Me went with them and was incorporated into Daytime on Two. I suppose the See-Saw programmes could easily have done the same and became part of that strand, but this didn’t happen. We watched You and Me at primary school, which is I suppose why many remember it as a “schools programme”. That said, bizarrely we also watched Let’s Go! despite the fact it was intended for adults with special needs. I remember Brian Rix telling a story about Maud getting drunk in the pub and dancing on tables (perhaps that’s where I got the idea from, officer)!

I’m not so sure that the See-Saw name was particularly out of place once Children’s BBC launched. The programmes were generally for a younger audience than most of the CBBC strand - a bit like CBeebies is today, maybe? From October 1986, See-Saw immediately followed Neighbours on BBC One - did they still show two programmes a day once the daytime schedule launched?

Nice little Twitter thread about those programme slides:

Remember when the BBC used the 'See-Saw' branding for their lunchtime children's programmes, with continuity slides featuring badly cut out images of two of the show's characters glued haphazardly onto a, well, 'See-Saw'? Well, here's a rundown of... The Compleat See-Saw! pic.twitter.com/wMysbLNts7

— Tim Worthington (@outonbluesix) August 5, 2019