Here's One We Made Earlier

On Saturday 19 July, a major new exhibition opens at The Lowry in Salford; Here’s One We Made Earlier is the biggest ever celebration of the heritage and continuing importance of BBC Children’s programmes.

We all remember the programmes and characters that shaped our childhoods, many of those made by the BBC. Blue Peter to Muffin the Mule, Humpty and Big Ted to CBeebies Bedtime Stories. This exhibition will pull the nostalgic heartstrings of many visitors, and will be just as relevant to the children who visit as it will to their parents and grandparents.

One of my distant forebears as Head of BBC children’s programmes in the late 1940s, Mary Adams, expressed the ambition that children's television would one day offer:

"plays, how-to-series, storytelling, a collectors' corner, pets, travel, outside broadcasts from museums and factories, informational films, quizzes and encyclopaedia programmes".

The aim was to make children's television a 'service in miniature', replicating all of adult television's genres and formats for younger audiences.

And that’s what we still aim to do –if you visit the exhibition you’ll see content from almost a century, because the BBC has always believed that content to cater for the emotional and developmental needs of children, that satisfies the positive curiosity children have that adults often don’t, helping them understand the world and their place in it, speaking to them in language and with references they understand, and showing that we believe childhood to be different from adulthood is as important today as it was then.

And therein lies the public service it performs - the very best culturally specific content particularly drama and factual programming, can positively shape childhoods, encourage respect for others, open children’s eyes to the world, and contribute to positive, active, engaged adulthood.

We’re delighted that after 90 years we’re still the foremost producer of public service children’s content in the world. There are 34 dedicated children’s TV channels in the UK but CBBC and CBeebies are the most popular and loved of all.

1922 was a very big year for BBC Children’s – in December of that year, the first ever bespoke programming for children was broadcast from the BBC’s Midlands transmitter. 2014 is set to be an even bigger year. In May we saw the first families pour through the gates of Alton Towers to visit the new CBeebies Land, and more than 35,000 visitors met with their favourite CBBC stars and shows at the free CBBC Live in NewcastleGateshead - and now this superb exhibition is launching.

The Furchester Hotel, the brand new children’s series from CBeebies and Sesame Workshop which saw Cookie Monster and Elmo here in Salford, launches on CBeebies in the Autumn. And there’s an exclusive clip in the animation showreel in the exhibition.

The CBeebies Playtime app has been downloaded nearly 3 million times and later this year it’s big brother the CBBC app will be available and also a brand new “CBeebies Storytime” app. You can have a go at some of our apps and see what’s coming next in the Future Zone at the Lowry show.

CBeebies and CBBC are also playing their part in helping children understand the Great War centenary; on CBeebies Radio – Simon Weston will read Poppy’s Day. There’s a compelling CBBC drama Harriet’s Army, about a girl in 1914 who wants to join the war effort, and a 45 minute Horrible Histories Frightful First World War.

It’s three years since the Children’s department moved to our new home in Salford, and MediaCity is already a global centre of excellence for children’s media. This exhibition is helping cement that status.

The exhibition at The Lowry runs until October and is free. I’m very proud to see our 92 year heritage celebrated here, and to know that that the content we're producing now will shape the childhood memories of today’s children. If we needed a reminder, this wonderful exhibition reminds us of the power of children’s television to shape children’s lives in a way that stays with them forever.

Joe Godwin is Director, BBC Childrens.

• The 'Here's One We Made Earlier' exhibition runs from 19 July to 12 October 2014. For details visit The Lowry's website.
• Hear Kay Benbow talking to About the BBC's Hannah Khalil about her role as Controller of CBeebies.