The Woodentops

The Woodentops was first shown 9 September 1955. It featured stories about a family of wooden dolls who live on a farm. The Woodentops joined Andy Pandy, The Flowerpot Men, and Rag Tag and Bobtail on Watch with Mother, the weekday afternoon slot that formed the much-loved heart of programmes for pre-school children on the BBC.

Every episode of The Woodentops introduced the family sitting in front of a curtain: Mummy and Daddy Woodentop with Baby Woodentop, the twins Jenny and Willy, and Spotty Dog. They were joined by domestic help Mrs Scrubbitt and Sam, who worked on the farm. The Woodentops was created by Frida Langstrom and Maria Bird. Bird wrote the scripts and the music as well as doing the narration. Eileen Brown, Josefina Ray and Peter Hawkins provided the other voices. The puppets – with their easily visible strings - were operated by Eileen Brown and Molly Gibson.

The last Woodentops was made in 1958, but they ran for many years on Watch with Mother. Other programmes - like Pogles Wood and Tales of the Riverbank - joined the strand, but The Woodentops was still going in 1969. Today children’s programmes for the very young on the BBC don’t just exist in a narrow timeframe in the schedule, but are available all day on Cbeebies.