BOUGHT MAGIC TO OUR SCREENS

CAROL LEADER

Carol, 66, quit acting after her stint in the 1970s and 1980s and is now a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in London.

She hosted Chock-A-Block with Fred Harris and had roles in Casualty, Young At Heart and Peak Practice.

ERIC THOMPSON & PHYLLIDA LAW CHLOE ASHCROFT

Play School favourite alongside Brian Cant in the 1960s, Chloe also presented children’s shows HokeyCokey and Pie In The Sky – and appeared in an episode of Doctor Who in 1984. Chloe, 74, married actor and fellow Play School presenter David Hargreaves, and was later a primary school teacher. The gay actor became the first black kid’s TV presenter in 1966.

He briefly lived with Francis Bacon and later found a case full of the artist’s paintings, which were bought by the Tate in 1999.

After Play School, he moved to Tangier in Morocco, where he died two years ago, aged 90. PERHAPS the biggest stars of the show, Humpty, Jemima, Hamble and the Big and Little Teds were permanent fixtures on Play School.

These cuddly characters are now permanent exhibits at the National Media Museum in Bradford.

Hamble was dropped from the show in 1986 as the show kept pace with changing attitudes in the UK.

She was replaced by a black doll called Poppy.

JULIE STEVENS

Juggled Play School role from 1966 to 1979 with being a sexy pin up. She was Venus Smith in The Avengers and appeared as a slave girl in Carry on Cleo.

CAROL CHELL THE TOYS

Longest-serving Play School presenter, she remained until the show’s end in 1988. Carol then joined satellite station The Children’s Channel. Now 75 and living in South London, she jokes: “I’m one of these Z-list personalities.”