When was the Toddlers’ Truce?
During the years following the Second World War, the BBC ceased television transmission for an hour on weekday evenings. The thinking was that, with nothing to watch on telly, young children would be easier to chivvy into bed, while older ones would be more inclined to start their homework.
When commercial TV started in 1955, the ITV franchises, funded by advertising, wanted to broadcast during this lucrative 6pm–7pm slot and lobbied for an end to the “Toddlers’ Truce”. But the BBC wanted to keep it – an extra hour’s programming would stretch its budgets.
Broadcasting policy was the domain of Postmaster-General Charles Hill, who considered the “truce” patronising, and he wasn’t alone. A Daily Mirror editorial said that: “If parents can’t drag their children away from the TV screen there is something wrong with the parents, not with the TV programme.”
The “truce” ended in 1957, and the slot was generally occupied by national and local news programmes – which were only slightly more interesting to kiddies than a blank screen.
Eugene Byrne, author and journalist specialising in history