Golden age of kids’ telly? The 1980s...

IT was the decade that launched the careers of Ant and Dec in Byker Grove, introduced the perennially popular Pingu and made Saturday morning TV staple viewing for youngsters.

Now the 1980s has been crowned the golden age for children’s television thanks to the large amount of choice it offered.

A Radio Times panel has decided that, despite not being the time when many shows were launched, it was the most popular era for children’s TV.

Indeed, of the top 20 shows of all time as chosen by the panel, 16 – including Newsround, Grange Hill, MultiColoured Swap Shop and Tiswas – were all broadcast during the decade.

In their analysis of children’s TV across the decades, the experts also crowned Blue Peter the best children’s television programme of all time.

The long-running show – which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year – was once staple teatime viewing in households up and down the country, pulling in audiences of more than 8million people.

And while the show’s current ratings are a long way off its heyday, after being shunted to the digital channel CBBC, the panel said its ‘cultural significance’ remains unchallenged.

Just behind the teatime show was Grange Hill, the teenage drama set in a London comprehensive, which ran for 30 years from 1978 to 2008.

Newsround, first hosted by John Craven in 1973, finished third, with ITV’s anarchic Saturday morning show Tiswas in fourth and BBC1’s MultiColoured Swap Shop in fifth.

Sally James, who presented Tiswas alongside Chris Tarrant and Lenny Henry, said of the 1980s: ‘ I think children’s TV was so much better in those days and, because there weren’t multiple channels, the shows gained more popularity. I also feel there was more creativity and a better balance between entertainment and education – think of Record Breakers, Magpie, Blue Peter…’

She went on to champion shows including Thomas The Tank Engine, Rainbow and Chucklevision, all of which were broadcast in the 1980s.

The second most popular decade was deemed to have been the Seventies, followed by the Sixties in third and Nineties in fourth.

Mark Frith, editor of Radio Times, said: ‘British TV produces the best programmes for children in the world – reading our list produces the most wonderful, warm memories.’