Golden age of children’s books, TV and theatre produced by Chiswick creatives

L to R: Torin Douglas; Lucy Briers; Jane Nissan; Mayor of Hounslow Cllr Amy Croft; Janet Ellis; Sally Floyer; Photograph Jim Cox

“There was a golden age of children’s books, TV and theatre, and virtually everyone involved lived in Chiswick” – Torin Douglas

There was a golden age of children’s publishing, television and theatre in the second half of the 20th century, for which many of those responsible lived in Chiswick. The Chiswick Book Festival organised a day of events on Saturday 7 March to celebrate their art.

We have good transport links – the M3 and M4, access to Heathrow and good tube and rail access to central London, which attract all sorts of professional people to live here, but it was the location of BBC

Television Centre, which opened in June 1960, which was responsible for Chiswick becoming a dormitory town of highly creative people.

“There was a golden age of children’s books, TV and theatre”, said festival director Torin Douglas, “and virtually everyone involved lived in Chiswick”.

Read the whole article or jump to:

The Golden Age of Children’s Books
The Golden Age of Children’s TV
The Golden Age of Children’s Theatre

The generation who grew up post war with Muffin the Mule on black and white television and Listen with Mother on The Home Service radio – “Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin” – surfaced as adults just as the BBC’s Children’s Department was set up under the leadership of Monica Sims in 1967 and the BBC became interested in education programmes.

But first there were books. So much of what becomes good television and theatre – aimed at any age – has its origins in books..

Cecil Aldin; Cover for Black Beauty

The Golden Ages of Children’s Books

Broadcaster and author Janet Ellis and retired publishers Jane Nissan and Sally Floyer talk to Torin Douglas about the development of children’s publishing 

Chiswick was a part of the first Golden Age of children’s publishing in Victorian times, and very much part of the ‘second golden age’ in the period after the Second World War.

The illustrator Cecil Aldin (1870 – 1935), who was commissioned to illustrate the serialisation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Second Jungle Book and designed the cover and 18 colour plates for Black Beauty, lived in Chiswick in the period before the First World War.

Like so many of us, he chose to live where he could get into central London to work, in his case selling his illustrations to magazines, but also where he could get out to the countryside at weekends. He kept his horse Sweetheart in a converted bicycle shed and would hack out from Chiswick to hunt whenever he could.

‘The light of torches streamed into the room, where, black as the pit, and terrible as a Demon, was Bagheera’; illustration by Cecil Aldin for Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book

The second ‘Golden Age’ was the period which followed the Second World War. Kaye Webb (1914 – 1996), who was born in Chiswick , was an enormously influential children’s editor and the first, according to the publisher Andrew Franklin, “to turn children’s writers into stars”.

She became the editor of Puffin Books in 1961 and in 1967 founded the Puffin Club, which she ran until 1981. Janet Ellis, best known for presenting Blue Peter, had a peripatetic childhood as her father was in the army. She was Puffin Club member 101 and fondly remembers the quarterly magazine, the Puffin Post, as a lifeline to a creative world.

“It came in a red folder with articles from all my favourite authors. The Puffin Club was set up to include children in that world, and I felt tremendously grateful for that”.

Janet chose Kaye as a subject for the Great Lives series on Radio 4, having read Valerie Grove’s biography of her.

“She was the doyenne of children’s publishing”.

Kaye Webb

Puffin Books changed everything. It was known for its strong literary tradition, with classics such as The Wind in the Willows, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Charlotte’s Web. Kaye was its second editor, growing its list from 51 titles when she took it over in 1961 to 1,213 in print by 1969.

She obtained the rights for Rosemary Sutcliffe’s historical fiction, Tom’s Midnight Garden, Mary Poppins, Dr Doolittle, The Hobbit, Stig of the Dump, and published authors such as Roald Dahl and Noel Streatfeild.

“She herself took children over to Lundy island to see puffins”, Janet told the audience at St Michael & All Angels Church. What’s amazing is first of all that she had the idea of doing that, then that she actually did it, and thirdly that parents just let their children go and do it”.

L to R: Jane Nissan; Cllr Amy Croft; Sally Floyer

Jane Nissan, who lives on Chiswick Mall, remembered meeting Kaye for the first time. Kaye parked the Puffin Club boat in the road, causing havoc.

“One day there was a knock on my door and there was Kaye. I knew who she was. Our neighbour AP Herbert suggested she ask if she could park her boat in our riverfront garden.

“I said you can park your boat there if I can do some reading for you”.

Jane worked with Kaye for a number of years and went on to become editorial director of children’s books at Penguin, Methuen and Hamish Hamilton.

One of her greatest successes was the publication of Michael Morpugo’s War Horse, which was adapted to become the phenomenally successful theatre production staged originally at the National Theatre, and then the film directed by Steven Spielberg.

“Michael was so annoyed he didn’t win the Whitbread prize for War Horse that he denied it had ever been successful as a book, but it was my most successful publication”, Jane told the audience.

Michael Morpugo’s book War Horse; National Theatre production; Steven Spielberg’s film

David Teale also worked for Penguin in the 1970s and went on to set up Red House Books, the book club which was at one time the country’s biggest seller of children’s literature. His is the house on Strand on the Green which has soft toys in the window, characters from children’s books such as Wally, as in Where’s Wally?, Paddington and Spot the Dog, which he and his wife have rearranged periodically since they first started doing it more than 30 years ago.

READ ALSO: Have you ever wondered why there are always toys in a window on Strand on the Green?

“I thought children passing by could look at and talk to them on river walks or while going to school. I have lots more but the window can only take a limited amount. Plus the colours of the poor creatures gradually fade in the sunlight”.

David and his business partner John Skinner offered a home mail order book club with over 250,000 members; a schools book club selling to children in 5,000 schools and a book party operation, rather like Tupperware, which had up to 30,000 parties a year.

Spot the Dog was the first children’s book character they sold as a soft toy alongside the books, but his favourites are Max and the four Wild Things from Maurice Sendak.

“I still have pristine examples hidden away in a suitcase. And I like Lowly Worm from Richard Scarry because he’s so different and rare and never sold in the UK”.

Toys in the window at Strand on the Green; photograph Marianne Mahaffey

Sally Floyer, former MD of Ladybird Books and Frederick Warne, told the audience at St Michael & All Angels Church about the cross-over between books and television, as she was responsible for the TV animation of Peter Rabbit.

The founder of Frederick Warne publishing was one of the six Victorian publishers to whom Beatrix Potter submitted Peter Rabbit, her first book.

Frederick turned it down, but people at the company changed their minds once they saw the privately printed edition of the book in 1901. They offered to publish it if Beatrix Potter redid the illustrations in colour. The next year, Warne published The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and by Christmas had sold 20,000 copies.

Frederick Warne; The Tale of Peter Rabbit; Beatrix Potter’s illustration

Disney asked for the rights to animate Peter Rabbit in the 1930s, but Beatrix would never allow her character to be animated.

“She said she couldn’t see how making him jiggle about would help”, Sally recounted.

It was John Coates who persuaded the publishers to go against her wishes, long after Beatrix Potter was dead. He had made the animation of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman in 1982, now an annual staple of the Christmas TV schedule, and said he could make an equally beautiful animation of Peter Rabbit if they were prepared to pay £1 million per episode at 25 minutes long.

“He made six very beautiful films in 1990”, she said.

Sally was also involved with the production of Miss Potter, the biopic which starred Rene Zellwegger as Beatrix Potter and Ewan McGregor as Norman Warne, her editor and the man to whom she became engaged to be married..

The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends

The Golden Age of Children’s Television

Children’s presenter Vicky Ireland, musician Jonathan Cohen, actor Lucy Briers, and director of the Cultural Policy Unit Alison Cole talk to Janet Ellis about the Golden Age of Children’s Television. Joined by director of the Children’s Media Foundation Greg Childs and children’s librarian Jenny Griffiths to talk about how we can take action for children’s arts.

The ‘Golden Age’ of the 1970s and ’80s saw a competitive duopoly develop in British children’s television. ITV and the BBC created two children’s television networks unrivalled anywhere in the world.

Alistair McGown, who has written extensively on Children’s Television, including a compendium of children’s drama describes the era:

‘Magazine programmes like Blue Peter (BBC, 1958-) have offered a window onto the world. Drama serials, from period drama to science fiction, have enthralled millions; and all manner of contemporary dramas – notably Grange Hill (BBC, 1978-), Press Gang (ITV, 1989-93) and Byker Grove (BBC, 1989-present) – have sought to represent everyday life for older British children and teenagers.

‘Factual series, on topics from science (Think of a Number, BBC, 1978-84 or How!, ITV, 1966-81) and nature (Animal Magic, BBC, 1962-84 and The Really Wild Show, BBC, 1986-98) to art (Vision On, BBC, 1964-76 and successor Take Hart, BBC, 1977-83) and books (The Book Tower, ITV, 1979-89), have helped foster inquiring minds and, perhaps, launch lifelong interests and careers.

‘Simple entertainment has come from comic puppet characters like Sooty, Basil Brush and Emu, in variety series like Crackerjack (BBC, 1955-84) or in a host of pop music shows from Lift Off (ITV, 1969-74) to Razzmatazz (ITV, 1981-87).

Golden Age of TV panel L to R: Lucy Briers; Jonathan Cohen; Vicky Ireland; Alison Cole; Janet Ellis; Photograph Jim Cox

There is, said Torin Douglas at Saturday’s Children’s Book Festival, a “golden thread” which joins the production of children’s books, TV and theatre. All three were examined and discussed in panels with guests from the pool of Chiswick talent.

The television panellists acknowledged their ‘Golden Age’ attracted “ginormous” audiences, as Janet Ellis put it, because that was all there was for children. You either watched it when it was broadcast or you missed it. Now there is so much choice it is hard to navigate, and it is available on demand.

“It is down to parents to curate the output” Alison Cole told the audience.

Future of Children’s Arts panel L to R: Greg Childs; Vicky Ireland; Alison Cole, Jenny Griffiths; Torin Douglas; Photograph Jim Cox

The majority of children’s viewing is now on Youtube, said Greg Childs, where success is judged by whether a show has held a child’s attention as far as the ad break, so “we have moved to an attention economy. It is not designed for nourishment or story telling”.

For Vicky Ireland, who presented Words and Pictures, it was all about education. She helped a generation learn to read.

“There was more recognition that we could help people educationally. Education had a much stronger beat to it then”.

Vicky Ireland presenting Words and Pictures

Vicky was talent spotted by Yorkshire TV when she was playing the Wicked Fairy in a pantomime. She remembered sitting in a studio talking to a sock on her hand for Yorkshire TV’s Stepping Stones, designed to engage preschool children in early learning through gentle, calm story-telling.

Talking sensibly to a sock for any length of time can be quite challenging.

“In the end I had to put a child I knew where the camera was, one who I could share my thoughts with”.

BBC’s Play School and Play Away

The BBC’s Play School was also aimed at pre-school children. (‘Let’s see what’s through the round window”) Its usp was that unlike earlier BBC programmes such as Watch with Mother, Play School featured real presenters who spoke directly to their audience, through songs, activities and stories.

Jonathan Cohen, who worked on Play School, Play Away and Jackanory amongst others, remembered “the invention and the freedom we had. As musicians we had to improvise and make things up on the spot. It was terrifying but exhilarating”.

Lucy Briers, whose own most recent work in The Other Bennett Sister is about to be seen on BBC One from Sunday 15 March, talked about her father’s work as an actor. Richard Briers was already famous before she was born, so she grew up with people stopping him in the street to talk to him, “which as a child I found very frustrating”.

Roobarb & Custard (1974); Creator Grange Calveley

Lucy remembered being taken with her sister to a sound studio in Soho to see the first cut of Roobarb & Custard, which their father voiced.

“We were the first children in the country to see it. I remember thinking it was a bit nuts. Even then I loved the anarchic feel of it. In the ’70s children’s TV moved from being very comfortable and cosy to being a bit anarchic”.

The Briers family lived in Bedford Park, as did the Coles. Michael and Jo Cole created Bod, which became a hit TV series in 1975, narrated by John Le Mesurier.

“He was PC before PC”, Alison told the festival audience. “I say ‘he’, but he was a bald character who wore a dress and you didn’t know if he was a boy or a girl. People always wondered what drugs my parents were on, but they weren’t”.

Alison remembered being allowed to work on the cartoons as a teenager in a hot shed in Acton one summer.

“I can see where I went over the lines”.

She thinks the attraction of Bod was that: “You could have fun and be simple and you didn’t have to talk down to people”.

In discussion of how we can get back to focusing on nourishment and story-telling rather than just grabbing children’s attention, Jenny Griffiths made a strong case for libraries in schools. The Government has committed to delivering a library for every state primary school by 2029. (It may come as a shock to those without young children that they don’t have them any more).

While she welcomed the Government’s commitment, it is not enough, she said, to put some books in a room and a sign on the door saying ‘Library’. There needs to be librarian also. Jenny has previously won the award for ‘Primary School Librarian of the year”.

“I read the books, I organise events, I know every child in the school and am able to recommend books they would like”.

We have to do something, she said, to address the “crisis” in reading, when there are many parents who still who cannot read, or who do not have the confidence to read bedtime stories. They don’t have books at home, and they are not introducing their children to the concept of reading for pleasure..

Golden Age of Children’s Theatre panel at the Tabard Theatre, L to R: David Wood; Vicky Ireland; Janet Ellis

The Golden Age of Children’s Theatre

David Wood and Vicky Ireland talk to Janet Ellis

David Wood OBE is often called “the national children’s dramatist”. He is about to receive an Olivier award – the Industry Recognition award for backroom talent which, he told The Chiswick Calendar, he was pleased about because it was “a nod towards the children’s theatre sector which is still overlooked”.

Vicky Ireland MBE went on from presenting children’s programmes on television to becoming the artistic director at the Polka theatre in Wimbledon – the UK’s only theatre which caters solely for children – where she directed, produced and commissioned new theatre writing for children.

Together they have been responsible for some of the best children’s theatre the UK has ever had, putting story-telling front and centre and wanting to send children away thinking about the ideas in the play rather than merely being entertained.

Like children’s television, children’s theatre has become about putting on shows rather than story-telling, they said.

David Wood

David told the audience at the Tabard theatre how as a boy he had wanted to study drama but his headmaster had wanted him to go to university. At the time there were only two universities which ran drama courses.

He applied, and failed to get into the course at Bristol University, so his headmaster suggested he apply for Oxford, where he was accepted.

“I had far more opportunity there to act than I would have done anywhere else”.

He recounted how he went to see a big commercial pantomime at the New Theatre.

“It was a matinee and the audience was mostly children. The entertainment was really a succession of variety acts. The children in the audience were often restless.

“After the story had rather perfunctorily been disposed of, the star comedian embarked upon his half hour obligatory spot. It was quite enjoyable, if, in my view, out of context. At one point he cracked a slightly blue joke.

“The children didn’t understand it. A few of the adults did and cackled in the stalls. Whereupon the star walked eagerly down to the footlights, leant over and said: “Oh, come on, let’s get the kids out of here and then we can get started!”

“It was as though an electric shock had jolted me. I even blushed. How on earth, I thought, can this man, who is being paid a lot of money to entertain these children, blatantly tell us that he would rather be entertaining his late night cabaret audience.

“Surely those children deserved better. It struck me that there was very little theatre aimed at children. That moment was a turning point in my life”.

The Tiger Who Came to Tea; Theatre Royal Winchester production, February 2026

David went on to set up the Whiligig theatre company with John Gould. His most famous story The Gingerbread Man (1976) has toured all over the world. His original works include The Selfish Shelfish and The Plotters of Cabbage Patch Corner. He adapted Roald Dahl’s books for theatre, including productions of The BFG, The Witches and The Twits.

His other adaptations from children’s literature include The Owl and the Pussycat Went to See, Meg and Mog, Tom’s Midnight Garden, The Tiger Who Came to Tea and Goodnight Mr Tom.

He learned what worked with a children’s audience from doing magic tricks, he said. He is a member of the Magic Circle.

“I suddenly realised what I’d learned from doing magic tricks at children’s parties was how they react en masse, which is totally different from how they react individually”.

He picked up on their willingness to suspend disbelief and their enjoyment of audience participation.

Vicky Ireland

Vicky’s first experience of theatre was of variety shows rather than plays. Her parents owned a hotel in Scarborough and she saw jugglers and stand up comics perform there. She also met Alan Aykbourn, who stayed at her parents’ hotel, and they became lifelong friends.

She trained as an actor at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Having worked in Theatre in Education, during her tenure at the Polka theatre from 1988 to 2002, she commissioned Alan Ayckbourn, along with Philip Pullman, David Holman, Jamila Gavin, Malorie Blackman, Charles Way and Mike Kenny.

She also adapted five of the novels by Jacqueline Wilson for stage: Double Act, Secrets, Midnight, Bad Girls and The Lottie Project.

Vicky told the audience at the Tabard theatre how difficult it was to get the rights to create a play for children about the life of Anne Frank.

“I wanted children to know about the lives of other children in history. We got a letter from the Anne Frank Foundation who asked what did we think we were doing? ‘You can’t just write a play about it’.

“They came over from Switzerland to interview us and said we could do it, but we couldn’t use the book, so we translated it into a new play and David toured it”.

She gave that as an example of the kind of play which treats children as intelligent beings, which is not being done these days.

One big problem for children’s theatre is the drop in school coach parties. They both spoke about the Education Act introduced by Kenneth Baker with good intentions, that required children on coaches to have their own seat with a seat belt.

“Our audiences went right down”, said Vicky. “The cost of coaches just became prohibitive”.

David had a show on at Sadler’s Wells when the new legislation came into force.

“Our advance bookings for that autumn went down by two thirds because schools just could not take the risk that parents wouldn’t pay.

Polka Theatre, Wimbledon

Another change which has limited producers’ options in children’s theatre is the concept of cultural appropriation.

“We called it ‘cultural appreciation'”, said Vicky. “We created a Japanese show which won awards and was well received. The Japanese ambassador came to it. We couldn’t do that show now”.

While understanding the positive intent behind different cultures presenting their own work, “it denies a lot of creativity” she said.

David has recently adapted Floella Benjamin’s memoir Coming to England, because she wanted him to, but said he was very aware of the way in which the creators of the production of Andrea Levy’s Small Island at the National Theatre were “attacked and trolled” for cultural appropriation.

They ended on an important note for any would-be children’s dramatist – that no matter how serious the subject matter of a children’s production it should never stop the idea of hope.

“You have to give them something to return to the joy of being alive”.

In 1998 Vicky founded Action for Children’s Arts, for which they both campaign. Their manifesto is: ‘Every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts’.

Theatre at the Tabard, where the discussion was held, won Pub Theatre of the Year last year for its in-house productions, particularly the children’s shows at Christmas, which Vicky Ireland said were “brilliant”.

READ ALSO: Tabard theatre named London Pub Theatre of the Year

The Tabard’s production of The Snow Queen –  Freya Crompton as The Snow Queen

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