The History of Childrens TV Drama By Hollie

The History of. . . Children’s TV Drama By Hollie Walsh

The 1950’s It was the 1950’s that saw children’s television drama become a feature of the BBC, it began with studio bound theatre productions which were mostly adaptations of literature such as Little Women, The Railway Children and The Adventures of Robin Hood

1960’s The BBC children’s department was closed down in 1962 to be overseen by the adult TV drama department. It was also the time when ITV invested in ‘adventure serials’ which were influenced by Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and Secret Seven

1970’s It was in the mid 1970’s that the a new approach to realism was shown in Children’s TV dramas by using working class characters and using inner city settings, they also began to use more real life scenarios for example, The Siege of Golden Hill (ITV, 1975) which was about ‘teenage gangs and council corruption’. Whereas another show A Bunch of Fives (ITV, 1977 -78 was a recognisable adaptation to school and school life Similar to A Bunch of Fives (despite being far more long running) was the fantastic Grange Hill (BBC, 1978 - present) which included real life teenage issues for example, drugs, teen pregnancy which caused outrage among teachers and parents

1980’s In the mid ‘ 80 s the BBC put an extreme amount of effort into creating a product that could be sold internationally. The Box of Delights (BBC, 1984) a ‘period fantasy serial’ was said to have been a ‘landmark’ in the genre, followed by The Chronicles of Narnia (BBC, 1988 -90), both of which were produced with American Finance. These were then followed by remakes of earlier BBC adaptions which included, Tom’s Midnight Garden (BBC, 1989) and also, The Phoenix and the Carpet (BBC, 1997), whilst The Borrowers (BBC, 1992 -3) which was also successful in America

1980’s - 2000’s It was the late 80’s in which Byker Grove (the Tyneside youth club) was born (1989 -present) which began as a serial but then became more like a Soap Opera when production moved to twenty episodes a year ITV offered Press Gang (1989 -93) which was about a School Newspaper and hospital drama Children’s Ward (1989 -2000) The Story of Tracey Beaker was a Television drama about a young girl with a vivid imagination who lives in a care home, or as she calls it, the ‘dumping ground’ adapted from the book written by Jacqueline Wilson. Tracy Beaker ran on the CBBC for five series (2002 -06) this also included a feature length episode known as Tracy Beakers Movie of Me. In my opinion Tracey Beaker shows the life of a young girl of similar ages to the audience, from a completely different perspective, and given them an insight of what it is like to live in a care home, with added comedy and realism An american sitcom called Drake and Josh was aired on Nickelodeon in 2004 -087) Drake and Josh are step brothers and the show follows their lives and covers day to day situations which give realism, however it contains humor keeping the show entertaining.

2000’s Continued Another popular children’s TV drama of the 2000’s is Hannah Montanna, which is an american children’s TV drama which is aired on disney channel. The show is about a young teenage girl named Miley Cyrus who leads a double life as Hannah Montanna a world wide superstar. She lives with her father and brother who to begin with are the only people who know her secret, but then her two best friends Lilly and Oliver find out her deepest darkest secret. Hannah Montanna deals with a mixture of day to day ups and downs of a normal teenage girl, but also the drama of living a secret life mixes in with that with a huge touch of comedy involved.

Distribution TV dramas are distributed in a variety of ways, the main way in which they are distributed is through television and DVD. However as a result of technology evolving TV dramas are now available via the internet wheter it be catch up programs such as BBC i. Player. They can also be accessed by You. Tube and on TV channel websites such as channel 4.

Influences for my show include: children’s TV spy drama M. I High which has recently came to and end therefore there is a gap on the market http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=mam. Dk. Cn. Si R 4