Playdays
| Playdays | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Also known as | Playbus |
| Genre | Children’s television series |
| Created by | Cynthia Felgate |
| Developed by | Felgate Productions |
| Written by | Simon Davies |
| Directed by | Clare Bradley Brian Jameson Will Brenton Helen Sheppard Stephen Cannon Adrian Hedley Robin Carr Leslie Pitt |
| Presented by | Brian Jameson Simon Davies Zoë Ball Vanessa Amberleigh Nick Baker Elizabeth Fost Dave Benson Phillips Liz Kitchen Dyanne White Stephen Cannon Chris Jarvis Andrew Lynford Stuart Bradley Liz Watts Will Brenton Sue Monroe Sarah Davidson Robin Fritz Clive Duncan Andy Hockley Nick Mercer Michele Durler Sonali Shah Teresa Gallagher Peter Quilter Neil Bett and others |
| Theme music composer | Richard Brown Jonathan Cohen Kim Goody Liz Kitchen Tim Spencer Alan Coates |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Cynthia Felgate Andrew Thomas |
| Producer(s) | Clare Bradley Penny Lloyd Barbara Roddam Anne Reay Michael Cole Ann Gobey Kate Marlow |
| Production company(s) | Felgate Productions (As A Felgate (Media (Ltd) Production) |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One, BBC Two, CBBC, CBeebies |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Original release | 17 October 1988 – 28 March 1997 |
Playdays (known as Playbus until 25 December 1989) was a British pre-school children's television program that ran from 17 October 1988 to 28 March 1997 on Children's BBC (CBBC), and was aired in reruns until 2002 (From 2002 to 2004, reruns were aired on CBeebies). The show was the successor of Play School and, like its predecessor, was designed as an educational programme. The creator Cynthia Felgate had been executive producer of Play School.
After the show was dropped from CBBC on BBC1, reruns were shown on CBeebies from 2002, until repeats of the show were axed by the BBC in August 2004. In 1989, the BBC insisted that the independent production company which made Playbus (Felgate Productions) change the programme's name, after they had received a complaint from the National Playbus Association.
The main characters of Playdays were puppets known as Why Bird (voiced and manipulated by Fiona Beynon Brown and later by Ellie Darvill), Sam Patch, who was later replaced by Peggy Patch (initially mute but later voiced by Sally Preisig) and Poppy, a cat (voiced by Sue Monroe).
They were also accompanied by Mr Jolly (Robin Fritz, later Clive Duncan and then Andy Hockley), who would usually end each programme with a song (usually a nursery rhyme). There were also a number of human presenters including Zoë Ball, Trish Cooke and Dave Benson Phillips.
The show would begin with an animated title sequence of the Playbus driving along to the theme tune until it reached the bus stop, where characters on the bus were Why, Peggy, Poppy, Dot, Humphry, Lizzie, Wobble and Mr. Jolly (From 1988 to 1991 Sam Patch was on the bus instead of Peggy, even though Peggy succeeded Sam in 1990, Mr. Jolly didn't appear on the bus until 1992 and Poppy didn't appear on the bus until c. 1994). The bus stopped at a different place each day. It was effectively several different television series, under one single branding.
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