Watch With Mother - Show Cycles

Show Cycles

Although Andy Pandy had been regularly broadcast every Tuesday since mid-1952, joined by the Flower Pot Men in December that year, the name Watch With Mother was not adopted until 1953, when the programming was expanded to three afternoons a week with the addition of Rag, Tag and Bobtail. The "classic" cycle of shows was in place by September 1955, with the first showing of The Woodentops. Now broadcast at 1:30 pm each day, it comprised:

• Picture Book – Mondays from 1955
• Andy Pandy – Tuesdays from 1950
• Flower Pot Men – Wednesdays from 1952
• Rag, Tag and Bobtail – Thursdays from 1953
• The Woodentops – Fridays from 1955

The original programmes had a loyal following and there was concern when it was learned that they would be replaced by new programmes, as in 1965 when it was thought that Camberwick Green would replace Andy Pandy and The Flower Pot Men. Eventually the new programmes were added including: Tales of the Riverbank, Pogles' Wood, The Herbs, Chigley, Trumpton and Bizzy Lizzy.

By 1973 the Watch With Mother title had been dropped, as it was considered to be dated, and by 1980 the strand had been named See-Saw. A Watch With Mother video became a best-seller in 1987, and was followed by a second in 1989. A 45rpm Promotional single was available to Radio Disc Jockeys for promo only entitled "Flob-A-Dob-A-Ben". The single was not released for general release and was played often as a novelty record on Radio Trent, in 1987, on the Andy Marriott Television Show. Since the shows were a great success and fondly remembered by many, modern incarnations of the shows Andy Pandy and The Flower Pot Men have been produced.

Under British law copyrights for TV programmes last for 50 years from the date of their first broadcast. As such, the episodes aired from 1952 to 1961 are slowly appearing on the Internet Archive.