monsterscud

For those of you that have toddlers, do you have Cbeebies on for them? We do here at home and I am beginning to hate everything about it, it really annoys me, I find it to be just so repetitive and rubbish Drivel, the sound of the presenters, the music, the repetitive stories and repetitive sentences they say on each programme. I know it isn't really be meant for the adults but when its on in the background, you can't help but notice it. What the hell is happening to children's TV? Why does everything have to be bright colours, presenters with horrible voices, and all trendy looking?

GRAEME

My wife claims that the decor and camera work on The Fimbles makes her feel physically sick.

Personally, I think you're being a bit hard on kiddie TV. Teletubbies, Tweenies and Balamory to name but three are excellent productions - educational, witty and cleverly designed for their audience. And their audience isn't grown ups by the way! However, most of the stuff can be stomached by grown ups for short periods.

I agree about the repetition - but apparantly kids of that age thrive on it. How many times have I seen Hannibal Brooks now?

The presenters are also a revelation. They don't talk down to the kids, but are bright cheerful and enthusiastic - no ironic winking here. They are in the best tradition of avuncular BBC children's presenters going back to Brian Cant and Johnny Ball etc. More than can be said of the teenage freeks on CBBC!

samkydd

Children's television these days make me feel...................sorry for the children who have to watch it!

I think the catalyst was Play Away and Play School when I was a child, and these shows set a precendent and everything that followed in the years ahead was just a load of old codswallop!

Children should never be over-indulged and so to give them their own dedicated channels is a mistake, and no mistake. They should learn to fit in with everyone else and watch the children's stuff the adult channels used to broadcast, squeezed in just before the early evening news; Crackerjack, Magpie, Blue Peter, The Tomorrow People, Hector's House, The Magic Roundabout, The Herbs, The Wombles, Crystal Tipps and Alistair etc. If they missed the slot, tough, they'd have to be content to be entertained by local regional news programmes like Nationwide and in my case, Look East and About Anglia, or "go and do your bloody homework"!

batman

We try to rotate which channels The Boy Wonder watches. It's either Milkshake or CBeebies while he has his breakfast and before he goes to school. They are generally pretty quiet. If it is not a school day he can watch CITV where they show stuff like Transformers, Yi Gi Oh GX and the excellent Ben 10. During the day we have 'quiet time' when the TV is off and he plays either with his toys or is in the garden. I think if we had the same same channels on all the time it would drive me even more loopy than I am already! The presenters are the only thing that irritates me .... apart from the ones on CBeebies they all appear to be of the ''watch me, aren't I brilliant'' variety, just out of stage school and keen to show off all their 'talents'. I don't think they are needed on kids tv, the kids want to watch the programmes, not some hyper-trendy wannabe jumping about all over the place.

Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

samkydd

Behind the primary coloured bib n' braces, the inane grinning and the patronising banter lurks a far more sinister world of the children's TV presenter:

BBC presenter 'distraught' at fiancee's death

By Emma Henry and agencies

A BBC children's televison presenter arrested over the sudden death of his fiancee has said he is "absolutely distraught".

Mark Speight was held after fellow presenter Natasha Collins was found dead in the bath at their North London home. He was later bailed by police, having initially been held on suspicion of murder and supplying class A drugs.

Speight said he is assisting with police inquiries and had nothing to do with his fiancee's death. Police said they were treating the death as "unexplained".

A statement released on behalf of the TV presenter, best known for the BBC children's show SMart, said: "At the moment no-one knows what happened. Mark found her body in the bathroom and immediately called an ambulance and the police." It continued: ""Mark was the only other person present in the flat and has therefore been questioned by police as a matter of course. "He is assisting police with their enquiries and had nothing to do with Natasha's death.

"Mark is absolutely distraught at the loss of Natasha and hopes that everyone will appreciate what a very sad time this is for both Mark and Natasha's family."

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Police were called at 13.20 on January 3 to reports of a sudden death of a woman at a residential address in London NW8 (St John's Wood).

"The woman, aged in her 30s, was pronounced dead at the scene. A post-mortem will be held in due course, details to be confirmed. "A man in his 40s was arrested at the scene. He has been bailed to return to a central London police station on a date in February."

Speight shot to fame as the rubber-faced presenter of Children's ITV Saturday morning show, Scratchy & Co.

Collins starred alongside him on BBC children's show See It Saw It. Clive Doig, managing director of independent TV production company Brechin, which made See It Saw It for three years from 1998, said Ms Collins was a "very good young actress". "She was one of the three main actors on the series. She was a very good young actress and she was a lot of fun working with us. "I'm shocked to hear of her death. It's terribly sad."

Collins' agent, Lynsey O'Donnell, said: "Natasha was a really lovely, bubbly girl. We had lots of fun with her. She was very reliable and always willing to do a job if you needed her."

The BBC has cancelled tomorrow's scheduled 10am showing of SMart. The show is currently being repeated on CBBC. A decision has yet to be made on whether next week's episodes will be screened, a BBC spokeswoman said. A new series of SMart is not scheduled until the end of the year.

GRAEME

Ohmigawd, that's an awful story! Mark is a real favourite of my kids. I hope things aren't how they seem there.


Overall however, I think you guys are being really "old" about these presenters. Whaddya want? Men in suits and dickie bows?

batman

Whether you think we are being 'old' or not is beside the point ... my son and his friends (the target audience) all complain when the presenters are on ... they just want to watch the programmes. These inane grinning idiots are not entertaining for the kids, and they appear to serve only one purpose, self promotion.

Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

GRAEME

It's just not our experience. My kids genuinely loved the CBeebies presenters - especially Chris - when they were toddlers. The youngest is 4 and a half now and they've moved on to presenterless cartoon channels - but they still have warm memories of them.

I found them pretty nauseating, but I could appreciate what they were doing.

I have yet to find out what older kids think of the gurning jackanapes on CBBC. I'd like to pour acid all over them.

Dame Starry

I'm still mourning the passing of Wally Whyton, Muriel Young, Ollie Beak and Pussycat Willum!

DON'T GET ME STARTED!

YDSL x.

The Christmas countdown has begun - don't leave it all until the last minute!

batman

I think we are singing from the same songsheet Graeme!

I exempted the CBeebies presenters, they are OK especially Chris and Pui who are probably the best two on kids TV. Sid is a pain in the ass though. My boy is four and a half too and he still likes to watch that channel, although he does like the cartoons I previously mentioned as well.

On Saturday mornings, though, they have these two idiots prancing about on CITV who are dreadful beyond belief. CBBC has some who are equally as bad, do the producers really think kids like this rubbish!

C5s Milkshake has some great kids shows, especially stuff like George Shrinks, Gerald McBoing Boing and Roly Poly Oly. The presenters used to simply introduce the programmes in much the same way as they did when I was a kid, but over the past few months they have recruited about four more .... and inflict 'dance' routines and 'comedy' sketches on the poor kids who watch it. Terrible stuff!

Bats.

Edit - these are the two on CITV

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

GRAEME

Absolutely!

And yes, Sid is a pain. He tries too hard, bless him.

There was a female presenter on Milkshake I was a bit in love with...

batman

I reckon that would be the gorgeous Naomi Wilkinson. Josh and I both fell madly in love with her too!



Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

GRAEME

That's my girl!

Her and Sarah Jane Honeywell from Tikkabilla!



Pretty bad photo though...

batman

I just posted a nice photo of Naomi in 'Sexiest Actresses'.

Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

monsterscud

I totally agree about children being over indulged with their own TV channels, I think that is the problem. What is wrong with just having children's programmes like they used to do along with adult programmes in-between. i know that I used to look forward to programmes like Magpie, Swap shop, Playaway, etc, etc to come on, but it didn't really bother me too much if I missed them. Not only do children have there own channels but everything is repeated so many times.