CITV

Or Children's ITV, as we called it in our youth. Not a "programme" as such, instead a wraparound for other programmes, but I feel any site dedicated to the Eighties should give it a mention. Children's ITV was launched in 1983, recently celebrating its thirtieth anniversary at the time of writing. There'd been kids' shows on ITV for years, of course, but presentation and for a long time, scheduling had been up to the regional companies. After a short try-out as "Watch-It!" in the early Eighties (still voiced by regional announcers), a dedicated presentation service began from Central in 1983, with links being initially pre-recorded, then live from 1987. The likes of Dangermouse, Emu's World, T-Bag and Dramarama were introduced originally by Matthew Kelly from a small spaceship set somewhere in Central's Birmingham studios. This gave way to guest presenters (sometimes characters from the shows) and a larger spacecraft with blue sofas and sliding doors, though Matthew remained until around 1987. Tommy Boyd was another host in the earliest days. Then Debbie Shore and Gary Terzza took over in a more urban-looking high-tech setting in the late Eighties. An independent company from 1989-1991 had Jeanne Downs and Scally the Dog in charge, before Central took up the reins again in 1991 with the return of Boyd. After several years of out-of-vision continuity in the Nineties, Carlton brought back on-screen presentation around the time of the Millennium. Sadly, CITV has now vanished from ITV1 to disappear into the farthest reaches of digital. My twin memories of CITV, reinforced by a recent Old Skool anniversary weekend, is how good the shows were, and how unpredictable the presentation could be. Often a presenter would introduce the show and stare expectantly at a monitor, only for nothing to happen. They'd then have to fill in talking about what was on tomorrow or on Saturday, and if things became desperate, read bits out of Look-In! But the programmes were, for the most part, great, back when we had ITV companies all over the UK and most produced kids' shows. Now what they do show is all made by independent companies or imported. My own opinion is that things started to go downhill after the franchise changes of the early Nineties, when wonderful companies like Thames and TVS disappeared, along with most of their shows. Plus, CITV stopped producing programmes for older children, which saw off masterpieces like Knightmare. I feel incredibly lucky to have been around when such great shows were on the air and I learnt a huge amount from them for my grown-up job as a children's author.