Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Children's TV producer and creator of Teletubbies, Rosie and Jim, and In the Night Garden.
On the island
Eight records
I've always had to work and my children always say that I always have to have a project and I thought if I listen to Lazy Bones, perhaps I'll calm down a bit.
Dance with a Dolly (With a Hole in Her Stocking)
my mother, who was not very articulate... she would sing this song to me and her whole body would shake with it... I do this with my grandchildren now, so it's very special to me.
The one thing that we had in our village was a Methodist chapel... I thought this would capture the atmosphere, really, of the chapel-going days.
Soave sia il vento (from Così fan tutte)
Carol Vaness, Delores Ziegler, Claudio Desderi, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
It was the most eye-opening experience for me. I had never imagined anything like this.
Fifty three years ago or more we used to listen to Buddy Holly, and this song is just as true to day as it was then.
New Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra, Riccardo Muti
There are moments in life... This for me expresses what you feel. You feel there must be a God.
Herbie Hancock featuring CeeLo Green and Pink
I love jazz, but I chose this because fifteen percent of our company is owned by the Ragdoll Foundation... making films with children... they always have a story to tell.
I thought and thought about which New Orleans type jazz... I'd love to have been able to play jazz piano.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:13Do you think people have a point that books in the end are much better for children than TV?
For me, you see, I believe that what matters is the child's imaginative development. ... And that's where true education comes from, is the making connections. And stories connect, stories connect. ... I think children find stories exciting wherever and however they encounter them.
Presenter asks
5:36Can you explain how you know what children want when you're in the edit suite?
Well, when I'm watching I've made a great many programmes for children and we have at Ragdoll a children's response unit so that we're in touch with watching children watch. ... We leave a little D V camera on top of the television ... It's a question of observing what holds attention. And what makes them smile?
Presenter asks
7:13Do you think television is an important part of the problem of children having less vocabulary?
I think television is really important for children who don't have anything else because through television we can give them so much if we make the kinds of programmes that encourage that imaginative connection. ... It's not the television that does it. It's the circumstances in which the child is growing up. It's too easy to make television a scapegoat which people want to do. It's an easy way out.
The keepsakes
The book
Georgette Heyer
I discovered the romantic novels of Georgette Heyer when I was twelve. And all through my life, in times of stress and sickness and illness and everything else, they've been a great resource as an escape. So I thought my emotional escape will be Cotillion by Georgette Heyer.
The luxury
if I could make a floralegium of all the plants that might be growing. Let's hope there are some. So I'd need paper and pens and watercolours and anything that I can record the life of plants on the island.
Presenter asks
11:31Was your childhood a happy world despite the blackout and darkness?
Um it was a relatively happy world. ... I grew up very close to my grandmother ... we used to have some quite fun times. But she was lovely. I kind of had a twenties childhood in the way that I was brought up.
Presenter asks
22:41How has your husband felt about your journey and success?
Well, I think you'd have to ask him. But he loves me. ... Um, no, we don't look at each other you would have thought... he's still the same, he's still worries about money. It hasn't really changed him, and I think that's why we still love each other.
Presenter asks
28:23Tell me about the moment when you felt you were being taken for a ride by the big TV companies.
It does sound hard the way you put it, but um what happened was ... the company that I made Rosie and Jim for chose not to share any of that with us. And I my whole Northeastern soul rose up in protest and thought, This is not fair.
“I mean it was the most extraordinary experience because I wanted to make a programme that had love in it, that was about big hugs... It's innocent fun. That's all it is.”
“what matters is the child's imaginative development. The heart of a child is in their feelings and their imaginative capacity to make connections. And that's where true education comes from, is the making connections.”
“I think television is really important for children who don't have anything else because through television we can give them so much if we make the kinds of programmes that encourage that imaginative connection.”
“My earliest memories are of the blackout and everything being rather dark. I've always had a great love of gardens and flowers and all things that have colour. So I suppose I've always yearned for colour.”
“It does sound hard the way you put it, but um what happened was ... and I my whole Northeastern soul rose up in protest and thought, This is not fair.”