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26th February 2024: 100 years of schools broadcasts - including 25 years of Zig Zag!
One century ago on the afternoon of 26th February 1924, broadcasting to schools in Britain began at the fledgling British Broadcasting Company radio station in Glasgow, with an experimental broadcast officially designed to be heard in just one school a few hundred metres from the studio.
The talks on history, Scottish ballads, and a French reading could barely be heard in the large school hall, but a violin recital went down well. A few weeks later at the start of April 1924 the BBC London station made its own first schools broadcast (which is more widely recognised as the start of British schools broadcasting, perhaps because it was listed in advance in the Radio Times and designed to be heard by more than one school), and soon stations all over the country were putting together their own schools broadcasts.
Also underway is a complete guide to the BBC schools TV topics series for junior schools, Zig Zag, which was broadcast for a full quarter century including repeats, and included a couple of historical drama serials and plenty of interesting documentary units.
This was the next most requested series for an update in the site's voting.
27th November 2023: A few months after ITV & Channel 4 were done, we now have guides to all of the German language programmes for secondary schools made by BBC Schools TV, most of which basically show life for contemporary teenagers in Germany. That experience changes quite a bit from Treffpunkt: Deutschland in the 1970s to Alles Klar in the 1980s, Lernexpress and D-Mag in the 1990s and German Shorts in the 2000s, especially with the fall of the Berlin Wall, documented particularly by The German Collection.
Along the way we also have a drama serial about a boat called Susanne, the adventures of a visiting alien called Globo, and the most remarkable dance moves ever seen, in Hallo aus Berlin.
And in response to votes for pages people would most like to see updated, I have had a go at updating information about both the Maths Challenge TV and radio series from the 2000s, and the 1970s-80s Ulster TV primary schools series Hop, Skip and Jump.
Latest updates
| Geordie Racer (from Look and Read) | TV |
| 26 Sep 2024 Notes on the production, casting and filming added, plus notable mentions on quiz shows and news programmes! Still to come (soon): locations map and pictures of all the resources. | |
| Movable Feasts | TV |
| 5 Sep 2024 Full update with plot details, episode list, credits, teacher's notes and the location of the Movable Feasts office. | |
Maths-in-a-Box 
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TV |
| 4 Sep 2024 31/08: Spoilers added (40 years after the series was last broadcast!) revealing the secrets of Sooter which the children discover in the final episode. Plus more credits, some recording details, and page refreshed with some extra episode detail, broadcasts table, tags & opening titles video link. 04/09: small refresh. | |
| You and the Media (from Zig Zag) | TV |
| 31 Aug 2024 More details, credits and pictures added, including an account of the memorable behind-the-scenes episode, only shown in one week in 1986, which descends into meta spirals and almost certainly inspired the film Inception! (this may be a slight exaggeration) There is also a Dr Who reference. | |
| Hennings Haus | TV |
| 30 Aug 2024 DVD cover added | |
| Stop, Look, Listen
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TV |
| 30 Aug 2024 2 more DVD covers | |
| Water, Moon, Candle, Tree and Sword (from Stop, Look, Listen) | TV |
| 30 Aug 2024 DVD cover added | |
| Animated Bible Stories (from Stop, Look, Listen) | TV |
| 30 Aug 2024 DVD cover added | |
| Shadow Play (from Look and Read)
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TV |
| 26 Aug 2024 Complete update with story details, background information, locations guide and map, title music and resources details (just over 20 years after the page was last properly updated, which was when the story was first shown on TV!) Further update 26/08 with more on the omnibus edition and activity book. | |
| Stop, Look, Listen - Units | TV |
| 28 Jul 2024 New page with basic details of each unit all in one place. | |