What television programs did you watch as a child?

Television was relatively new in the 50’s and not many people actually had ‘sets’. The big push to get a television for many people was the braodcasting of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth the Second in1953. We did not have a TV but our neighbour bought one for the occasion and we all crowded round in her sitting room in Whitley Bay to watch the event on the tiny black and white screen. Another neighbour across the road who had a daughter in Sheila’s class had a TV and we were invited over once a week on a Tuesday at 5pm to watch ‘Children’s Television’ when they serialised a children’s story.

The two I recall were ‘The Railway Children’ and ‘Heidi’. How I loved those stories and it was such an exciting new medium for us. I don’t recall exactly when we got a TV but I think it was after we moved down south in 1959 - the only program I remember then was ‘The Lone Ranger’. Mum and Dad watched the evening news and some family type TV in the evenings, but it was not a big part of our family life.