Playdays


Playdays was a British pre-school children's television program that ran from 17 October 1988 to 28 March 1997 on Children's BBC. The show was the successor of Play School and, like its predecessor, was designed as an educational programme.
The show's name was changed after the BBC received a complaint from the National Playbus Association.
After the show was dropped from CBBC in 2002, reruns were shown on CBeebies, until repeats of the show were axed altogether by the BBC in August 2004.

Characters and plot

The main characters of Playdays were puppets known as Why Bird, Sam Patch and Poppy the cat.
They were also accompanied by Mr Jolly, who would usually end each programme with a song. There were also a number of human presenters including Zoe Ball, Trish Cooke and Dave Benson Phillips.
The show would begin with an animated title sequence of the Playbus driving along to the theme tune until it reached the bus stop. The bus stopped at a different place each day. It was effectively several different television series, under one single branding.

Live shows

Playdays went on various tours around the UK during its run. The shows often saw all of the puppet characters coming together. Unlike the show, Peggy Patch was played by a person.

VHS releases