by DAVID ROLINSON


These days, teatime ITV means repeats of Midsomer Murders or reality formats so recycled that their pitches were delivered in a green caddy. But Children’s Ward is a reminder that this slot used to house children’s programmes, including three great drama series that started in 1989: Press Gang (on 6 January), Children’s Ward (on 15 March, after a 1988 one-off) and Byker (Byker!) Grove (on 8 November). Given that the 1990 Broadcasting Act entrenched deregulation, it’s tempting to see these shows clinging to pre-1990 public service values, and aiming to give children the same range of programming that was available to adults.

What would ITV do now to have shows in the same week written by Paul Abbott, Kay Mellor and Steven Moffat? That happened for the first few weeks of Children’s Ward’s run (Press Gang Mondays, Children’s Ward Wednesdays). Welcoming an Ofcom review of children’s programming, Mark Wright at Television Today argued that, despite there being numerous digital channels for children, there aren’t many “original, home grown shows that nurture not only young and upcoming talent, but bring new audiences” to television rather than encouraging kids to “sod off to the Internet”.1 As Wright notes, many of Children’s Ward’s alumni are now “among the premier drama writers in the country”: Abbott, Mellor and (from later seasons) Russell T. Davies, Matt Jones, and Sally Wainwright.

  1. Mark Wright, ‘ITV denies the talent of the future…’, The Stage and Television Today, 14 February 2007, accessed here. ↩

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by DAVID ROLINSON<\/h4>\n

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\nThese days, teatime ITV means repeats of Midsomer Murders<\/em> or reality formats so recycled that their pitches were delivered in a green caddy. But Children\u2019s Ward<\/em> is a reminder that this slot used to house children\u2019s programmes, including three great drama series that started in 1989: Press Gang<\/em> (on 6 January), Children\u2019s Ward<\/em> (on 15 March, after a 1988 one-off) and Byker<\/em> (Byker!) Grove<\/em> (on 8 November). Given that the 1990 Broadcasting Act entrenched deregulation, it\u2019s tempting to see these shows clinging to pre-1990 public service values, and aiming to give children the same range of programming that was available to adults. <\/p>\n

What would ITV do now to have shows in the same week written by Paul Abbott, Kay Mellor and Steven Moffat? That happened for the first few weeks of Children\u2019s Ward<\/em>\u2019s run (Press Gang<\/em> Mondays, Children\u2019s Ward<\/em> Wednesdays). Welcoming an Ofcom review of children\u2019s programming, Mark Wright at Television Today<\/em> argued that, despite there being numerous digital channels for children, there aren\u2019t many \u201coriginal, home grown shows that nurture not only young and upcoming talent, but bring new audiences\u201d to television rather than encouraging kids to \u201csod off to the Internet\u201d.1<\/a><\/sup> As Wright notes, many of Children\u2019s Ward<\/em>\u2019s alumni are now \u201camong the premier drama writers in the country\u201d: Abbott, Mellor and (from later seasons) Russell T. Davies, Matt Jones, and Sally Wainwright. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I watched Children’s Ward<\/em> and Press Gang<\/em> from the start, though I was more passionate about Press Gang<\/em>\u2019s His Girl Friday<\/em>\/Moonlighting<\/em> wit and complexity, and now Children’s Ward<\/em> tends to be less highly regarded. Others champion Byker<\/em> (Byker! Byker!) Grove<\/em>: the Guinness Book of Classic British TV<\/em> (one of whose writers, Paul Cornell, soon wrote for Children\u2019s Ward<\/em>) qualifies its positive statement about Children\u2019s Ward<\/em> by saying that the CBBC show handled issues more \u201cboldly\u201d.2<\/a><\/sup> (I don\u2019t know, we were a CITV house \u2013 in itself an archaic statement.) The hospital setting obviously isn\u2019t new \u2013 that tidy pretext for social microcosms has dominated TV for decades. The children\u2019s ward setting isn\u2019t new either: in The Hill and Beyond<\/em>, Alistair McGown and Mark Docherty discuss ATV\u2019s Why Can\u2019t I Go Home?<\/em> (script-edited by David Fisher) from 1979. Unlike that earlier series, Children\u2019s Ward<\/em> was a long-running success (ending in 2000).3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Although I\u2019ve rewatched Press Gang<\/em> many times over two decades, I\u2019d never revisited Children\u2019s Ward<\/em>, and it\u2019s been a pleasure. Written entirely by Paul Abbott and Kay Mellor (and directed on videotape, mostly in the studio but with a couple of key location sequences, by Nicholas Mallett, Alistair Clark and producer Rod Natkiel), the first season is quality soap opera, in terms of storylining and writing, as you\u2019d expect from writers with their pedigree then (especially on Coronation Street<\/em>) and since.<\/p>\n

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\nThe DVD includes what is in effect the pilot, \u2018Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night\u2019, Abbott and Mellor\u2019s 1988 play for Dramarama<\/em> (a single play anthology on Children\u2019s ITV), directed by Spencer Campbell. It introduces some of the series\u2019 central elements (a central boy\/girl relationship, a male nurse\/female doctor partnership, an overeating boy, constant radio and a girl having trauma flashbacks) though its characters are different and it\u2019s a lovely play on its own terms. Kim, a girl whose hearing was damaged in an explosion, is frustrated by constant readmissions for treatment that doesn\u2019t work, and snaps at staff or clams up, but we\u2019re privy to her thoughts through voice-overs, a subjective device (not used in the series) pushing the child\u2019s perspective. She opens up to Danny, who was also initially aggressive, and as the ending makes clear, her injury works within the play\u2019s metaphorical approach to childhood by flagging up ideas of talking and listening.<\/p>\n

That Children\u2019s Ward<\/em> will be less reflective is clear from Episode 1\u2019s jolting pre-credits location sequence in which 13-year-old Fiona (Rebecca Sowden, i.e. Callard) runs into the road after arguing with her mother about seeing an Iron Maiden concert, and becomes the victim of a hit-and-run driver. She\u2019s rushed to our location, South Park General Hospital. (When that name stops bringing to mind a different TV series, in a later episode a child is taken to Springfield House.) Fiona spends much of the season in a coma, overseen by her mother. In the ward, our focal points are older than in the pilot: troubled 15-year-olds Keely (Jenny Luckraft) and Billy (Tim Vincent), whose dialogue (the odd \u201cdickhead\u201d, \u201cknobhead\u201d or \u201cslag\u201d) is sometimes choice for the timeslot. <\/p>\n

But as in the play, the series mixes children of different ages and backgrounds, including over-eating Ben (who\u2019s posh enough to talk of \u201cnosh and pop\u201d, though sadly doesn\u2019t say \u201cSlurp! Sloo!\u201d), the demanding Dawn and amiable gunshot victim Alex. The tone can switch from relatively bleak (some children can\u2019t be cured) to fun for younger viewers, as the kids gang up on tyrannical confectioner Jack (\u201cWHO\u2019S AGGRESSIVE?!\u201d), who has \u201cseen borstals run better than this\u201d. Like Danny in the pilot, Billy wanted to be on an adult ward, and it\u2019s tempting to think the show wants to defuse the oft-noted concern that many children dislike watching younger children. But EastEnders<\/em> always features high up the lists of programmes most watched by children, and Children\u2019s Ward<\/em> respects that.
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