Playdays

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Playdays (known as Playbus until 25 December 1989) was a children's television programme from the United Kingdom. It was broadcast between 17 October 1988 and 28 March 1997 on the BBC. The show was the successor of Play School, and, like its predecessor, was designed as an educational programme.

[edit] Characters and Plot

The main characters of Playdays were puppets Why Bird (voiced by Ellie Darville), Peggy Patch (Sally Preisig) and Poppy (Sue Monroe). One of the main human presenters of the show was Zoë Ball; in addition, Patsy Byrne played Betty the Tea Lady. The show would begin with the Playdays bus driving along to the tune of the theme song until it reached the bus stop. The bus stopped at a different place each day: originally the Why Bird Stop (Monday), the Playground Stop (Tuesday), the Dot Stop (Wednesday), the Patch Stop (Thursday) and the Tent Stop (Friday). The Dot Stop was replaced with the Roundabout Stop in 1992, and the Tent Stop was replaced with the Poppy Stop in 1995.

[edit] Story

Each week, the characters would do different activities or go to different places. Peggy Patch went to a different place each week; at the Roundabout Stop they told stories and nursery rhymes; Why Bird would show video clips, usually scientific clips or clips about the natural world; the Poppy Stop featured Poppy's house where she would do everyday things from cooking simple meals to building toy castles and towers; and the Dot Stop featured Rebecca Higgins as Dot telling a story.

[edit] History

In 1989, the BBC insisted that the independent production company who made Playbus (Felgate Productions) change the programme's name after they had received a complaint from the National Playbus Association.