Vision On was a British children's television programme, shown on BBC1 from 1964 to 1976 and designed specifically for deaf children. It was conceived and developed by BBC producers Ursula Eason and Patrick Dowling to replace a monthly series For the Deaf, a programme paced slowly enough for children to read captions and subtitles. It was noted in surveys that a favourite for deaf children was Top of the Pops, due to its lively and fast-moving format and the fact that even the profoundly deaf could still enjoy the music's lower frequency notes.
There was initial disagreement as to whether lip-reading or sign language would be more appropriate: eventually it was decided that, since the new programme was intended as entertainment rather than education, communication would be entirely visual, the amount of text would be severely limited and, except for one repeated statement, speech would be abandoned altogether. The title Vision On referred to the illuminated sign in studios indicating that cameras were live. Normally another sign "Sound On" would follow, but the titles for Vision On deliberately omitted this.
The aim of the programme was to entertain but also to encourage imagination, with a fast-paced flow of contrasting ideas, both sane and silly. This mixture was an apparent success as the series ran for twelve years and, while retaining a commitment to the deaf, attracted a wider following and gained several awards including the international Prix Jeunesse and the BAFTA Award for Specialised Programmes.
The presenters were Pat Keysell, an actress who also taught deaf children, and the artist Tony Hart who made pictures in a variety of sizes and media, and encouraging children to submit their own paintings to "The Gallery", which they did in their thousands. Others who appeared in Vision On include Ben Benison and Sylvester McCoy, both of whom specialized in mime in the series, Wilf Lunn, who appeared as an eccentric inventor of equally eccentric machines and David Cleveland who appeared in film sequences as the Prof. Many other contributors are listed at the Vision On website.[1] The programme's logo is made up from the words of the title and its reflection. It was called 'Grog' because no-one was quite sure if it was more like a grasshopper or a frog.
The series' producer Patrick Dowling eventually found that the flow of new ideas became more and more difficult to sustain and after twelve years decided to close the programme while it was still at its height. He continued, with Tony Hart, to make arts programmes, starting with Take Hart (which kept "The Gallery" segment), continuing with Hartbeat during the 1980s and 1990s and then the BBC's current children's art programme, SMart.
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Vision On was co-produced in France with Radiodiffusion, in Canada with Radio-Canada under the title Déclic and in Sweden as Ögon Blik.
The programme was shown in many other countries, including France, Australia and New Zealand.
In the USA many PBS stations, and a few commercial stations, aired Vision On during the 1970s. Some of these stations, such as KOMO-TV in Seattle, taped their own episodes, which were seen along with the BBC-produced shows.
In eastern Canada episodes were often shown on TVOntario, which could also be seen in the north-eastern US.
Besides the scenes with Hart, Keysell and the others doing artwork (which in later years appeared on the screen as the artwork being made without any hands), Vision On had many memorable segments:
Despite its intended hearing-impaired audience, the show made extensive use of music for the benefit of hearing viewers watching the show. Notable themes included:
Radio Times, 1964–1977