Playdays

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Playdays

Also known as	Playbus
Genre	Animated television series
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC
Original run	17 October 1988 – 28 March 1997
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Playdays (known as Playbus until 25 December 1989) is a children's television programme from the United Kingdom. The series ran from 17 October 1988 to 28 March 1997 on Children's BBC (CBBC), and was aired in reruns until 2003. The show was the successor of Play School, and, like its predecessor, was designed as an educational programme. After the show was dropped from CBBC on BBC One, repeats were shown on CBBC on BBC Choice (later known as CBeebies) and CBBC on BBC Two until it was axed in October 2003.

1 Characters and Plot
2 Story
3 Trivia
4 The roundabout stop
5 External links

[edit] Characters and Plot

The main characters of Playdays were puppets known as Wye Bird (voiced by Ellie Darvill), Peggy Patch (Sally Preisig) and Poppy, a cat (Sue Monroe). There were also a number of human presenters including Zoë Ball, Trish Cooke, and Dave Benson Phillips. 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 Wye Bird Stop on Monday, the Playground Stop on Tuesday, the Dot Stop on Wednesday, the Patch Stop on Thursday and the Tent Stop on Friday.)

[edit] Story

Monday- The Wye Bird Stop. Wye Bird lived at the Lost Property office, where things that were left on the Playdays bus were filed until someone claimed them. She interacted with the human bus driver- there were several throughout the series. She has a special computer called the Wy-Tech, which had a variety of uses- it could provide music for songs, pictures for stories, instructions for making something in keeping with the programme's theme, or to help sing a song (e.g. paper sugar buns for "Five Current Buns"). It also showed videos, usually to show how everyday things were made- socks, toothbrushes etc. Sometimes, Peggy and / or Poppy visited the Lost Property Office. In a later series, the office installed a telephone, where people- usually Peggy or Poppy- could phone in asking for particular things, (examples include information about spiders, a night-time picture to help someone sleep during the day).

Tuesday- The Playground Stop. A variety of different things involved. The programme always opened with the presenter (several, including Dave Benson Philips), saying "Boys and girls come out to play....", followed by the programme's theme, (e.g. we're playing racing games today). The show featured a group of children doing activities, such as pretending to be cooks and making paper meals. Dave was accompanied by a glove puppet named Chester. The programme always featured a rhyme accompanied by sign language, a string puppet named Lizzie dancing- always to the same song- occasionally accompanied by another puppet named Nick. There was also a story, often featuring Max and his magical chest of dressing-up clothes.

Wednesday- The Dot stop- the non-speaking dancer, Dot, told a story. Later replaced by the roundabout stop. Presented by Mr. Jolly. The show featured the musician, Charlie Grindle, who also appeared on The Wye Bird Stop, Bitsy Bob, who played music and made things, and the puppets Morris and Milly, who presented a segment called "Morris and Milly's Numerical Melodies", where they sang a song glorifying a particular number. Charlie often sang songs for them as well. The main body of the episode featured the characters finding different shaped pictures, which came together to form the title of a nursery rhyme, which was performed by the entire cast at the end of the episode. In later episodes, the show featured Peggy, Poppy and Wye Bird, who rode on the roundabout and went off on adventures. At the end of each adventure, a picture associated with it appeared in their shaped ticket, and these would combine to make the song, which ended the episode.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

In 1989, the BBC insisted that the independent production company which made Playbus (Felgate Productions) change the programme's name after they had received a complaint from the National Playbus Association.
The Dot Stop was replaced with the Roundabout Stop in 1992, and the Tent Stop was replaced with the Poppy Stop in 1995.
A Playdays magazine was published in the early 90s.
The Playground stop caused controversy twice. It twice showed a film of naked children - once riding bikes, and another time swimming in a pool. People complained about this in the BBC's own review programme Points of View