Play Away

A sister program to the popular pre-school children’s TV program, Playschool. Play Away was was the BBC Saturday afternoon show that ran for a mammoth thirteen years, clocking up an impressive one hundred and ninety episodes.

Aimed at a slightly older children than it’s sister program, Play Away was a much more lively show with a host of regular presenters taking part at any one time.

The first eight series were shot in a studio, usually at BBC Television Centre, London, although certain episodes were recorded in Bristol or Manchester. Later episodes were recorded in front of a live studio audience.

Sadly much of the original series has been deleted from the archives as recently as the early 1990’s.

A whole host of famous names started out in Play Away, take a look at the cast and see how many you recognise.

Summary
The format was a little like a music-hall variety show or ‘end-of-the-pier’ show. The first series mixed films of children at play with links, makes and songs from Brian Cant and team in studio. The series would soon become known for it’s groan-inducing humour. As the series progressed the films were phased out, in favour of more of the infectious studio tomfoolery, jokes and comic songs.