Save British children’s television programmes

Great Uncle Bulgaria has relaunched a campaign to save British-made children’s television in the UK. Despite the government and Ofcom agreeing that children’s programmes are a vital part of public service broadcasting, new UK-made programmes account for less than 1% of all children’s television in the UK, with imports and repeats increasingly dominating.

Great Uncle Bulgaria said: “Since I was last on telly, Britain is now much more diverse, so UK telly should have programmes that the children of today can relate to. We need to tell those Wombles in government to save British children’s television before it’s too late!”

Media regulator Ofcom, the House of Commons’ Culture Committee and the Lords’ Communications Committee all agree that this lack of home-grown children’s programming needs to be addressed. Culture Secretary Andy Burnham stated in February 2009: “We want children to continue to have quality programming.”

However there is widespread concern that no clear proposals for high quality children’s services have yet emerged from the government’s Digital Britain review.

Great Uncle Bulgaria is urging people to show their support for the campaign by writing to Andy Burnham and Peter Mandelson at britishkidstv.com (note: to type the @ sign in your email address on the form, you may need to press Shift+2 instead of the usual Shift+').

You can also follow Great Uncle Bulgaria’s campaign on Twitter: @GtUncBulgaria

Watch last year’s Badass Wombles Of Central Park video below, highlighting the risks that British kids face if this issue is ignored.