Play School is a British children's television series produced by the BBC which ran from 21 April 1964 until 11 March 1988.

[1] Each programme followed a broad theme and consisted of songs, stories and activities with presenters in the studio, along with a short film introduced through either the square, round or arched window in the set.

The programme spawned numerous spin-offs in Britain and other countries and involved many presenters and musicians during its run.

Despite a revamp in 1983, Play School maintained the same basic formula throughout its 24-year history, but changes to the BBC's children's output led to the programme's cancellation in 1988, when it was replaced by Playbus, which soon became Playdays.

Play School originally appeared on weekdays at 11 am on BBC2 and received holiday runs on BBC1 in Summer 1964 and 1965, later acquiring a mid-afternoon BBC1 repeat as the opening programme of BBC1's teatime children's schedule.

When the BBC scrapped the afternoon edition of Play School in April 1985 to make way for new programmes in that slot, a Sunday morning compilation was launched called Hello Again!.

Unlike earlier BBC programmes aimed at preschool children such as Watch with Mother, Play School featured real presenters who spoke directly to their audience.

[2] Presenters included the first black host of a children's show, Paul Danquah; Brian Cant, who remained with the show for 21 years; actress Julie Stevens; Canadian actor and television presenter Rick Jones; TV personality Johnny Ball; former pop singers Lionel Morton and Toni Arthur; husband and wife Eric Thompson and Phyllida Law; Italian model and actor Marla Landi; and Balamory producer Brian Jameson.

Very often the film would be of a factory producing something such as chocolate biscuits, or of a domestic industry such as refuse collection, but a number of subject matters were covered, such as watching animals or fish, boats on a lake, children in a playground or at school, a family going tenpin bowling, people in a café and visiting a jumble sale, among other things.

Each episode would also include a short story read from a book, introduced by checking the time on a clock.

(On one occasion, the item under the clock turned out to be none other than Little Ted, so the presenter concerned said, "What a very odd place for a toy to be!"

Most of the programmes were studio-based, but there were a number of outside broadcasts at a variety of locations, such as zoos, seasides, central London, churches, schools and farms.

Many 2 inch Quadruplex videotape master copies of Play School editions were wiped by the BBC in 1993 on the assumption that they were of no further use and that only a small number of episodes needed to be retained in the archive.

Other countries including Lekestue in Norway (1971–81), Das Spielhaus in Switzerland (1968–1994), Das Kleine Haus in Austria (1969–1975), Giocagiò in Italy (1966–1970), La Casa Del Reloj in Spain (1971–74), and Israel were provided with scripts and film segments so they could produce their own versions.

They included: Val Doonican, Richard Baker, Rolf Harris, Clive Dunn, Roy Castle, Pat Coombs, David Kossoff, Patricia Hayes, Sam Kydd, James Blades, Frank Windsor, Roy Kinnear, George Chisholm, Ted Moult and Cilla Black.