51Âþ»­

For thousands of young children across the UK, BBC TV’s Play School was their introduction to television as they sat enthralled hearing to stories with Humpty, Jemima, Hamble, Big Ted and Little Ted.

The programme ran for an incredible 24 years from 1964 to 1988 but many of the episodes have been lost due to TV production companies’ habit of wiping recordings to save money.

PlaySchool TV

Now, thanks to 51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­)’s collaboration with , a lost episode from 1965 has been unearthed and will be shown for the first time in nearly 60 years this weekend at a special event celebrating Play School being held at Riverside Studios in London.

The team worked with Paul R. Jackson, archivist and author of Here’s a House – A Celebration of Play School to narrow down the broadcast year and then 51Âþ»­’s Professor Justin Smith spent the day going through the BBC’s microfilm archives in Caversham, which holds the Programmes as Broadcast records until he got to August 1965.

The single can of 16mm black and white film was recovered from the estate of a deceased private collector. The team then took it to Claire Coss at the BBC Archives where it has been digitised, restored and licensed by the BBC to be shown at .

Play School script

Professor Smith, Professor of Cinema and Television History, said: “The missing episode, ‘The Queen of Hearts’, was discovered along with a BBC showreel of Play School auditions.

“Presenter Marian Diamond was in 61 episodes between 1964 and 1967 and only six have been known to survive, and this is the seventh.  We are really pleased to have found this one. During our childhood, the things we first watch hold a special place in our memories and our hearts, so it’s not surprising that Play School has that kind of appeal for people.

“It’s going to be a really happy event on Saturday and I’m so pleased that Marian Diamond will be there alongside creator Joy Whitby to see the episode we found.”

Paul R. Jackson said: “This was amazing detective work by myself and the Film is Fabulous! team over many months.  I had some original scripts, from that week, given to me by the presenter Marian Diamond, but the date eluded us for a while.

“I’m delighted that Play School’s creator Joy Whitby and presenter Marian Diamond will see it on the big screen at Riverside Studios on Saturday 14^th December, an amazing 59 years since it was first broadcast.”