Konnie Huq celebrates the very best of British children’s television, with a dazzling array of clips from some of the | dG1famkwdy04V09JaEE
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00:00 Today, online kids content is more accessible than ever before.
00:03 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
00:06 It can normalise and even celebrate difference,
00:09 or at least it tries to.
00:10 And sometimes that change can be driven by the kids themselves.
00:14 Hello, I'm just finishing off a picture.
00:17 Can you see what it is?
00:18 Oh, hello.
00:21 A young presenter named Kerry Burnell was given her big break
00:25 as one of the faces of CBeebies in 2009.
00:29 I'm at the BBC studios in Salford to hear how she found herself
00:32 at the centre of a media storm.
00:35 Come and meet friends and discover and do.
00:38 Finding out things that are magic and new.
00:41 Here on CBeebies, you can learn through play.
00:43 So come and have fun every day.
00:46 Let's have a look.
00:47 Oh, my God.
00:48 It's got that same really kind of homely feel.
00:51 The colours and the shapes and big and bold.
00:55 It's joyful as well.
00:57 Does it bring back memories of your time here?
00:59 Yeah, I feel like I could just sit down and do some birthdays.
01:03 Read some cards out and a story and then maybe introduce the show.
01:08 Boing, boing.
01:10 This is a happy little kangaroo.
01:14 Kerry was a favourite with her young audience
01:16 and became an important public figure,
01:18 particularly for some living with a disability.
01:22 When you were growing up, did you feel represented?
01:25 No, I never saw anyone who even vaguely looked like me.
01:31 When I was growing up, I loved my little arm.
01:36 I was very comfortable with who I was.
01:39 And looking back, you know, there was very little positive portrayal
01:45 that was authentic.
01:46 And I think that was why there was a really huge,
01:50 shocked and negative reaction,
01:53 because people have never seen it before.
01:56 Some parents complain that a children's TV presenter
01:59 is scaring their kids because she has only one arm.
02:01 Viewers' complaints that the very sight of them
02:04 is frightening the kiddies.
02:05 Parents are worried that their children
02:07 might be scared when they watch her.
02:10 Kerry's presence on screen provoked a reaction
02:13 from a small but vocal number of adult viewers.
02:16 But she was ready for the fight.
02:19 I think this just highlights the kind of discrimination
02:22 that disabled people face every day in every walk of life.
02:25 Do you know what I mean? Yeah.
02:26 Simply the fact that, you know, I'm on the telly
02:29 has kind of brought this out.
02:32 Can I just ask, did you have any conversations behind the scenes
02:34 in terms of the production teams or whatever
02:36 about what to do about your arm?
02:39 Was there ever a conversation where someone said...
02:41 What to do about Kerry's arm?
02:42 No, I mean, it sounds terribly...
02:43 Were you expecting that reaction?
02:46 If you grew up with a disability,
02:47 you are aware of how society perceives you.
02:52 This is people not being comfortable with disability, full stop,
02:56 because you've not put enough of it on telly.
02:59 So let's change that, shall we?
03:01 Do any of you know what you'd like to be when you grow up?
03:05 Footballer. A footballer?
03:07 Play lots of games.
03:08 That's what I get to do.
03:10 So maybe you could be a children's TV presenter.
03:13 Perhaps next time you're at the beach,
03:16 being able to see yourself represented in the TV
03:20 in a bright, sparkly, safe and nurturing and fun environment
03:26 is just uplifting.
03:28 Blast off!
03:30 Fast forward 12 years and it's a different world.
03:33 First, we're going through a disco world.
03:36 OK, here we go.
03:37 George may be the first children's TV presenter
03:39 with Down's syndrome,
03:40 but kids just love him for his dance moves.
03:43 Passing through a rockland.
03:45 Yes, George, you're not a rockland.
03:47 OK, here we go.
03:50 When I started working at CBeebies,
03:54 no-one mentioned that I had Down's syndrome,
03:56 which is really, really good,
03:58 because they just see me as George,
04:01 and that's really, really important.
04:05 George is a role model for today's kids.
04:07 But he's also been shaped by what's gone before.
04:11 It's a play bus!
04:15 One small spider...
04:20 ..with wriggly toes...
04:22 ..wriggled and danced up to my nose.
04:26 As part of preschool favourite Playbus,
04:29 Dave Benson Phillips became the new face of a form of language
04:33 aimed at people who struggled to communicate through speech.
04:37 They said, "Right, you're going to learn Makaton."
04:39 So Makaton is a sort of form of sign language?
04:42 Yes, so this lady called Margaret Walker invented Makaton.
04:45 She had this amazing bunch of people
04:48 who were helping me to learn signs for poems.
04:52 # The wheels on the bus go round and round... #
04:56 I didn't realise, and I don't think they did either,
04:59 how big this thing was going to become.
05:01 We had children with special needs who'd watch the show,
05:04 nurseries and playgroups,
05:06 and they would all be looking for this bit, this poem, this rhyme.
05:10 Pet animals!
05:13 Makaton would become a central part of communicating
05:16 for one of kids' TV's biggest stars, Mr Tumble.
05:20 What's that, Mr Tumble?
05:22 A tortoise!
05:24 Taught in nurseries across the UK,
05:27 there are now over 100,000 users
05:30 whose communication has been massively helped.
05:33 A tortoise!
05:34 One of those Makaton users was George Webster.
05:38 I was inspired by Mr Tumble,
05:40 cos he's my hero when I was growing up.
05:43 Soup!
05:45 I used Makaton before I spoke with words.
05:48 And my favourite word was "more".
05:53 More, more, more, more food!
05:55 It's really, really important for children to have role models.
06:02 And it's really important for them to have a role model
06:05 who looks different, cos different is good.
06:08 (MUSIC ENDS)
06:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]