Did you watch Jackanory as a child ?

[WildRosie]

I admit I didn't! Growing up in the 70s and 80s, children's television was a big thing on BBC and ITV. I saw stuff like John Craven's Newsround, The Tomorrow People and Blue Peter but Jackanory just passed me by. I don't ever remember watching it and I certainly never made a point of it. I guess I just had little interest in children's stories! Did I miss anything ?

Ah I loved it

I think

I can’t remember why 😆

It always seemed really boring to me (and I work in book publishing nowadays so I loved reading).

It's the kind of programming that adults think kids will like but they don't in reality!

Sadly, I always thought it looked boring so we always turned over to He-Man or some other shit cartoon instead. As a mum I would have loved mine to watch something similar but as a kid I was completely uninterested.

Another reader who found it boring here. I didnt like BP either.

Dipped in and out. Seemed a bit stuffy but also remember enjoying it sometimes.

I found it boring even though I was a big reader. Agree with pp who said it was a programme adults thoughts kids would like same as Blue Peter.

I don't remember it much. Blue Peter, TakeHart and Morph.

I watched it in the 60s and 70s, I enjoyed it usually but it was quite different each week as they had different readers, different books (obvs) and different illustrators- each week was a different book- so you just might not fancy it one week.

I didn't but there was something.comforting about preschoolers and after school and Saturday morning childrens TV. So reliable.

I loved Newsround, Blue Peter, Take Hart and The earlier one Vision On, and Crackerjack.

I didn’t watch much as I found it boring. I was always amazed though, how the narrators managed to remember all the words, didn’t know about autocues back then 🙄

I watched it and loved it. My mother was very selective about what I could watch so it was a real treat.

I did, but like others I didn't find being read to particularly interesting once I could read myself. I remember finding Arabele and her crow, Mortimer quite fun, but I think that was the only one I remember enjoying.
If you introduced it nowadays people would be saying how terrible that parents don't want to read to their children and expecting the BBC to do it for them. 🤣

I loved it! So many fond memories of Bernard Cribbins and Willie Rushton and my favourite Kenneth Williams reading Agaton Sax. We didn’t have many books and we lived miles from the library with no car, so any way I could get a book into me was a bonus.
I showed my kids Rik Mayall reading George’s Marvellous Medicine when they were young and they still remember it in their twenties.
There was something so comforting about it, like having a favourite uncle read you a story with all the voices.

Yes I used to watch it after school. Back in the days before wall to wall TV, so the quality was much better. I think they did a story each week, in instalments (correct me if I'm wrong it's over 50 yrs ago😉) always looked forward to each instalment 😀

Seems we're divided on the thorny subject of Jackanory but I note the recurring appearance of 'boring' in the replies. What I do remember about it is the theme music - originally played by a woodwind group, later a harpsichord - and somebody droning 'Jackanory, tell a story...'. And the storyteller being either Kenneth Williams or Bernard Cribbins!

Do any similar children's programmes exist now ? I would be very surprised.

I always thought it was boring as well and I was voracious reader as a child.

The only episodes I can remember watching and enjoying were Rick Mayall reading George's Marvellous Medicine. I'm sure I must have watched some others too but they weren't memorable for me.

Jackabory you mean? No I didn’t watch it but I did have a brilliant sense of humour as you can no doubt tell.

I loved reading but hated being read to.

It was boring. Like others, I was a huge reader - but I loathe being read aloud to.

I occasionally watched it (yes, to Bernard Cribbins) but only because there was so little on for children. It was absolutely the sort of 'educational' programme that middle class, middle aged programmers in the 70s thought was suitable for children.

Nah, me and my brother declared it boring!

I loved reading and Jackanory was like having to deal with read alouds in class, going at a snails pace and stopping at the worst moment.

I'm too controlling over the pace of my stories.

I loved reading and loved Jackanory. We didn't have much access to books so I was happy to get them any way I could.

Yes, I loved it! Bernard Cribbins reading "Arabel's Raven" particularly, so much so that I begged my parents to buy the books. Don't know how it could ever be called boring, there were so many different stories.

If nothing else, Jackanory was a good showcase for the storytellers (mainly actors, I guess); five nights a week solo, with some room to improvise. Somehow, I can imagine David Bowie would have made a good storyteller.

I sometimes watched it depending on the story ,i.think Prince Charles( now the.King!)did one?