Anne Wood
CBE
Born (1937-12-18) 18 December 1937 (age 86)
Spennymoor, County Durham, England
OccupationChildren's TV producer
Years active1955–2021

Anne Wood, CBE (born 18 December 1937) is an English children's television producer, responsible for creating shows such as Teletubbies with Andrew Davenport. She is also the creator of Tots TV and Rosie and Jim. She was a recipient of the Eleanor Farjeon Award.

Early years

She was born in Spennymoor, County Durham, England, and grew up in Tudhoe Colliery, a small coal-mining village nearby.[1]

Career

She qualified as a secondary school teacher through the Bingley Training College in Yorkshire and took up her first teaching post back home in Spennymoor. She married Barrie Wood in 1959 and moved to Surbiton in Surrey where she took up a teaching role at Hollyfield Road Secondary School.

This was the era of the first children's paperback book and Anne became an early pioneer of a children's paperback book club scheme for schools set up by Scholastic Publications. She retired from teaching on the birth of her daughter and was taken on by Scholastic as editor of their Children's Book Club.

Children’s books

When the Wood family moved to Byfleet in Surrey, she expanded her interest in how books and children's development could be brought together. In 1965, she founded and edited a quarterly magazine Books for Your Children, a publication aimed at parents, teachers, and librarians and fully supported by children's publishers. Initially the UK Arts Council supported the magazine with a small financial grant. As a further promotion of children's books, in 1969, Wood set up the Federation of Children's Book Groups, an organisation still in existence today. Also, in 1969, in recognition of her contribution to the promotion of children's books, Wood was awarded the Eleanor Farjeon Award.[1]

Television producer

  1. Tyne Tees Television for ITV 1977 Puzzle Party hosted by Gyles Brandreth and featuring Gnigel the Gnu
  2. Yorkshire Television for ITV 1979 – 1983 Five series of The Book Tower, a programme aimed at stimulating children's interest in books. Hosts included Tom Baker and Stephen Moore. Winner of a Children's BAFTA in 1979[2] and 1982. Winner Prix Jeunesse 1980. 1982–1987 Three series of Ragdolly Anna, based on the children's books by Jean Kenward. Innovative technology brought the ragdoll to life. The series starred Pat Coombs as the dressmaker owner of the ragdoll.
  3. Head of Children's Programmes for TV-am. In April 1983, introduced Roland Rat, a character created by David Claridge in The Spectacular Shedvision Show. The series is generally regarded as the saviour of the ailing breakfast television service. Roland took the audience from 100,000 to 1.8 million. Wood produced six further series, Rat on the Road (1983), Roland's Winter Wonderland (1983), filmed in Switzerland, Roland Goes East (1984), filmed in Hong Kong, Rat on the Road II (1984), Operation Fog I (1984), and Roland’s Countdown to Christmas (1984). Concurrent with Roland Rat, Wood produced a Sunday morning series Rub-a-Dub-Tub – a magazine-style one-hour programme for very young children. It began transmission in February 1983.
  4. Ragdoll Productions Limited: Wood founded her own independent children's television production company in 1984. She retired from Ragdoll in 2021.

Productions (with first transmission years)

Awards

Personal

Productions, For Yorkshire TV

Productions, As Ragdoll Productions

Brum

Rosie and Jim

Magic Mirror

Tots TV

Open a Door

Badjelly the Witch

Teletubbies

Teletubbies Everywhere

Boohbah

What Makes Me Happy

In the Night Garden...

Dipdap

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Meg Carter. "Interview: Anne Wood, the co-creator of the Teletubbies | Society". Guardian. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  2. ^ "BAFTA Television Awards". Bafta.org. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  3. ^ "RTS Fellows | Royal Television Society". Rts.org.uk. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  4. ^ William, Helen (13 November 2000). "Baftas reward the best of children's TV – Media – News". Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  5. ^ "Broadcasting Press Guild". Broadcastingpressguild.org. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  6. ^ Loveday, Samantha (22 November 2010). "Ragdoll's Anne Wood honoured at Mother & Baby Awards | Latest news from the licensing industry". Licensing.biz. Archived from the original on 6 May 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  7. ^ "Honorary graduates – University of Birmingham". Birmingham.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  8. ^ "BAFTA Children's Awards". Bafta.org. 11 November 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  9. ^ "BAFTA Children's Awards". Bafta.org. 11 November 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  10. ^ [1] Archived 5 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ [2] Archived 22 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ "BAFTA Children's Awards". Bafta.org. 11 November 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  13. ^ [3] [dead link]
  14. ^ a b "Prix Jeunesse 2014 Prize winners" (PDF). Prixjeunesse.de. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  15. ^ "BAFTA Children's Awards". Bafta.org. 11 November 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  16. ^ "BAFTA Children's Awards". Bafta.org. 11 November 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  17. ^ [4] Archived 7 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ "BAFTA Children's Awards". Bafta.org. 11 November 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  19. ^ a b c "2008 Winners | The Licensing Awards 2010". Thelicensingawards.co.uk. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  20. ^ [5] Archived 26 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine

External links

Ragdoll Productions
Authority control databases
Categories