EPISODE 13: Joy Whitby

In March 2026,  Samira Ahmed and Graham Kibble-White visited the home of Joy Whitby to talk about her 60-plus years making children’s television.

Starting in BBC Radio as a studio manager in the 1950s, Joy moved into television in 1962, where she would go on to create Play School in 1964, devising the series and casting the presenting line-up. The following year, she launched Jackanory. She moved to London Weekend Television in 1967, where she produced The Growing Summer (1969) and Catweazle (1969). In 1970, she set up her own freelance company, Grasshopper Productions, and created the drama Grasshopper Island. Moving to Yorkshire Television in 1975, she oversaw a range of children’s programmes – including The Book Tower, Behind the Bike Sheds and The Giddy Game Show, as well as A Pattern of Roses, which featured Helena Bonham Carter in her first screen appearance.

Our conversation covers all of these programmes, plus Joy also talks about her difficult relationship with the BBC following her departure, facing down sexism in her career, and working with Tom Baker.

For more on Joy’s work, visit her website, www.grasshopper.co.uk.

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This is a Square Window production, with music by Local Teenagers. Podcast logo by Stuart Manning.