Look and Read facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Look and Read
Genre	Children's, educational
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
Production
Running time	20 minutes
Production company(s)	BBC
Release
Original network	BBC One, BBC Two
Original release	9 January 1967 (1967-01-09) – 29 March 2004 (2004-03-29)

Look and Read was a popular BBC Television show made for primary schools. Its main goal was to help children improve their reading and writing skills. The show told exciting stories in parts, like a TV series.

The first Look and Read story aired in 1967. The last new story was shown in 2004. This makes it the longest-running TV show for schools in the United Kingdom! Many kids loved watching it. Sometimes, old episodes were even shown again on the CBBC Channel.

How Look and Read Began

Early School TV Shows

The very first TV shows for schools in Britain started in 1957. These early shows were mostly for older students in secondary school. They helped teachers show things in subjects like science and geography.

In the early 1960s, people became very interested in using TV to help children who had trouble learning. In 1962, the BBC made a show called Television Club. It told stories as a drama series. This way of telling stories worked well. People then wondered if this method could help younger primary school children too.

The Merry-Go-Round Stories

Claire Chovil, who used to be a teacher, started looking into how TV stories could help kids learn words. She convinced the BBC to let her try out two story series for their school show Merry-Go-Round.

Each episode of these stories used only a few new words. This helped teachers focus on specific lessons. In the middle of each story, there was a special teaching part. This part showed kids words to read and how to read them. These first stories, "Fishing For Fivers" (1965) and "Tom, Pat and Friday" (1966), were a big success. Because of this, Look and Read started being made in 1966.

How the Show Worked

The first Look and Read story was "Bob and Carol Look for Treasure" in 1967. It set the pattern for the show for many years. Each episode had a story split into two parts. In the middle was an educational section. This part taught children important reading skills.

Teachers also got special story books, called "pupil pamphlets." These books had the story, plus exercises and games for students. The stories were written to be exciting for kids, often like adventure tales. Characters in the stories often had to solve puzzles using their reading skills. This helped kids see how reading was useful. Each story also used a limited number of important words. These words were repeated often so kids would learn them well.

In the 1970s, Look and Read added new things. Catchy educational songs became popular and stayed in the show for many years. The famous character Wordy (see below) also joined the show. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the stories started to include topics like pollution. Later in the 1990s, some parts of the show changed. They sometimes removed songs and mixed the teaching parts more with the story. The show also started using the internet. Kids could play games and find learning materials on a special website.

Meet Wordy

For the 1974 story "Cloud Burst", a new producer named Sue Weeks created a character called Wordy. Wordy was a big orange character. He looked a bit like a round part from an old-fashioned typewriter, with letters on his body.

Wordy appeared in the teaching parts of the show. He introduced himself as Mr. Watchword, or "Wordy" for short. The actor Charles Collingwood gave Wordy his voice. Wordy knew everything about grammar and words. He taught kids how to use and understand them. With his high-pitched voice and unique look, Wordy became one of the most remembered parts of the show. He last appeared in the 1992 story "Sky Hunter II".

Catchy Songs

Some of the most memorable parts of Look and Read were its educational songs. Each story had its own special theme song. Many fans still remember these tunes. The teaching sections also had many songs with fun animations. Characters like Dog Detective appeared in these. These songs were used regularly throughout the show's history.

Many of the song lyrics, like the 'Clue Song' with Dog Detective, were written by Patricia Farrington. She also created the characters. The music for the songs was made by Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb, and Peter Howell. Most of the songs were sung by Derek Griffiths. Here are some of the most popular ones:

• "Bill the Brickie": This song showed a bricklayer "building" words with bricks. It taught how words are made of smaller parts.
• "The Punctuation Song": This song featured Mr. Big, who stood for capital letters. Miss Full Stop Lollypop represented full stops.
• "I'm An Apostrophe": This song taught the different ways to use the apostrophe. The lyrics went: "I'm an apostrophe, to shorten words you say to me; I'm not a comma, I'm not a full stop, don't put me on the line - I go at the top!"
• "Magic E": This was a very popular song. It was first written in the 1970s for another show called Words and Pictures. It showed how a silent "E" at the end of a word changes the sound of the vowel before it. For example, "cap" becomes "cape" with me, "tap" becomes "tape" with me. The song's simple words made it easy to learn and remember.

Still Popular Today

Look and Read has become popular again with people who watched it as kids. There are now websites dedicated to the show. Some of the older stories have even been shown again on the BBC children's channel CBBC. In 2017, a fan account celebrating the show's success was set up on Twitter.

List of Look and Read Stories

Look and Read Specials