Listen With Mother

with Ann Driver, George Dixon, Daphne Oxenford, Dorothy Smith, Eileen Browne (left), Catherine Edwards and Julia Lang (right).

Few radio memories come as misty-eyed as this: no other signature tune evokes the warmth and tenderness of childhood security as powerfully as the Berceuse from Faure's Dolly Suite.

The time is a quarter to two. This is the BBC Home Service for mothers and children at home. Are you ready for the music? When it stops, Catherine Edwards will be here to speak to you. Ding-de-dong. Ding-de-dong, Ding, Ding! Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin!

So began Listen with Mother every afternoon at 1:45pm (just before Woman's Hour), a fifteen minute programme of stories, songs and nursery rhymes for children under five. The audience was over one million at its peak.

With nursery rhymes set to music by Ann Driver and sung by George Dixon, a senior schools producer with a long and distinguished career in broadcasting, and Eileen Browne, the songs were often unaccompanied. There cannot be many children who did not march up and down the hill with "The Grand Old Duke of York".

Meanwhile "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" was growing neat rows of silver bells and cockleshells in her garden, while the King of Spain's Daughter regularly visited a "Little Nut Tree" which only grew a silver nutmeg and a golden pear. Humpty Dumpty and "Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross" were other favourites.

Then, helping us to count was "One, two. . . . three, four, five; Once I caught a fish alive; six, seven. . . . eight, nine, ten; Then I let it go again" and the rhyme "Ding, Dong, Dell, Pussy's in the Well" all turned out for the best once we had found out who put her in and who pulled her out! So "Polly Put the Kettle On, We'll All Have Tea!

Another particularly memorable song, which featured at least once a week, ended:
This is the way the old men ride, Hobble-dee Hobble-dee Hobble-dee and down into a ditch!

It is quite likely that this latter song was the origin of the following anecdote sent in by George Dixon's son, Paul: "My father told us one story about the programme. A listener had called in with the complaint that her child had been terrified by the sound of galloping horses. It was explained to her that the sound effect was made with the traditional half coconut shells, and how she could make the sound herself to show the child. They would not run that song again until she let them know that the child understood, which she did. Presumably there was one satisfied customer!"

The stories were read by Daphne Oxenford, Dorothy Smith and Julia Lang. The storytellers wrote several of their own tales and Dorothy Smith's readings of the My Naughty Little Sister stories written by the late Dorothy Edwards are still remembered with affection.

Daphne Oxenford and Dorothy Smith were very long-standing members of the team and read the stories on the programme for 21 and 26 years respectively.

Audrey Hindley [Allen] wrote several stories for Listen With Mother in the 1960's

I created stories for my two children (Mark was the younger). The children asked me to repeat the stories and they are the best critics! ……so ………
I decided to send some of them to the "Listen With Mother" programme as I felt that the experiences of everyday life in the stories were educational, and they stimulated the imagination of the pre-school child. I aimed to introduce new vocabulary, creativity, interest in numeracy and literacy, interaction with family and friends and an understanding of the world outside the home.
I am still writing …. not only for children: but rhyming and non-rhyming verse and short stories for adults too.

Listen With Mother ……Mark and his Teddy Bears
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1] Mark and the Teddy Bears Play in the Snow
2] Mark and the Teddy Bears Make an Aeroplane
3] Mark and the Teddy Bears, on a Wet Day
4] Mark and the Teddy Bears go on a Train
5] Mark and the Teddy Bears have a Birthday.
6] Mark and his Teddy Bears help the Removal Men
7] Mark and the Teddy Bears have Sandwiches in the Sand.
8] Mark and the Teddy Bears Walk by the River
9] Mark and the Teddy Bears go Fishing
10] Mark and the Teddy Bears go to the Fair. Part 1 and 2.

11] Mark and the Teddy Bears Dig the Garden
12] Mark and the Teddy Bears go Shopping, and Plant the Garden.
13] Mark and the Teddy Bears Find Flowers in the Garden.
14] Mark and the Teddy Bears Find a Hedgehog.
15] Mark and the Teddy Bears make a Camp.
16] Mark and his Teddy Bears Prepare for Christmas
17] Mark and his Teddy Bears See Father Christmas.
18] Mark and the Teddy Bears Fly a Kite.
19] Mark and the Teddy Bears have an Injection.[See the doctor]

Some of these stories were also broadcast on BBC Welsh Service .

It wasn't only children who listened, but seamen on board ship were also regular listeners, as were the occupants of Buckingham Palace.

Eileen Browne (top) an early presenter of "Listen With Mother" later moved on to "Watch With Mother" and provided the voice of "Jenny" in "The Woodentops". Eileen's nephew, Geoffrey Browne remembers:
"As a child, I visited Broadcasting House to watch them make the programme with a wonderful new invention: the tape recorder. This incredible machine enabled them to record all the programmes for the whole week in one go, without having to do it live every weekday. The music and stories were on 78 rpm records with a yellow crayon mark that showed where to put the needle down. Eileen was of course wearing a tweed suit and sat in front of the famous BBC 'lollypop microphone'. If I remember rightly, women were not allowed to wear trousers in the BBC until 1971."

Joyce Williams wrote several stories for Listen with Mother in the late 70's, such as Black Beetle, Amy Kate's Lion and Tim's Tomorrow.

The audience numbers diminished over the years with the advent of Watch With Mother and the programme finally ended in 1982.