This is a timeline of the history of the broadcasting of children's programmes on BBC Television.

1930s and 1940s 1937 24 April – The first children's television show to be aired on UK television, For the Children, is broadcast.

1939 The BBC Television Service is suspended, following the conclusion of a Mickey Mouse cartoon (Mickey's Gala Premier), owing to the imminent outbreak of the Second World War amid fears that the VHF transmissions would act as perfect guidance beams for enemy bombers attempting to locate central London. Additionally, the service's technicians and engineers will be needed for war efforts such as the development of radar.

1940 to 1945 Television is closed for the duration of the Second World War.

1946 7 June – The BBC Television Service begins broadcasting again. The first words heard are "Good afternoon, everybody. How are you? Do you remember me – Jasmine Bligh?". The Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Gala Premiere that had been the last programme transmitted seven years earlier at the start of World War II, is reshown after Bligh's introduction. 7 July – The BBC's children's programme For the Children returns, one of the few pre-war programmes to resume after the reintroduction of the BBC Television Service. 4 August – Children's puppet Muffin the Mule makes his debut in an episode of For the Children. He becomes so popular that he is given his own show later in the year.

1950s 1950 The BBC Children's Department is founded.Home, Anna Into the Box of Delights, London: BBC Books, 1993 11 July – Andy Pandy makes his debut on the BBC Television Service. 25 November – The beginning of Whirligig on Saturdays means children's programmes now run on all seven days of the week, although on Tuesdays only Andy Pandy runs earlier in the afternoon; 5pm children's programmes, in common with the other days, do not begin on Tuesdays until 12 December.

1952 16 January – Sooty, Harry Corbett's glove puppet bear, first appears on the BBC Television Service. December – For the Children is used as the umbrella title for the 5pm children's programme sequences for the final time, it is then retitled Children's Television. Watch with Mother, the long-running strand for younger children, makes its debut. It would run until 1978.

1953 14 June – The first adaptation of The Railway Series by Wilbert Awdry airs. It would later be readapted as Thomas & Friends.

1955 10 January – Annette Mills dies from a heart attack following an operation. Following her death, Muffin the Mule is dropped by the BBC Television Service. 16 January – Sooty becomes a programme in its own right. 24 September – The first edition of a new, live variety show, Crackerjack, is broadcast.

1956 June – Whirligig comes to an end.

1957 24 September – The BBC begins broadcasting programmes for schools.

1958 16 October – First broadcast of the United Kingdom's longest-running children's show Blue Peter.

1960s

1963 The Children's Department is temporarily closed down. April – Watch with Mother is moved to a mid-morning slot and from September, the lunchtime broadcast is reintroduced.

1964 Family Department takes over children's programming. 21 April – The first edition of Play School is broadcast. It is transmitted on the new BBC2 channel, which had launched the previous evening but the launch night was affected by a power cut that resulted in it becoming the first programme to air on the new channel. 28 September – Blue Peter is now shown twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays with each episode extended from 15 to 25 minutes.

1965 18 October – The Magic Roundabout makes its debut on BBC1 and would run until 1977. 13 December – Storytelling series Jackanory makes its debut on BBC1. It would run until 1996 and was briefly revived in 2006.

1966 3 January – Camberwick Green is the first programme on BBC1 to be shot in colour and the first programme to feature the copyright year in the end credits; BBC1 would not broadcast in colour until almost four years later and regular BBC programmes also wouldn't show the copyright year in the end credits until six years later.

1967 Children's Department is reinstated. 3 January – Trumpton is the second programme on BBC1 to be shot in colour and to also feature the copyright year in the end credits five years before regular BBC programmes would; only BBC2 became the first channel to broadcast colour nearly six months later. BBC1 however still wouldn't broadcast colour until almost three years later. 25 December – Sooty is shown for the final time on the BBC. It would transfer to the newly-launched ITV franchise Thames the following year.

1968 12 February – The Herbs, the first programme in colour produced by another company other than Gordon Murray Puppets Ltd. makes its debut.

1969 6 October – Chigley is the third and final programme to be shot in colour on BBC1 before regular colour broadcasting and also happens to be the first programme to feature the copyright year in Roman numerals in the end credits nearly seven years ahead of most programmes by the BBC.

1970s 1970 14 September – Blue Peter is broadcast in colour for the first time but black and white editions continue to be occasionally shown until 1974.

1971 25 February – The animated children's adventure series Mr Benn airs on BBC1 with the copyright year shown from the previous year (1970) in the end credits shortly before the BBC tv logo. However the other regular BBC programmes unlike The Trumptonshire Trilogy still wouldn't show any copyright years until the following year (1972).

1972 27 March – For the first time, BBC1 broadcasts children's programmes on weekday mornings during the school holidays. The block, which runs for just over one hour, ends at 11am, which is the start time for Play School on BBC2. 4 April – The first edition of Newsround is broadcast on BBC1, hosted by John Craven.

1973 5 February – Elisabeth Beresford's well known popular children's characters The Wombles have spawned into a stop motion animated television series narrated by Bernard Cribbins and composed by Mike Batt on BBC1. 20 August – The first episode of Why Don't You? airs on BBC1.

1974 14 January – Pre-school educational series You and Me airs its first episode. It would run until 1992. 24 June – BBC One Scotland airs Summer holiday children's programming opt-out schedules for the first time. The Summer holiday children's schedule (seen across the BBC network for the final three weeks from mid to late August) is time-shifted to air throughout the first three weeks of the holidays to viewers in Scotland owing to school holiday differences across the UK. 9 September – John Craven's Newsround expands to four days a week. Previously, the programme had aired only on Tuesdays and Thursdays.BBC Programme Index – BBC1, 9 September 1974

1975 23 December – The animated children's upper nursery school programme Bod first airs on BBC1 with 11 more episodes to broadcast the following year.

1976 5 January – BBC1 begin showing the children's stop motion animated series Paddington, based on the books by Michael Bond and narrated by Michael Hordern. Produced by FilmFair copyrighted the previous year (1975) in the end credits. 6 January – The children's supernatural comedy series Rentaghost makes its debut on BBC1. 2 October – The first edition of Saturday morning children's magazine show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop is broadcast to compete with ITV's Tiswas. It runs throughout the morning on BBC1.

1978 8 February – The first episode of school drama Grange Hill is broadcast on BBC1. It would run until 2008. The Watch with Mother title is dropped as it was considered to be dated.

1980s 1980 1 October – BBC1's lunchtime children's block is now called See Saw.

1981 10 February – Alan Rogers animation Pigeon Street begins on BBC1. The series ran until December before repeats on BBC1 and BBC2 throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. 16 September – Debut of the children's television series Postman Pat about a rural postman with a black and white cat written and created by John Cunliffe and voiced and narrated by Ken Barrie, and edited by Ivor Wood, the same director as most Filmfair programmes on BBC1, it was the first Woodland Animations Ltd. produced programme and, unusually by this time, did not have a copyright year on its credits.

1982 27 March – The final edition of Saturday morning children's magazine show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop is broadcast. 17 April – The BBC launches its first Summer Saturday morning magazine programme, Get Set. However, unlike its Winter counterpart, the Summer shows air only for the first half of the morning so that Grandstand can start at 10:55am to show live cricket and on the weeks that cricket is not being shown, a feature film is broadcast from around 11am until the start of Grandstand at 12:30pm. 2 October – The first edition of Multi-Coloured Swap Shop Saturday morning replacement show Saturday Superstore is broadcast on BBC1. It adopts a similar format to its predecessor. 1 November – All BBC-produced Welsh-language programming including children's programmes is transferred from BBC1 to the newly launched S4C channel.

1983 17 February – Woodland Animations Ltd. introduces a new stop-motion animated series, Gran on BBC1, following the success of Postman Pat. 30 May – The morning broadcast of Play School moves to the earlier time of 10:30am. 19 September – Owing to the transfer of programmes for schools and colleges to BBC2, the morning broadcast of Play School moves to BBC1. It continues to air at 10:30am.

1984 3 January – Computerised graphics begin to be shown as part of the children's continuity as a way of differentiating children's output from the rest of BBC1's programming. However, the actual programme continues to be introduced over the BBC1 globe. 21 April – The Saturday Picture Show replaces Get Set as the BBC's Summer Saturday morning magazine programme. It begins at the earlier time of 8:45am. 5 October – The first programme in the trilogy to be produced by Maddocks Cartoon Productions, The Family-Ness, makes its debut on BBC1. 21 December – Crackerjack! ends after 29 series and nearly three decades.

1985 29 March – Play School is shown in the afternoon for the final time. 1 April – Bertha, a new stop-motion animated series from Woodland Animations, the team behind Postman Pat, makes its debut on BBC1 with three more episodes broadcast the following year. 9 September – The weekday afternoon block of children's programming is rebranded as Children's BBC and for the first time it has an in-vision presenter. Previously, children's programming had been introduced by BBC1's team of regular duty announcers. October – A weekday 20-minute slot of Gaelic children's programmes begins on BBC1 Scotland. The programmes are generally shown in term-time before Play School, starting at 10:10am.

1986 6 January – Debut of the children's animated series and second programme in the trilogy to be produced by Maddocks Cartoon Productions, Jimbo and the Jet-Set on BBC1. 27 March – Following the launch the previous Autumn of in-vision continuity for children's programmes, for the first time, in-vision presentation is introduced to holiday weekday morning children's programmes. The Easter period's ten programmes are presented by Roland Rat and are called Roland Rat's Easter Extravaganza. 1 April – As part of the BBC's Drugwatch campaign, BBC1 airs It's Not Just Zammo, a Newsround special presented by John Craven and Nick Ross that seeks to warn younger viewers about the dangers of using drugs. The programme follows a recent drug abuse storyline in Grange Hill involving the character Zammo McGuire (played by Lee MacDonald), and features the launch of a version of the anti-drugs song "Just Say No" recorded by members of the Grange Hill cast.