‘Is it any good? Why does it matter?’ Issues of Quality and Value in Children's Television

This article draws on material from the BFI's list of 100 game-changing TV shows, drawn up to mark the BBC's centenary in 2022. Twelve of the BFI's list are children's shows, encompassing a wide range of genres from drama ( Grange Hill) to preschool ( Teletubbies) to news and documentary ( Newsround). Campaigns on behalf of children's media, such as the Children's Media Foundation's collection of essays, Our Children's Future: Does Public Service Media Matter? (2021), call for the provision of ‘high quality’ media for children. In their most recent call for action in 2024, headed Responding to the Crisis of Childhood, they state: ‘We believe today's children's audience should be given access to the same range of culturally relevant, trusted and life-affirming content that was made available to previous generations, in a form and on platforms that reflect the way children and young people live today’. But what is this life-affirming content? To address this issue, I will draw on scholarly examinations of the quality of children's and adults’ TV ( Brunsdon 1997 ; Buckingham 2002 ; Bignell and Lacey 2005 ; McCabe and Akass 2007 ; IZI 2009 ; Lemish 2015 ; 2022 ) to draw some conclusions about the value of material aimed at children, and why it is worth campaigning for.