Playbox is a British children's television programme for pre-school children aged 2–5, which was broadcast on the Children's ITV block on ITV. It debuted on 5 January 1987, and aired through 4 February 1992. Playbox was produced by Central Independent Television. The programme was the first Ragdoll television show to be made by ITV. It was created by Leslie Pitt and Anne Wood, who had just founded Ragdoll Productions.

Overview

The show took place inside a red, yellow and blue box, with the main characters, Cat and Dog, being controlled by a puppeteer (Marcus Clarke) from inside the box. The puppets would draw pictures, tell stories, sing songs, and play jokes on one another (mainly typical slapstick). The puppets were voiced by Pat Coombs and Keith Chegwin, Cat and Dog respectively. Every storytime would feature episodes from the 1969-1970 French stop-motion animation series Pépin la bulle. In the English version, the girl doll, Brigantine is renamed Polly, while Garatakeu, Fouretout, and Clapotis are simply renamed Monkey, Toucan, and Hippo respectively. The episodes featured were also slightly shorter than the original French versions. The storytime segments with Pepin la bulle, however, did not appear on any of the VHS releases. Playbox was part of the many other children's shows that would appear on weekday lunchtimes on ITV between midday and 12:30 pm as well as Rainbow, Rod, Jane and Freddy, Allsorts, Rosie and Jim, and The Riddlers.

Episodes

Series 1 (1987)

Series 2 (1988)

Series 3 (1989)

Series 4 (1990)

Series 5 (1991)

Series 6 (1992)

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