CITV has closed after more than 40 years on air. Reaching its heyday in the early 1990s, ITV has now retired the brand and removed children’s programmes from ITV1.
Programmes came to an unceremonial end at 9pm on Friday, with adverts giving way to a promotion for ITVX and the begin of a looping caption that will continue to appear on some digital TV platforms until the channel is officially delisted.
The CITV channel launched in 2006 as a dedicated home for ITV’s children’s shows, but it never recovered from savage cuts to ITV’s children’s unit, becoming a pale shadow of the original Children’s ITV service of the 80s and 90s, unable to fully reinvent itself for a new generation amidst fierce competition from rival children’s TV channels and streaming services.
Following the closure of CITV, a look back at 40 years of television history:
3rd January 1983
Children’s ITV launches
Starting at 4pm and broadcast nationally on the ITV network. Initially links between programmes were pre-recorded.
Sooty, T-Bag, Danger Mouse, Supergran and He-Man were among the early favourites among viewers.
1st June 1987
Children’s ITV launches live presentation
No more pre-recorded links! Gary Terzza and Debbie Shore present Children’s ITV live from Central’s Birmingham studios in Broad Street. Mark Granger took over presenting in 1988.
In September 1987, children’s adventure show Knightmare (pictured) made its debut. It would remain part of the CITV schedules until November 1994.
1989-1991
Children’s ITV’s golden era begins
During this time, Children’s ITV was produced by independent production company Stonewall Productions.
The on-screen team consisted of Clive Warren, Jeanne Downs, Jerry Foulkes and Scally the puppet dog.
1989 saw the launch of iconic comedy dramas Press Gang (pictured) and Woof!, the hospital-based drama Children’s Ward, sci-fi sitcom Mike & Angelo and well-remembered game show Fun House.
Then in 1990, the arrival of two TVS shows: Art Attack and How 2.
For younger viewers, Rosie and Jim invited viewers to join them onboard their narrowboat Ragdoll in Birmingham.
April 1991-February 1993
Tommy Boyd era
Central took back control of Children’s ITV with presenter Tommy Boyd linking between shows.
Children’s ITV arguably reached its heyday during this time: shows launched in 1989 and 1990 were recommissioned and drew large audiences. Also drawing in viewers: Tiny Toon Adventures, the US animated series featuring young Warner Bros cartoon characters and Finder’s Keepers, the Neil Buchanan fronted show, based on a US format, that gave children a licence to ‘raid the room’ in the search for prizes.
Children’s ITV also ran a summer morning strand of programmes, making use of Central’s canal-side location to broadcast from outside, with shows including cartoon Ox Tales and Adventures from Kythera, the Australian children’s TV series filmed on the Greek island of Kythera.
TVS and Thames, which had both contributed substantially to children’s TV on the ITV network, lost their ITV franchises at the end of 1992. Thames’ Rainbow ended in 1992, although Tetra Films revived it in 1994 on behalf of HTV. Meanwhile, STV took over production of How 2. 1992 saw the end of T-Bag.
26th May 1998-August 2004
Return of on-screen presenters
A new logo and the arrival of on-screen presenters Stephen Mulhern and Danielle Nicholls heralded a new era for CITV.
CITV’s studio set was opposite the set used for Central News West.
During this era, Yorkshire TV’s My Parents Are Aliens arrived, the last long-running children’s sitcom made by ITV. The Worst Witch also made its debut and Children’s Ward was cancelled.
But CITV began to suffer from cuts to its budget as the remaining two ITV companies in England and Wales announced their merger…
31st August 2004-13th November 2006
Managed decline
CITV lost on-screen presentation as the budget for children’s programmes continued to be cut by ITV. Presentation was moved from Central to Granada. Children’s programmes on ITV1 in the afternoon were cut to just one hour in 2006, before being axed completely.
During this time, Pocoyo, narrated by Stephen Fry and pictured above, was CITV’s big thing.
11th March 2006
Launch of the CITV channel
Programmes were available on Freeview and cable services from the beginning. It was added to Sky in June 2006.
However, although the launch was a live simulcast of Holly and Stephen’s Saturday Showdown, the CITV channel rarely included any live content, relying on pre-recorded shows.
With ITV shutting its own children’s production unit, CITV also relied heavily on re-runs, including My Parents Are Aliens, plus imported shows and programmes made by third-party producers.
On weekend mornings, the CITV channel was simulcast on ITV1.
5th and 6th January 2013
CITV Old Skool Weekend
To celebrate 30 years of CITV, the CITV channel spent the weekend showcasing the best of ITV’s children’s programmes, notably with many of them coming from the 1989-1993 heyday.
1st September 2023
CITV channel closes
At 9pm, the CITV channel closes for the final time, directing viewers to ITVX.
2nd September 2023
New ITV2 Kids slot
ITV2 will show children’s programmes for four hours every morning. While the slot provides access to children’s shows for viewers without access to ITVX, the linear broadcast slot has a further purpose.
Some programmes can only be made available on ITVX if they’ve been broadcast on a regular linear channel. Broadcasting a number of imported shows in an early morning slot allows ITV to make the shows available on ITVX immediately afterwards.