Freda Violet Lingstrom OBE (23 July 1893 – 15 April 1989) was a

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

producer and executive, responsible for pioneering children's programmes in the early 1950s. She and her friend Maria Bird together created '' Andy Pandy'' and '' The Flower Pot Men''.

Early life and career

Lingstrom was born in

Chelsea, London Chelsea is an area in West London, England, due south-west of Kilometre zero#Great Britain, Charing Cross by approximately . It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the SW postcode area, south-western p ...

, the daughter of George Lingstrom, a copperplate engraver, and Alice Clarey Anniss. Her paternal grandparents were Swedish. She attended the

Central School of Arts and Crafts The Central School of Art and Design was a art school, school of fine arts, fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School ...

and became an artist. Lingstrom gained her first job at Alf Cooke's London works as a designer, where she stayed for 15 months. After periods at Carlton Studios and Norfolk, Lingstrom decided in 1922 to work on her own. Her first clients were railway companies, including the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS) of the "Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It ope ...

, the Underground Group and the Norwegian state railway. The Norwegian and Swedish government commissioned her to design Scandinavian travel material for the English market. Lingstrom also wrote two novels, ''The Seventh Sister'' (1938) and ''A Flower in his Hand'' (1939), and a book, ''This is Norway'' (1933), about the country's culture and history. Her skills as a graphic designer, illustrator and author led to her joining the editorial staff of a children's magazine, ''Junior'', where she worked from 1945 until 1949.

The BBC and ''Andy Pandy''

In 1940, Lingstrom was hired by the BBC. In 1947, she became Assistant Head of BBC Schools Broadcasting and created the lunchtime programme '' Listen with Mother''. She was asked by the Head of Television Talks, Mary Adams, to create a programme for an experimental slot aimed at very young children and called'' For The Very Young''. Eventually, Lingstrom and Maria Bird set up Westerham Arts (named after

Westerham Westerham is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 3.4 miles east of Oxted and 6 miles west of Sevenoaks, adjacent to the Kent border with both Greater London and Surrey. I ...

, where they lived) to produce the first pre-filmed version of their '' Andy Pandy''. Lingstrom and Bird wrote the scripts and Bird composed the music. A chance meeting on a train introduced Lingstrom to Audrey Atterbury, who was persuaded to study under the puppeteer John Wright of the Little Angel Theatre in London. In June 1950, production began on ''Andy Pandy'', which began a trial broadcast of four live episodes on 11 July. After several episodes, Andy was joined by Teddy and Looby Loo, while Molly Gibson joined the small team to help Audrey perform with the puppets. The show was narrated by Maria Bird, as were all the 1950s black-and-white original ''Watch With Mother'' episodes. The songs were performed by Gladys Whitred, with Maria Bird on piano.

Directorship

Lingstrom was appointed director of BBC Children's Television in 1951, and the following year the slot for pre-school children was renamed '' Watch with Mother''. Westerham Arts eventually created four different programmes for weekdays with '' Flower Pot Men'', ''

The Woodentops The Woodentops are a British rock band that enjoyed critical acclaim and moderate popularity in the mid-1980s. History The band formed in 1983 in South London with an initial lineup of Rolo McGinty (vocals, guitar, formerly of the Wild Swans ...

'', and '' Rag, Tag and Bobtail''. ''

Picture Book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The ima ...

'' was also commissioned so that there was a different programme for each weekday. Lingstrom commissioned a wide range of programmes, including high-quality drama as well as entertainment programmes such as '' Crackerjack'' and those featuring

Harry Corbett Harry Corbett Order of the British Empire, OBE (28 January 1918 – 17 August 1989) was an English Magic (illusion), magician, puppeteer and television presenter. He was best known as the creator of the glove puppet character Sooty in 1952 ...

and

Sooty Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in '' The Sooty ...

. She gave Johnny Morris his first TV appearances as ''The Hot Chestnut Man'' (1953–1961). Her programmes was in the tradition of Lord Reith, which meant they were aimed at education as much as entertainment. She resisted cartoons and imported programmes. Although the programmes were widely approved of by adults, the launch of ITV in 1955 soon made it clear that many children wanted something different. The ratings for the BBC's children's programmes plummeted over the following year, when Lingstrom was replaced as Head of BBC Children's Television by Owen Reed. In retrospect Lingstrom's programmes have been seen professionally as "cosy and slightly over-protective in tone". Her last writing credit was a twelve-part adaptation of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

' '' Our Mutual Friend'', broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

in late 1958.

Personal life

Lingstrom lived in Chartwell Cottage, Mapleton Lane,

Chartwell Chartwell is a English country house, country house near Westerham, Kent, in South East England. For over forty years, it was the home of Sir Winston Churchill. He bought the property in September 1922 and lived there until shortly before his ...

, near Westerham in Kent, with Maria Bird, a close friend and co-creator of her TV characters. Bird died around 1979 following surgery for a broken hip operation. Both had lost fiancés in the First World War. After working for the BBC, she continued to write books for children and on art criticism. She died at her home in Chartwell in 1989, aged 95. Her estate still controls the rights to ''Andy Pandy'' and ''Flowerpot Men''.

Written works

*''This is Norway'' (1933) *''The Seventh Sister'' (1938) *''A Flower in his Hand'' (1939) *''Beggar's Fiddle'' (1948) *''Nicolas and Antoinette'' (1949) *''The Seeing Eye. How to look at natural and man-made things with pleasure and understanding'' (1960)* *''Richard's Wheel'' (1961)

References