My father, Gareth Floyd, who has died aged 82, was a book illustrator and teacher who painted the pictures for many series of BBC TV’s Jackanory programme from the 1960s to the 90s, often visiting the studios to make adjustments during filming.
Jackanory usually involved an actor, seated in an armchair, reading from children’s novels, with specially commissioned drawings shown on screen at various intervals. Gareth provided illustrations for more than 150 of its episodes, including for The Signposters, read by Billie Whitelaw (1969); The Railway Children, read by Jane Asher (1981); Five Children and It, read by Judy Parfitt (1983); and Stig of the Dump, read by Christopher Guard (1986).
