As we stroll into the Globe, my son gasps. ‘We’re here!’ he says, heartily impressed. It would be wonderful to say this was due to some precocious adoration of England’s bard on his part, but he’s actually recognising it from the ads he’d seen for the Globe on the tube a few days earlier, and which I’d painstakingly reminded him he would be visiting very soon. Since this poster was right beside a much brighter poster advertising Paw Patrol LIVE at Wembley Arena, it took considerably more time to explain that his favourite troupe of libertarian canines would not be in attendance. He would, however, see some of his favourite TV characters, since this was a CBeebies performance of As You Like It, featuring some of the channel’s biggest stars.
CBeebies is, of course, a staple of both our lives. To my son, Justin Fletcher’s Mr Tumble is something between Elvis and Jesus Christ. To me, he’s often been something like a co-parent. I don’t think there’s a parent in the UK who doesn’t value the contribution they make to society, and there’s a fair majority who’d burn Downing Street to the ground if their proposed, unjustified cuts to CBBC exceed their reach and target its younger sibling. This is not a neutral position, but I refuse to adopt one. There is such a thing as a public good, and thoughtful, diverse and informative free-to-air children’s programming is just such a thing. We’re just lucky that beyond all that, CBeebies programming is also funnier, smarter, sillier and wiser than it has to be, year after year.
