HEAD OF BBC’S CHILDREN TELEVISION

On Saturday, 12^th March, we were delighted to welcome Joe Godwin to our meeting.  Joe is Head of Children’s Television for the BBC and his remit is CBeebies for 

0-6 year olds and CBBC for 6-12 year olds – so quite a large span of age. 

We owe this meeting to Marjorie who met Joe at a conference earlier in the year.  Joe made it his business to speakto Marjorie when he found out about her connection to Families Together London and who we are and what we do and they arranged that he would come to speak to us and explain how he hoped future BBC children’s programmes would provide a better understanding of LGBT issues to younger viewers.  Sadly Marjorie didn’t live to attend this event but her husband Jon came in her stead.

Joe told us about how when he was a small boy (about 7 years of age) he was watching television and said that when he grew up he wanted to work at the BBC.  Not a fireman, policeman, doctor, footballer but no, “I am going to work for the BBC” and so it came to pass.

We who attended (and there were about 36 of us) gave him plenty of ammunition – much too much to write about here – but one major thought which we can all associate with is that each of us at FTL have an LGBT child/children and it follows that more than likely our straight child/children will in time have children which in turn means these children will have a gay aunt or uncle who are likely to have a partner.  (Can you get your head round that??!!)  Anyway, we will all be touched in some way with little ones who will be growing up with the knowledge that their uncle/aunt has a partner of the same sex and even have child/children.  So, if the BBC can incorporate an issue such as this in a storyline either through animation or real actors, then these youngsters will grow up being accepting.   Children of a very young age are totally accepting of so much and don’t question things which older children do when these children have not been exposed to such experiences.

Joe said that nothing is going to happen ‘tomorrow’ but he felt that the discussion gave him plenty to go away with.  He said that he would be more than happy to come again at some stage.  We are sure it is not just for the delicious lunch that is always on offer!