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''Vision On'' was a British children's Television programme, shown on BBC1 from 1964 to 1977 specifically for deaf children. It was conceived by BBC Producers Ursula Eason and developed by Patrick Dowling to replace a monthly series ‘’For The Deaf’’, a programme paced slowly enough for children to read captions and subtitles. It was noted in surveys that a favourite for deaf children was ‘’ Top Of The Pops ’’ – not really surprising because it was lively and fast moving and even the profoundly deaf could still enjoy the music’s thump. There was also disagreement as to whether lip-reading or sign-language was the more appropriate. But the replacement was to be entertainment not education, so a decision was made, except for one repeated statement, to abandon speech altogether, to severely limit the amount of text and to communicate in vision only. The title ‘’Vision On’’ referred to the illuminated sign in studios indicating that cameras were live. The aim was developed to entertain but also to encourage imaginativeness, with a fast paced flow of contrasted ideas, both sane and silly. This mixture was an apparent success as the series ran from 1964 to 1972 and, while retaining a commitment to the deaf, attracted a wider following and gained several awards including the international Prix Jeunesse and the BAFTA award for Specialised Programmes. The presenters were Pat Keysell, an actress who also taught deaf children, and the artist Tony Hart who made pictures large and small in every conceivable medium and encouraged children to submit their own paintings to “The Gallery”, which they did in their thousands. Others in vision included Ben Benison and Sylvester McCoy , both of whom specialized in mime in the series, and Wilf Makepeace Lunn , who appeared as an eccentric inventor of equally eccentric machines and David Cleveland who appeared in film sequences as the Prof. Many other contributors are listed in the ''Vision On'' website The programme logo is made up from the words of the title and its reflection. It was called “Grog” because it was not clear if it resembled a grasshopper or a frog! Patrick Dowling who produced the series throughout eventually found the flow of new ideas became more and more difficult to sustain and after twelve years decided to close the programme down while it was still at its height. He continued with Tony Hart to make an arts programme called ‘’Take Hart’’ retaining “The Gallery”, which is still showing in the current BBC Childrens programme Smart . CO-PRODUCTIONS Vision On was co-produced in France with Radio-Diffusion and with CBC under the title ‘’Déclic’’and in Sweden as “Ögon Blik”. ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD It was shown in Australia and New Zealand and many other countries as well. In the USA many PBS stations, as well as a few commercial stations, aired "Vision On" during the 1970s. Some of these stations, such as KOMO-TV in Seattle , taped their own episodes, which were seen along with the BBC-produced shows. MUSIC Despite its intended hearing-impaired audience, the show made extensive use of music for the benefit of hearing-enabled viewers watching the show. Notable themes included:
REFERENCES ''Radio Times'', 1964–1977 EXTERNAL LINKS
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