Often quite surreal, with quirky animation, it was also unique in that it was designed for hearing & non-hearing children alike. The series was essentially art & performance based but would often go off on extreme tangents - much to the delight of its viewers. The bizarre mish-mash of ideas gave it a quality all of its own and is perhaps why it has become so firmly lodged in the subconcious of its viewers even after so many years.

Putting the format together

There were 260x30 minute episodes all told (information on what is currently held by the BBC can be found in the forum). The show was a composite of ideas and people, backed by a very good production team. Ben Benison and legendary co-host Pat 'None of your pictures can be returned' Keysell, both worked with Tony on the series as did Sylvester McCoy of Dr Who fame.

Patrick Dowling (Producer) recalls the Vision On years under the guidance of:

1964 - Len Chase, Diana Potter and Patrick Dowling made the first lot of Vision Ons.
Patrick Dowling took over directing for series II, III, & IV, one a year.
1968 Series V - Michael Grafton-Robinson. Vision On received the Unicef award
1968 Series VI - Alan Russell. A near miss at the Monte Carlo award.
1969 Series VII - Peter Wiltshire.
1970 Series VIII - Patrick Dowling - the first one in colour and the 'Harlequin' award.
1971 Series IX - Howard Kennet
1972 Series X - Clive Doig/Patrick Dowling. International Prix Jeunesse award.
1973 Series XI - Clive Doig.  BAFTA for 'Specialised Programmes' award - the first time a Childrens prog got into the adult sections.
1974 Series XII - Clive Doig  

Series axed and Patrick Dowling started 'Take Hart' with Tony Hart.

The series was a revamped version of a programme called "For Deaf Children" which began in the late 50's. In fact Pat Keysell made her debut with "For Deaf Children" by introducing mimes acted out by deaf actors. The Royal National Institute For The Deaf were consulted to a large degree for this early programme, a magazine type programme with close-ups of the presenters to enable deaf viewers to lip read, backed up by captions in a type face similar to those found in school books. It was good for its time but Television was making huge strides and deaf children began to complain (quite rightly) that their programme was slow and different from other programmes. Our approach to deafness was changing - the emphasis was now more on integration rather than segregation. The method of teaching deaf children was also being questioned, and it was felt the programme needed a complete facelift to appeal to a wider audience. Pat Keysell was very involved in the conception of Vision On (then only monthly) and many of her ideas were included. Tony had already worked on "For Deaf Children" and was brought in on the new series in year two.

Director Alan Russell actually gave Vision On its fast paced style, and it was produced by Patrick Dowling - later directed by Clive Doig. The final format was inspired by a US programme called 'Rowan and Martins laugh in' which appeared in the UK in 1968.

Pat Keysell was undoubtedly the key figure in 'Vision On' and played a key part in shaping the programmes format and remains very proud of the series "My involvement with Vision On was a perfect example of being in the right place at the right time. Having returned to England in 1958 after living abroad for some years, my marriage over and a small boy in tow, I went to work for the BBC.  Like a lot of theatre people, I was fascinated by the emerging possibilities of television, and by a stroke of good fortune I got a job as secretary to Ursula Eason, assistand head of children's programmes.  At that time Ursula was producing and directing a monthly programme called "For Deaf Children" and so began my interest and involvement with deafness.

Ursula knew I had been an actress and drama teacher, so she backed me when I suggested starting a mime group for deaf actors who could perform little plays on the programme. This came about, and The Mime Group appeared many times on "For Deaf Children" between 1960 and 1964. In the seventies this group became 'The British Theatre of the Deaf', a fully professional touring company backed by The Arts Council and Equity, but that's another story!). By 1964 I was a PA in television drama, but I met Ursula in the canteen and she said "I am launching a new programme called 'Vision On' and I want you to present it!" So I resigned from the staff and became a free-lance presenter, at the same time visiting schools for the deaf in London as a mime teacher.

"Vision On" began in March 1964, at first only a monthly programme. For the first year it was just Ursula and me; in the second year one of the new directors decided I looked a bit lonely and brought in Tony Hart as a fellow presenter.

Throughout these years I kept up my work with The Theatre of the Deaf and my teaching in schools for the deaf, also working with the National Deaf Children's Society on the annual Festival of Mime. I am proud of the fact that out of some 20 - 22 contributors to Vision On, I was the only one in direct contact with deaf children. In fact, many of the ideas contributed by the children in my classes found their way into the programme, and my first book "Motives for Mime" describes how these ideas were generated. In the twelve year run of Vision On, through many changes and ups and downs and personal crises, I never missed appearing in a single programme."

Pat Keysell

Pat was quite right, hearing children liked it just as much - and in fact the minimal dialogue seemed to make it work. It was almost totally visual and could in fact be watched with the sound turned down completely were it not for the great music themes it used. In many ways it was ground breaking stuff. Perhaps for the first time in Television history, it gave hearing children some idea of what it must be like for children with limited or no hearing. There are of course programmes for the deaf even today, but nothing on terrestial british television aimed specifically at children and no doubt much that was learnt during the evolution of 'Vision On' provided a platform for those that followed. Even so, there is little (if anything) one can compare to 'Vision On', and in many ways programmes for the deaf are still few and far between and with the exception of See Hear, almost as quickly forgotten.

Ben Benison worked with Pay Keysell on the imaginative mime sequences in Vision On. Mime of course was an ideal spot for deaf viewers. Ben also appeared in a childrens series as the 'The Up And Down, In And Out, Roundabout Man' (1973). Later he was part of the 'Medieval Players' which toured druring the 80s and 90s before disbanding. Ben also taught many drama students as well as writing " Jack Lear", an adaptation of King Lear. To date we have been unable to locate Ben to talk to him about Vision On and his early television appearances. We would be delighted to hear from him or anyone who knows what Ben is doing at the moment.

More recent photo of Ben: Ben_Benison

Tony showed so many ways to be creative with such a wide variety of materials. The classic ones being pastels on black paper, collages, oil on water to produce a marble effect, and even, memorably, salt suspended from a paper cone. Tony DID make mistakes though and regretted the fact the programme did not go out live as he felt it was just as important that children realised that things don't always go to plan. With a recorded programme mistakes were edited out of course.

Vision On used a range of music that has stuck in the memories of so many who watched it. Music played an enormous part in its format, mostly to get over what would otherwise have been long periods of silence for hearing viewers, but many of the themes used have become classics (see the forum for more on this). It included all kinds of quirky and jazz-themed pieces that to a large extent broadened the mind of viewers who might otherwise have been hooked entirely on pop. The source was varied but the vast majority came from a series of stock BBC albums made by Chappell, including 'Goofy' (used for the 'Burbles') and 'Java' by Al Hirt for the closing music.

The 'Gallery Music' has changed a few times but the most well-known one is 'Leftbank 2' played by the Lance Gambit Trio and written by Wayne Hill. It's emergence was more a happy accident. Whenever the producer wanted some music, he went to BBC production assistant Gillian Reilly, very skillful in matching music to the mood of the programme. When the brilliant idea of introducing a new programme feature called 'The Gallery' - showing viewers artwork - was conceived, Gillian went to the music department, delved through the archives, and came up with a little known piece called 'Leftbank 2' (yes theres a leftbank 1). In any event, it was always referred to as "the Gallery theme" by those on the programme and even 40 years later, is still closely associated with Tony Hart. It wasn't the ONLY Gallery theme however. 'Cavatina' by John Williams was also used, and also the wonderfil 'Marguerite' composed by Bob Morgan. So there you have it, we have Gillian to thank for this enduring theme!

Gillian explains how the series was put together:

"Each programme had a theme - 'opposites', 'Air', 'Food' and so on. We had about a dozen outside contributors at any one time and we'd hold a conference to explain the theme of the forhcoming programme. They then went off to work independently. In the meantime we'd work out what else we were going to do in the studio or on film. Then it was a case of pooling those ideas, sifting through them and making use of the best ones.

When all the recording has been completed by the film makers and those in the studio, the production team faced the difficult task of fitting everything together to make a flowing, fast-moving programme. In all it took about two weeks to put together one 25 minute programme."