Reading with Lenny (1977)

Produced by Granada Television for ITV's Schools and Colleges strand of programmes, Reading with Lenny replaced the series It's Fun to Read in Autumn 1977. Each week, ventriloquist Terry Hall would read a different story about Kevin the Kitten to his companion Lenny the Lion and the viewers, followed by a simplified version with text on the screen that Lenny and viewers could read along with and repeat. The stories were all written by Terry Hall himself. Lenny and Terry were chosen to front the series because they were already well-known television personalities, and the aim was to motivate younger primary school children into learning to read. The series was popular with teachers and their pupils, and also enjoyed by children of all ages watching at home. Twenty episodes were shown in the 1977-78 academic year, and a further eight episodes were added to the repeat run the following year. The full series was repeated until Summer 1982 and replaced by Let's Read with Basil Brush from Autumn 1982.