Share your Wonder World

Help rebuild the archive of Simon Townsend's Wonder World, one memory at a time.

Simon Townsend made Wonder World with a small team and a big idea: that you could do real journalism for children and never talk down to them. Between 1979 and 1987 the show told thousands of stories. A lot of that history now lives in people's memories, in shoeboxes of photographs, and on home-taped cassettes in the back of cupboards. The family is slowly rebuilding the archive from its own footage, and there are gaps only the people who were there can fill. If Wonder World was part of your childhood, or your career, your help would be welcome.

Four ways you can help

Help put names to faces

The archive has catalogued a few hundred episodes so far, but plenty of reporters are not yet matched to the tapes they appeared in. If you can place a face, a location or a year, get in touch. A single correct identification can unlock a whole run of episodes on the reporters roster and in the episode guide.

Share a story

What is your strongest Wonder World memory? The day Simon announced Woodrow had died, a segment that stuck with you, a school holiday spent glued to the television after school. Two or three sentences is plenty. The best of these will sit alongside the archive, in your words and with your name, as a record of what the show meant.

Lend the originals

Photographs, press clippings, letters, merchandise, or home recordings on VHS or Betamax. You do not have to part with anything. A clear scan or a careful copy is usually all the archive needs, and the original stays with you.

Were you there?

If you reported, produced, filmed, did the make-up, answered the phones, or appeared as a guest, your first-hand account is the most valuable thing of all. Even a few lines about how the show was made would add something no reference site can match. Please get in touch.

What happens to what you send

You keep ownership of your words and your material. Sending something in gives the archive permission to publish it here, as part of Simon's archive, with the name or initials you choose.
Say how you would like to be credited, or whether you would rather stay anonymous. Either is fine.
Contributions may be lightly edited for length and clarity, never for meaning.
Your details are never sold or passed on, and a contribution can be taken down again at any time on request.
Contributions cannot be paid for. This is a family-run tribute to Simon Townsend, not a commercial archive.

For anything else, including corrections to the site, see the contact page. How the site is run and sourced is set out in the editorial standards, and how your details are handled in the privacy policy.