FCBG - Key Persons

Anne Wood founded Ragdoll Productions, whose work is loved by children around the world, in 1984 and since then Ragdoll has produced more than 1,500 programmes aimed at the youngest viewers and won the BAFTA CHILDREN'S AWARD for Independent Production Company 2008. Anne Wood was born in County Durham and qualified as a secondary school teacher. One of her early missions was to encourage her pupils to read and she became an early pioneer of a children's paperback book club scheme for schools set up by Scholastic Publications. In 1965 Anne founded a quarterly magazine, Books for Your Children, and in 1969 she set up the Federation of Children's Book Groups. That same year, Anne was awarded the Eleanor Farjeon Award for her distinguished contribution to the promotion of children's books and became a sort-after consultant embracing book publishing, radio and television. Yorkshire Television contracted Anne to produce The Book Tower, a series aimed to stimulate children's interests in books, which was awarded a Children's BAFTA and the prestigious international children's television award, the Prix Jeunesse. After adapting Jean Kenward's Ragdolly Anna for television and producing an English version of the Moomins for ITV, Anne was invited to create a children's department for the commercial newcomer, TV-AM in 1981, from where she commissioned the anarchical character, Roland Rat. With the demise of TV-AM, Anne took the leap into independent production and in 1984 set up Ragdoll Productions.