Ipsa scientia potestas est

Rainbow was a British children’s television series, created by Pamela Lonsdale, which ran twice weekly at 12:10 on Tuesdays and Fridays on the ITV network, from 1972 to 1992. It was intended to develop language and number skills for pre-school children, and went on to win the Society of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Children’s Programme in 1975.

The program was originally conceived as a British equivalent of long-running American educational puppet series Sesame Street. The British series would be developed in house by Thames Television, and had no input from the Sesame Workshop.

After more than 1000 episodes, the series came to an abrupt end when Thames Television lost its ITV franchise in 1992. Since then, it has gained cult status and continues to get frequent mentions on radio and television. On 28 February 2006, BBC News reported that digital children’s channel Nick Jr. would be showing repeats of Rainbow (dating from 1982) on Mondays.

Enjoy the best outtake the show ever created.