Former Blue Peter star Konnie Huq urges BBC to bring back children's TV afternoons

Konnie Huq has pleaded with the BBC to bring back children's TV in the afternoons on BBC1 - even if only for "an hour a day".

The former 'Blue Peter' star - who has sons, Covey, 12, and Huxley, 10, with 'Black Mirror' writer Charlie Brooker - says it's a shame that children today don't get to rush home from school to enjoy family screen time.

She is quoted by The Mirror as saying: “Blue Peter was on three times a week on BBC1, in what was still an era of family viewing.

“People would watch things all together at teatime around the telly and that’s been lost.

“That’s why the BBC should bring back children’s programmes on BBC1 after they get home from school. I think it would be a better way to use the children’s programming budget, rather than diluting the budget over a whole two channels.

“Then you could have Blue Peter back, and programmes like Newsround. Just give us an hour a day, that’s all I ask.”

The 48-year-old presenter - who was the longest-serving female presenter of the British children's television programme 'Blue Peter', presenting it from 1997 to 2008 - says having shows available digitally and on demand isn't the same.

She went on: “We realised the other day that we don’t watch TV anymore. We had our roof done and the aerial had come down, and we didn’t even notice until we needed to watch something in real time on telly years later.

“And when I did watch telly for the first time in ages, it felt like some weird parallel universe, with adverts and stuff. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh’.”

Konnie says her sons found it "really cool" having a mum on 'Newsround', which is now broadcast on CBBC once a day, with an eight-minute bulletin at around 7:45am. On Saturday morning, it is broadcast on BBC Two, and is also available for 24 hours on BBC iPlayer and the CBBC Newsround section of the CBBC website.

She said: “They were very uninterested in us for a very long time. Then I went on Newsround, which they had to watch at school, and suddenly I was really cool because all their friends had seen me on the telly. Covey has a friend who loves Pointless, so he was excited when I was on that. But soon they are back to not caring again.”