© BBC
In March 1998 more than 1,500 television bigwigs from 82 different countries descended on the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London. They had come for the second ever World Summit on Television for Children. Various topics were up for discussion – funding, regulation, new media – but one word was on everybody's lips: Teletubbies. The preschool show, created by Ragdoll Productions for the BBC, had begun airing in the UK a year earlier, documenting the antics of four giant, alien-looking babies with antennae atop their heads and televisions in their tummies. It was a runaway hit with both adults and children. Talk of wibbly-wobbly bottoms and Tubby Toast had swept the nation. But Tinky Winky, Laa-Laa, Dipsy and Po, with their proto chatter and penchant for repetition, had experts worried.