Bing, Bluey and Balamory - parents share their favourite shows as CBeebies turns 20

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Many a child has had a birthday card shout-out on CBeebies and today the channel is celebrating a milestone of its own after 20 years on air.

With programmes now made at Salford 's MediaCity, home to BBC's Children's department, we've got more reason to mark the occasion than most.

But it's parents across the country who are grateful for the years of entertainment that the channel, along with CBBC - which is also turning 20 - have brought their little ones.

And let's not forget the joy that Tom Hardy et al have brought to mums with their Bedtime Stories too, not to mention the time they were going bananas for Mr Bloom, aka Ben Faulks.

Joking aside, those still in the thick of those preschool years are perhaps not appreciative enough of such wholesome content being served up to young minds - tired parents often worn down by the repetitiveness of watching the same shows, even the same episodes, again and again.

I mean, every mum or dad feels a bit stir crazy at times and an episode of In The Night Garden after a long day of keeping a toddler entertained is enough to push the sanest of souls over the edge.

But it's those colourful characters and mesmerising music that makes it all so magical for our children at a time when they're soaking up those subtly delivered moral messages.

And it's those precious few years before children get lost in the depths of YouTube and other streaming channels - when they'll still let you circle their hand on that daily journey to 'the garden in the night' - that parents reminisce over most.

That's why we've been asking mum and dads on our Manchester Family Facebook page to tell us their (and their children's) favourite programmes of the last two decades.

Here are their top picks - and we