The BBC children’s programmes department gave Kenneth MacMillan his first opportunity to choreograph for television. The three episodes of Steps into Ballet were broadcast from the Lime Grove studios in West London and produced by Naomi Capron. An educational series, devised as an introduction to ballet steps, it included story inserts about a young girl determined to see a Punch and Judy show at the seaside. When she visits Punch’s booth, against her parents’ wishes, she is caught up in an unexpected adventure with a character called Pretty Polly and a policeman played by Kenneth MacMillan himself.

In the early years of television most programmes were live. Only a few were telerecorded. A telerecording consisted of placing a film camera in front of a monitor and recording the pictures displayed by the monitor on to film. This was the method used until the arrival of videotape.

No recording exists of Punch and the Child.