A programme for children under five
'Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.' No one can listen for long to these broadcasts for the under-fives without recognising these words as an unvarying element never omitted. We have learned to realise that, for many children, they are more than a mere form of words, and the response of some to the idea embodied in them has become almost a ritual, without which their listening is not complete. We received an amusing description of a four-year-old 'ensconced in an armchair padded with five cushions, with a small chair on which to put his feet, padded with two more cushions. He certainly means,' says his mother, 'to answer truthfully when you ask, "Are you sitting comfortably?"' Once, a long time ago, we omitted these words. The reproof was instantaneous: 'You forgot to ask the children if they were sitting comfortably!' - and the disappointment was real. Something they were waiting for had failed to come. We have never forgotten since.
(Elizabeth A. Taylor)