Former BBC presenter Johnny Ball accuses the corporation of destroying children's television by moving it to a dedicated channel, while highlighting an episode of Blue Peter last year that had NO views

He taught a generation their maths tables on much-loved BBC shows such as Think of a Number.

But Johnny Ball, 85, has accused the company of destroying children's television by moving it to specialty channels.

The presenter, father of Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball, pointed out that viewing figures for his shows regularly reached five to six million.

Ball hosted Play School from 1967 before heading up a number of educational programs until the 1990s. In 2002, the BBC relaunched CBBC as a separate channel.

Ball said: 'The BBC has destroyed children's television by giving it its own channels. Last year, Blue Peter did not attract any viewers.'

He also blamed 1990s dramas such as Byker Grove, starring Ant and Dec, for the decline in children's ratings.

He said they “taught children to be naughty, which they had already learned themselves.”

Ball told the Telegraph: 'In our actual time we were by far the best children's television production unit in the world.

'My shows can still be repeated even today.' Ball served in the RAF during the Cold War as a radar operator on the border between East and West Berlin, but admitted he found television culture much more “cutting.”

After leaving the industry in 1994, the presenter worked in the private sector producing promotional videos for energy companies.

He has returned to mainstream television several times, including stints on Strictly and Gogglebox. But about pitching programming ideas to industry executives, he said, “The phone doesn't ring as often as I would like. People seem to want simpler and dumber ideas than I do.”