Child on the Line

In 1986, Esther Rantzen went live on BBC television with a promise no one had made before: any child, anywhere in the country, could pick up the phone and be heard. That night, more than 50,000 children tried to call. Forty years on, Childline answers a child every 45 seconds. In Child on the Line, actor and Childline ambassador Natalie Dormer travels to Childline bases across the UK to tell the story of how one woman's refusal to take no for an answer became a lifeline for millions, and to meet the people who keep it going: the volunteer counsellors who answer, the team who fought to build it, and the adults who, as children, made that call. Across three episodes, this documentary series celebrates Childline's 40th anniversary, goes inside a counselling shift, and asks what it will take to protect the next generation in a childhood being rewritten by social media and AI. Made by Dog Rose Productions with the support of the NSPCC. This series contains themes some listeners may find distressing, including child abuse and suicide; support resources are in the show notes. If you're under 19 and need to talk, contact Childline free on 0800 1111 or at childline.org.uk.