Even Bagpuss himself, once he was asleep, was just an old, saggy cloth cat, Baggy, and a bit loose at the seams, But Emily loved him.
-closing lines from from Bagpuss, by Oliver Postgate
Just heard on Radio 4's Today programme that Oliver Postgate has died, age 83. Together with artist and puppeteer Peter Firmin, working under the Smallfilms imprint, Postgate created a series of gentle, whimsical and very slightly melancholy animated childrens programmes inlcuding Pogle's Wood, Ivor The Engine, Noggin The Nog, Bagpuss, and his meisterwerk, The Clangers (see photo below).
The Clangers
Though produced on a tiny scale in a barn, the Smallfilms series were some of the best-loved children's programmes of the 1970's and 1980's. The later series are still available on DVD.
Oliver Postgate will be sorely missed by all of us who loved his work.
Tribute to Oliver Postgate by Sandra Kerr (the voice of the mice from Bagpuss) on Radio 4's Today programme.
Smallfilms website.
3 comments:
This is really sad news!I too grew up with Ivor and the clangers and all the rest,My better half still has a soft spot for Bagpuss mainly because they share a birthday.It'sa shame that neither of the creators have really had the credit they deserve
for all their wonderful creations.
Oh man that's awful news.
I miss shows like Bagpuss... they don't make 'em like that any more sadly.
That's a damned shame, you rarely find anything with the same charm of his work in kid's programming, especially these days.
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