December 09, 2008

Oliver Postgate Dead. The creator of Bagpuss, the Clangers and Ivor The Engine (amongst others) has died. These were some of the best loved children's TV shows in the UK for pretty much everyone over the age of 30.

The Bagpuss theme on YT

  • Every one a magical experience when I was a child. Noggin was my fave I think. Beautiful work and apparently a lovely man as well. Thanks for everything, Mr Postgate.
  • Oliver Postgate's characters are so very unaffectedly charming, I wish they'd keep on going somehow --like Jim Henson's did after his own passing. Thanks.
  • I had never heard of him, but that Bagpuss is adorable.
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  • As a college-age immigrant to Britain, I was introduced late to Postgate's work. As an outsider, though, I was able to appreciate the beautifully surreal randomness of it all. Was any kids' program ever as gloriously hallucinary as The Clangers? I do sort of wish we'd had that in the States rather than cartoons devised to sell toys and breakfast cereal. Comparisons with Henson are justified, I think. Certainly, when my textile-scientist friend got to handle the original Bagpuss puppet, the reaction from British contemporaries was just about analogous to what I'd have felt if someone I knew had been repairing Kermit. Also, the best description of Wagner's Ring cycle I ever heard was "Twelve hours of Noggin the Nog with no jokes." Sleep well, Mr Postgate.