#oliver postgate

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[mametzwood]

Bagpuss, oh, Bagpuss

Oh, fat, furry cat puss,

Wake up and look at the thing that I bring

Wake up, be bright, be golden and light.

Bagpuss, oh hear what I sing

[thathousebylittlehouse]

[6monthsofwinter]

Oliver Postgate musta been on some whack ass shrooms when he wrote the Bagpuss episode about the small soft Hamish.

If you don't know, Bagpuss is a kids' show from the 70s (?) about a toy cat and his chums who keep finding Objects and being like "tf is this brah" and Bagpuss is like "this is the foolish fluffy fiddlestick from Finland you flibbertigibbets" and then tells them all about the foolish fluffy fiddlestick from Finland. And then the woodpecker (chum #1) goes like nyehhh nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh nonsense (direct quote btw) and the rag doll and frögge (chums #2 and #3) are like ACKSHUALLY it's a fly swatter but nice try bozo. And then they sing a song. There are some mice sometimes too :3

ANYWAY one episode starts with them finding a weird tartan rat thing (fig. A) and they're like "🤔" and then Bagpuss gets his Thinking Cap and clocks that it's a "small soft Hamish" and tells the story of Tavish McTavish, a Scottish fella who lived in the mountains because every other human being fucking hated him cause he was bad at playing the bagpipes. And then one day he hears someone else being really shit at bagging the pipes and he's like "Crikey!!! It must be my long-lost brother Hamish McTavish!" And then it walks up and it's actually this weird tartan creature??? And it's small and soft and he dubs it the Hamish (Fig. B) because its call sounds like his brother playing the bagpipes. And by the way it also has a long-lost brother. And then it fucks off cause its family show up and Tavish is all alonesome :( so he moves BACK down the mountain to civilisation and just never plays the bagpipes again. Cause everyone hates it. And he never finds his brother ever again, too bad so sad, the end.

But not really the end cause then the woodpecker goes like "Bagpuss you dopey twat it's a porcupine just without any spines" and Bagpuss goes like "bull fucking shit there ain't no thing" and the frögge and the rag doll sing a song to try motivate the porcupine to grow some spines? But the song is about a porcupine "sailing" a hot air balloon around the world and then its spines pop the balloon and it falls? And they realise at the end that that was a fairly fucking stupid choice of song to motivate it to grow MORE spines and anyway guys false alarm it's actually just a pincushion. So then the mice chant while dancing in circles and ritualistically stabbing it with dozens of pins like it's Julius fucking Caesar (Fig. C) and THEN the episode ends. Fucking WILD.

But seriously you should watch Bagpuss it's so good

Fig. A: The porcupine pre-ritualistic murder

Fig. B: The small soft Hamish engages in intimate relations with Tavish McTavish

Fig. C: The mice dance around the perforated corpse of the porcupine

[spilladabalia]

Mark Fry - The Witch

[downthetubes]

Celebrations begin early for the 50th anniversary of Bagpuss with new high definition Blu-ray and DVD release this week

Ahead of his 50th anniversary next year, this week sees the release of the hugely popular Bagpuss animated series in high definition - and there are other celebratory happenings, too

[earhartsease]

find you someone who says "soup" the way Oliver Postgate did

[rexmaggedon]

I introduced my mother to the concept of simlish music.

10/10 would recommend, we ended up gesticulating wildly whilst talking in clangerspeak for the next half hour.

[petermorwood]

Dear old Bagpuss, saggy old cat-puss.

I was officially too old for the target audience when it was on at lunchtimes and I was escaping from School Dinners, but "being too old" has never stopped me.

And as the years go by, he and I have - as I've mentioned before - an even closer association.

"Baggy, and a bit loose at the seams."

But @dduane loves me.

And, just so you know it's not all one-sided, I love her too.

Time for some Bagpuss.

(See also Charlie Brooker's heartfelt obit for Oliver Postgate, the creator and narrator of Bagpuss and much other classic British children's TV.)

(BTW, for a contrast in tone: how Charlie Brooker normally sounds/sounded.)

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[nelc]

Judge Dredd - Cambermeg Green

[seriousbrat]

Serious question: what do you think Lily’s favorite movie was?

Okay I've been thinking about this question! It's somewhat difficult because I don't think she would have been going to see a lot of movies later in the 70s, not once she's in the Order- though maybe she might have taken James at some point just so he could see what it was like.

Unfortunately (because I hate w*ody Allen) i kind of think she might have liked Annie Hall (1977), had she seen it. But I think my answer might be Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). I can see her taking James to Life of Brian as well. Maybe she liked something weird like Harold and Maude (1971) but she was a bit young when it was released, or something alt and punky like Jubilee (1978)

There were probably films from the 60s she saw on television (back then it apparently took like... a decade for films to appear on TV after being released in cinemas) like Georgy Girl (1966) and A Taste of Honey (1961). I see her liking films about plucky young heroines haha. Also I think she would have pretended not to like things like Grease because Petunia did lol, but secretly enjoyed them.

And I know you didn't ask about TV but she likely would have been watching more TV than movies since it was more accessible/constantly available, things like Coronation Street, Fawlty Towers and ofc Doctor Who. She probably grew up with Oliver Postgate series (they're beautiful, highly recommend) like The Clangers and Pogles' Wood, as well as Blue Peter and the Basil Brush Show lol (he's a fox, not a squirrel!)

Sorry that got so long!!

[c86]

Happy 50th birthday Bagpuss 🎂

Clangers, Bagpuss & Co exhibition at V&A Museum of Childhood

Bagpuss, The Clangers and Pogles’ Wood

[downthetubes]

WebFind: The Clangers Script Book deep discounted by Postscript Books

Devon-based independent bookseller Postscript Books are currently offering copies of Clangers - The Complete Scripts 1969–1974 by Daniel and Oliver Postgate at substantial discount

[6monthsofwinter]

I have been considering bagpuss a lot again and can sense another massive rambley post explaining one of the episodes coming on. No promises but it's so fun writing those and I still get notifs about people liking the last one which is cray cray that there are that many folks who know of bagpuss. But yeah.

[miniherodesktales]

Day 9: Music

It was a quiet Tuesday evening and Lister was choosing to spend it in bed watching old episodes of the Clangers. Since the children's program was about musical space mice who lived on their own, little planet, it naturally meant that the Cat was watching with him.

"This is the Earth, our planet, our home..." said the narrator. "It sails serenely through the vast emptiness of space, through the silent nothingness between the stars. But how silent is it? Silent to our ears perhaps but if we had ears that could hear the sound of radio waves then the space between the stars would be far from silent, for all the radio waves in all the worlds are buzzing about in space waiting to be heard..."

'He was dead good, wasn't he, Oliver Postgate?' said Lister. 'It's like having Father Christmas read a bedtime story to you.'

'Yeah,' the Cat agreed. 'It's not half making me hungry, though.'

'He and Peter Firmin, they spent ages, you know, making each set and models and everything. All the planets, all the aliens, all their little space crafts - it's all handmade.'

'Sure it looks plastic,' said the Cat, 'but I prefer it to CGI.'

'And some people said it was too depressing for a kid's show. That the tone and mood was too lonely, too melancholy, for those poor mice all alone on their planet. That they only occasionally came across space rubbish, but I like it. It's weirdly comforting. Until the reboot when they had William Shatner narrating. That was a mistake.'

Of course, Rimmer had to interrupt them.

'Why are you slobbing around in bed this early? Why is the halfwit in my bed? Why are you watching that depressing British kids show from the 1970s? And why can't you hear that annoying whiny noise?'

'Keep telling you: stop talking and it'll go away.'

'But it's driving me crazy!'

'Then shut up, sit down, and watch TV with us.'

Rimmer tried, sitting up on Lister's bunk (the Cat refused to budge) and fixing his gaze on the television screen. But he kept twitching his head and bouncing his leg.

'Will you keep still?' Lister demanded.

'Can't help it, that strange noise will not go away! It's getting louder. How can you not hear?'

Lister held up a hand. 'Ok, Ok, we'll figure it out. Holly! What's going on?'

Holly appeared on the TV screen.

'Alright, dudes? What's happening?'

'Rimmer's hearing things. A strange whiny noise.'

'Oh, that,' said Holly blandly. 'That's Radio 3.'

'What?'

'Yeah, that's right. Don't you like, Arn? You probably still need a little more time to fully tune in, but I'm loving Question Time right now. Nothing like the old "are Jaffa Cakes a biscuit or cake?" debate to keep your mind sharp."

'I'm hearing Radio 3...?' Rimmer asked slowly. 'But how?'

'Well, you're a hologram, Arnold.'

'Yes and?'

'Holograms are made of light. Part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Radio waves are also a form of electromagnetic radiation. It just makes sense that you can pick up on radio waves. Still though, it's early days for you, isn't it? Give your mind time to adjust and it'll soon make better sense of all that buzzing and whining. You'll be grooving out to the funky music playing in your head in no time.'

Rimmer stared blankly at Holly for a moment. Then he chewed his knuckles. Then he held his head in his hands and made a moaning noise.

'Not happy?' asked Holly.

'I hate being a hologram!' Rimmer growled.

'But it's so cool, dead-bud!' the Cat insisted. 'If we pull your nose can we tune into Channel 27?'

'Cat,' said Lister in a warning tone.

'It's not cool!' Rimmer insisted. He jumped down from the bunk. 'I can hear radio waves? I'm not human, am I? None of you understand how I feel, it's so unfair!'

He dashed out through the wall.

'Let's not tell him that he can also remotely control the microwave,' said Holly. 'Don't worry, lads, he'll be ok.'

'Are you sure?' Lister asked, worriedly. 'He's really upset.'

'It's ok, Dave. He's a young hologram. They all go through their existential crisis phase. However, if he gets a tattoo and starts hanging out with those vending machines in the south hold, then I think we should start worrying.'

Rimmer went to his favourite spot in the observation dome. Up there the signal from the hologram suite could patchy at the best of times and that evening Rimmer could see through his own hands.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes and concentrated. The static in his mind buzzed and crackled and whined...but then it softened. It transformed into a perfect sympathy of human voices - the Io Philharmonic Choir - performing the Loki Patera Lament for Radio 3, three million years ago.

Rimmer wept.

Their voices, their music, were over three million years old, and yet they still existed in space - and he could hear them.

"We can imagine these serene stars as any shape or colour we like, but of course, we can't hear them. This star for instance, this serene orb, forever drifting through the night sky, does it ring with the music of the spheres or is it always silent?"

Note: Loki Patera is a volcanic depression on Io with a large larva lake. The Clangers was a beautiful, strange, poetic children's show about a race of mice called The Clangers. When I need inspiration I listen to Oliver Postgate narrating one of his shows.