Bagpuss
BAGPUSS
Made by: Smallfilms
Shown on: BBC
Years shown: 1974 onwards
Created by bonafide stop-motion animation geniuses, Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, Bagpuss is as much a favourite with reminiscing university students today as he was when he was in his 70s heyday. One of the most-missed things about children’s shows of this era are the strange and unlikely situations they come up with. As we are reminded in each of the 13 episodes made, a little girl called Emily owned a shop. Okay, hold up. A little girl owns a shop? But this is shop is different because it doesn’t sell anything. What? Perhaps Emily should have checked the dictionary for a definition. Instead, she collects things that other people discard and brings them to Bagpuss, a stuffed toy cat, in order for him to examine and mend them. There is no adult supervision whatsoever.
Emily then utters what is essentially an incantation, where she summons, “Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss, oh fat, furry catpuss! Wake up and look at the thing that I bring. Wake up, be bright, be golden and light. Bagpuss, o hear what I sing!” You never question this kind of thing when you’re three years old. Apart from the pink, stripy “catpuss” himself, the roll-call included Gabriel the toad with his banjo, Madeleine the rag doll, Professor Yaffle, a woodpecker-shaped bookend, and the mice on the Mouse Organ (named Charlie, Jenny, Janey, Lizzie, Eddie and Willy, which not many people know.)
The mice were somewhat obsessed by DIY, and whenever something new was delivered by Emily, and once Professor Yaffle had pontificated and wrongly guessed what it was, the mice would squeak, “we will fix it, we will mix it, we will polish its top, top, top!” Ah, such a work ethic. Although they did go on strike once.
It was deliberately left ambiguous as to whether the whole thing was just a figment of Emily’s over-active imagination (she was based on, and played by, Peter Firmin’s daughter Emily), but most pre-schoolers would see nothing wrong in this magical set-up, and rightly so.
For the completists among us, the episodes were: ‘Ship in a Bottle’, ‘The Owls of Athens’, ‘The Frog Princess’, ‘The Hamish’, ‘Flying’, ‘The Ballet Shoes’, ‘The Wise Men’, ‘The Giant’, ‘The Mouse Mill’, ‘The Elephant’, ‘Old Man’s Beard’, ‘The Fiddle’ and ‘Uncle Feedle’.
Emily then utters what is essentially an incantation, where she summons, “Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss, oh fat, furry catpuss! Wake up and look at the thing that I bring. Wake up, be bright, be golden and light. Bagpuss, o hear what I sing!” You never question this kind of thing when you’re three years old. Apart from the pink, stripy “catpuss” himself, the roll-call included Gabriel the toad with his banjo, Madeleine the rag doll, Professor Yaffle, a woodpecker-shaped bookend, and the mice on the Mouse Organ (named Charlie, Jenny, Janey, Lizzie, Eddie and Willy, which not many people know.)
The mice were somewhat obsessed by DIY, and whenever something new was delivered by Emily, and once Professor Yaffle had pontificated and wrongly guessed what it was, the mice would squeak, “we will fix it, we will mix it, we will polish its top, top, top!” Ah, such a work ethic. Although they did go on strike once.
It was deliberately left ambiguous as to whether the whole thing was just a figment of Emily’s over-active imagination (she was based on, and played by, Peter Firmin’s daughter Emily), but most pre-schoolers would see nothing wrong in this magical set-up, and rightly so.
For the completists among us, the episodes were: ‘Ship in a Bottle’, ‘The Owls of Athens’, ‘The Frog Princess’, ‘The Hamish’, ‘Flying’, ‘The Ballet Shoes’, ‘The Wise Men’, ‘The Giant’, ‘The Mouse Mill’, ‘The Elephant’, ‘Old Man’s Beard’, ‘The Fiddle’ and ‘Uncle Feedle’.
posted by Holly @ 9:30 AM
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