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Thanks for the memories as a childhood TV favourite rides again
TO those of a certain generation, myself included, their childhood memories are inextricably linked to the TV programmes they grew up watching.
The likes of The Clangers, Trumpton and The Magic Roundabout cast a spell over young viewers that still resonates today. Perhaps the most fondly remembered of all is Bagpuss – the cuddly pink and yellow striped saggy old cloth cat, regularly voted Britain's best-loved children's television character.
So it's not surprising that news that he could be making a comeback has caused a bit of a stir among thirty-somethings up and down the land.
Production company Coolabi has reportedly struck a deal with the show's creators to make a new series of the much-loved animation. Coolabi has held the distribution and merchandising rights to Bagpuss, Ivor The Engine and The Clangers for several years, but has now reached an agreement with Peter Firmin and Dan Postgate – son of the late Oliver Postgate, Firmin's creative partner – allowing them to make new shows.
The company says it is working closely with both families although plans are at an early stage, so no decision has been made about the style of animation that might be used and no broadcasters have been approached.
Bagpuss was first screened back in 1974 and only 13 episodes were made. Yet it, along with the likes of Top Cat and Paddington Bear, has come to represent an almost mythical past. But are we merely wallowing in collective nostalgia? Michael Harvey, curator of cinematography at the National Media Museum, in Bradford, believes there's more to it than that.
"We all like to go back and enjoy our childhood memories, we remember our favourite TV programmes and carry those experiences with us," he says.
"At the museum we have a 'TV Heaven' collection which
has nearly a thousand programmes. Quite a few of them are children's programmes from bygone years and we get a steady stream of visitors coming in with their children and grand-children and showing them what they used to watch when they were kids."
Harvey believes that Bagpuss comes from an era when British television was at the height of its popularity. "During that period there were a lot of terrific TV programmes so it was
something of a 'golden era' and that includes children's TV. Nowadays children's programmes tend to be considered for their educational value and whether they're good for children to watch.
"But when Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin were making their programmes they put an idea forward and were told to get on with it, there wasn't any corporate supervision. So the programmes they made have this individual quirkiness and charm."
It is, of course, a risky business trying to recapture the past and hell hath no fury like childhood memories scorned, as George Lucas discovered when he resurrected the Star Wars franchise. And Harvey says whatever happens, the new Bagpuss programmes can never be quite the same.
"They will be made by other animators who will bring their own style and interest to bear, you can never go back and recreate something that has existed before. But hopefully they will make a good job of it and it will be equally charming."
Every generation has its cultural TV icons and in another 20 years people will probably be reminiscing about the Teletubbies and Shaun the
Sheep in the same way others once did about Muffin the
Mule. But Harvey insists programmes like Bagpuss will stand the test of time. "Their production qualities are modest by today's standards but they have wit and humour and that doesn't evaporate, they still captivate you."
There was no CGI in
Bagpuss, the mice were ornaments on the mouse organ, Gabriel and Madeleine were just dolls and Professor Yaffle was a wooden book-end carved in the shape of a woodpecker. Bagpuss, himself, was "a saggy old cloth cat and a bit loose at the seams. But Emily loved him" – and so did we.
chris.bond@ypn.co.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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