Beeb should never have bagged our Bagpuss
Creator’s son on TV cloth cat’s lasting appeal
THE family of the creators of the hit kids’ show Bagpuss have said the BBC “was mistaken” about its enduring appeal as it celebrates 50 years.
Artist and puppeteer Peter Firmin and animator Oliver Postgate, who also made Clangers at their Kent production firm Smallfilms, put out only 13 episodes of the series about the “saggy old cloth cat” on the BBC, which began on February 12 1974.
However, the show – which is set in a shop that does not sell anything – has continued to be popular.
It has been re-broadcast multiple times and in 1999, a BBC poll voted it as the all-time favourite children’s show.
Oliver’s son Daniel said the story of “the big, cuddly cat” meant “packing a lot into one episode”.
The writer, who helped bring back the Clangers in 2015 when the show was revived on CBeebies, also said: “Peter was very varied in it, he could do all these different things, as well, different styles.
“I mean, he did most of it but that was the idea to keep it quite varied and… so each episode would have new characters, new adventures, you know, it was demanding.
“And my dad always said it was the most demanding of the (shows) they did because they had to have new characters each time, and that demanded a lot of imagination and work.”
Daniel, whose dad died aged 83 in 2008, said he thinks the show was axed as the BBC thought it was “sort of out of date”, even though he thinks the creators were “quite keen to carry on”. He said
the Beeb was moving into a new sort of “zoomy sugary” shows for kids.
He added: “I think as the programmes have endured so long, it seems to be the BBC might be mistaken about the lack of appeal.”
He said his father also wanted to make a series called The Babushkas, about women secretly being in charge of Soviet Russia, which did not get made.
Daniel hopes a radio play, which he is working on and focuses on a grown-up Emily, the little girl who owns the shop in Bagpuss, will be made. The real-life girl was Emily Firmin, the daughter of Peter, who died at 89 in 2018.
She said she would want to say yes “straight away” for a revival of Bagpuss and agreed with Daniel this would go ahead if it “kept the charm and the flavour of the original programmes”.
Dad said it was the most demanding of his shows
DANIEL POSTGATE ON MAKING BAGPUSS