Clangers in the soup over their ‘saucy’ language
Creator of classic children’s TV series hid swearing behind whistling speech of characters, son reveals
‘There’s a bit of swearing in there. I don’t want to specify words, but they’re alluded to’
FANS of The Clangers might not have understood precisely what the creatures’ whistling speech meant, but would probably say they were able to get the general gist.
However, what a generation of children – and their parents – failed to realise was that the small woollen characters swore like troopers.
The son of Oliver Postgate, the creator and writer of the animated television show, has revealed that his father’s lines – which voiceover actors turned into the creatures’ distinctive whistling sound – included a lot of “saucy language”.
Dan Postgate said that in the scripts, the Clangers could be “quite grumpy with each other”.
He said: “It ’s f rom t he 70s , they’re a 70s family, and I think these days Clangers come over – especially in the new series – as a loving family.
“When my dad wrote the scripts out, they sometimes call each other ‘you rotten rodent’ and things like that.
“He had to write them out so he knew what he was aiming at when they started whist ling. There are a few saucy bits of language in there – I don’t want to give too much away.”
Mr Postgate is now seeking to publish the scripts for the first time with the crowdfunding publisher Unbound, under the title Clangers: The Complete Scripts 1969-1974.
Although he is still reading through and editing the scripts, he says: “There’s a bit of swearing in there, I think … I don’t want to specify words, but they’re alluded to, certainly.
“A bit like those old James Bond books – when he swore, they used to have the first letter of the word.”
“There’s a touch of that” in the Clangers scripts, he adds. “I think in those days the BBC didn’t read the scripts.”
Mr Postgate says this swearing can sometimes translate into the characters’ distinctive whistles. “I think if you look carefully when Major Clanger kicks the double-doors, in the doubledoors episode, he gives them a kick and says something quite rude at that point.”
“The Soup Dragon was quite bad tempered as wel l, I think. The only character that didn’t have any translation was the Iron Chicken, I think she was more emotive – she was either flustered or broody.”
The bo ok also includes knitting patterns, drawings, prose and any other “bits and bobs” Mr Postgate could collate. He hopes “to cover all bases … anything and everything that might interest the ardent Clangers fan and the odd passer-by”.
In its crowdfunder appeal, Unbound, which has so far raised nearly 50 per cent of its target amount, says that the 27 scripts “give new insight into a beloved series originally created by Oliver Postgate … the joyful revelation that the Clangers had actual words for every single scene brings these tiny characters to life in a way that’s never been seen before.”
The Clangers, which was created by writer, animator and narrator Postgate with his long-time collaborator, model maker and illustrator Peter Firmin, was first broadcast by the BBC from 1969 until 1972.
The pair were behind some of the most popular children’s television programmes of the 1960s and 1970s, including Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine and Bagpuss.
A new series of The Clangers – created by Firmin and Dan Postgate and narrated by Monty Python’s Michael Palin – began in 2015.