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To celebrate the release of The Clangers, available to own on Blu-Ray and DVD from 30th October, we are giving away Blu-Rays to 2 lucky winners!

Originally broadcast between 1969 and 1972 Clangers was made by Smallfilms the company set up by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin producing many other childhood classics including Bagpuss, Noggin the Nog and Ivor the Engine.

Enjoy all 26 episodes from Season 1 and 2, now fully restored and presented from high-definition masters.

Discover a small blue planet populated by pink beings known as Clangers, a green dragon who cultivates soup and orange monopods who emerge from a magician’s top hat. Wonderful and exotic creatures often visit, and are always very welcome, especially a chicken made of iron who lives on a nearby nest made of space junk.

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only.

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The Small Print

This competition is open to UK residents only.

To celebrate the release of Bagpuss, available to own from 9th October on DVD and Blu-Ray, we are giving away Blu-Rays to 2 lucky winners!

Bagpuss was first seen on British television on 12th February 1974. Only 13 episodes were ever made, but the programme has remained popular down the generations and was voted the all-time favourite children’s programme in 1999. Join Emily and friends as she wakes Bagpuss once again, now fully restored in high definition, from the film negatives.

This charming children’s stop motion animation was made by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, starring the “saggy old cloth cat” Bagpuss. Postgate and Firmin’s production company Smallfilms created some of the most loved children’s programmes from 1959 until the 80s, working from a disused cowshed at Firmin’s home in Blean, near Canterbury. As well as Bagpuss they made Pogle’s Wood, The Clangers, Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog.

Peter Firmin, the creator of classic kids characters including Clangers, Bagpuss and Basil Brush, has died aged 89.

Firmin died at his home in Kent, UK, after a short illness. He is survived by his wife Joan and his six daughters as well as a raft of grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Firmin, who was born in Essex in 1928, was one half of legendary British production company Smallfilms, along with Oliver Postgate. The pair were responsible for creating kids series including Bagpuss, which aired on the BBC, and The Clangers, which also aired on the British public broadcaster as well as Universal Kids in the U.S. He also created Basil Brush with Ivan Owen.

A spokesman said: “During a career spanning over six decades, Peter worked with great skill in a remarkably wide variety of creative disciplines as a fine artist, craftsman and author.

“Of all his work, he will probably...

Stars: Stéphane Bilodeau, Julie-Anne Côté, Philippe Chabot | Written by Rémy M. Larochelle, Mélissa Hébert | Directed by Rémy M. Larochelle

Following on from my review of Phil Stevens’ blistering Lung, I continue to work my way through the releases being proffered by the fellows at Unearthed Films. This one, I have to say, took me entirely by surprise. I went in to Mecanix totally cold and found myself suitably impressed.

Roaring forth from the hazy days of 2003, Mecanix is the first, and thus far only, feature from Canadian film-maker Remy M. Larochelle. With that thought in mind, it really is a remarkable achievement.

Blending expressionistic stop-motion animation with live action, Mecanix is a glimpse into a twisted engine world in which humans exist in captivity, living in apparent servitude to a race of hideous, bio-mechanical creatures who desperately seek an object called “The Embryo” while one of the last free humans...

Louisa Mellor Apr 26, 2017

Puns, movie references and nods to Aardman’s past abound in Wallace & Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf And Death…

Animator Nick Park’s fifth Wallace and Gromit film, A Matter Of Loaf And Death (named for the Powell & Pressburger 1946 fantasy romance A Matter Of Life And Death, the first of many such baking-related puns) became the most-watched television programme in the UK in 2008, attracting a Christmas day average audience of 14.4 million viewers. It saw 62 West Wallaby Street, Wigan, transformed into a granary, making Wallace the target of a “cereal killer” intent on ridding the world of bakers. Gromit, as ever, came to the rescue.

See related Why Alien: Isolation proves the Alien deserves another movie

We’ve scoured the half-hour short to unpack some of Aardman’s characteristic in-jokes and film references…

1. The name and look of Baker Bob, who meets an unfortunate end at the hands...

Awards also included the youngest-ever winner of a Bafta.

The Lego Movie won Best Feature Film at the Bafta Children’s Awards in London last night (Nov 23).

The Warner Bros. film, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, beat competition from Disney’s Frozen and Maleficent as well as Dreamworks’ How To Train Your Dragon 2.

However, Frozen took the top film prize in the Bafta Kids’ vote, based on more than 200,000 votes from children aged 7-14.

The ceremony, held at London’s Roundhouse, also saw nine-year-old Cherry Campbell become the youngest Bafta winner ever, winning Best Performer for her title role in kids drama series Katie Morag.

The show, about a feisty young girl who lives on a Scottish island with her family, also won the award for Best Drama.

Campbell was seven when she started making Katie Morag, based on the books of Mairi Hedderwick.

For the first time, Cartoon Network...

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts said Tuesday that Peter Firmin, TV illustrator, puppet maker and co-creator of such popular U.K. kids TV programs as The Clangers and Bagpuss, will receive its Special Award at this year’s British Academy Children’s Awards. The event will take place on Nov. 23 at The Roundhouse in Camden, London. Read more BAFTA to Honor 'Alien,' 'Blade Runner' Editor Terry Rawlings The Special Award recognizes an individual’s outstanding contribution to children’s media and the entertainment industry. The award will be presented by Bernard Cribbins with a special introduction by Monty Python member

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BAFTA has announced that Peter Firmin will receive its Special Award.

The television illustrator and puppet maker is credited as one of the co-creators of The Clangers, Bagpuss and Noggin the Nog.

The 85-year-old will be presented with the accolade at this year's British Academy Children's Awards, held on November 23 at The Roundhouse in Camden, London, presented by Bernard Cribbins.

The Chairman of BAFTA's Children's Committee Harvey Elliott said: "Peter Firmin helped lay the foundations for the industry we see today, all from his small barn in Blean.

"His legacy is delighting and enchanting a whole new generation with the upcoming remake of family favourite The Clangers. Over the past 50 years, Peter's work has thrilled, entertained and inspired generations of filmmakers and animators and he is more than deserving of the Special Award at this year's British Academy Children's Awards."

Firmin added: "I'm delighted to receive this Special Award from BAFTA.

Iconic children's TV character Bagpuss celebrates his 40th anniversary today (February 12).

All 13 episodes of the show have been digitally remastered in HD to mark the anniversary, and will be shown in Picturehouse cinemas thoughout the country during the year.

A new range of merchandise featuring the "old fat furry catpuss" - including a set of Royal Mail stamps - will also enter production.

Bagpuss has also been reunited with owner Emily Firmin to celebrate the anniversary. Now aged 48, Emily played the then-8-year-old girl who featured in the photographs for the much-loved children's programme's opening credits.

Speaking about being reunited with the original cloth cat - which is now an exhibit in Canterbury Heritage Museum in Kent - she told The Telegraph: "It's lovely to be reunited with Bagpuss after all these years.

"I can barely believe it's been 40 years since I sat in that old Victorian outfit and posed...

Feature Louisa Mellor 15 Oct 2013 - 08:11

The Clangers are coming back to children's television with a brand new stop-motion series in 2015...

In the wake of those nine unseen-for-forty-five-years Doctor Who episodes reappearing, another sixties BBC classic is making its return to modern television. Clangers, which debuted on the Beeb in 1969, is being revived for a new series in 2015.

CBeebies and a group of international partners are co-producing the new series, announced to have a budget of £5 million. That'll buy you a lot of pink knitting wool.

CGI-phobics can rest assured, because the newly revived space mice-oids are to be rendered in old-fashioned stop-motion animation, with original co-creator Peter Firmin and Daniel Postgate (son of Firmin's late collaborator, Oliver Postgate) executive producing, working on design and writing storylines and scripts.

The puppet makers are to be Mackinnon and Saunders, the same company that worked on Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox,...

The cartoon canine is to be voiced by Eddie Murphy in a CGI reboot. Why? They only made 16 episodes for a reason ...

Of course there's going to be a Hong Kong Phooey film. And of course it'll blend CGI with live-action comedy. And of course Eddie Murphy will provide the voice of Hong Kong Phooey. Of course all of that will happen. Hollywood loves plundering old cartoons for ideas and, now that Shrek has finished, Eddie Murphy needs some voiceover work to stop him making a Norbit sequel. This was always going to happen. There's no point fighting it.

But there's a problem. Even in its original form, Hong Kong Phooey was rubbish. The scripts were stale, the animation was jerky and every episode was basically identical. They only made 16 episodes for a reason. The sheen of irony and misplaced nostalgia might have buoyed its reputation in recent years, but...

Jason Manford, Oliver Postgate and a whole lot of movies lead this week's TV round-up...

Geek Week TV: saving clicking finger tendons and remote batteries since 2009

In the run up to what's proving to be an Easter TV week to remember, there's a couple of promising shows to enjoy now, before the sugar shock sets in and the geeklets near you start bouncing off all available surfaces.

Comedy Rocks With Jason Manford airs tonight, Friday March 26th at 9:00pm on ITV1. It's billed as a variety show, but don't let that scare you off as the scales seem heavily tipped in the comedic direction with standup comic John Bishop and Jo Brand lined up alongside the music and other acts. We're quite happy to spend time with Mr Manford outside of his 8 Out Of 10 Cats team captain duties and are booking our spot on the settee early.

Then on Wednesday,...

Animator Oliver Postgate, the creator of British children's TV show Bagpuss, has died at the age of 83.

Postgate was responsible for a string of iconic kids shows from the 1950s to the 1980s; including Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog, but he was most famous for The Clangers, a family of pink knitted aliens who spoke in whistles, and Bagpuss, a saggy pink cloth cat.

Postgate, a cousin of actress Angela Lansbury, died at a nursing home in Broadstairs, England on Monday, according to his partner Naomi Linnell.

He is survived by several children from his marriage to ex-wife Prudence Myers.

Bagpuss creator Oliver Postgate has passed away, aged 83. Postgate's other TV work included Noggin The Nog, Ivor The Engine and The Clangers. He died at a nursing home in Broadstairs, Kent on Monday. His shows were created by his own company Smallfilms, which he developed with puppeteer Peter Firmin. The duo began the company in a disused cowshed in Kent. Postgate famously narrated all his Smallfilms programmes (more)...

Coolabi acquires UK indie licensing agency Licensing By Design, which gives Coolabi licensing and merchandising rights to properties including the kid-aimed Bagpuss, The Clangers and Ivor the Engine. We can look forward to merchandising programs for all three series, which were created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, which all continue to air. Fran Huxley, Managing Director, Licensing By Design will serve as a consultant on a part-time basis for Coolabi. Thomson Financial reports Coolabi purchased Licensing By Design in a deal worth about Us $660,000.

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