Bagpuss – 1974

Directors
Peter Firmin
Oliver Postgate

Writers
Peter Firmin creator
Oliver Postgate creator

Cast
John Faulkner – Gabriel the Toad
Sandra Kerr – Madeleine the Rag Doll
Oliver Postgate – Narrator/Bagpuss/Mice/Professor Yaffle

Review by David Morgan

Wonderful, wonderful nostalgia.
You really won’t know anything about this programme unless you’re English and either were a child about fifteen years ago, or had children at that time. I was the former, and I have to say that Bagpuss was my favourite TV programme then, and still holds a special place in my heart. Describing the content is difficult, but basically Bagpuss wakes up every day in the shop he lives in, and he and his friends investigate whatever has been brought to them by Emily, the owner of the shop. Emily finds items that people have lost and puts them in her shop window so that they can be reclaimed. Bagpuss’ friends include Gabriel the banjo-playing toad, Madeleine the motherly rag doll, the childish mice on the mouse organ (you have to see it for yourself) and Professor Yaffle, the slightly eccentric uncle-type, who is in fact a wooden book-end woodpecker.

Bagpuss as a programme was never patronising to children, and was not afraid to use long words if they were appropriate. I believe it was an essential part of my upbringing, and I would recommend that all parents show Bagpuss to their children. All thirteen episodes are available on a single video, so if you want to keep your kids happy, or saw Bagpuss first time round and feel nostalgic, buy it.