And now those warm feelings that the mere mention of Bagpuss evokes are golden \u2013 the stripy cloth cat with a love of storytelling and sleep turns 50 next Monday.<\/p>\n
His influence stretches far and wide. In 1999, Bagpuss came top of a poll to find the nation\u2019s favourite BBC children\u2019s programme (and in 2001, he was fourth out of 100 greatest kids\u2019 shows in a Channel 4 countdown).<\/p>\n
He has appeared on postage stamps, he was referenced in the sitcom Spaced and was the title of the first episode of comedy drama Man like Mobeen, and Lady Di was seen to be watching the show in royal drama The Crown<\/a>.<\/p>\n To mark the anniversary, Radio Times magazine<\/strong> spoke to artist Emily Firmin, the show\u2019s human star and daughter of the co-creator, about its lasting legacy.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just the right age to bribe with sweets to appear in it,\u201d laughs Emily, over how her seven-year-old self came to be involved.<\/p>\n She\u2019s the youngest of six daughters of Peter Firmin who, with his friend Oliver Postgate under the company name Smallfilms, made revered programmes for children including Ivor the Engine, The Saga of Noggin the Nog, Pogles\u2019 Wood, Clangers and, of course, Bagpuss.<\/p>\n She played the little girl called Emily \u2013 seen in sepia photos at the start of the show \u2013 who owned the shop Bagpuss & Co, which \u201cdidn\u2019t sell anything\u201d.<\/p>\n Instead, it displayed lost or broken objects that were then repaired by the marvellous moggy and his friends \u2013 rag doll Madeleine, Gabriel the banjo-strumming toad, wooden woodpecker bookend Professor Yaffle and six mice carved on the side of a \u201cmouse organ\u201d. As the toys awoke, the sepia yesteryear magically became a colourful present.<\/p>\n Bagpuss and Co was essentially The Repair Shop 43 years early; while the show itself prefigured Toy Story by two decades.<\/p>\n Everyone remembers the \u201conce upon a time\u201d that conjured up what look like Victorian days, the autoharp glissando that cast a spell on its toys, and our hero\u2019s gigantic yawn. Also the jaunty folk songs that helped tell the stories and were sung by Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner.<\/p>\n All the introductory photographs were taken at the Firmins\u2019 home in Kent \u2013 the shop front was in fact the bow window of the dining room.<\/p>\n \u201cMy parents\u2019 house was pretty much a farm film studio,\u201d says Emily, \u201cso my dad worked in an old cow shed and Oliver\u2019s studio was a pig sty, originally. Next door to him was my stable, where I kept my horse. People ask, \u2018What was it like?\u2019 Well, that<\/em> was what it was like. I didn\u2019t realise people lived in other ways!<\/p>\n \u201cI do remember being taken out with my mum to go and choose some very ugly Victorian shoes, which are no more, but the dress that my mum made is in The Beaney museum in Canterbury.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s one of many props and models in an exhibition of Smallfilms\u2019 work that Emily helped put together. \u201cEven Basil Brush\u2019s understudy is there. Not many people realise that my dad made the original Basil Brush.\u201d<\/p>\n Emily\u2019s mother, Joan, was a vital contributor to the series, too. \u201cOh, yes. These days she\u2019d be like an art director, or art consultant. I mean, my dad did most things, but my mum had a super-duper electric sewing machine at that time.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the Owls of Athens episode, there\u2019s a big tapestry that she made with it. She advised my dad on how to do some stitches for making Bagpuss and various other things. And knitted the skins for the Clangers.\u201d<\/p>\n So, were all the Firmin daughters asked to help out with the different productions? \u201cAll my sisters helped out in various ways, like colouring in or making things for certain shows, but I didn\u2019t really do anything. Though, I remember delivering something to Blue Peter once, and helping Dad on another show with Floella Benjamin. We\u2019re all arty, but I didn\u2019t get to help in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n And did appearing on television make things awkward for Emily at school? \u201cThen, most people didn\u2019t have a colour television. Even our school, because I went to school about a mile down the road and they let me go home to watch myself in colour. Even though I was in \u2018black and white\u2019 anyway [laughs].<\/p>\n \u201cAt secondary school more people knew about Bagpuss, but I don\u2019t think it really affected me [in that way]. He\u2019s been in my life since being seven, so I\u2019ve grown up with him.\u201d<\/p>\n One particular perk of her upbringing sounds like heaven for a child. \u201cWhen Oliver would get the rushes back from Kay Laboratory in Red Lion Square in London, we\u2019d get cups of tea and go and sit on his old car chair \u2013 he\u2019d taken the back seat of a car out and put it in his studio \u2013 and we\u2019d all sit around eating my mum\u2019s cake and drinking cups of tea and watching unedited first shows!\u201d<\/p>\n Does she have other memories from those days? \u201cMy father\u2019s studio was very messy \u2013 he\u2019d pay me to pick up all the bits of screwed-up paper. We all had little jobs like that.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso, going in the barn and the Clangers set being there, and I\u2019d be looking after my horse. I could hear Oliver working on sound next door, which was odd. But that was the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n But back to the birthday boy. In a 2015 interview, Peter told Radio Times<\/strong>, \u201cBagpuss was a character that I had in my head. I\u2019d drawn him and named him, but I hadn\u2019t got a role for him.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was Oliver\u2019s idea that cats sit in shop windows and bask in the sun\u2026 then we asked, \u2018Who should run this shop?\u2019 and he looked around and there was Emily, aged seven at the time, and he said, \u2018You\u2019ve got her already, she\u2019s there!’\u201d<\/p>\n Does Emily have any favourite episodes? \u201cI do love the Hamish McTavish and the prickly porcupine \u2013 I love that one, and Old Uncle Feedle. I mean there are so many, they\u2019re all good.\u201d<\/p>\n Peter and Oliver were great believers in recycling for their programmes. Gabriel the toad was made from Peter\u2019s mother\u2019s old coat, the Clangers\u2019 doors were made of squashed foil plates, and the Iron Chicken was constructed from Meccano. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI suppose it was just using what was around,\u201d says Emily. \u201cThe barn had pots of boxes of bottle lids in case he could make a wheel from them. Even Oliver\u2019s use of Meccano for his cameras is amazing. I think he actually made his own first camera, years ago.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Though Oliver, Peter and Joan are no longer with us, their work lives on \u2013 the first generation to enjoy all the Smallfilms has passed their enthusiasm on to their children, and so on.<\/p>\n So, how was Emily influenced by her<\/em> parents? \u201cIn every way. Both of them. My mum was a bookbinder and taught paper crafts. And now, we\u2019re papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 artists: I don\u2019t live far from my parents\u2019 old house with my partner Justin Mitchell and we have a company called Total Pap, where we make three-dimensional papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 pictures and 3D mini sculptures.\u201d You can find them on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all pretty arty in my family. My dad had a printing press \u2013 we\u2019ve got two and my sister\u2019s got one. Dad\u2019s was an 1861 Albion Press, ours is from 1865 and enormous so we can do really huge prints, which we do regularly. We have exhibitions of our work and we permanently exhibit some of it in the local restaurants in Canterbury.<\/p>\n \u201cMum and Dad also encouraged us to try ideas out. And my dad had a love of nature \u2013 we\u2019re big dog-walkers, into nature, things like that. I still walk in \u2018Pogles\u2019 Wood\u2019. I love going up there. It\u2019s actually Blean Woods at the back of Oliver\u2019s old house. It\u2019s a very nice forest.\u201d<\/p>\n Emily is referring to a stop-motion Smallfilms series that first aired between 1966 and 1968, following a short, six-episode series simply called The Pogles that was first broadcast in 1965.<\/p>\n It was shot by Oliver outdoors, but changing weather conditions plagued production, so Peter created a woodland scene indoors.\u00a0\u201cNot many people remember it \u2013 there are a few people, my age group, that do remember it. But I suppose it\u2019s going to fade out of history eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n Emily and her partner also do work for Hospices of Hope<\/a>, which provides palliative care services in south-eastern Europe \u2013 it was supported by Postgate, and it continues to be by various Bagpuss projects.<\/p>\n \u201cOliver funded the building of a hospice wing in Romania, but he didn\u2019t want to go because he wasn\u2019t well enough. So Justin and I volunteered to go out and be there for the opening, and we\u2019ve supported Hospices of Hope ever since. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey started in Romania and they\u2019ve got a hospice in Serbia, Moldova\u2026 there\u2019s a lot of teaching, training people in those countries, and I think they\u2019ve been helping Ukraine, as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s just one more example of the amazing legacy of Bagpuss. So, what is it that Emily thinks makes the show so special? \u201cIt\u2019s a many-faceted programme where all the different characters introduce whatever it is that they\u2019ve found \u2013 or I\u2019ve found!<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s stories within stories, with a lot of imagination. Everyone loves the programmes. If they grew up with them\u2026 they\u2019re real fans!\u201d<\/p>\n Who knew a saggy cloth cat could work such magic? But clearly he still does. And it\u2019s not just Emily who still loves him.<\/p>\n On Sunday 11th February, Bagpuss has his own Night on BBC4 from 7pm; the show also features on Words and Music on Radio 3 at 5.30pm.<\/em><\/p>\n The series is available on Blu-ray and DVD, and to stream on BritBox and ITVX. Details of a <\/i>crowdfunding project to publish Bagpuss: the Complete Scripts by Oliver and Daniel Postgate<\/i> are available on Unbound<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n A range of commemorative products includes special 50ps, stamps and plushes \u2013 visit <\/i>Coolabi<\/strong><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for more to watch, check out our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0or visit our\u00a0Drama<\/a>\u00a0hub for more news and features.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only \u00a310 \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0<\/strong>The Radio Times Podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n He’s the most important, the most beautiful, the most magical… saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world. And Emily still loves him. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":45297,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/whats-pink-and-white-and-now-gold-its-bagpuss-dear-bagpuss-and-hes-celebrating-his-50th-birthday.jpg",1347,898,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/whats-pink-and-white-and-now-gold-its-bagpuss-dear-bagpuss-and-hes-celebrating-his-50th-birthday-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/whats-pink-and-white-and-now-gold-its-bagpuss-dear-bagpuss-and-hes-celebrating-his-50th-birthday-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/whats-pink-and-white-and-now-gold-its-bagpuss-dear-bagpuss-and-hes-celebrating-his-50th-birthday-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/whats-pink-and-white-and-now-gold-its-bagpuss-dear-bagpuss-and-hes-celebrating-his-50th-birthday-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/whats-pink-and-white-and-now-gold-its-bagpuss-dear-bagpuss-and-hes-celebrating-his-50th-birthday.jpg",1347,898,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/whats-pink-and-white-and-now-gold-its-bagpuss-dear-bagpuss-and-hes-celebrating-his-50th-birthday.jpg",1347,898,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"He's the most important, the most beautiful, the most magical... saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world. 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