Clangers
| Clangers | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by | Oliver Postgate |
| Narrated by | Oliver Postgate (1969–72, 1974) Michael Palin (2015–present) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 78 (plus three specials) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 10 minutes per episode (1969–72, 1974) 11 minutes per episode (2015–present) |
| Production company(s) |
Smallfilms (1969–72, 1974, 2015–present) Coolabi (2015–present) |
| Release | |
| Original network |
BBC One (1969–74) CBeebies (2015-present) |
| Original release |
Original series: November 16, 1969 – November 6, 1972 Revival series: June 15, 2015 – present |
| Clangers: Original Television Music | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Soundtrack album by Vernon Elliott & Oliver Postgate | |
| Released | 2001 |
| Recorded | 1969–1971 |
| Genre | Classical, Children's music |
| Length | 47:00 |
| Label | Trunk Records |
Clangers is a British stop-motion animated children's television series of short stories about a family of murine creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon like planet. They speak only in whistles, and eat green soup supplied by the Soup Dragon and blue string pudding. The programmes were originally broadcast by BBC1 between 1969 and 1972, followed by the first of three special episodes that was broadcast in 1974.
The series was made by Smallfilms, the company set up by Oliver Postgate (writer, animator and narrator) and Peter Firmin (modelmaker and illustrator). Firmin designed the characters, and his wife knitted and "dressed" the Clangers. The music, often part of the story, was by Vernon Elliott.
A new series, narrated by Monty Python actor Michael Palin, started on 15 June 2015 on the UK CBeebies TV channel with successful viewing figures. Two short specials were broadcast before then. The new cartoons are still animated in stop-motion animation instead of computer-generated imagery, which replaced the original stop-motion animation in other children's programmes such as Fireman Sam, Thomas & Friends, and The Wombles
Clangers won a BAFTA in the Best Pre-School Animation category in 2015.
The Clangers originated in a series of children's books which developed from another Smallfilms production, Noggin the Nog. Publishers Kay and Ward created a series of books from Noggin the Nog episodes, which were then extended into a series called Noggin First Reader, aimed at aiding initial reading skills.
In the 1967 story Noggin and the Moonmouse, a new horse-trough was put up in the middle of the town in the North-Lands. A spacecraft hurtled down and splashed into it. The top unscrewed, and out came a largish, mouse-like character in a duffel coat, who wanted fuel for his spacecraft. He showed Nooka and the children that what he needed was vinegar and soap-flakes. So, they filled up the tanks in this little spherical ship, which then "took off in a dreadful cloud smelling of vinegar and soap-flakes, covering the town with bubbles".
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Wikipedia