bagpuss

My sister was Bagpuss mad. This article (she is 3 years younger than me) makes me realise that she must have been 6 when he began strutting his stuff. There is something post war, urbane and liberal about the likes of Oliver Postgate his inventor, that makes me yearn for a lost youth and better times. Times when it was credible that a bunch of second hand toys in a shop in the middle of nowhere  might have some expectation of a customer base! This article tells us.

Bagpuss is just an old, saggy cloth cat – baggy and a bit loose at the seams. But Emily loved him.

And so have generations of children since Bagpuss was first shown on British screens in 1974, 40 years ago today. The gentle stories always began in sepia with a little girl called Emily placing broken objects in front of Bagpuss, a pink and white toy cat in the window of a shop. When Emily left, the toys came to life, with the broken object mended and a story told.

Although only 13 episodes were ever made, they were so popular that they have been frequently repeated and have become a part of British cultural identity (in 1999 Bagpuss was voted the best children’s TV show of all time in a BBC poll, and to celebrate the 40th anniversary, the Royal Mail has commissioned a limited edition Bagpuss stamp).