The Clangers
Encyclopedia
Clangers is a popular British
stop-motion
animated children's television series
of short stories about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and in, a small blue planet (quite similar to, but not intended to be, the Moon). They speak in whistles, and eat green soup supplied by the Soup Dragon. The programmes were originally broadcast by the BBC
from 1969–1972.
The series was made by Smallfilms
, the company set up by Oliver Postgate
(writer and narrator) and Peter Firmin
(modelmaker, animator and illustrator). Firmin designed the characters, and his wife knitted and 'dressed' the Clangers. Music – which was often part of the story – was by Vernon Elliott.
. Publishers Kay and Ward created a series of books from each of the Noggin the Nog episodes, which were then extended into the series called Noggin First Reader, a series aimed at aiding initial reading skills.
In the 1967 published 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 various 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".
In 1969, the BBC asked Smallfilms to produce a new series for colour television, but did not specify any particular storyline. Postgate concluded that because space exploration
was particularly topical, the new series should be set in space. He adapted the Moonmouse from the earlier story, removing its tail "because it kept getting into the soup
". The Clangers looked similar to mice, anteater
s and, from their pink colour, pigs. They wore clothes reminiscent of Roman armour, "against the space debris that kept falling onto the planet[,] lost from other places, like television sets and bits of an Iron Chicken", and they spoke in whistles.
impacts. In each episode, there would be some problem to solve, something invented or discovered, or perhaps some new visitor to meet. Music Trees, with note-shaped fruit, grew on the planet's surface, and music would often be an integral feature in the simple but amusing plots. In the "Fishing" episode, one of the Cheese Trees provided a cylindrical five-line staff
for notes taken from the Music Trees.
Oliver Postgate provided the narration throughout each episode, for the most part in a soft, melodic voice, describing and accounting for the curious antics of the little blue planet's knitted pink inhabitants, and providing a "translation", as it were, for much of their whistled dialogue.
on November 16, 1969, and a further twenty-five episodes were made. The twenty-sixth episode was broadcast on November 10, 1972. The final Clangers programme, however, was a four-minute election special, broadcast on October 10, 1974. This special episode has not been seen since its original broadcast, although it still exists in the BBC archive. A short clip is available at the BBC's website.
The original Mother Clanger puppet was stolen in 1972. Major Clanger and the second Mother Clanger are on display at the Rupert Bear Museum.
During production, the Clangers grew in size from the first to the last episode, to allow Firmin to use an Action man
model figure in "The Rock Collector."
The distinctive whistles made by the Clangers, performed on swanee whistles, have become as identifiable as the characters themselves, and are much imitated amongst viewers of the programme. The series creators have said that the Clangers, living in vacuum
, did not actually communicate by sound, but rather by a type of nuclear magnetic resonance
, which was translated to audible whistles for the human audience. These whistles followed the rhythm and intonation of a script in the English language. The action was also narrated by a separate voice-over from Postgate. However, when the series was shown without narration to a group of overseas students, many of them felt that the Clangers were speaking their particular language.
The song "No Smokes" by psychedelic rock
band One in a Million
was used in the episode "The Visitor".
in the basic script. As part of the production, Smallfilms had to send the scripts to the BBC, but on reading the script for episode three, they asked Postgate to remove some "Clanger-speak", explaining that although whistled, "you can’t say that on children’s television [...] you just can’t". At the opening of the episode, after a rocket shoots down the Iron Chicken, Major Clanger kicks a door to make it work, and his first words are "Oh, sod it; the bloody thing’s stuck again". Postgate replied that viewers wouldn't recognize what was said, but the BBC replied "But people will know!" The offending Clanger-talk remained in the episode, and after the series became a commercial success, and the Golden Bear Company became responsible for merchandising, the Clanger-talk used for the talking-squeezable model was the very same phrase.
There was also an election special produced in 1974, entitled "Vote for Froglet". Inspired by what Postgate refers to as the "Winter of Discontent
" (usually used to refer to the Winter of 1978-79), and by his recollection of post-war Germany, the episode was broadcast on the night of the second election in 1974.
(which in 1999 was voted, in a British television poll, the best children's television programme ever made), Clangers was watched and loved by millions of British pre-teen children in the early days of colour television, and is remembered with affection by many who are now in their late forties or early fifties. Since the death of Oliver Postgate in December 2008, interest has been revived in his work, which is considered to have had a notable influence on British culture throughout the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. In 2007, Postgate and Firmin were jointly presented with the Action for Children's Arts J. M. Barrie Award "for a lifetime's achievement in delighting children".
, a Scottish
alternative rock
band
of the late 1980s and early 1990s, took their name from the Clangers character.
In the Doctor Who
story The Sea Devils
, The Master watches the Clangers episode The Rock Collector.
, a popular children's-book author, and the title for the series was Romlingane. It was also shown on Swedish Television in the late sixties and early seventies under the Swedish name Rymdlarna.
from 128 musical cues held by Oliver Postgate, who contributed act one, "The Iron Chicken and the Music Trees", of A Clangers Opera, with libretto
, which he had personally compiled.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
stop-motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
animated children's television series
Children's television series
Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...
of short stories about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and in, a small blue planet (quite similar to, but not intended to be, the Moon). They speak in whistles, and eat green soup supplied by the Soup Dragon. The programmes were originally broadcast by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
from 1969–1972.
The series was made by Smallfilms
Smallfilms
Smallfilms was a British company that made animated television programmes for children, from 1959 to the 1980s. It was a partnership between Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin . Several very popular series of short films were made using stop-motion animation, including The Clangers, Noggin the Nog,...
, the company set up by Oliver Postgate
Oliver Postgate
Oliver Postgate was an English animator, puppeteer and writer.He was the creator and writer of some of Britain's most popular children's television programmes...
(writer and narrator) and Peter Firmin
Peter Firmin
Peter Arthur Firmin is an English artist and animator. He was the founder of Smallfilms, along with Oliver Postgate. Between them they created a number of popular children's TV programmes, The Saga of Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Clangers, Bagpuss and Pogles' Wood.-Early life:He trained at...
(modelmaker, animator and illustrator). Firmin designed the characters, and his wife knitted and 'dressed' the Clangers. Music – which was often part of the story – was by Vernon Elliott.
Background
The Clangers originated in a series of children's books which originated from another Smallfilms production, Noggin the NogNoggin the Nog
Noggin the Nog is a popular British children's character appearing in his own TV series and series of illustrated books, the brainchild of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. The TV series is considered a 'cult classic' from the golden age of British children's television...
. Publishers Kay and Ward created a series of books from each of the Noggin the Nog episodes, which were then extended into the series called Noggin First Reader, a series aimed at aiding initial reading skills.
In the 1967 published story Noggin and the Moonmouse, a new horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
-trough
Manger
A manger is a trough or box of carved stone or wood construction used to hold food for animals . Mangers are mostly used in livestock raising. They are also used to feed wild animals, e.g., in nature reserves...
was put up in the middle of the town in the North-Lands. A spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
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 various 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".
In 1969, the BBC asked Smallfilms to produce a new series for colour television, but did not specify any particular storyline. Postgate concluded that because space exploration
Space exploration
Space exploration is the use of space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
was particularly topical, the new series should be set in space. He adapted the Moonmouse from the earlier story, removing its tail "because it kept getting into the soup
Soup
Soup is a generally warm food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth.Traditionally,...
". The Clangers looked similar to mice, anteater
Anteater
Anteaters, also known as antbear, are the four mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua commonly known for eating ants and termites. Together with the sloths, they compose the order Pilosa...
s and, from their pink colour, pigs. They wore clothes reminiscent of Roman armour, "against the space debris that kept falling onto the planet[,] lost from other places, like television sets and bits of an Iron Chicken", and they spoke in whistles.
Storyline
Clangers was described by Postgate as basically a family set in space. The Clangers were small creatures living in peace and harmony on - and inside - a small, hollow planet, far, far away, nourished by Blue String Pudding, and Green Soup harvested from the planet's volcanic soup wells by the Soup Dragon. The word "Clanger" is said to derive from the sound made by opening the metal cover of one of the creatures' crater-like burrows, each of which was covered with a door made from an old metal dustbin lid, to protect against meteoriteMeteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
impacts. In each episode, there would be some problem to solve, something invented or discovered, or perhaps some new visitor to meet. Music Trees, with note-shaped fruit, grew on the planet's surface, and music would often be an integral feature in the simple but amusing plots. In the "Fishing" episode, one of the Cheese Trees provided a cylindrical five-line staff
Staff (music)
In standard Western musical notation, the staff, or stave, is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch—or, in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments. Appropriate music symbols, depending upon the intended effect,...
for notes taken from the Music Trees.
Oliver Postgate provided the narration throughout each episode, for the most part in a soft, melodic voice, describing and accounting for the curious antics of the little blue planet's knitted pink inhabitants, and providing a "translation", as it were, for much of their whistled dialogue.
Production
The first episode was broadcast by the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
on November 16, 1969, and a further twenty-five episodes were made. The twenty-sixth episode was broadcast on November 10, 1972. The final Clangers programme, however, was a four-minute election special, broadcast on October 10, 1974. This special episode has not been seen since its original broadcast, although it still exists in the BBC archive. A short clip is available at the BBC's website.
The original Mother Clanger puppet was stolen in 1972. Major Clanger and the second Mother Clanger are on display at the Rupert Bear Museum.
During production, the Clangers grew in size from the first to the last episode, to allow Firmin to use an Action man
Action Man
Action Man is an action figure boys' toy launched in Britain in 1966 by Palitoy as a licensed copy of Hasbro's American "moveable fighting man": G.I...
model figure in "The Rock Collector."
Other inhabitants
- The Soup Dragon – A benign (female) creature with a penchant for Green Soup
- Baby Soup Dragon – The Soup Dragon's child
- Froglets – Small orange aliens with black, stalk-like legs and large eyes, who travel around in a top hatTop hatA top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...
. - The Cloud - A cotton-wool cloud which floats over the surface of the planet, releasing musical raindrops.
Visitors
These appeared in only one or two episodes each.- The Iron Chicken – A "bird" made of scrap metal (modelled from MeccanoMeccanoMeccano is a model construction system comprising re-usable metal strips, plates, angle girders, wheels, axles and gears, with nuts and bolts to connect the pieces. It enables the building of working models and mechanical devices....
), which lives in an orbiting nest made of metallic junk. (The pieces were found around the Smallfilms studio.) - Hoots – Small horn-like creatures with three legs, that speak like trumpets.
- A Spaceman – An astronautAstronautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
, who arrives to collect rock samples.
Music and sound effects
One of the most noted aspects of the programme was its use of sound effects, and a score composed by Vernon Elliott under instructions from Postgate. Although the episodes were scripted, most of the music used over the two series was written in translation by Postgate in the form of "musical sketches" or graphs that he drew for Elliott, who would then convert the drawings into a musical score. The music would then be recorded by the two, along with other musicians – dubbed the Clangers ensemble – in a village hall, where they would often leave the windows open, leading to the sounds of birds outside being heard on some recordings. Much of the score was performed on Elliott's bassoon, and also included the sounds of harps, clarinet, glockenspiel and bells.The distinctive whistles made by the Clangers, performed on swanee whistles, have become as identifiable as the characters themselves, and are much imitated amongst viewers of the programme. The series creators have said that the Clangers, living in vacuum
Vacuum
In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...
, did not actually communicate by sound, but rather by a type of nuclear magnetic resonance
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Nuclear magnetic resonance is a physical phenomenon in which magnetic nuclei in a magnetic field absorb and re-emit electromagnetic radiation...
, which was translated to audible whistles for the human audience. These whistles followed the rhythm and intonation of a script in the English language. The action was also narrated by a separate voice-over from Postgate. However, when the series was shown without narration to a group of overseas students, many of them felt that the Clangers were speaking their particular language.
The song "No Smokes" by psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
band One in a Million
One in a Million (band)
One in a Million were a 1960s psychedelic rock band from Glasgow, Scotland, that included Jimmy McCulloch, later a member of Paul McCartney's Wings, as their lead guitarist. They released two singles , "Use Your Imagination" / "Hold On" for CBS, and "Double Sight" / "Fredereek Hernando" for MGM...
was used in the episode "The Visitor".
Swearing
The non-worded but scored script seemed to allow the Clangers to say almost anything, including swear wordsProfanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
in the basic script. As part of the production, Smallfilms had to send the scripts to the BBC, but on reading the script for episode three, they asked Postgate to remove some "Clanger-speak", explaining that although whistled, "you can’t say that on children’s television [...] you just can’t". At the opening of the episode, after a rocket shoots down the Iron Chicken, Major Clanger kicks a door to make it work, and his first words are "Oh, sod it; the bloody thing’s stuck again". Postgate replied that viewers wouldn't recognize what was said, but the BBC replied "But people will know!" The offending Clanger-talk remained in the episode, and after the series became a commercial success, and the Golden Bear Company became responsible for merchandising, the Clanger-talk used for the talking-squeezable model was the very same phrase.
Series One (1969–1970)
| # | Title | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flying | Major Clanger builds a flying machine. |
| 2 | The Visitor | The Clangers find a television set Television set A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays... . |
| 3 | Chicken | The Clangers build some fireworks Fireworks Fireworks are a class of explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event is a display of the effects produced by firework devices... , one of which hits a passing Iron Chicken. |
| 4 | Music | Tiny Clanger discovers music. |
| 5 | The Intruder | A lunar exploration rover Lunar rover The Lunar Roving Vehicle or lunar rover was a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo program during 1971 and 1972... lands. |
| 6 | Visiting Friends | Tiny Clanger builds a helicopter Helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally... to visit the Iron Chicken. |
| 7 | Fishing | The Clangers build a music boat. |
| 8 | The Top Hat | The Clangers find some Froglets in a top hat Top hat A top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century... . |
| 9 | The Egg | The Soup Dragon gets broody. |
| 10 | The Hoot | A noisy metal creature is retrieved from space, disturbing the Clangers' peace. |
| 11 | The Meeting | More hoots arrive, and seem upset that the first hoot has changed. |
| 12 | Treasure | Tiny Clanger finds a bag of gold coin Gold coin A gold coin is a coin made mostly or entirely of gold. Gold has been used for coins practically since the invention of coinage, originally because of gold's intrinsic value... s while fishing in space. |
| 13 | Goods | A machine that makes plastic items is assembled, but cannot be turned off. |
Series Two (1971–1972)
| # | Title | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | The Tablecloth | The Clangers try various materials to keep some Froglets warm. |
| 15 | The Rock Collector | An astronaut Astronaut An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft.... arrives to collect rocks Geology Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates... , but falls in the soup when Tiny Clanger startles him. |
| 16 | Glow-Honey | Small Clanger wanders off into some cave Cave A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study... s, looking for glow-honey, and gets lost. |
| 17 | The Teapot | A teapot Teapot A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in near-boiling water. Tea may be either in a tea bag or loose, in which case a tea strainer will be needed, either to hold the leaves as they steep or to catch the leaves inside the teapot when the tea is poured... fished from space is less useful than the Clangers thought it would be. |
| 18 | The Cloud | The Cloud is invited to Mother Clanger's birthday party, and rains on the Froglets. |
| 19 | The Egg | The Iron Chicken lays an egg Egg (biology) An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing... , and the Clangers try to look after it. |
| 20 | The Noise Machine | The Clangers assemble a machine they find in space, and the iron chick gets into trouble. |
| 21 | The Seed | The Clangers tend a seed and soon their planet is covered Introduced species An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental... with vegetation. |
| 22 | Pride | Small Clanger finds a mirror, and vanity almost costs him his supper. |
| 23 | Bags | A Gladstone bag Gladstone bag A Gladstone bag is a small portmanteau suitcase built over a rigid frame which could separate into two equal sections. Unlike a suitcase, a Gladstone bag is "deeper in proportion to its length." They are typically made of stiff leather and often belted with lanyards... appears on the Clangers' planet - a strange, new life-form. |
| 24 | The Blow-Fruit | Small Clanger and Baby Soup Dragon cause trouble playing with jet-propelled Jet propulsion Jet propulsion is motion produced by passing a jet of fluid in the opposite direction to the direction of motion. By conservation of momentum, the moving body is propelled in the opposite direction to the jet.... fruit. |
| 25 | Pipe Organ | When the soup-trolley breaks down, Major Clanger tries to make a soup-pump. |
| 26 | The Music of the Spheres | Tiny Clanger is accidentally hoisted away into space by the Hoot planet. |
There was also an election special produced in 1974, entitled "Vote for Froglet". Inspired by what Postgate refers to as the "Winter of Discontent
Winter of Discontent
The "Winter of Discontent" is an expression, popularised by the British media, referring to the winter of 1978–79 in the United Kingdom, during which there were widespread strikes by local authority trade unions demanding larger pay rises for their members, because the Labour government of...
" (usually used to refer to the Winter of 1978-79), and by his recollection of post-war Germany, the episode was broadcast on the night of the second election in 1974.
Reception
Although not quite as popular as BagpussBagpuss
Bagpuss is a 1974 UK children's television series, made by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate through their company Smallfilms. The title character is "an old, saggy cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams"...
(which in 1999 was voted, in a British television poll, the best children's television programme ever made), Clangers was watched and loved by millions of British pre-teen children in the early days of colour television, and is remembered with affection by many who are now in their late forties or early fifties. Since the death of Oliver Postgate in December 2008, interest has been revived in his work, which is considered to have had a notable influence on British culture throughout the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. In 2007, Postgate and Firmin were jointly presented with the Action for Children's Arts J. M. Barrie Award "for a lifetime's achievement in delighting children".
Legacy
The Soup DragonsThe Soup Dragons
The Soup Dragons were a Scottish alternative rock band of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Named after a character in the 1970s children's television show Clangers, the group is best known for its cover of the Rolling Stones' song "I'm Free."-History:...
, a Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
of the late 1980s and early 1990s, took their name from the Clangers character.
In the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
story The Sea Devils
The Sea Devils
The Sea Devils is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 26 to April 1, 1972.-Synopsis:...
, The Master watches the Clangers episode The Rock Collector.
Other countries
The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation showed the series in 1970, and again in 1982. It was narrated by Ingebrigt DavikIngebrigt Davik
Ingebrigt Davik was a Norwegian teacher, children's writer, broadcasting personality, singer and songwriter. He worked for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation from 1959, and made children's programs both for radio and television. Among his children's books is Det hende i Taremareby from 1960,...
, a popular children's-book author, and the title for the series was Romlingane. It was also shown on Swedish Television in the late sixties and early seventies under the Swedish name Rymdlarna.
Soundtrack Album
In 2001, a selection of the series' music and sound effects was compiled by Jonny TrunkTrunk Records
Trunk Records is a British independent record label, which specialises mainly in lost film scores, unreleased TV music, library music, sexploitation and kitsch releases...
from 128 musical cues held by Oliver Postgate, who contributed act one, "The Iron Chicken and the Music Trees", of A Clangers Opera, with libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
, which he had personally compiled.
Track listing
- Intro Music and Dialogue from "Episode One"
- The Start Of "Music"
- From "Visiting Friends"
- "Clangers running around the planet!"
- From "Fishing"
- From "Treasure"
- "Some Musical Sequences"
- From "Goods" (This was used when the machine in the episode "Goods" went into continual production of various plastic objects)
- "An End Title"
- "Tiny Clangers Radio Hat"
- "Some Of Oliver's Special Clangers Effects including the Froglets"
- From "The Rock Collector"
- From "Glowhoney"
- From "Teapot"
- From "Cloud"
- From "The Seed"
- From "The Bags"
- From "Blow Fruit"
- From "The Pipe Organ"
- From "The Music of the Spheres"
- "A short, silent interval"
- "A Clangers Opera, Act One" "The Iron Chicken and the Music Trees" (Compiled by Oliver Postgate)
External links
- Clangers at BBC Online
- A copy of the moon landing hoax parody
- Link to Clive Banks interview with Oliver Postgate about Election Special
- British Film Institute Screen Online
- Knit your own Clanger
- A short clip from Vote for Froglet at BBC Online
- Link to BunnyEars.tv, complete Clangers episodes for viewers in North America