1974:
The trivia:
- While suave actor David Niven was speaking at the Oscars ceremony, a naked man ran past, fully visible on live television. David famously quipped "Isn't it fascinating to think that the only laugh that man will ever get is for stripping and showing his shortcomings?"
- The first ever interstellar radio message is sent from the Arecibo telescope towards the Messier 41 cluster in the Canis Major constellation, 25,000 light years from Earth.
- Tom Baker makes his first appearance as Doctor Who in the closing moments of "Planet of the Spiders"
- Lord Lucan vanishes after his children's nanny was beaten to death in the basement of the family home. No sign of him is ever found again, but he is not formally listed as dead until 2016.
The memory:
Bagpuss
It's probably fair to say that the character of Bagpuss is a true icon of British kids TV - one that has gone beyond popular culture and entered the collective consciousnesses in the same way as say, Doctor Who. Anyone who has ever watched an episode can remember the series of Victorian sepia tinged photographs at the start. The shop Emily owned that did not sell anything but was full of lost property The mice on the Marvellous Mechanical Mouse organ. Gabrielle the toad. Madeleine the rag doll that never moved from her chair. Professor Yaffle the acerbic and haughty carved wooden bookend in the shape of a woodpecker. Plus of course the most important...the most beautiful...the most magical...saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world (even if he was baggy and a bit loose at the seams).
The shows simple storylines, timeless animation and lovable characters have entranced multiple generations of British children - who can all recite the rhyme that woke the pink and white cat and his friends from their slumber:
Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss
Old Fat Furry Catpuss
Wake up and look at this thing that I bring
Wake up, be bright, be golden and light
Bagpuss, oh hear what I sing.
Each episode Emily would place a recovered broken item in front of her cat and sing the familiar song. As the pictures turned from sepia to full colour, Bagpuss would wake up with a huge yawn and so would all all his friends in the shop window.
The toys would discuss the new object and usually tell a story or sing a song that would be illustrated by simple animation that appeared in a thought bubble above Bagpuss's head. These tales were often taken from local Celtic folklore but would help uncover the true nature and purpose of the thing in front of them. Then the hard-working but mischievous mice would squeak a variation on their "we will fix it" song and mend the broken item, placing it in the shop window in case whoever had lost it happened to walk past. Their task complete, Bagpuss would yawn again and as he fell asleep the others would also turn back into immobile toys.
"Bagpuss" was developed by stop-motion animation legends Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin and originally transmitted between February and May 1974 across a mere thirteen episodes. A short run you might think, but what cemented the programme in the minds of children countrywide was the fact that it was repeated twice a year, every year until 1987 ! In the days before VHS, this exposure and the fact that the opening and closing minutes were always the same meant that, much like repeating multiplication tables parrot-fashion, the familiar words and pictures just sunk into your brain.
Some episodes are obviously better than others. Who can forget the classic "The Mouse Mill" where the six rodents try to convince the pompous Professor Yaffle that a wooden toy mill can make chocolate biscuits out of beans and breadcrumbs - or "Uncle Feedle" with it's charming tale of a cloth man with an inside out house. But others had subtle elements of the real world woven into their fabric. "The Ballet Shoe" even has the mice threatening going on strike unless they are allowed to sing. Even stranger is "Ship In a Bottle" where Bagpuss reveals that he once met a topless mermaid in a bar who sat on his lap, while "The Fiddle" has dream-like layers as Bagpuss tells the story of how he met a a leprechaun - who then proceeds to ask for his own story. This is also the one where Gabriel the toad starts to question the very nature of existence - after Yaffle extorts that leprechauns are not real, Gabriel simply states "Well perhaps we aren't real either".
Such has been the overwhelming popularity of the show that it was once voted the favourite kids TV programme of all time. Much has been written about the underlying themes of kindness and working together - and there is even critical analysis which cast the disparate characters as somewhat mythic versions of the important people in a child's life - Madeleine and Gabriel as mother and father, the mice as siblings, Professor Yaffle as the teacher and Bagpuss himself as the grandfather figure. It's an interesting hypothesis.
What is certain is that it is extraordinary how much life Firmin and Postgate manage to imbue into these characters made of wood and cloth. The stop-motion process still allows for amazing nuance in their movements and interactions with each other..The series presented a world about the power of storytelling where there were no limits to imagination. There were moments of education in some of the folktales and discussions about the discarded objects, but primarily it was fabulous entertainment for kids of all ages.
In the forty-plus years since, Bagpuss has received an honourary degree from the University of Kent, had a Romanian children's hospital wing names after him (funded entirely by royalties from the BBC), appeared on a Royal Mail postage stamp and even been part of a touring stage show featuring the songs from the show by original singers Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner.
For myself, I have always adored this little show and I bought it immediately it came out on DVD. My own children watched it. My younger nieces and nephews watch it. A small bean bag version of Bagpuss is looking down on my now as a write this and if he could wake up and talk I am sure he would be pleased that he bought such lasting joy to millions.
Honourable mentions:
- Hong Kong Phooey - In civilian life a mild mannered janitor, Penry Pooch jumps into a filing cabinet and emerges as a masked crime fighter and Kung-Fung master. Obviously an anthropomorphic spoof on the popular marital arts TV shows and film of the time, it's pleasant enough animated fare, but get's onto my list for the fantastic theme song. It's fann-riffic !
- The Four Musketeers - See 1973. 'Nuff said.
- The Man With The Golden Gun - The first Bond I ever saw at the cinema when I was taken by my much-loved late grandfather. It started a life-long love of the franchise and while by no means the best of the Roger Moore era (that's "Live and let Die" if anyone is keeping score). it still has the double whammy of Christopher Lee as Scaramanga and Herve Villechaize as Nick Nack. Let's not talk about Sheriff J.W. Pepper okay?
- Zardoz - John Boorman's science fiction oddity is well worth it even if it's just for the fabulous logo, the huge flying head and Sean Connery in a giant nappy....
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