16 November: The Clangers

50 years ago today, in 1969, the first episode of The Clangers was broadcast by the BBC. 10 things you might not know about The Clangers.

1. It was no coincidence that The Clangers first appeared on TV in the same year as the first Moon landing. The producers thought the exciting new world of space travel would attract viewers. While it aired after the event, when they were filming, it was still anybody's guess whether the USA or Russia would get to the Moon first; so the spaceman who visited the Moon in the show planted a special flag which incorporated the flags of both nations.
2. The Clangers were created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. The original Clanger puppets were all hand knitted by Joan Firmin, using 3km of wool.
3. They got their name from the sound the dustbin lid-like covers to their burrows made when they were opened.
4. A Clanger had appeared on TV two years earlier in an episode of Noggin the Nog, entitled Noggin and the Moonmouse in which a Clanger crash landed its spaceship into a horse trough. Local children helped it find the fuel it needed (vinegar and soap flakes) so it could take off and go home.
5. The Clangers' language is a series of whistles. While they may sound random, it is an actual language with each whistle representing a word, following a script. So Clangers can, and do, swear. In the 1970s, the BBC got upset when they realised what one Clanger had actually said: "Sod it, the bloody thing's stuck again!" It was by no means unknown for Clangers to tell one another to "Sod off."
6. It takes six animators a whole day to produce just 11 seconds of an episode.
7. The clothes the Clangers wear is like Roman armour and is intended to protect them from falling space debris. Each Clanger has an identifying symbol embroidered on the front of its armour.
8. The Clanger family consists of Granny, Major Clanger and his wife, Mother Clanger, and their two children, Small and Tiny. Also living on the planet are the Soup Dragon and her son Baby Soup Dragon, who provide the green soup which makes up most of the Clangers' diet. There are also three Froglets, orange aliens which travel around in a top hat, the Iron Chicken, a bird made from scrap metal which lives in a nest made from space junk which orbits the planet, and Sky Moos, flying blue cows which are always hungry.
9. The original series ran until 1972, with a special episode made for the General Election in 1974, in which the narrator tries to teach the Clangers about democracy. They are asked to vote between the Soup Dragon and a Froglet. The Soup Dragon wins on the policy of "No free soup for Froglets", but the Clangers dispute the result and the Soup Dragon decides to give Froglets free soup anyway. (Fairly accurate. People vote for policies excluding people who aren't like them; don't like the result and the winning party don't keep their promises.) The series was revived in 2015, narrated by Michael Palin.
10. The original Mother Clanger puppet was stolen from an exhibition in 1972 and is still missing. The original Soup Dragon has a darn in its hand after a mouse chewed it, trying to get at a Chocolate penny the Dragon was holding.

NEW!

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle