The death has been announced of Peter Firmin at the age of 89. He co-created of some of the most iconic shows and characters on British television, especially children’s animation, along with Oliver Postgate, his partner in “Smallfilms”. Two of Firmin’s creations, The Clangers and Basil Brush continue on TV today. He was awarded a Bafta (British Academy of Films and Television Arts) Lifetime Achievement award in 2014.
(Of necessity, I have extensively illustrated his work using Youtube video which you can dip into to get a flavor of the shows.)
Postgate was originally involved in working on children’s programming for Associated Rediffusion, the commercial TV company with the franchise for the London area. Firmin was a teacher at the Central School of Art and Design and produce the artwork and models to animate Postgate’s stories. The two began to co-operate with “Alexander the Mouse” which used an Irish system of animation using magnets to move characters against a background. These shows were broadcast live!
The two set up their own production company in a converted cowshed on Firmin’s farm. They were to go on to create a number of shows for television, not all of which I have included. Their first success was “Ivor the Engine” about a steam train in Wales, narrated by Postgate.
Firmin’s visuals and Postgate’s narration would become a hallmark of their work. Their animations would provide a “safe place” for pre-schools to learn about kindness, without preaching at them or talking down to them. They soon followed “Ivor” with the stories about a mythical Nordic king, “The Sagas of Noggin the Nog”, their first work for the BBC from 1959 to 1965. They were remade in color for the BBC, this is from 1982.
Smallfilms also remade Ivor the Engine for the BBC in color. In 1967 one of a spinoff book series “Noggin and the Moonmouse”, later more simply animated, introduced a character that was to develop into their most loved and enduring shows. In that, the Nogs were celebrating a new horse drinking trough when a spaceship landed in it piloted by the Moonmouse. When in 1969 the BBC asked them to produce a new show, Postgate hit on the idea of developing the Moonmouse into “The Clangers”, in part because of the interest in the Apollo launches.
The Clangers was described by Postgate as a family in space. They were small creatures living in peace and harmony on – and inside – a small, hollow planet, far, far away: nourished by Blue String Pudding, and by Green Soup harvested from the planet's volcanic soup wells by the Soup Dragon.
Postgate narrated the stories and “translated” the Clangers’ speech. This was actually the scripted words “spoken” through a swanee whistle, although sometimes they went “off script” with swear words, something that endeared the show to adults watching with their children. Another departure for their work for the BBC was the use of models, knitted by Firmin’s wife. This technique had earlier been used in a series for commercial television, Pingwings from 1961 to 1965.
The first series ran until 1974 when an “election special” was shown. In 2013 the BBC announced it had commissioned a new series of The Clangers in high definition for their CBeebies children’s channel, shown from 2015, with Firmin’s involvement. He hated CGI graphics and insisted that the characters remain knitted. By then Postgate had died and the BBC version had former Monty Python star Michael Palin narrating (William Shatner was used for the US version)
1974 also saw the first showing of what was to be voted the BBC’s most popular children’s programme in 1999, despite only 13 episodes being made. Bagpuss was a "saggy, old cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams" in a shop of abandoned toys which came to life at night. They had been rescued by “Emily”, played by FIrmin’s daughter in the opening still sequence. Bagpuss was originally going to be ginger and white but a mistake by the material supplier meant he was pink and white.
In 1962, Firmin designed a glove puppet fox, Basil Brush, for an ITV children’s show who always appears as a double act referred to as “Mister ….” followed by whatever the sidekick’s first name is. He was originally voiced and performed by Ivan Owen and now by Michael Windsor after Owen’s death in 2000.
Ivan modelled Basil's voice on that of the film star Terry-Thomas, giving the puppet a touch of well-cultivated class. This, plus a degree of sophistication in the humour (which often included topical political jokes) helped give Basil a broad appeal. So although Basil began as a children's entertainer, in the 1970s he became a mainstream act, attracting a family audience.
Basil first appeared on television in 1962, in a series called The Three Scampis, an out-of-work circus act. The human was Howard Williams, Ivan Owen animated and voiced Basil and Wally Whyton animated and voiced Spike McPike, a very aggressive Scottish hedgehog also made by Peter Firmin. In the mid-1960s Basil became a supporting act for the magician David Nixon, upstaging Nixon on the latter's BBC1 show Nixon at Nine-Five in 1967 and The Nixon Line (1967–68), to such good effect that the fox was offered his own show.
The sophisticated humor (and sometimes bawdy jokes) with his catchphrase “Boom, Boom”, a sort of mic drop, gives Basil a wide appeal to this day. Here he is on the late night Channel 4 show “The Last Leg” shortly after the election of Trump. [For context, they are discussing this segment from the 2016 Christmas advertisement from the John Lewis department store chain]
Basil also does stage shows and went on tour in 2015.
Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate are seminal figures in the development of children’s television in the UK.
Reacting to the news that he would be presented with a Special Award at the Bafta Children's Awards in 2014, Mr Firmin said it was touching that his work was remembered with affection, decades on.
The chair of Bafta's Children's Committee at the time said Mr Firmin helped to lay the foundations of today's children's TV industry.
His work has run from simple black and white drawings moved by magnets to high definition stop-animation colour productions. Basil Brush and The Clangers will continue and there are proposals to remake Bagpuss. These will ensure that Peter Firmin’s work and vision will continue to give delight to children of all ages for many years to come.