Oliver Postgate

Creator

Oliver Postgate

Born — Died

1925-04-12 — 2008-12-08

Place of birth

Hendon, Middlesex, England, UK

Known for

Creator

Credits

20 titles

Richard Oliver Postgate (12 April 1925 – 8 December 2008), generally known as 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. Pingwings, Pogles' Wood, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Clangers and Bagpuss, were all made by Smallfilms, the company he set up with Peter Firmin, and were shown on the BBC between the 1950s and the 1980s, and on ITV from 1959 to the present day. In a 1999 BBC poll Bagpuss was voted the most popular children's television programme of all time Description above from the Wikipedia article Oliver Postgate, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributor…

Known for

Ivor the Engine poster
7.0

Ivor the Engine is a British children's animation by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms company. It is a children's television series relating the adventures of a small green locomotive who lived in the "top left-hand corner of Wales" and worked for The Merioneth and Llantisilly Railway Traction Company Limited. His friends included Jones the Steam, Evans the Song and Dai Station, among many other characters.

Ivor the Engine

1976

Clangers poster
7.1

Chronicles the melancholically funny lives of the Clangers, a flutey-voiced family of woolen, knitted aliens living below the surface of a knobbly little planet far out in space. Their misadventures brought them into contact with such unlikely creatures as the Soup Dragon, the Froglets, the Iron Chicken and the Glow Buzzers.

Clangers

1969

Ivor The Engine poster
8.3

...Not very long ago, in the top left-hand corner of Wales, there was a railway. It wasn't a very long railway or a very important railway, but it was called The Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, and it was all there was. And in a shed, in a siding at the end of the railway, lives the Locomotive of the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, which was a long name for a little engine so his friends just called him Ivor..." ...And that was how it began, back in 1959: one of Oliver Postgate's most loved creations, Ivor the Engine. It was a series about the Welsh adventures of a little green railway engine and his many friends. But Ivor wasn't an ordinary steam engine. He pretty much wished he was a person and ended up doing things like singing in a choir and swimming in the sea! One season of six, 10 minute, Black and White films was made for and screened by Associated-Red.

Ivor The Engine

1959

Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band: The Official BBC Children in Need Medley poster
9.0

Big Chris leads a chorus of characters from various animated children's television shows in a medley of seven songs: 1. "Can You Feel It" 2. "Don't Stop" 3. "Jai Ho!" 4. "Tubthumping" 5. "Never Forget" 6. "Hey Jude" 7. "One Day Like This"

Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band: The Official BBC Children in Need Medley

2009

Tottie: The Doll's Wish poster
NR

Return to the enchanting yet often perilous world of the dolls with "Totty: The Doll's Wish" This captivating stop-motion animated saga, originally aired in 1986, continues the beloved story from Smallfilms, narrated once again by the inimitable Oliver Postgate. Following the dramatic events of "Totty: The Story of a Doll's House," Tottie, Mr. Plantaganet, Apple, and the remaining dolls are attempting to build a peaceful life in their beloved home. However, the insidious influence of Marchpane, the beautiful but manipulative china doll, still casts a long shadow. Even from afar, her powerful wishes subtly control the children, Emily and Charlotte, and threaten the fragile harmony within the doll's house.

Tottie: The Doll's Wish

1986

Tottie: The Story of a Doll's House poster
7.5

Tottie: The Story of a Doll's House is a 1984 animated television series. It is based on The Dolls' House, a children's novel written by Rumer Godden originally published in 1947, and focuses on the toys living in a Victorian Dolls' House belonging to sisters Emily and Charlotte Dane. The whole series had a very dark edge as the dolls had to wish very hard that good things would happen and they would not fall on misfortune. The series started with the phrase "Dolls are not like people, people choose, but dolls can only be chosen".

Tottie: The Story of a Doll's House

1984

Film credits

2000s · 6 titles

Series credits

Ivor the Engine poster
7.0

Ivor the Engine is a British children's animation by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms company. It is a children's television series relating the adventures of a small green locomotive who lived in the "top left-hand corner of Wales" and worked for The Merioneth and Llantisilly Railway Traction Company Limited. His friends included Jones the Steam, Evans the Song and Dai Station, among many other characters.

Ivor the Engine

1976

Clangers poster
7.1

Chronicles the melancholically funny lives of the Clangers, a flutey-voiced family of woolen, knitted aliens living below the surface of a knobbly little planet far out in space. Their misadventures brought them into contact with such unlikely creatures as the Soup Dragon, the Froglets, the Iron Chicken and the Glow Buzzers.

Clangers

1969

Ivor The Engine poster
8.3

...Not very long ago, in the top left-hand corner of Wales, there was a railway. It wasn't a very long railway or a very important railway, but it was called The Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, and it was all there was. And in a shed, in a siding at the end of the railway, lives the Locomotive of the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited, which was a long name for a little engine so his friends just called him Ivor..." ...And that was how it began, back in 1959: one of Oliver Postgate's most loved creations, Ivor the Engine. It was a series about the Welsh adventures of a little green railway engine and his many friends. But Ivor wasn't an ordinary steam engine. He pretty much wished he was a person and ended up doing things like singing in a choir and swimming in the sea! One season of six, 10 minute, Black and White films was made for and screened by Associated-Red.

Ivor The Engine

1959

Tottie: The Doll's Wish poster
NR

Return to the enchanting yet often perilous world of the dolls with "Totty: The Doll's Wish" This captivating stop-motion animated saga, originally aired in 1986, continues the beloved story from Smallfilms, narrated once again by the inimitable Oliver Postgate. Following the dramatic events of "Totty: The Story of a Doll's House," Tottie, Mr. Plantaganet, Apple, and the remaining dolls are attempting to build a peaceful life in their beloved home. However, the insidious influence of Marchpane, the beautiful but manipulative china doll, still casts a long shadow. Even from afar, her powerful wishes subtly control the children, Emily and Charlotte, and threaten the fragile harmony within the doll's house.

Tottie: The Doll's Wish

1986

Tottie: The Story of a Doll's House poster
7.5

Tottie: The Story of a Doll's House is a 1984 animated television series. It is based on The Dolls' House, a children's novel written by Rumer Godden originally published in 1947, and focuses on the toys living in a Victorian Dolls' House belonging to sisters Emily and Charlotte Dane. The whole series had a very dark edge as the dolls had to wish very hard that good things would happen and they would not fall on misfortune. The series started with the phrase "Dolls are not like people, people choose, but dolls can only be chosen".

Tottie: The Story of a Doll's House

1984

Bagpuss poster
6.8

Bagpuss is a UK children's television series, made by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate from 12 February 1974 to 7 May 1974 through their company Smallfilms. The title character was, "An old, saggy, cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams." Although only 13 episodes of the show were made, it remains fondly remembered, and was regularly repeated in the UK for thirteen years. In 1999 Bagpuss topped a BBC poll for the UK's favourite children's TV programme.

Bagpuss

1974

Noggin the Nog poster
8.8

Noggin the Nog is a popular British children's character. Noggin himself is a simple, kind and unassuming King of the Northmen in a roughly Viking-age setting, with various fantastic elements such as dragons, flying machines and talking birds.

Noggin the Nog

1959

The Seal of Neptune poster
9.0

The Seal of Neptune was a children's programme created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, also known for their works Ivor the Engine and Clangers. It was broadcast on BBC Television in 1960. Oliver Postage tells the sage of Sirus,the small seahorse who sets out beneath the waves with his friend Shrimp to return the Seal of Neptune to its rightful owner.

The Seal of Neptune

1960

The Pingwings poster
NR

Pingwings was an animated black-and-white children's television series of 18 ten-minute episodes broadcast in the United Kingdom on ITV in 1961. It first aired on Southern Television. Created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin of Smallfilms, it starred a family of penguin-like creatures who lived at the back of a barn on Berrydown Farm. The Pingwing characters were knitted by Firmin's wife Joan and the animation was achieved using the stop motion technique.

The Pingwings

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Behind the camera