The voice of my childhood has died
I suspect I wasn’t the only thirty-something to ‘get a bit of grit in my eye’ upon hearing that Oliver Postgate — the creator and narrator of Bagpuss, The Clangers and Ivor the Engine, among others — had died at the age of 83.
These gentle, sincere, enchanting and unpatronising stories, with Oliver Postgate’s warm narration, were a precious part of my childhood. It’s certainly not simply nostalgia, because viewing the programmes today, one can’t help but be charmed by Postgate’s imaginative, quirky stories and Peter Firmin’s lovely designs.
The Guardian has gathered several clips and part of a documentary on Postgate and Firmin’s work.
Postgate was an interesting man too; a conscientious objector who campaigned against nuclear weapons, in his later years he wrote some excellent articles for the New Statesman and his own website, on subjects such as the environment, democracy and Afghanistan. I thought this extract about the BBC and children’s television was sadly accurate:
Then, in 1987 the BBC let us know that in future all “programming” was to be judged by what they called its “audience ratings”. Furthermore, we were told, some U.S. researchers had established that in order to retain its audience (and its share of the burgeoning merchandising market) every children’s programme had to have a ‘hook’, ie, a startling incident to hold the attention, every few seconds. As our films did not fit this category they were deemed not fit to be shown by the BBC any more. End of story – not only for Peter and me – we had had a very good innings – but also for many of the shoe-string companies that had been providing scrumptious programmes for what is now seen as ‘the golden age of children’s television’.
Those days are long gone. Today making films for children’s television has become very big business requiring huge capital investment, far beyond the reach of small companies, and that has inevitably brought with it a particular poverty from which we never suffered.
The Head of Acquisitions at the BBC outlined the Corporation’s policy in a recent radio programme. She told us:
“The children of today are more used to the up-market, faster-moving things” and that “in today’s hugely competitive schedule we are up against about another twelve to fourteen children’s channels and we have got to stand out.”
As a policy that is, in my considered view, almost criminally preposterous.
Firstly because it isn’t true. There is no such thing as ‘the children of today’. Children are not ‘of today’. They come afresh into this world in a steady stream and, apart from a few in-built instincts, they are blank pages happily waiting to be written on.
Secondly because it simply isn’t true that children have to have what they are ‘used to’. They do want programmes that are new to them, programmes that are original and mind-stretching. They just aren’t being offered them.
Lastly, the policy is tragically preposterous because there is simply no need or reason for the BBC to ‘compete and stand out’. It is a publicly funded body and it should know that feeding the minds of young people is a serious loving responsibility. We ourselves have passed this responsibility on to the BBC and it has no business leaving it to the mercies of a money-grubbing market.
R.I.P. Oliver Postgate, you’ve left a wonderful legacy.
yours and mine – my friend – interesting piece, is it totally true – yes, but can we not seek out some original and gentle programmes out there…?? I hope so – thank you badger