A Son of the Rock

I was sad to hear this morning of the death of Oliver Postgate, who, due to the animated films he produced for television in the 1960s, was one of the subliminal influences on my youth.

He is perhaps most famous for Bagpuss and The Clangers but my personal recollection of his best work is of Noggin The Nog, one of whose characters, Nogbad The Bad, provided the nickname for a teacher of French at my school. Its source material, Norse sagas, made it somehow exotic. The sonorous voice-over at the beginning only added to its charm.

His films, made in collaboration with Peter Firmin, were understated, gentle, but also quietly subversive and the animation technique in the early works – Ivor The Engine as well as Noggin – while apparently basic, was expressive.

With The Clangers he entered all our subconsciouses – what a delightful, surreal world that was.

In these days of shoot-em-ups and CGI his work maybe seems anachronistic; but children of all ages everywhere would surely still respond to it.

Oliver Postgate 1925-2008. So it goes.