The year 1966, marked by England's World Cup victory and the debut of Star Trek, also saw the quiet arrival of Camberwick Green, a stop-motion animation for young children. Created by Gordon Murray, it was the first in a trilogy of series set in the fictional Trumptonshire, followed by Trumpton in 1967 and Chigley in 1969. These shows, produced on modest budgets with innovative techniques like crafting heads from pingpong balls and clothing from foam latex, featured unique songs, rituals, and narration by Brian Cant. Notably, they were filmed in color even before color television became widely available in the UK, with a full service not established until 1969. This foresight granted characters like Windy Miller and the Trumpton fire brigade an extended broadcast life, with Camberwick Green and its companions still airing on terrestrial television as late as 2000.
Pioneers of Stop-Motion and Puppetry
Gordon Murray's creations were part of a broader, enchanting era of children's broadcasting that contrasted with later, more frenetic programming. Alongside Murray's work, Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin emerged from a repurposed cowshed near Canterbury with their own beloved series. Firmin handled the design of sets and characters, while Postgate wrote scripts and narrated. Their collaborator, bassoonist Vernon Elliott, provided minimalist soundtracks. While some of their early shows like Alexander the Mouse and Pogle's Wood are less remembered, four classics cemented their reputation.
Ivor the Engine, which originally aired from 1959 to 1964 about a Welsh locomotive dreaming of joining a male-voice choir, was so popular that the BBC commissioned a color remake a decade later. Noggin the Nog, a delightful Norse saga inspired by the Lewis chessmen and set to Elliott's music, also received an eighties color reprise. The duo's enchanting work continued with The Clangers (1969-1972) and the iconic Bagpuss (1974).
Bagpuss, a marmalade cat conceived as an experiment that resulted in an improbably striped pink and white creation due to a chemical mishap, became a national treasure. The Clangers, described as gentle mouse-like creatures living on a moon and communicating through whistles, were their first color production, timed with the Apollo moon landings. Postgate famously noted that the Clangers' whistling, when listened to closely, contained moments of profanity, a detail that delighted international audiences who were convinced the creatures spoke various languages.
This era also included other cherished shows like Captain Pugwash, Sir Prancelot, Tales From The Riverbank, the serene Mr Benn, the surreal Roobarb, and the revoiced French import The Magic Roundabout, whose characters and narratives captivated young viewers. Many of these series, often comprising only 13 episodes, achieved enduring popularity, a testament to the creators' belief in the