'Clangers' was a stop-motion puppet animation created in 1969 by (modelmaker and illustrator) Peter Firmin and (writer, animator and narrator) Oliver Postgate's who, through their company, Smallfilms, had previously produced animated shows such as Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog (in which a Clanger-like 'Moonmouse' had featured 2 years previously) and Pogle's Wood and who would go on to produce Bagpuss. The Clangers are a small family of pink mouse-like creatures - named Granny, Major, Mother, Tiny and Small Clanger - who live on a small, moon-like planet along with The Soup Dragon (and her baby), The Froglets, The Iron Chicken, The Cloud and The Music Trees.
The Clangers spoke in a musical whistle created by using a slide (or swanee) whistle. Their dialogue however was all scripted and then reproduced through the instruments. This allowed Postgate to be rather more adventurous with the dialogue than the BBC would have maybe liked (if they'd known) with Episode Three, 'Chicken', containing - at 00:55 - the most famous piece of salty Clanger speak, "Oh sod it, the bloody thing's stuck again."
Only 27 episodes (two series and one special) of The Clangers were made but to this day they hold - as does much of Postgate and Firmin's work - a special place in hearts of swathes of Brits who grew up in the 70s and 80s, but their simple charm has rendered them timeless with the revived series (2015-2020) producing a further 106 episodes narrated by Michael Palin (in the UK) and William Shatner (in the US).
.......................................................................................... If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.
It's been 10 years since the release of the 'Dredd' movie and with no sequel and no news on the purported Mega City One TV series we're left with just the two official screen adventures of everyone's favourite fascist, future cop, the Stallone movie which looked right but did everything else wrong and the aforementioned Karl Urban movie which got most everything right except sharing a name with that previous pile of crap and releasing in the wake of The Raid, but we do have a couple of unofficial releases that we're going to explore beginning with the the Adi Shankar cartoon series, "Judge Dredd: Superfiend'.
JD:S is a six episode series made in the hyper-frenetic 90s MTV style of animation. I wasn't really watching cartoons then so the only visual reference I have for you would be 'Ren and Stimpy'. The story loosely follows the established Judge Death backstory of Sydney De'Ath, the son of a homicidal dentist who grows up to become a Judge before deciding that as all crime is committed by the living then life itself must be a crime, gets himself all corpsey looking and goes on a rampage but that's pretty much the end of the similarities. Here Deadworld and Dredd's world are one and the same, Rico has only just escaped from Titan and is trying to bond with his daughter, Vienna, and the Angel Gang are selling Stookie in a Cursed Earth disco crater.
The story just about holds up and has some fun moments and dialogue - "Dredd to control. I'm up to my ankles in entrails here, what do you want?" - but the frenetic nature and lack of any sort of depth soon wear away at you but you can entertain yourself by easter egg hunting - my favourite was the brief appearance of Fergee.
If you'd prefer to watch the six episodes separately you can do so here or you can watch them edited into a handy continuous story, without all those pesky credit sequences, in the player below.
If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Any affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.
Spinning off from the 2000AD series Caballistics, Inc - which happily got a 'complete' story reissue recently - Absalom is the story of Inspector Harry Absalom who polices the agreement between the respective ruling powers of Britain and Hell known as 'The Accord' and he's not entirely happy about it.
For Caballistics, Inc. writer and artist Gordon Rennie and Dom Reardon created a recognisably current shared world setting where characters and events we know from core Wyrd Britain texts such as Quatermass and the Pit and the formative eras of Doctor Who were canon. In Absalom, Rennie along with artist Tiernen Trevallio, further developed this world adding some venerable British cops including Harry Trout from the Dr Phibes movies and the tea loving Inspector Calhoun from Death Line to the story world.
The story of Harry and his associates ran between 2011 and 2019 in the comic and has since been reprinted in three collections that tell of the ups and downs of supernatural coppering alongside the slowly building story of Harry's bigger plans; a distinctly personal quest. Harry is an old school 1970s style copper very much in the tradition of Regan and Carter, always ready with a handy quip, a well deserved slap or a pint down the boozer and with the proverbial heart of gold underneath his shabby trench coat.
"He's not so bad, once you get used to him, old Harry. Actually, that's bollocks. He's a god awful old git most of the time but he'll never let you down."
To keep him on the job he's been given a nasty form of cancer that is held in abeyance as long as he tows the magical line and which he deals with using an ever present hip flask filled with a heady mix of booze and laudanum. Supporting him are an unlikely crew of coppers, spies, church sponsored vigilantes, vat grown homunculi, occultists, a psychic pavement artist and a partly mechanical - formerly demonically inclined - Victorian valet.
It's beautifully drawn with a gritty dynamism by Trevallio who looks like he's having fun with it but not as much as Rennie who is channelling his inner Gene Hunt filling Harry's mouth with unrepentantly un-pc dialogue while encouraging his characters to punch as many racists, toffs, demons and racist toff demons as he can fit in the pages whilst telling a story of regret, rebellion and redemption.
As I said the Absalom story has been issued as three trade paperback collections - Ghosts of London, Under A False Flag and Terminal Diagnosis – and are hugely recommended (as is Caballistics, Inc) and anyone with a love of the type of movies and TV shows we feature here on Wyrd Britain or of an occult detective romp in the vein of Garth Ennis' run on John Constantine, Hellblazer will find much to love here.
Finally, as a taster to the series 2000AD released a two minute animated prequel to the strip which you can watch below. It's missing the characterful black and white art from the books and it's more cartoony renderings don't quite have the required level of grit and grime but it makes for a fun watch nonetheless.
If
you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us
continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the
blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Any affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.
It's 2099 where, following various environmental disasters which have reduced human knowledge, changed the Earth's orbit, split much of the UK into islands and vastly reduced the human population, we find Professor Nebulous (Mark Gatiss), destroyer of the Isle of Wight and head of KENT (Key Non-judgmental Environmental Taskforce), investigating environmental dangers as he attempts to restore the world while also taking in laundry to supplement their funding.
Nebulous ran for 3 series on BBC Radio 4 between January 2005 and June 2008 with the first episode being remade in 2019 as the animated pilot you can see below.
The show is an affectionate spoof on the cornerstones of Wyrd Britain such as Quatermass, Doctor Who and Doomwatch and indeed the finale of the pilot episode revolves around a notable reference to The Day of the Triffids movie. It features a strong cast including the likes of the series' writer and producer Graham Duff as Rory Lawson and the great David Warner as Nebulous' nemesis Doctor Klench alongside guest stars such as David Tennant, Peter Davison and Kate O'Mara. Not every joke lands cleanly and episodes are often a little too crammed for their own good but such is the curse of the radio play with it's need to avoid dead air but the series as a whole is a thoroughly enjoyable pastiche of the type of shows we champion here which deserves it's place alongside them.
You can watch the animated pilot below with the rest of the series available to own on disc or download from your retailer of choice or you can listen to them here - https://archive.org/details/nebulous5
If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.
Based on Terry Pratchett's book of the same name this animated adaptation was made in 1997 by Cosgrove Hall Films, home of Danger Mouse, Count Duckula & the Doctor Who animation, Scream of the Shalka. Sticking closely to the plot of the book (Granny wouldn't have had it any other way) it tells to tale of the murder of Verence, the King of Lancre by the deeply unsuitable and unstable Duke Felmet and of the three witches - Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick - who hide the King's infant son, Tomjon, and protect both him and the - very angry - land until he comes of age.
There's a nicely rustic quality to the animation, if you've grown up on high budget animations from the likes of Studio Gibli and Pixar you may find it all a little crude but for those of us of the Roobarb generation that's, at least, half the appeal. The voice cast is top notch with the likes of Christopher Lee (DEATH), Jane Horrocks (Magrat), June Whitfield (Nanny Ogg) and Annette Crosbie (Granny Weatherwax) all perfectly cast but I'm less (much less) enamoured of Les Dennis' performance as The Fool. The joy though is of course the source material which Cosgrove Hall treat with the utmost respect and which the extended run time allows all the space it needs.
I have to admit that I've never been much of a fan of the Discworld books but in recent months I've been having another go (on audio) and have discovered a real fondness for the books featuring the witchy trio with this one being a particular favourite, it's Shakespearean allusions never failing to raise a chuckle from me and hopefully from you too.
If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.
I'm posting ths today in memory of Trumpton, Chigley and
Camberwick Green creator and puppeteer Gordon Murray who died today.
Previous to creating the Trumptonshire Trilogy in the mid to late 1960s he had worked for the BBC as a puppeteer and then producer on The Woodentops and Captain Pugwash.
After leaving the BBC in 1964 he formed his own company and over the course of 1966, 1967 & 1969 he and his team produced 39 episodes (13 each) of Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley using stop motion animation by Bob Bura, John Hardwick and Pasquale Ferrari, music by Freddie Phillips and narration by Brian Cant. Murray later burned all (but one) of the original puppets used for the series.
These sublime pieces of slice of life whimsy were and still are beloved of generations and have made regular appearances ever since in pastiches in Spitting Image, Life on Mars, the video for 'Burn The Witch' by Radiohead and not to mention featuring in two songs by Half Man Half Biscuit, 'Time Flies By (When You're the Driver of a Train)' and 'The Trumpton Riots'.
Here's a lovely short interview with him uploaded in 2011.
If you happen to pass a fire station, windmill, steam train or bandstand today spare him a thought.
There are lots of Trumptonshire videos available on line so I'm only going to add a couple here.
First here's episode 2 of Camberwick Green which is the one I remember most strongly from my childhood.
and second here's an upload of one of the several Trumptonshire albums.
Once upon a time
Not so long ago
There was a little girl and her name was Emily
And she had a shop
On the 12th February 1974 national treasures (illustrator / animator) Peter Firmin and (writer / narrator) Oliver Postgate via their Smallfilms company presented to the world the newest in a long line of meticulously crafted and beloved animations. It's central character was a rotund, lazy, fairly dim, pink and white striped cat named Bagpuss who lived in a shop.
It was rather an unusual shop because it didn't sell anything. You see, everything in that shop window was a thing that somebody had once lost and Emily had found and brought home to Bagpuss.
Sharing the shop with Bagpuss is Madeleine the rag doll, an imperious wooden owl named Professor Yaffle (Postgate's note perfect impersonation of the philosopher Bertrand Russell), Gabriel the banjo playing toad and the carved mice on the Mouse Organ.
Over the 13 episodes the cast would investigate various unusual objects brought to the shop by a young girl named Emily (Firmin, daughter of Peter) which included a ballet shoe, a broken figurine, a fiddle and an old rag. These objects were investigated and made the subject of both a story (animated in Bagpuss' thoughts) based on folk tales from around the world and a song (in an English folk song style) sung by one or more of the characters.
As was always the case with Smallfilms, Bagpuss was both beautifully realised and filled with imagination and wonder and as such, even with such a limited run of episodes, that it is still so beloved is testament to the skills of it's creators.
So, we say happy birthday Bagpuss, old, fat, furry, catpuss.
The most important, the most beautiful, the most magical, saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world.
And to celebrate we'd like to raise a chocolate biscuit in salute and share with you our most well remembered of the episodes, 'The Mouse Mill'.
13 episodes and all these years later it's not just Emily who loves him (although she obviously still does).
Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss
Old Fat Furry Catpuss
Wake up and look at this thing that I bring
Wake up, be bright, be golden and light
Bagpuss, oh hear what I sing
If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.
In 1968 Elisabeth Beresford created the first of what became some 20 books (6 of them novels) about small, furry, burrowing creatures that lived under London's Wimbledon Common called Wombles. From the outset the books were a huge success that tapped very much into the emerging countercultural zeitgeist of simple, rural living and green issues. The books have since been translated into various languages and continue to sell to this day.
Without wishing to take anything away from the books this enduring success can be, in no small part, attributed to The Wombles step away from the page and on to the screen with the 1973 BBC TV series.
Elisabeth Beresford
This new series was written by Beresford and directed by Anglo-French animator Ivor Wood who had previously worked on 'The Magic Roundabout' (with Serge Danot) and 'The Herbs' and who would go on to make 'Paddington' and 'Postman Pat'.
Ivor Wood
Responsibility for the theme tune was given to the then virtually unknown songwriter Mike Batt who obtained the rights to musical exploitation of the characters and later went on to be entirely to blame for 'Bright Eyes'.
Providing the voices for the Wombles was British TV legend Bernard Cribbins. In the video below he talks about the show.
Two series, each consisting of thirty 5 minute episodes, of 'The Wombles' were produced in 1973 and 1975 and all 6 can be viewed in the two playlists below.
They are beautifully made, utterly charming, slightly mischievous and gloriously daft.
A
movie written by Neil Gaiman and directed by Dave McKean was always
going to be a pretty enticing prospect for me.
I love Gaiman's
writing. His worlds are ones populated by characters and situations
usually more at home in fairytales (the original pre-Victorian ones not
their crappy watered down versions) and gothic horrors. I love McKean's art
for essentially the same reasons.
Mirrormask tells the story of Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) a young girl dreaming of running away from the circus to join real life. She gets her wish when her mum, Joanne (Gina McKee), is rushed to hospital and she and her dad (Rob Brydon) are forced to stay in a drab, grey tower block while they wait for Joanne's operation.
Helena decorates her world with ink drawings that she plasters all over the walls, the balcony, the fire doors that - in Dave McKean's fabulous style - portray a vast aray of characters, creatures and buildings. A make believe world which - as tends to happen in these sort of things - is where Helena soon finds herself stuck in what may be her dream or may also be Joanne's dreaming mind as she is operated on.
Inside the 'dream' world Helena makes the aquaintance of a juggler named Valentine (Jason Barry) with whom she sets off on a quest - inevitably - to wake the The Queen of Light and defeat The Queen of Shadows (both also played by Gina McKee) by locating the titular Mirrormask.
Storywise it's a fairly heavy handed exploration of illness - the sleeping mother being attacked by the black cancerous tendrils causing the world to collapse around Helena - and personality - the duality of Helena's love for her family and friends and her desire to find herself and her own way in life and of course the masks themselves. But, there's penty of warmth and humour enough that for the most part you don't feel like you're getting slapped around the head constantly.
I remember at the time it came out all
the pre-release hype, interviews and then the extras on the DVD kept
referring to the tiny budget. At the time I thought they were labouring a
point but now I know why. Essentially the film consists of lots of
static set pieces with the actors reduced to talking and gesticulating their way through
the scenes instead of being allowed to move around the, visually
sumptuous, world that McKean has created. You are utterly immersed in the McKean's beautiful art and the scope of both creators vision for the movie is readily apparent as
the use of green screen (for almost the entire movie) allowed them
to build an utterly fantastical reality but which, in turn, stiffled
both the actors and ultimately the movie.
Lastly,
it is a shame that they aimed this at kids. I can't help but feel that it really would have benefited
if they'd got a lot darker, a lot creepier and a hell of lot scarier. That said though it's an enjoyable enough distraction for 90 minutes and even if you're not paying it much attention it makes for frankly lovely wallpaper.
It's been pretty much common knowledge for a while now that The Clangers were making a return to our TV screens in the near future with Peter Firmin along with Oliver Postgate's son Daniel working towards that end.
Well, in a masterstroke of casting the BBC has reported today that Michael Palin has been hired on to provide the narration. Bereft of the magnificent voice of the sadly departed elder Postgate the narration was always going to be a sticky point but personally I think they couldn't have chosen better.
Originally created in 1969 by (modelmaker and illustrator) Firmin and (writer, animator and narrator) Postgate's Smallfilms who had previously produced animated shows such as Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog and Pogle's Wood and who would go on to produce Bagpuss. The Clangers are a small family of pink mouse like creatures - named Granny, Major, Mother, Tiny and Small Clanger - who live on and in a small planet along with The Soup Dragon (and her baby), The Froglets, The Iron Chicken, The Cloud and The Music Trees.
At this point in response to anyone thinking - rather tediously - 'What were they on?' - the answer is pure, unfettered, glorious imagination.
The Clangers spoke in a musical whistle created by using a slide (or swanee) whistle. Their dialogue however was all scripted and then reproduced through the instruments. This allowed Postgate to be rather more adventurous with the dialogue than the BBC would have liked with the episode 'Chicken' containing what became the most famous piece of Clanger speak (at 55 seconds in).
Here's Stephen Fry discussing it on QI if you can't make it out...
Only 27 episodes (two series and one - lost - special) of The Clangers were made but to this day they hold (as does much of Postgate and Firmin's work) a special place in hearts of entire generations of Brits who grew up in the 70s and 80s and it's good to know that they will be soon be entertaining entirely new generations.
