Bagpuss (1974)

"189 Minutes of Nostalgic Delight"

For those who grew up in the 1970s it might come as something of a surprise to learn that there are only 13 episodes of Bagpuss, and now Fabulous Films are releasing the lot on Blu-ray and DVD with a bunch of extras.

What? I hear you cry. Does early 1970s stop motion kids' animation shot on 16mm in a barn by two blokes (Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin) who did absolutely everything apart from a couple of the voices warrant the Blu-ray treatment? Well surprisingly enough Blu-ray really does make a difference, and if you've ever fancied revisiting the show this is the set to do it with.

For those few (and BAGPUSS really is a famous piece of TV, at least here in the UK) who are unfamiliar with the show, it's set in a nebulous sepia-tinted world (Postgate wanted it to have a 'timeless Edwardian feel') where a little girl called Emily (Firmin's daughter) owns a shop that, in the way of children's programmes of the period, doesn't actually sell anything.

What it does contain is lost objects, which Emily has found and brought home to Bagpuss, the saggy old cloth cat who sleeps in the shop window. Despite being constructed from pink and white wool (in reality he was meant to be marmalade but something went wrong during the dyeing process) Emily merely has to say a few magic words (which some reading this will likely be able to repeat now) to cause Bagpuss to wake up. 

And when Bagpuss wakes up, all his friends wake up, too. These friends consist of a weird jumble of characters typical of other Postgate-Firmin productions, in this case including a wooden woodpecker apparently inspired by Bertrand Russell (Professor Yaffle) and a toad (Gabriel) based on a character from the long-running radio soap The Archers.

Each 14 minute episode then consists of a story built around the object that has been brought in. There's often a song, and the mixture of folk music, fairy tale, and the comforting environment in which this all takes place has all likely contributed to Bagpuss' longevity.

Extras on Fabulous Films' disc include 10 minutes of Peter Firmin at Home With Bagpuss, The Story of Smallfilms (24 minutes) and the sequence from the BAFTA Children's Awards when Peter Firmin was given a special presentation. There's some duplication amongst the extras but fans will be delighted to see some of the original puppets and props, backdrops from shows like Ivor the Engine, and if you're a fan of Gabriel they even show you how he was worked. All superbly lovely stuff. 

BAGPUSS is out on DVD and Blu-ray from Fabulous Films on Monday 9th October 2023