Yet Another Cycling Forum

Off Topic => The Pub => Arts and Entertainment => Topic started by: Tim Hall on 12 February, 2024, 09:28:18 pm

Title: Bagpuss
Post by: Tim Hall on 12 February, 2024, 09:28:18 pm
Episodes 1 and 2 of Bagpuss are available on that iPlayer, on account of it (Bagpuss, not that iPlayer) being 50 years old.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: Wowbagger on 12 February, 2024, 10:21:25 pm
Radio 3 played the Bagpuss theme earlier today, followed by mice singing, then someone else singing Sumer is Icumen In.

Interesting that Bagpuss is half the age of Rhapsody in Blue, which was first performed 100 years ago today. That thought makes me feel very old indeed.

Radio 3 played Rhapsody in Blue today as well, the piano solo being played by Essex Boy Benjamin Grosvenor.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: Jaded on 12 February, 2024, 10:25:43 pm
When I saw Bagpuss was 50 I immediately thought of a thread on here...
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: Cudzoziemiec on 13 February, 2024, 09:50:03 am
Radio 3 played the Bagpuss theme earlier today, followed by mice singing, then someone else singing Sumer is Icumen In.
Heard that. Entertaining.

Quote
Radio 3 played Rhapsody in Blue today as well, the piano solo being played by Essex Boy Benjamin Grosvenor.
Heard that too.
Title: Bagpuss
Post by: citoyen on 13 February, 2024, 07:42:59 pm
The “studio” where they filmed Bagpuss (ie the Postgate family home) is less than half a mile up the road from chez moi. Really ought to have a blue plaque or something.

Radcliffe and Maconie played the wonderful The Bony King Of Nowhere on the radio on Sunday (from the Owls of Athens episode). This still makes me laugh 40-odd years later (since I first saw it, I mean - was too young to see the original broadcast).

https://youtu.be/D5DC1JWPv4Q?si=E7ev2eI76UQDb0Ho
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: CAMRAMan on 13 February, 2024, 07:53:12 pm
I saw a stage version with my daughter at Birmingham Old Rep a decade or so ago. Very clever staging of three episodes. I used to sing 'I saw a ship a-sailing' as a lullaby to my three kids. Ivor the Engine, another Postgate beauty, is very socialist in its ethos. The Clangers space race episode is very scornful of such efforts & rightly so.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: citoyen on 13 February, 2024, 07:53:18 pm
Nostalgia tripping - just listened to the mice’s version of Row Your Boat as well. Everything about this is just perfect…


https://youtu.be/_4RQ_cJIy6I?feature=shared
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: Cudzoziemiec on 14 February, 2024, 09:30:57 am
Somehow, I never watched Bagpuss. I've no idea why. I used to love Ivor the Engine and especially the Clangers. They didn't have songs though, or not that have really stuck in my memory, although there was the Music Boat.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: citoyen on 14 February, 2024, 10:42:35 am
Somehow, I never watched Bagpuss. I've no idea why. I used to love Ivor the Engine and especially the Clangers. They didn't have songs though, or not that have really stuck in my memory, although there was the Music Boat.

Ivor the Engine had incidental music (and that wonderful bassoon theme tune, of course) but no songs.

Last night I watched the two eps of Bagpuss that are currently on iPlayer. I've seen them countless times before but not recently. One thing that struck me that I've never really noticed before is how rudimentary the animation is - the stop-motion is jerky and there are lengthy scenes with no movement at all. And Bagpuss himself is the only character whose facial expression ever changes.

And yet it was still as utterly captivating as ever. It all made me very emotional.

That's the power of great storytelling, I guess.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: citoyen on 14 February, 2024, 10:50:43 am
The “studio” where they filmed Bagpuss (ie the Postgate family home) is less than half a mile up the road from chez moi.

Read last night on the BBC website that it was actually filmed at the Firmins' home, which is a little bit further up the road.

Emily still lives locally - she's an artist and often takes part in local open house events. And Dan Postgate, son of Oliver and current custodian of the Small Films legacy, is a sometime pub quiz team-mate of mine.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: rogerzilla on 14 February, 2024, 10:52:01 am
I didn't like Bagpuss.  I preferred The Clangers.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: Cudzoziemiec on 14 February, 2024, 10:53:16 am
And Dan Postgate, son of Oliver and current custodian of the Small Films legacy, is a sometime pub quiz team-mate of mine.
That's a Random Claim to Fame for you. And no doubt to interesting stories too.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: citoyen on 14 February, 2024, 10:55:28 am
I didn't like Bagpuss.  I preferred The Clangers.

Might be a generational thing. I love the Clangers but Bagpuss will always be my favourite, closely followed by Ivor the Engine.

My dad always goes on about Pogles' Wood but I don't think I've ever seen it.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: citoyen on 14 February, 2024, 11:02:16 am
And Dan Postgate, son of Oliver and current custodian of the Small Films legacy, is a sometime pub quiz team-mate of mine.
That's a Random Claim to Fame for you. And no doubt to interesting stories too.

I've never talked about his dad with him but we have discussed some of his other famous relatives - such as Angela Lansbury (his own tenuous claim to fame!).

Dan's grandfather (ie Oliver's father) was Raymond Postgate, who founded the Good Food Guide (which I worked on in the late 90s/early 00s - small world!). Raymond was married to Daisy Lansbury, daughter of George Lansbury, one time leader of the Labour Party. George was Angela's grandfather.

Fascinating family all round, really.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: rogerzilla on 14 February, 2024, 11:30:38 am
And Dan Postgate, son of Oliver and current custodian of the Small Films legacy, is a sometime pub quiz team-mate of mine.
That's a Random Claim to Fame for you. And no doubt to interesting stories too.

I've never talked about his dad with him but we have discussed some of his other famous relatives - such as Angela Lansbury (his own tenuous claim to fame!).

Dan's grandfather (ie Oliver's father) was Raymond Postgate, who founded the Good Food Guide (which I worked on in the late 90s/early 00s - small world!). Raymond was married to Daisy Lansbury, daughter of George Lansbury, one time leader of the Labour Party. George was Angela's grandfather.

Fascinating family all round, really.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a little girl and her name was Emily.  Then the murders began.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: T42 on 14 February, 2024, 01:51:52 pm
Dear me. I was already married and had a son before Bagpuss began.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 14 February, 2024, 07:22:08 pm
Just watched The Owls of Athens and got quite choked up.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: mattc on 14 February, 2024, 10:31:11 pm
Last night I watched the two eps of Bagpuss that are currently on iPlayer. I've seen them countless times before but not recently. One thing that struck me that I've never really noticed before is how rudimentary the animation is - the stop-motion is jerky and there are lengthy scenes with no movement at all. And Bagpuss himself is the only character whose facial expression ever changes.

And yet it was still as utterly captivating as ever. It all made me very emotional.

That's the power of great storytelling, I guess.
Exactly!

The technology doesn't matter. Wallace and Gromit was leagues ahead of this and yet, recent american animations make it look prehistoric. Until you re-watch Gromit chasing the Penguin on a model train track, laying track pieces ahead of him at lightning speed ... and later you realise you've forgotten about filming technology  :D
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: Kim on 14 February, 2024, 11:10:00 pm
Gromit chasing the Penguin on a model train track, laying track pieces ahead of him at lightning speed

That one's got to be in the top ten moments of cinematic history.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: Jurek on 15 February, 2024, 09:09:41 am
Gromit chasing the Penguin on a model train track, laying track pieces ahead of him at lightning speed

That one's got to be in the top ten moments of cinematic history.
Along with the late Robbie Coltrane striding out across the Hope Cove breakwater with massive waves crashing across him in the film Supergrass.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: rogerzilla on 15 February, 2024, 11:38:53 am
Gromit chasing the Penguin on a model train track, laying track pieces ahead of him at lightning speed

That one's got to be in the top ten moments of cinematic history.
There's a similar one where the Pink Panther is standing in the doorway of a house plummeting to earth, and calmly steps out of the door just as it impacts.  Of course, the physics behind that don't work and the Gromit physics do.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: fimm on 19 February, 2024, 12:52:21 pm
I remember Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine, but for some reason don't remember The Clangers - I don't know if that is because we didn't watch them or some other reason. I watched one of the Bagpuss episodes that is on iPlayer. I should go and watch the other one!
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 19 February, 2024, 01:36:06 pm
I remember Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine, but for some reason don't remember The Clangers - I don't know if that is because we didn't watch them or some other reason. I watched one of the Bagpuss episodes that is on iPlayer. I should go and watch the other one!

I'm not sure you are permitted to be a member of this forum if you haven't watched The Clangers.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: T42 on 19 February, 2024, 01:44:12 pm
Oof. I qualify then.  I once drove MrsT round the bend by 'talking' like them for 10 minutes.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: fimm on 19 February, 2024, 02:52:07 pm
I'm not sure you are permitted to be a member of this forum if you haven't watched The Clangers.
:'( :'( :'( :'(
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: rogerzilla on 20 February, 2024, 09:01:14 pm
Oof. I qualify then.  I once drove MrsT round the bend by 'talking' like them for 10 minutes.
I do a good Soup Dragon, if you're ever in town.
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: Wowbagger on 20 February, 2024, 11:49:16 pm
"Oh sod it! The bloody thing's stuck again!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OvefhhMbbg&ab_channel=TezMann
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: Kim on 20 February, 2024, 11:58:38 pm
Nostalgia tripping - just listened to the mice’s version of Row Your Boat as well. Everything about this is just perfect…


https://youtu.be/_4RQ_cJIy6I?feature=shared

Transcript for barakta, who undoubtedly missed it due to lack of appropriate reading skills and/or Ceefax:  https://spacehopper.org/bagpuss-row-row-the-boat.txt
Title: Re: Bagpuss
Post by: sam on 21 February, 2024, 03:13:25 am
Radio 3 played the Bagpuss theme earlier today, followed by mice singing, then someone else singing Sumer is Icumen In

Channelling Ezra Pound:

Winter is icumen in,
Cyclists sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.