Pogles' Wood

Last updated

Pogles' Wood
Written by Oliver Postgate
Voices of
  • Olwen Griffiths
  • Steve Woodman
  • Oliver Postgate
Narrated by Oliver Postgate
Music by Vernon Elliott
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of series2
No. of episodes32
Production
Production company Smallfilms
Original release
Network BBC1
Release29 July 1965 (1965-07-29) –
2 January 1968 (1968-01-02)

Pogles' Wood (in its first series it was entitled The Pogles) is an animated British children's television show produced by Smallfilms between 1965 and 1967, first broadcast by the BBC between 1965 and 1968 (but repeated regularly until the early 1970s). [1]

Contents

The original six episode series, The Pogles, was broadcast from 29 July 1965, within the children's magazine programme Clapperboard. The 26-episode sequel, Pogles Wood, was shown as part of the Watch with Mother strand, whose target audience was pre-school children (meaning, in the 1960s, children under 5 years of age): a somewhat younger audience than that for Clapperboard. [2]

The 32 episodes were filmed using stop-frame animation, in Peter Firmin's barn (not in a BBC television studio). All were made in black-and-white. The episodes were narrated by Oliver Postgate, who introduced the story (typically beginning each episode with the show's catchphrase, Now where shall we find the Pogles?) and also voiced several of the characters.

The Pogles were small beings who lived in a hollow tree in a wood. They were not magical, but magic came to them. The four principals were Mr. and Mrs. Pogle, their adopted son Pippin, and a squirrel-like creature named Tog, who was Pippin's playmate.

Original series – The Pogles

Comprising six episodes of nine minutes each, The Pogles set the scene for the sequel series entitled Pogles' Wood. Besides its focus on the titular family, the original series is especially distinguished from the later series by its appearances of the Witch, a mysterious and evil shape-changing character, and the tone of the episodes was regarded as sinister. After initially broadcasting it, the BBC considered it "too frightening" for its proposed inclusion in Watch with Mother , intended to be viewed by a very young audience, and advised Oliver Postgate to make all future episodes revolve around more everyday countryside matters. [1] [3] To reinforce these changes, the title of the show was changed.

Episodes

  1. "The Magic Bean" (29 July 1965)
  2. "A Silver Crown" (5 August 1965)
  3. "Pogle Go Home!" (12 August 1965)
  4. "A Flower For Wishes" (19 August 1965)
  5. "The Singing Bird" (26 August 1965)
  6. "King of The Fairies" (2 September 1965)

Sequel series – Pogles' Wood

The subsequent 26 episodes were broadcast under the revised title Pogles' Wood. This was shown as part of the Watch With Mother strand (billed by the BBC as for the very young). In this revised show the episodes were each 15 minutes long, to fit the standard length for editions of Watch With Mother.

The first 13 episodes of the revised show centred on farm and countryside life, viewed through the eyes of Pippin, Tog, and Mr. & Mrs. Pogle. The second set of 13 programmes had a stronger story element, wherein Pippin and Tog typically find an object and take it back to the storytelling plant, who brings it to life (in a precursor of the later Bagpuss show).

Repeats from Pogles Wood continued until September 1973, when the series was retired, as BBC children's television finally moved fully over to a colour service. The umbrella series, Watch With Mother, continued (though with a change of name), but thereafter broadcast only those of its regular shows which had been made in colour.

Episodes

Series 1 (April–June 1966)

  • "Grains of Wheat" (7 April 1966)
  • "Milk From The Dairy" (14 April 1966)
  • "Honey Bees" (21 April 1966)
  • "Sheep's Wool" (28 April 1966)
  • "Eggs For Breakfast" (5 May 1966)
  • "Trains" (12 May 1966)
  • "Tog-In-The-Middle" (sometimes billed in Radio Times as "Pig-In-The-Middle") (19 May 1966)
  • "The Secret House" (26 May 1966)
  • "Noisy Engines" (2 June 1966)
  • "Badgers and Bears" (9 June 1966)
  • "Bears in the Wood" (16 June 1966)
  • "Cake Crumbs" (23 June 1966)
  • "Keep Clear of The Water" (30 June 1966)

Series 2 (October 1967 – January 1968)

  • "Woodwinds" (3 October 1967)
  • "Strong Music" (10 October 1967)
  • "A Little House" (17 October 1967)
  • "Bears In The Wood" (24 October 1967)
  • "Bricks" (31 October 1967)
  • "A Paper Tiger" (7 November 1967)
  • "The Princess and The Jewel" (14 November 1967)
  • "Flowers" (21 November 1967)
  • "Kings and Queens" (28 November 1967)
  • "Clocks" (5 December 1967)
  • "Woodwork" (sometimes billed in Radio Times as "Tree Farming") (12 December 1967)
  • "Roundabouts" (19 December 1967)
  • "Umbrellas" (2 January 1968)

Comics

The Adventures of Pippin and Tog was a popular children's hardback based on the television show, published annually each Christmas in the 1970s. It featured comics originally prepublished in the children's magazine Pippin, drawn by Bill Mevin. [4]

Home releases

All of the episodes of both The Pogles and Pogles' Wood survive, [5] [6] and all are available on DVD. [7] [8]

Episodes of Pogles Wood, selected by its creators, were initially released on DVD in 2006 by the Dragons' Friendly Society (an organisation founded by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin). [9] Subsequently, three further DVDs followed, again released by the Dragons' Friendly Society, including the final collection of 14 episodes, released in November 2015 under the title Pogles' End.

Production staff

Writer
Puppets and Pictures
Voices
Music

Related Research Articles

<i>Bagpuss</i> British stop-motion animated TV series (1974)

Bagpuss is a British animated children's television series which was made by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate through their company Smallfilms. The series of thirteen episodes was first broadcast from 12 February to 7 May 1974. The title character was "a saggy, old cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams". Although only thirteen episodes were produced and broadcast, the programme remains fondly remembered, and was frequently repeated in the UK until 1986. In early 1999, Bagpuss topped a BBC poll for the UK's favourite children's television programme.

Smallfilms is a British television production company that made animated TV programmes for children from 1959 until the 1980s. In 2014 the company began operating again, producing a new series of its most famous show, The Clangers, but it became dormant again in 2017, after production of the show was slightly changed. It was originally a partnership between Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. Several popular series of short films were made using stop-motion animation, including Clangers, Noggin the Nog and Ivor the Engine. Another Smallfilms production, Bagpuss, came top of a BBC poll to find the favourite British children's programme of the 20th century.

<i>Clangers</i> Television series

Clangers is a British stop-motion animated children's television series, consisting of short films about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon-like planet. They speak only in a whistled language, and eat green soup and blue string pudding. The programmes were originally broadcast on BBC1 between 1969 and 1972, followed by a special episode which was broadcast in 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver Postgate</span> British animator, puppeteer and writer

Richard Oliver Postgate was an English animator, puppeteer, and writer. He was the creator and writer of some of Britain's most popular children's television programmes. Bagpuss, Pingwings, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Clangers and Pogles' Wood, were all made by Smallfilms, the company he set up with collaborator, artist and puppet maker Peter Firmin. The programmes were originally broadcast by the BBC from the 1950s to the 1980s. In a 1999 BBC poll Bagpuss was voted the most popular children's television programme of all time.

<i>Noggin the Nog</i> British childrens character

Noggin the Nog is a fictional character appearing in a BBC Television series and a series of illustrated books, created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. The television series is considered a cult classic from the golden age of British children's television. Noggin himself is the simple, kind and unassuming "King of the Northmen" in a roughly Viking Age setting, with various fantastic elements such as dragons, flying machines and talking birds.

Peter Arthur Firmin was an English artist and puppet maker. He was the founder of Smallfilms, along with Oliver Postgate. Between them they created a number of popular children's TV programmes, The Saga of Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Clangers, Bagpuss and Pogles' Wood.

<i>Ivor the Engine</i> British animated television series (1959–1977)

Ivor the Engine is a British cutout animation television series created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms company. It follows the adventures of a small green steam locomotive who lives in the "top left-hand corner of Wales" and works for The Merioneth and Llantisilly Railway Traction Company Limited. His friends include Jones the Steam, Evans the Song and Dai Station, among many other characters.

<i>The Herbs</i> Television series

The Herbs is a television series for young children made for the BBC by Graham Clutterbuck's FilmFair company. It was written by Michael Bond, directed by Ivor Wood using 3D stop motion model animation and first transmitted from 12 February 1968 in the BBC1 Watch with Mother timeslot. There were 13 episodes in the series, each one 15 minutes long.

Pingwings is an animated black-and-white children's television series, comprising 18 ten-minute episodes, broadcast in the United Kingdom on ITV in three series of six programmes each, between 1961 and 1965. It first aired on Southern Television. Created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin of Smallfilms, it starred a family of penguin-like creatures who lived at the back of a barn on the fictional Berrydown Farm. The Pingwing characters were knitted by Firmin's sister Gloria Wilson, and the animation was achieved using the stop motion technique.

<i>Watch with Mother</i> British childrens television series (1952–1978)

Watch with Mother was a cycle of children's programmes created by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird. Broadcast by BBC Television from 1952 until 1975, it was the first BBC television series aimed specifically at pre-school children, a development of BBC radio's equivalent Listen with Mother, which had begun two years earlier. In accordance with its intended target audience of pre-school children viewing with their mothers, Watch with Mother was initially broadcast between 3:45 pm and 4:00 pm, post-afternoon nap and before the older children came home from school.

<i>Marriage Lines</i> BBC TV sitcom 1963–1966

Marriage Lines is a British television sitcom first broadcast between 1963 and 1966. The series gave Richard Briers and Prunella Scales, its lead stars, a significant boost in their careers. At first titled The Marriage Lines, the programme was written by Richard Waring, and was later adapted for radio.

Pippin was a UK children's comic, published by Polystyle Publications between 1966 and 1986, featuring characters from British pre-school television programmes. Stories were generally of four or eight numbered panels, with a short sentence below each illustration, although some stories did appear in prose form.

Sam on Boffs' Island is a British educational television series, made by the BBC, and aimed at developing the reading skills of 6- to 8-year-olds.

Tottie: The Story of a Doll's House is a 1984 stop motion animated television series produced by Smallfilms, directed and narrated by Oliver Postgate. It is based on Rumer Godden's The Dolls' House, originally published in 1947, and focuses on the toys in a Victorian dolls' house belonging to sisters Emily and Charlotte Dane. The programme debuted on BBC1 in the UK on 6 February 1984.

Hannah May Firmin, is an illustrator and printmaker. She is notable for illustrating the book covers of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series for which she was awarded "Book Cover of the Year" at the British Book Awards 2004.

This is a list of British television related events from 1974.

The Seal of Neptune is a children's programme created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, also known for their works Ivor the Engine and Clangers. It was broadcast on BBC Television in 1960. Its plot featured the adventures of a seahorse and a shrimp and was similar in animation style to Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog.

First Doctor comic stories refers to the comic strips devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, using the likeness of the First Doctor William Hartnell. The strip was launched in Polystyle's TV Comic on 14 November 1964, less than a year after the television series began broadcasting and was the first original spin-off media from the show. This strip began what has become known as the 'Polystyle era': running from 1964 to 1979. The First Doctor starred in this strip running parallel with his appearance on the television show, ending in December 1966, after which TV Comic began creating strips for the Second Doctor. The franchise to print a regular comic strip passed to Doctor Who Magazine in 1979, and was opened up to multiple franchises in the mid-2000s. During this time, the First Doctor has made various guest appearances as well as starring in some one-off comic strips.

Daniel Raymond Postgate is an English script writer, author, and illustrator. Some of his books include Smelly Bill, Engelbert Sneem and His Dream Vacuum Machine, and Big Mum Plum. In 2014, he collaborated with Oliver Postgate’s business partner and other founder of Smallfilms, Peter Firmin on the production of a new series of The Clangers, with Daniel Postgate writing many of the episodes and voicing the Iron Chicken, The Soup Dragon, and her son, Baby Soup Dragon. He won a Bafta for his episode 'I am the Eggbot'.

Pinny's House is a 1986 animated television series produced by Smallfilms, produced by Oliver Postgate. The show is based on a series of books written and illustrated by Peter Firmin and focuses on the toys in a Victorian dolls' house. The programme premiered on 22 October 1986 as part of the BBC's See-Saw programming block.

References

  1. 1 2 "Search Results - BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
  2. ↑ "Now Where Shall We Find The Pogles?". OffTheTelly.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 August 2021.
  3. ↑ Pogles home video store page
  4. ↑ Knudde, Kjell; Schuddeboom, Bas. "Bill Mevin". Lambiek Comiclopedia.
  5. ↑ "The Pogles (1965)", lostshows.com[ dead link ]
  6. ↑ "Pogles' Wood (1966-1968)", lostshows.com[ dead link ]
  7. ↑ "To find out how to order". www.dragons-friendly-society.co.uk.
  8. ↑ ""The Pogles" site:youtube.com - Google Search". www.google.co.uk.
  9. ↑ "VHS Videos". www.dragons-friendly-society.co.uk.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.