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.
First broadcast in 1972 as part of the Words and Pictures strand, it was one of the first television appearances of Tony Robinson. Robinson played the character Sam, who is magically transported to Boffs' Island when he is eating his breakfast cereal in the morning. Each episode featured a 'real life' segment designed to encourage young children to read through storytelling. Other segments were animated.
The Boff characters are puppets, who were portrayed by several voice actors including Charles Collingwood. Miriam Margolyes (later to co-star with Robinson in Blackadder) played Sam's mother. The Boffs were stop-motion animated except when they appeared simultaneously with Robinson, in which cases they were hand-operated.
In all, 20 episodes were made, and the series was repeated throughout the 1970s as part of the BBC's schools service. It was also the series that brought together Smallfilms with Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner (thanks to Michael Rosen's work with Kerr and Faulkner in Ewan MacColl's Critics' Group). Postgate, Firmin, Kerr and Faulkner went on to make Bagpuss together.
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.
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.
Sir Anthony Robinson is an English actor, author, broadcaster, comedian, presenter, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television series Blackadder and has presented many historical documentaries, including the Channel 4 series Time Team and The Worst Jobs in History. He has written 16 children's books.
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.
Prospero is a fictional character and the protagonist of William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, whose usurping brother, Antonio, had put him to sea on a "rotten carcass" of a boat to die, twelve years before the play begins. Prospero and Miranda had survived and found exile on a small island. He has learned sorcery from books, and uses it while on the island to protect Miranda and control the other characters.
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.
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.
Basil Brush is a fictional fox, best known for his appearances on daytime British children's television. He is primarily portrayed by a glove puppet, but has also been depicted in animated cartoon shorts and comic strips. The character has featured on children's television from the 1960s to the present day. He has also appeared in pantomimes across the UK.
Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion. The world's earliest known animated feature films were cutout animations, as is the world's earliest surviving animated feature Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (1926) by Lotte Reiniger.
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.
Pogles' Wood is an animated British children's television show produced by Smallfilms between 1965 and 1967, first broadcast by the BBC between 1965 and 1968.
Sesame Tree was an adaptation of the American children's television series, Sesame Street, which was made entirely in Northern Ireland. The series was produced by Belfast based production company, Sixteen South and Sesame Workshop. The first episode aired on BBC Two in Northern Ireland on 5 April 2008, with the first series subsequently airing nationwide on CBeebies in August 2008.
Fireman Sam is an animated children's television series about a fireman named Sam, his fellow firefighters, and other residents in the fictional Welsh rural village of Pontypandy. It was broadcast for the first time in November 1987 on Welsh TV channel S4C and is shown in more than 155 countries across the world.
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.
The Postgate family is an English family that has been notable in a variety of different fields. It originated in the North York Moors and records go back to land held by Postgates in 1200. Fields and a farm bearing the name still exist. The name is rare outside Yorkshire.
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.
Events from 1974 in England
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