The Clangers is an iconic British stop motion animated children's television series made by Smallfilms, the company set up by Oliver Postgate (writer and narrator) and Peter Firmin (modelmaker, animator and illustrator). Firmin designed the characters and his wife knitted and 'dressed' the Clangers. Music (which was often significant in the stories, as well as being theme and incidental music) was by Vernon Elliot. Childrens television shows are television programs designed for and marketed to children, normally aired during the morning and afternoon hours, mainly before and after school. ... Oliver Postgate (born 1925, Hendon, Middlesex, England) is a British animator, puppeteer and writer. ... Oliver Postgate (born 1925, Hendon, Middlesex, England) is a British animator, puppeteer and writer. ... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1969 (number) 1969 (movie) 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... is the 283rd day of the year (284th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ... Stop motion is an animation technique which makes things that are static appear to be moving. ... An animated series or cartoon series is a television series produced by means of animation. ... Childrens television series are television programmes designed for and marketed to children, normally aired during the morning and afternoon hours, mainly before and after school. ... Smallfilms was a partnership between Oliver Postgate (writer and narrator) and Peter Firmin (modelmaker and animator). ... Oliver Postgate (born 1925, Hendon, Middlesex, England) is a British animator, puppeteer and writer. ... Peter Firmin was the founder of Smallfilms, along with Oliver Postgate. ... Vernon Elliot (1927-1996) Born into a music family in 1927, young Vernon took up the bassoon from a very early age. ...

The first episode was broadcast by the BBC on November 16, 1969 and a further twenty-five episodes were made. The twenty sixth episode was broadcast on November 10, 1972 and the final Clangers programme was a four minute election special on October 10, 1974. (This last episode has not been seen since its original broadcast, although it still exists in the BBC archive. A short clip is available at the BBC's website [1]) For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1969 (number) 1969 (movie) 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 283rd day of the year (284th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ...

The programme featured a number of small creatures living in peace and harmony on - and in - a small, hollow planet far far away, nourished by Blue String Pudding, and Green Soup harvested from the planet's volcanic soup wells by the Soup Dragon. The Clangers looked similar to mice, anteaters and, from their pink colour, pigs. They wore clothes reminiscent of Roman armour and spoke in whistles. For other uses, see Soup (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Dragon (disambiguation). ... This article is about the animal. ... Families Cyclopedidae Myrmecophagidae Anteaters are the four mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua commonly known for eating ants and termites. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ...

The word "Clanger" is said to derive from the sound made by opening the metal cover of one of the creatures' crater-like burrows. Each of these is covered with a door made from an old metal dustbin lid, which is there to protect against meteorite impacts. Willamette Meteorite A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earths surface without being destroyed. ...

The first recorded sighting of a Clanger was in the 1967 Noggin the Nog book The Moon Mouse. Noggin the Nog was a popular British childrens television series originally shown by the BBC in the United Kingdom during the years 1959 to 1965. ...

Characters

The principal characters are:

• Granny Clanger
• Major Clanger
• Mother Clanger
• Small Clanger
• Tiny Clanger
• The Soup Dragon- A benign creature with a penchant for Green Soup
• The Iron Chicken (a "bird" made of scrap metal - actually modelled from Meccano - which lives in an orbiting nest literally made of metallic junk found around the studio)
• Froglets (small orange aliens with black stalk-like legs and large eyes who travel around in a top hat)
• The Cloud (a cloud which floats over the surface of the planet with musical rain drops)

The Clangers is an iconic British stop motion animated childrens television series made by Smallfilms, the company set up by Oliver Postgate (writer and narrator) and Peter Firmin (modelmaker, animator and illustrator). ... Meccano is a model construction kit comprising re-usable metal strips, plates, angle girders, wheels, axles and gears, with nuts and bolts to connect the pieces. ... Duke Ellington wearing a top hat. ...

Music and sound effects

Clangers: Original Television Music
Soundtrack by Vernon Elliot & Oliver Postgate
Released	2001
Recorded	1969 - 1971
Genre	Classical,Children's music
Length	47:00
Label	Trunk Records

One of the most noted aspects of the programme was its use of sound effects, as this was the Clangers' sole form of communication, and score composed by Vernon Elliot under instructions from Oliver Postgate. Most of the music used over the two series was written by Postgate in the form of "musical sketches" or graphs which he drew for Elliot who would then convert the drawings into musical score. The music would then be recorded by the two along with other musicians, dubbed the Clangers ensemble, in a village hall where they would often leave the windows open leading to the sounds of birds outside being heard on some recordings. Much of the score was performed on Elliot's bassoon and also included the sounds of harps, clarinet, glockenspiel and bells. Image File history File links Clangers-album. ... In film formats, the soundtrack is the physical area of the film which records the synchronized sound. ... Vernon Elliot (1927-1996) Born into a music family in 1927, young Vernon took up the bassoon from a very early age. ... Oliver Postgate (born 1925, Hendon, Middlesex, England) is a British animator, puppeteer and writer. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Classical music is a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, European art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly 1000 to the present day. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. ... Trunk Records is an independent record label which specialises mainly in film scores, library music, sexploitation and kitsch releases. ... Vernon Elliot (1927-1996) Born into a music family in 1927, young Vernon took up the bassoon from a very early age. ...

The distinctive whistles made by the Clangers, performed on swanee whistles, have become as identifiable as the characters themselves and are much imitated amongst viewers of the programme. The series creators have said that the Clangers, living in vacuum, did not actually communicate by sound, but rather by a type of nuclear magnetic resonance, which was translated to audible whistles for the human audience. These whistles followed the rhythm and intonation of a script in the English language, including swear-words! The action was also narrated by a separate voice-over from Postgate, however the series was shown without narration to a group of overseas students, who each felt that the Clangers were speaking their own language. A slide whistle (variously known as a swanee whistle, piston flute or less commonly jazz flute) is a wind instrument consisting of a fipple like a recorders and a tube with a piston in it. ... Look up Vacuum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... NMR redirects here. ...

In 2001, a selection of the series' music and sound effects was compiled by Jonny Trunk from 128 musical cues held by Oliver Postgate who contributed act one, "The Iron Chicken and the Music Trees", of A Clangers Opera, with libretto, which he had personally compiled. Trunk Records is an independent record label which specialises mainly in film scores, library music, sexploitation and kitsch releases. ... Antonio Ghislanzoni, nineteenth century Italian librettist. ...

Track listing

1. Intro Music and Dialogue from "Episode One"
2. The Start Of "Music"
3. From "Visiting Friends"
4. "Clangers running around the planet!"
5. From "Fishing"
6. From "Treasure"
7. "Some Musical Sequences"
8. From "Goods" (This was used when the machine in the episode "Goods" went into continual production of various plastic objects)
9. "An End Title"
10. "Tiny Clangers Radio Hat"
11. "Some Of Oliver's Special Clangers Effects including the Froglets"
12. From "The Rock Collector"
13. From "Glowhoney"
14. From "Teapot"
15. From "Cloud"
16. From "The Seed"
17. From "The Bags"
18. From "Blow Fruit"
19. From "The Pipe Organ"
20. From "The Music of the Spheres"
21. "A short, silent interval"
22. "A Clangers Opera, Act One" "The Iron Chicken and the Music Trees" (Compiled by Oliver Postgate)

Episode listing

Series One (1968-1970)

1. "Flying"
2. "The Visitor"
3. "Chicken"
4. "Music"
5. "The Intruder"
6. "Visiting Friends"
7. "Fishing"
8. "The Top Hat"
9. "The Egg"
10. "The Hoot"
11. "The Meeting"
12. "Treasure"
13. "Goods"

Series Two (1971-1972)

1. "The Tablecloth"
2. "The Rock Collector"
3. "Glow-Honey"
4. "The Teapot"
5. "The Cloud"
6. "The Egg"
7. "The Noise machine"
8. "The Seed"
9. "Pride"
10. "Bags"
11. "The Blow-Fruit"
12. "Pipe Organ"
13. "The Music of the Spheres"

There was also an election special produced in 1974 entitled "Vote for Froglet".

Miscellanea

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• A brief clip of an outer-space scene is seen in the 2001 film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

• In the Doctor Who serial The Sea Devils, The Master watches an episode of The Clangers on television and pronounces them, tongue-in-cheek, to be "a rather interesting extraterrestrial life-form". [2]

• Mid-1980s indy-rock band The Soup Dragons were named in honour of the show.

• In an episode of the British Whose Line Is It Anyway?, an audience member suggested The Clangers during the game Film and Theatre Styles. Host Clive Anderson had no idea what the person was talking about. Even after contestants Paul Merton and Josie Lawrence used The Clangers successfully in their scene, Anderson still expressed cluelessness about what it was.

• A popular internet parody of moon landing hoax theories employs pictures from the show. It shows photographs purported to be from the Apollo 11 moon landing and points out revealing mistakes such as incorrect shadows, and problems with the stars in the background, ignoring the little creatures who increasingly appear in the photos.

• In a couple of episodes, an astronaut from Earth appears on the Clangers' planet. Hedging the creators' bets as to which of the superpowers would first master interplanetary travel, the flag he carries is a combination of US and Soviet emblems.

• The characters are still very popular. Whistling soft toys of Major, Mother, Small and Tiny Clanger are currently available.

• The original series has been released on video and DVD in the UK, and was being repeated on Channel 4 in early 2003.

• ^[1] The Clanger toys' voice-boxes play a line "spoken" by Major Clanger on the occasion when the mechanical double-doors of the cave jam as they are opening. Scripted as "Oh sod it! The bloody thing's stuck again!", this line was never actually broadcast as the BBC objected to the language (although it remains in the video collection). Postgate claims he chose this sentence for the toy as ironic revenge.

• 'Vote For Froglet', the election special from 1974, has never been repeated - partly because the rights are owned by the BBC rather than Smallfilms, and partly because Oliver Postgate felt it was rushed and not up to the usual standard.

• The second episode of the 2006 British TV series Life on Mars featured a deaf character whose 1970s-era hearing aid caused Clanger-style whistling interference on police radios thus leading to him being found hiding behind dustbins.

• A season two episode of Green Wing mentioned the Clangers. The character Karen, apparently frightened of them, hides up on a windowsill while Naughty Rachel makes whistle noises at her.

• In 1973 the British New Scientist magazine published an amusing article about the ecosystem of the Clanger's planet.

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Categories: Movie stubs | Action films | Adventure films | 2001 films | Films based on video games ... This article is about the television series. ... The Sea Devils is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 26 to April 1, 1972. ... This article is about the character. ... The Soup Dragons were a Scottish indie rock band of the late 1980s and early 1990s, named after a character in the 1970s childrens TV show The Clangers. ... Whose Line Is It Anyway? (sometimes abbreviated to Whose Line? or WLIIA?) is a short-form improvisational comedy show. ... Clive Anderson (born 10 December 1952) is a former practising barrister turned successful comedy writer as well as a television and radio presenter in the United Kingdom. ... Paul Merton (born Paul Martin 9 July 1957[1]) is an English actor, deadpan comedian and writer, who is best known as a panellist on the BBC TV show Have I Got News for You and Radio 4s Just a Minute, as well as Channel 4s Whose Line... Josie Lawrence (born Wendy Lawrence, 6 June 1959) is an English comedian and actress. ... Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong in NASAs training mockup of the Moon and lander module. ... This article covers the Apollo 11 mission itself. ... This article is about the British television station. ... Life on Mars is a BAFTA and International Emmy award-winning British television drama series, which was first shown on BBC One in January and February 2006. ... Green Wing is an award-winning British television comedy set in the fictional East Hampton Hospital Trust. ... New Scientist is a weekly international science magazine covering recent developments in science and technology for a general English-speaking audience. ...

External links

• The Clangers at bbc.co.uk
• A copy of the moon landing hoax parody
• Link to Clive Banks interview with Oliver Postgate about Election Special
• British Film Institute Screen Online
• Knit your own Clanger
• A short clip from Vote for Froglet at bbc.co.uk

The domain name bbc. ... The domain name bbc. ...

References

• BBC interview with Oliver Postgate