back to article BBC's Clangers returns in £5m 'New Age' remake

The BBC is to remake the classic children's animation programme The Clangers as a hi-tech production with environmental politics at the fore. Original Clangers animator Peter Firmin and illustrator Daniel Postgate - the son of Clangers creator Oliver - will be involved in the £5m budget production. The new series will be …

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  1. fixit_f

    Why can't they write some new programmes?

    I've only just got over the crappy new CGI Smurfs, now they want to have CGI clangers?

    I think the day the tide was turned was when they remade the Italian Job - after that, nothing was ever sacred again.

    1. Khaptain Silver badge

      Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

      Agreed, the fact that they were made from odds and ends added to their credibility, their warmth. Unfortunately CGI has the tendancy to remove the cuddly effect and replace it with "clean and perfect".....

      Bagpuss et al shared the same idea imperfection and it is was made them so real..

    2. WonkoTheSane

      Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

      Not CGI - Proper stop-motion.

      New puppets are being made by the firm that worked on "The Corpse Bride" etc.

    3. g e

      Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

      And remade The Italian Job...

      in bloody America, was there actually anything Italian in it ?

      I concur with your vexed stance.

      1. The Wegie

        Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

        You think The Italian Job was bad? Just wait until you get to the final paragraph of the BBC press release, er, news article: "The £5m production is already under way, and is being co-produced by US pre-school TV channel Sprout, which will broadcast the programme in North America."

      2. jai

        Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

        was there actually anything Italian in it ?

        well, the first 15 minutes are in Venice aren't they?

        if you watch the whole film, it's because their idea to steal the whole security truck by exploding the road from under it, just like they stole the whole safe by exploding the floors beneath it "in the Italian job" which they did at the start of the film.

        all that aside, it is undoubtably an abomination and besmirch upon the memory of the original film and should never have been allowed.

      3. Stevie

        Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

        "in bloody America, was there actually anything Italian in it ?"

        My dear boy you must understand that Americans sometimes claim ethnicity based upon fractional gene participation acquired in the great-great-great ancestry and beyond, and that some elliptical speech was being used.

        The full title of the remake is "The Italian/American Job".

        Actually, that doesn't work either since the star claims to be Irish (see first paragraph).

        As you were.

        I don't think there is anyone over the age of 20 who honestly thinks the remake is superior to the original provided:

        a) They have *seen* the original - it is a bit rare in these here transatlantic parts

        2) They understand the difference between chromakey and doing stuff for real.

        Next up: The remake of The Flight of the Phoenix: Flogging offense or Hanging offense?

    4. SuccessCase

      Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

      It won't be as good because it simply can't be as good.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

      May I point you in the direction of CBeebies listings?

      Me Too

      Pingu

      Charlie and Lola

      Q pootle

      Octonouats

      Wibbly Pig

      Rastamouse

      Everythings Rosie

      Tweenies

      Alphablocks

      Raa Raa the noisy Lion

      Magic Hands

      number jacks

      What's the big idea

      Something special

      Lets play

      Mr Blooms nursery

      I can cook

      The lingo show

      Mister maker

      Wooly and Tig

      ZingZilla's

      Ballamory

      Tilly and Friends

      Waybaloo

      The Rhyme Rocket

      Baby Jake

      Get Well Soon

      Kerwhizz

      Chuggington

      Nina and the Neurons

      Sarah and Duck

      Gigglebiz

      Grandpa in my pocket

      The Adventures of Abney and teal

      In the Night Garden.

      .

      .

      .

      Bloody hell, nothing but remakes in that list.

      In fact only ones I could see are Tickabilla (Playschool), Bob the Builder and Postman Pat. Oh I guess bedtimes stories is Jackanory.

      1. Khaptain Silver badge

        Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

        What about Mary, Mungo and Midge..

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

        Two replies, one serious, one not - you decide which is which.

        Pingu (not a BBC production) sets very poor family values.

        Why??

        Pingu is a Penguin.

        Pingu's Dad is a Penguin.

        Pingu's Mum is a Penguin.

        Pingu's baby sister is a PUFFIN!!!!!

        And since we saw Mum lay and hatch the egg, we can only presume she has been cheating on Pingu's Dad.

        GiggleBiz; the name concerns me as it sounds like they are ripping off the good name of an educational software company that make a series of Nursery and Primary school games under the "Gigglebies" name; a bit like starting up a consumer electronics firm called "Appel"

        Say both of them together and try and tell the difference.

        1. RAMChYLD
          Pint

          Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

          Pingu's baby sister also has a rather unfortunate name. Look it up.

          Also, where's Humf and Spot on the list?

          As for Clangers, well, having been through a lot on the internet the word hits me as humorous. Hope the show's good tho.

          1. Squander Two

            "Also, where's Humf and Spot on the list?"

            "Humf" is on Nick Junior. You can tell it's not a BBC program, because it's good.

        2. Alan Edwards

          Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

          > Pingu's baby sister is a PUFFIN!!!!!

          According to Wikipedia (I'm SO not the target audience for Pingu...) Pinga is supposed to be a baby Emperor penguin.

          A puffin and a penguin would have to go some to "get it on", given they are at pretty much different ends of the planet.

      3. Roland6 Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

        I think if you did the same for the other BBC channels, your list won't be as long ...

    6. Cucumber C Face
      Coat

      Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

      Well the big budget revamp worked for Dr Who I'm told. (Never seen the post-hiatus Who.)

    7. jai

      Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

      i'm just hoping they hurry up and remake Roland Rat!!

      1. Captain Scarlet

        Re: Why can't they write some new programmes?

        I'm still waiting for the original Captain Scarlet series to end, stuff the CGI version I want Closure!!!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I preferred the Mash's take

    Clangers to return as social realist drama:

    http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/clangers-to-return-as-social-realist-drama-2013101580383

  3. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
    FAIL

    So, the BBC CAN still sink lower

    According to a 'retrospective' I saw a few years back, the original Clangers was scripted, and the dialogue (yes, all the whistling and wooOOooo'ing was a written script) had to get approval. No douby they'll lose all that wit & whimsy with some irrelevant heavy-handed electronic whistles, with voiceover propaganda.

    environmental politics at the fore; it;s a KIDS programm, ffs. Stop with the lefty brainwashing in primary school, please.

    1. kmac499

      Re: So, the BBC CAN still sink lower

      Wasn't there an urban myth\truth about one of the Clangers whistling 'Sod It' when something didn't work?

      1. Norman Hartnell

        Re: So, the BBC CAN still sink lower

        As I remember the myth/truth, it was "The bloody thing's stuck again" when a door failed to open, and it was cut from the original broadcast despite being whistled...

        1. Graham Marsden

          Re: So, the BBC CAN still sink lower

          It's no myth... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OvefhhMbbg

        2. Mike Allum

          Re: So, the BBC CAN still sink lower

          It was "Oh Sod it! The bloody thing's stuck again!". It was broadcast, it is in the DVDs, and is the whistle produced by the voicebox of every cuddly Clanger sold.

          In the episode where the Iron Chicken rampades her way through the Small Blue Planet there are, to the careful listener, at least a few "F"s and I'm fairly certain I heard a "C" in another episode.

          10/10 for Postgate and Firmin for that wonderful bit of subversion; yes.

          (P.S. Mr. Firmin's artwork is just as beautiful and as quirky as ever: http://www.peterfirmin.co.uk/)

        3. Alan Edwards

          Re: So, the BBC CAN still sink lower

          > As I remember the myth/truth, it was "The bloody thing's stuck again" when a door failed to open,

          > and it was cut from the original broadcast despite being whistled...

          Possibly apocryphal, but I did get it from an interview with Oliver Postgate on the radio. The line was "Oh damn it, the bloody thing's stuck again", which the BBC forced them to change even though it was just done with whistles. The whistles were exactly the same, they just changed the words in the "script".

          That was also the sample that was used in a toy.

    2. stucs201

      Re: So, the BBC CAN still sink lower

      "environmental politics at the fore; it;s a KIDS programm, ffs."

      Nothing new here. Wasn't recycling stuff pretty much the basis of The Wombles?

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: So, the BBC CAN still sink lower

        No the wombles was all about the Thatcherite vision of a race of sub-humans genetically engineered (well they only had one female) troglodyte morlocks, never to be seen and clean up after the waste of the consumer society. It was typical facist BBC propaganda of the ultimate tory contempt of the working class.

        I believe Chorlton and the wheelies directly influenced TopGear

  4. Qwelak
    Happy

    Swear like Troopers

    Loved the description from the beeb site. Apparently the Clangers whistles are supposed to be proper sentences converted and they are supposed to swear like troopers.

    Hope they do a better job than most of the reboots we've seen.

    1. Sandtreader
      Pint

      Re: Swear like Troopers

      You mean you can't understand them? I could (when 5) and still can (when suitably inebriated)!

      1. Kevin Johnston

        Re: Swear like Troopers

        May be an urban myth (I do so hope not) but when they were trying to sell it to a German(?) TV channel they offered to re-do the soundtrack but the visiting execs refused the offer as they could understand what the Clangers were 'saying'

  5. Vortex

    Fond memories

    I do hope the Iron Chicken will still be made of Meccano.

  6. wolfetone Silver badge

    I'd have preferred a £10/£20 reduction in the license fee to be quite honest.

    1. John H Woods Silver badge

      Expensive...

      wolfetone "I'd have preferred a £10/£20 reduction in the license fee to be quite honest."

      Where did it say that this was going to cost £250-£500 million pounds a year? That's the discount you're asking for.

    2. AndyS

      Guessimates:

      60M people, 2 per house, gives approx 30M households paying TV licences.

      5M production value, split between 30M households, cost to each licence payer is 17p.

      I think I can spot why you're being downvoted.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Licence

      Doubtless, you need to save up for a dictionary.

      1. Pond

        Re: Licence

        Depends if it was intended to be a noun or a verb in that sentence, the TV licence payer is granted license to watch TV in the UK.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Licence

          @Pond

          While what you say is correct regarding the noun and verb versions of the word, I believe in this context it was intended to be licence fee - it being the fee of the licence rather than the licensing of the fee?

        2. wolfetone Silver badge

          Re: Licence

          I think a lot of BBC staff members read The Register.

          1. Squander Two

            "I think a lot of BBC staff members read The Register."

            Well, it's not as if they're busy.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    More of this sort of thing

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8425387.stm

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Headmaster

    The new Clangers will explore themes including "community and caring for the planet"

    It's not a planet!!

  9. Captain Hogwash

    Oliver Postgate

    Bound to fail without him.

  10. Suricou Raven

    What environment?

    They live on a lifeless grey husk with barely an atmosphere to speak off and an escape velocity so low clangers routinely managed to float off and needed rescue. The only other non-robotic complex life form left is a dragon-like creature that has to dig deep beneath the surface to survive on geothermal heat and microorganism-rich subterranian lakes, making only occasional trips to the surface to trade with the surface-dwellers. Their world is about as much of a planet as Pluto.

    1. Jamie Jones Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: What environment?

      I always thought the clangers was set on the moon!

      Anyway, I'd have preferred a new series of "Mongrels"!

    2. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      It is so a planet

      And I think they always were ecologically concerned, precisely because their little world is ecologically fragile. Anything that lands on them from space could be an environmental disaster, including space probes.

    3. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: What environment?

      Well to be fair they have all been moved to Salford

  11. Dabooka
    Childcatcher

    I take it no one has seen the Bob the Bastard Builder lately?

    My boy watches it and that's all green design now with solar panels, wind farms, recycled material and even organic pineapple growing (I shit you not).

    And conveniently none of his significant fleet of heavy plant bellows out as which as a whiff of black smoke.

    Bastard.

    1. Menelaus-uk

      Re: I take it no one has seen the Bob the Bastard Builder lately?

      I do love the mixed messages it sends out though.

      The fact they discover this pristine valley then proceeded to build all over it. Apparently it's fine to destroy the countryside as long as you grow organic pineapples.

    2. Squander Two

      Re: I take it no one has seen the Bob the Bastard Builder lately?

      Did you see the "Bob The Builder" Christmas special in which Santa Claus was revealed to be Bob's brother in a costume? On a Christmas show for small children. Fuck the BBC, really.

      Compare to "Peppa Pig", where the end credits tell you that Father Christmas was played by himself.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Environmentally Friendly Clangers

    I can't wait. I do hope it's as good as Captain Planet.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Environmentally Friendly Clangers

      In the future, please use the "Coat", "Troll" or "Joke" Icon when you say things like that or the managment cannot protect you from the rest of us commentards that might want to seriously harm somone who actually meant what you said there.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Happy

        Re: Environmentally Friendly Clangers

        Not much danger of harm, it seems, as it took 29hrs for anyone to respond.

        'Troll' would probably have been appropriate, but what I really wanted in order to express my feelings of disgust at the idea was a 'steaming pile of poo' icon.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Environmentally Friendly Clangers

          +1 for the reply. Had thoughts back in the late 80's of hunting down the artists and producers of Captain Planet (French) and tossing them in a woodchipper.

          Hey El Reg, JustaKOS had a great idea, how about an animated steaming pile of poo .gif Icon please?????

  13. This post has been deleted by its author

  14. davemcwish

    "Reinvention"

    Quote:-

    The new Clangers will explore themes including "community and caring for the planet", with Firmin pere promising "a new Clangers for a New Age."

    Oh dear....

    I do understand that that the original series had some similar themes but it sounds like they'll spoil it by going overboard ......

    1. Stevie

      Re: "Reinvention"

      I'm not sure how this so-called press-release could have been dictated to modern-day reporters not immersed in Clanger Lore, given that the whole thing must have been delivered by swanee whistle.

  15. Blitheringeejit
    Thumb Up

    Caring for the planet

    So we'll be seeing Clanger picket-lines protesting at efforts by intergalactic megacorporations to frack for soup..? Up with this sort of thing!

  16. i like crisps
    Devil

    Not Racist This......

    ......Bet they have a 'BROWN' Clanger this time round and that one of the story lines

    will involve the Clangers home world being swamped with illegal Vulcan immigrants,

    as their Planet went 'Tits-Up' thanks to JJ Abrams.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ruining things.....

    If you think that's bad, I saw a new Scooby Doo the other day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo!_Mystery_Incorporated) and Velma and Shaggy are an 'item'! Is nothing sacred?!

    1. Intractable Potsherd

      Re: Ruining things.....

      That was always going to happen - two socially inadequate people spending that much time together in close proximity to danger, and having nowhere else to live but a van with two other people and a very large dog. After Daphne and that other bloke whose name I can't recall had made the van springs creak for the umpteenth time that episode, of course Velma would have made the move on Shaggy. Just be grateful it wasn't Scooby ...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Ruining things.....Are you sure?

        Ya know Shaggy and Scooby look a lot alike, somehwere out there in the internets there is a photoshopped picture of the two of them together.

  18. mtp
    Mushroom

    environmental politics?

    It is set on the moon. It is hard to think of a less suitable place to make environmental issues. Just dead radiation blasted dust everywhere.

    Still got a extremely vague memory of seeing it on TV although I was knee high to a martian an the time.

  19. Charlie Clark Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    fact check

    It's worth remembering that Oliver Postgate was always quite open in his support of social themes. This is glaringly obvious in series like Noggin the Nog, albeit in a postwar consensus tradition.

    A lot of the remakes are bollocks but this is usually due to the style and a desire to be "modern"rather than the subjects they cover. Lebowski practising writing for the Daily Mail again.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: fact check

      Not to mention the obvious sub-text of Ivor the engine.

    2. Squander Two

      Re: fact check

      Oliver Postgate was also completely and rightly contemptuous of the BBC's modern approach to making children's programs. I don't think you get to bring him up in their defence after what he wrote.

  20. David Evans

    *shudder*

    If its anything like the Magic Roundabout remake, it'll be utterly awful, and probably feature a hideous catchy theme tune.

    They don't need to mine these old classics in the hope parents might get their ankle biters to watch through misplaced nostalgia; it doesn't work because most of those parents will recoil in horror when they see it. There's plenty of good original stuff for pre-schoolers anyway (Personally I think Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom is one of the best things on TV, period.)

    1. Squander Two

      Ben & Holly

      Utter, utter class; the model of how children's TV should be done. And nothing like anything the BBC have managed in decades.

      Astley Baker Davis made "The Big Knights" for the BBC. One series, then the BBC scrapped it. Then Channel 5, who are good at kids' TV, commissioned "Peppa Pig", then got "Ben & Holly" too. I wonder if anyone at the BBC has been shot over that yet? They bloody should have.

  21. Stevie

    Bah!

    Dear Sir,

    Re: Clangers, The Next Generation:

    Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

    Sincerely,

    Stevie.

    PS

    More Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Propaganda from the British Ministry of Bullshit

    Great work, Beeb scumbags...proffering even more ridiculous "green" lies and propaganda to children worldwide. Whatever they do over there eventually reaches here.

  23. Squander Two

    In Oliver Postgate's own words.

    DOES CHILDREN'S TELEVISION MATTER?

    Certainly, when we started in 1957, the TV Company I was hoping to work for clearly didn't give a toss about children's television. Well, no, it did, just. It tossed about a hundred pounds a programme to spare programme directors and told them to cobble something together. So when Peter Firmin and I made our first film series about a Welsh railway engine who wanted to sing in the choir, we received about ten pounds a minute for the finished films.

    Today, on the rare occasions I watch children's programmes on television, many of which cost more than a thousand times as much to make, I can see how profoundly lucky we were.

    Lucky?

    Yes, for two reasons. One was that because the TV Company looked on children's television as small-time stuff, it sensibly gave a free hand to the very sensible head of the children's department whose sole purpose was to get programmes that were fun, interesting and cheap. The second reason was that because we didn't have the money for elaborate equipment we had to rely on the basic hand-writing of animation, laboriously pushing along cardboard characters with a pin. Thus we were thrown back on the real staple of television: telling and showing a good story, carefully thought out and delivered in the right order for stacking in the viewer's mind. Come to think of it I must have produced some of the clumsiest animation ever to disgrace the television screen, but it didn't matter. The viewers didn't notice because they were enjoying the stories.

    Also we were lucky enough not to have time or money for lengthy conceptual Meetings. All we could do was try to turn out two minutes a day of film that was fun to watch and hope to pay the bills. It was a happy time.

    Then, in 1987 the BBC let us know that in future all "programming" was to be judged by what they called its "audience ratings". Furthermore, we were told, some U.S. researchers had established that in order to retain its audience (and its share of the burgeoning merchandising market) every children's programme had to have a 'hook', ie, a startling incident to hold the attention, every few seconds. As our films did not fit this category they were deemed not fit to be shown by the BBC any more. End of story - not only for Peter and me - we had had a very good innings - but also for many of the shoe-string companies that had been providing scrumptious programmes for what is now seen as 'the golden age of children's television'.

    Those days are long gone. Today making films for children's television has become very big business requiring huge capital investment, far beyond the reach of small companies, and that has inevitably brought with it a particular poverty from which we never suffered.

    Poverty?

    Yes. In our time we had been able to found great kingdoms of mountains, ice and snow in our cowsheds. In Peter's big barn we commanded infinities of Outer Space, starred it with heavenly bodies made from old Christmas decorations and made a moon for the Clangers.

    Now, today, burdened with the search for the millions of pounds which they have to find to fund their glossy products, the entrepreneurs have to lead a very different sort of life. They must hurtle from country to country seeking subscriptions from the TV stations to fund the enormous cost of the films. Each of these stations will often require the format of the proposed film to be adapted to suit its own largest and dumbest market. They have to do this because, for them, children are no longer children, they are a market.With so many millions at stake the entrepreneurs know that the bottom line must be 'to give the children of today only the sort of things that they already know they enjoy'. They have to do this because they fear that if they don't the little so-and-so's might switch channels and the Company could lose a bit of its share of the lucrative merchandising market.

    They do have another difficulty. Because originality can't be bought off the shelf, (and even if it could it would be too risky to consider with so much money at stake), the competition for quality-of-content, has gone by the board. In its place there has evolved what could be called a competition for quality-of-method. This requires small armies of technicians and artists to spend their time seeking ever more astounding ways for the heroes to zap their foes. That is where the huge money goes: on high technology and on the clouds of pundits who confer at length in costly comfort about motivations, targeting and market strategies.

    Behind them, in the manner of mass-market publishers, the nail-biting money-people peer anxiously over their shoulders to try and locate some content, some past sure-fire formula that they can re-vamp and use again.

    All this is perfectly ordinary - the demise of small companies and with it the elimination of integrity is just the predictable result of trying to turn a small craft into a massive industry. It is sad of course, because crud is always crud, however glossily and zappily it is produced, but that is just part of a general trend in human commerce, part of the way things are going today.

    So does it matter?

    Yes it does! The Head of Acquisitions at the BBC outlined the Corporation's policy in a recent radio programme. She told us:

    "The children of today are more used to the up-market, faster-moving things" and that "in today's hugely competitive schedule we are up against about another twelve to fourteen children's channels and we have got to stand out."

    As a policy that is, in my considered view, almost criminally preposterous.

    Firstly because it isn't true. There is no such thing as 'the children of today'. Children are not 'of today'. They come afresh into this world in a steady stream and, apart from a few in-built instincts, they are blank pages happily waiting to be written on.

    Secondly because it simply isn't true that children have to have what they are 'used to'. They do want programmes that are new to them, programmes that are original and mind-stretching. They just aren't being offered them.

    Let me give you an example. As part of the same radio programme one of our old film series: Noggin and the Firecake, was shown to a primary school. It was heavy stuff, clumsy and slow by 'today's standards', but my goodness how eagerly the children followed and enjoyed it! At the end they could gleefully recount whole sections of the story, and when asked if they would like more they shouted with one voice: "YES!"

    Lastly, the policy is tragically preposterous because there is simply no need or reason for the BBC to 'compete and stand out'. It is a publicly funded body and it should know that feeding the minds of young people is a serious loving responsibility. We ourselves have passed this responsibility on to the BBC and it has no business leaving it to the mercies of a money-grubbing market.

    Finally, let me offer you the following serious thought. Suppose, if you will, that I am part of a silent Martian invasion and that my intention is slowly to destroy the whole culture of the human race. Where would I start?

    I would naturally start where thought first grows. I would start with children's television. My policy would be to give the children only the sort of thing that they 'already know they enjoy' like a fizzing diet of manic jelly-babies. This would no doubt be exciting, but their hearts and their minds would receive no nourishment, they would come to know nothing of the richness of human life, love and knowledge, and slowly whole generations would grow up knowing nothing about anything but violence and personal supremacy.

    Is that a fairy-tale? Look around you.

    Oliver Postgate, 2003

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Re: In Oliver Postgate's own words.

      Those words should be framed and hung on the wall in every place where decisions on children's television programming are made.

    2. Jonathan Richards 1

      Re: In Oliver Postgate's own words.

      Thank you. I hope the BBC execs have read that!

      It helps if you can read it so that you can mentally hear Oliver Postgate's incomparable vocal delivery. They may be able to create new Clangers programmes, but I seriously doubt that they can find someone with the perfect voice to narrate them.

      Postgate, David Davis, Alistair Cooke, ... is it my imagination, or are there fewer great voices these days?

  24. Miss Lincolnshire

    Multicultural Clangers

    Bet you any money there'll be different coloured Clangers. The Wombles remake saw the introduction of an Afro Caribbean Stepney and Shansi from Bejing.

    No doubt the soup dragon will be a male vegan too

  25. Miss Lincolnshire

    What about Noggin the Nog?

    We could have Nogbad the Bad voiced by Anders Brevik

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