Palin to narrate The Clangers new episodes

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10 years 7 months

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That's Michael, not Sarah, obviously.


Comedian and presenter Michael Palin is to narrate a new series of classic children's TV programme, the Clangers.

The show centres around pink, mouse-like creatures who live in craters covered by dustbin lids, whose noisy "clang" gave the show its name.

The CBeebies programme will air in the UK next spring.

"The world of the Clangers is delightful and irresistible," Palin said. The original show first aired in 1969 on BBC One.

The clangers communicate with unusual whistles while the narrator comments on the events that take place in their universe.

Palin added: "It's a real pleasure and a great privilege to be a part of its return to television."...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29107225

For those who missed out on a real classic of British children's television, here are The Clangers!

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Hope it is as good as the originals were; my two year old daughter loves watching them!

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13 years

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I hope so as well. I don't know about your Daughter but I loved them as well with the late Oliver Postgate as the narrator and I was in my 20's when they started!!!!
Just a mention of a couple of others Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog.

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10 years 7 months

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Yep, she loves them too. Something wonderful about Smallfilms, Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate... Got her onto Bagpuss, plus The Magic Roundabout and Willo the Wisp too. Not that she wouldn't watch In The Night Garden or Teletubbies if they happened to be on!

Did you know The Clangers swore occasionally?


At the beginning of episode three, where the doors get stuck, Major Clanger says 'sod it, the bloody thing’s stuck again'.

http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/Oliverpostgateinterview.htm

Not telling the baby - not this decade, anyway!

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13 years

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Just read through your link. I never knew that. Thanks

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Can the originals be matched? Able though Palin is, Oliver Postgate's narration was something very special. Postgate and Firmin's Smallfilms produced some of the best young children's programmes ever.

Will the new Clangers live up to the old? Will digital puppets match Joan's knitted characters? Peter Firmin still lives where Smallfilms was based and will watch with interest I am sure....;)

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I would like to think that these remakes will supplement the originals, not replace them, but I am just the father of a little but enthusiastic fan who probably won't notice any change from one series to another...

Can't find it now but I did see, a short while ago, that although The Clangers is to be made in a completely modern way the general appearance is supposed to be fairly close to the original; I shall be happy if Palin's narration is as close to him imitating Postgate as is humanly possible, if not in actual voice then in timbre and certainly without him being forced to talk down or patronise his audience. But if Michael Palin is not your idea of an Oliver Postgate replacement, then who do you think could or should fill the boots?

Thinking about it, and nice (and safe!) though having The Clangers remade is, surely it would be braver of somebody to go back and try remaking the ones that didn't work at the time, the ones that people don't remember, and do them right this time...! Any ideas for remakes?

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11 years 5 months

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Of course and that is a very valid point. The problem is that if you have grown up with your children through a particular period of childrens' programmes you find they are deeply ingrained. I could no more blank out Oliver Postgate's narration from my memory than my son's joy at reactions to the programmes. The very best solution I suppose would simply be to re-broadcast the originals but there may be technical reasons which prevent that.

Programmes which didn't work? An interesting thought. To be honest those that we watched together in the late 60s/early 70s seemed to work wonderfully well.

Having given it due consideration - good luck to them, the programmes are not for me anyway!! Go for it Mike!:eagerness:

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24 years 2 months

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You think she'd have her hands full running Alaska.

Moggy

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11 years 5 months

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Snafu he say - "That's Michael, not Sarah, obviously.":o

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24 years 2 months

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:highly_amused: