Hand-Made Television: Stop-Frame Animation for Children in Britain, 1961–74

143 Pages·2016·1.586 MB·English

by  Rachel Moseley (auth.)

HAND-MADE
TELEVISION
Stop-Frame Animation for
Children in Britain, 1961–74
Rachel Moseley
Hand-Made Television
DOI: 10.1057/9781137551634.0001
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DOI: 10.1057/9781137551634.0001
Hand-Made Television:
Stop-Frame Animation
for Children in Britain,
1961–74
Rachel Moseley
University of Warwick, UK
DOI: 10.1057/9781137551634.0001
Hand-Made Television: Stop-Frame Animation for Children in
Britain, 1961–74
Copyright © Rachel Moseley 2016.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-55162-7
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission. In accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published 2016 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire, RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of Nature America, Inc.,
One New York Plaza, Suite 4500 New York, NY 10004–1562.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
ISBN: 978–1–349–71589–3
ISBN: 978–1–137–55163–4 PDF
Distribution in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is by Palgrave
Macmillan®, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England,
company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
A catalogue record for the book is available from the British Library
DOI: 10.1057/9781137551634
For Ned and Johnny
‘Clangers watching TV’ by Ned (aged five)
DOI: 10.1057/9781137551634.0001
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
1 Contexts 8
2 The Pastoral Past 33
3 The Hand-Made 68
4 Magic and Movement 89
Bibliography 113
Filmography 122
Teleography 123
Index 125
vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137551634.0001
List of Figures
‘Clangers watching TV’ by Ned (aged five) v
1.1 Peter Firmin’s animation for ‘Woodwinds’,
Pogle’s Wood, 1967 28
3.1 Mr Pingwing, washed and hung out to dry
in the first episode of The Pingwings (ITV, 1961) 76
3.2 The hand-crafted in Clangers (BBC, 1969) 78
3.3 ‘Your Own Pippin’, The Pogles Annual, 1967 83
3.4 ‘Little Wire People’, The Pogles Annual, 1967 84
4.1 Letter from Oliver Postgate to Ursula Easen, 1965 97
4.2 Mabel at the end of the dolls’ ironing board,
The Pingwings (ITV, 1963) 110
DOI: 10.1057/9781137551634.0002 vii
Acknowledgements
There are numerous people whose professional or
personal contribution to this book I want to acknowledge
here. I owe thanks to Richard Perkins, subject librarian
extraordinaire at the University of Warwick, for confirm-
ing that I wasn’t mad when I first identified this topic as
a gap in the field. The help of the BBC Written Archives
Centre at Caversham, and especially Katie Ankers and
Louise North, with the institutional research for the
book was invaluable; thanks go to Charlotte Stevens too
for her research assistance, company and navigational
skills on the last visit when I almost got us lost in a
wood which looked like it might have been inhabited by
Pogles. I am very grateful to Karen Lury, both for making
available the conference paper which was so formative
for this project and for her enthusiasm about the book.
Thank you, Nic Pillai, for listening to the Clangers score
and talking to me about jazz. Thanks also to Loaf of The
Dragon’s Friendly Society for being willing to chat and to
forward emails, and to Estelle Hughes for talking about
Thunderbirds Are Go.
Peter Firmin and Dan Postgate were very generous in
giving me permission to reproduce artwork (Figures 3.3
and 3.4) and Oliver’s Letter (Figure 4.1), respectively. I am
also extremely grateful to Peter for reading and check-
ing the final draft and for supplying information about
the making of the Smallfilms programmes which was
unavailable elsewhere. Many thanks go to the students on
Television History and Criticism at Warwick between 2011
and 2015 for humouring and often sharing my enthusiasm
viii DOI: 10.1057/9781137551634.0003
Acknowledgements ix
for old children’s television, for offering insight and for encouraging me
to write this book. The Summer Writing Club was an invaluable source
of support, motivation and humour during the final few months – you
know who you are! Marie and John – thank you for taking care of Ned
during his first school summer holiday so that I could finish. I owe my
biggest thanks, professional and personal, to the friends and colleagues
who read and commented on drafts of this book at different stages. To
Amy Holdsworth: thank you, in particular, for encouraging me to think
further about telephilia and memory. To Helen Wheatley: thank you for
being supportive, constructive and encouraging at every stage and in
every possible way. Finally, to Karl Schoonover: the incredibly generous,
meticulous and emboldening comments you made on (two!) drafts of
this book were invaluable and I can’t thank you enough. Johnny – thank
you for being the best daddy in the world to Ned and for your outstand-
ing Photoshop skills. Thank you to my parents (especially Mom), for
sharing these programmes with me in the late 1960s and early 1970s and
buying my first Pogles Annual. Finally, thank you, Ned, for helping me to
remember the magic of stop-frame television.
BBC copyright material reproduced courtesy of the British
Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137551634.0003