The Clangers

The Clangers is a 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). Music (which was often significant in the stories, as well as being theme and incidental music) was by Vernon Elliot.

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 reportedly still exists.)

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 and piglets, though they were pink, wore clothes, and spoke in whistles.

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.

Characters

The principal characters are:

Granny Clanger
Major Clanger
Mother Clanger
Small Clanger
Tiny Clanger
The Soup Dragon
The Iron Chicken (a "bird" made of scrap metal - actually modelled from Meccano - which lives in an orbiting nest of similar composition)

Music and sound effects

One of the most noted aspects of the programme was its use of sound effects, as this was the Clanger's 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.

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 felt that the Clangers were speaking their language.

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.

Track listing

Intro Music and Dialogue from "Episode One"
The Start Of "Music"
From "Visiting Friends"
"Clangers running around the planet!"
From "Fishing"
From "Treasure"
"Some Musical Sequences"
From "Goods"
"An End Title"
"Tiny Clangers Radio Hat"
"Some Of Oliver's Special Clangers Effects including the Froglets"
From "The Rock Collector"
From "Glowhoney"
From "Teapot"
From "Cloud"
From "The Seed"
From "The Bags"
From "Blow Fruit"
From "The Pipe Organ"
From "The Music of the Spheres"
"A short, silent interval"
"A Clangers Opera, Act One" "The Iron Chicken and the Music Trees" (Compiled by Oliver Postgate)

Episode listing

Series One (1968-1970)

"Flying"
"The Visitor"
"Chicken"
"Music"
"The Intruder"
"Visiting Friends"
"Fishing"
"The Top Hat"
"The Egg"
"The Hoot"
"The Meeting"
"Treasure"
"Goods"

Series Two (1971-1972)

"The Tablecloth"
"The Rock Collector"
"Glow-Honey"
"The Teapot"
"The Cloud"
"The Egg"
"The Noise machine"
"The Seed"
"Pride"
"Bags"
"The Blow-Fruit"
"Pipe Organ"
"The Music of the Spheres"

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

Trivia

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

In the Doctor Who serial The Sea Devils, The Master watches an episode of The Clangers on television and pronounces them "a rather interesting extraterrestrial life-form". It is arguable that he is being sarcastic. ^*

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 Theater 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.

^{^*} 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 b****y 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.

External links

References

BBC interview with Oliver Postgate

BBC children's television programmes

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