They are remembered as hospitable cave-dwelling aliens with a very whistley way of communicating, but could the Clangers also have a hitherto unknown association with the 60s fashion world?
A new exhibition exploring the magical worlds of the children’s television series created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin suggests the Clangers costumes were inspired by Paco Rabanne as worn by Twiggy.
Alice Sage, curator of the display at the V&A’s Museum of Childhood in east London, said Joan Firmin, wife of Peter and dresser of the Clangers, told her that the costumes were based on a photograph she had seen of Twiggy in the 60s.
That sent Sage to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s fashion archives. “I went through costume images thinking, what could it have been that she’d seen? And then I came across the dresses Paco Rabanne was making in the late 60s with jointed pieces of fabric and leather.
“I thought that must be it. It is our V&A twist on the Clangers.”
The display includes original puppets, archive footage, sets, storyboards and scripts relating to the series made by Firmin and Postgate’s influential production company Smallfilms. As well as Clangers there is Bagpuss, Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog and, for any grandparents visiting, Pogles Wood.
The fact that there are tightly dialogued Clangers scripts on display may surprise some who remember the pink knitted creatures and their swanee whistle voices.
“Oliver Postgate wrote everything out, everything they said,” said Sage.
So the exhibition includes a script of the Clangers squabbling about a rope. “You rotten rodent!” says Clanger 1. “No it’s mine … I’ll drag you down, let go you horrible thing,” replies Clanger 2. “Stop! Stop! Oh you bad Clangers,” says Clanger 3. “Come over here at once and help us work.”
And they do. Because one of the show’s central themes was the successful and amicable working out of problems.
It was a big part of the show’s appeal, said Sage. “In the Clangers, someone would visit the planet and rather than defend themselves or close the borders they said, ‘Who are you? What are you bringing?’
“The stories that Oliver Postgate made up were very open-ended, they often start with reality before going into a fantastical world. There is lots of magic, lots of dragons, lots of flying machines.
“When I used to watch them I’d watch them again and again and again … and they stay with you.”
Sage spent a good deal of time rummaging through the Kent barn of the Firmins, now in their 80s, and found many original treasures wrapped in newspaper.
It means that all the Bagpuss characters are in the show: Professor Yaffle, the wooden woodpecker that was based, the exhibition reveals, on the philosopher Bertrand Russell; Gabriel the banjo-playing toad; Madeleine the rag doll who never moves from her wicker chair; the cleaning- and mending-obsessed mice; and, of course, Bagpuss himself, who is not quite the “old fat furry sag puss” that the programme makes out: his internal workings are made from Meccano.
Bagpuss is a particular favourite for Sage. “The characters have this idea that no object is ever unloved or lost, there is a place for everything, all can be mended and loved. For me, as a museum professional, that’s really appealing.”
Children seeing the show may have no idea about Bagpuss or Ivor the Engine but they should recognise the Clangers after its 2015 revamp on CBeebies, voiced by Michael Palin.
There are also tablets allowing children, or their parents, to have a go at animating characters and learning to speak Clanger.
• Clangers, Bagpuss & Co is at the V&A Museum of Childhood, London, 19 March to 9 October, free.
