Smallfilms is a British television production company that made animated TV programmes for children from 1959 until the 1980s. In 2014 the company began operating again, producing a new series of its most famous show, ''The
Clangers
''Clangers'' (usually referred to as ''The Clangers'') is a British stop motion, stop-motion children's television series, consisting of short films about a family of mouse, mouse-like creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon-like planet ...
'', however it became dormant again in 2017, after production of the show was slightly changed, It was originally a partnership between
Oliver Postgate
Richard Oliver Postgate (12 April 1925 – 8 December 2008), generally known as Oliver Postgate, was an English animator, puppeteer, and writer. He was the creator and writer of some of Britain's most popular children's television progra ...
(who wrote the scripts, animated the characters, and voiced many of the characters) and
Peter Firmin
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a su ...
(who made the models of the characters and drew the artwork). Several very popular series of short films were made using
stop-motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
animation, including ''
Clangers
''Clangers'' (usually referred to as ''The Clangers'') is a British stop motion, stop-motion children's television series, consisting of short films about a family of mouse, mouse-like creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon-like planet ...
'', ''
Noggin the Nog
''Noggin the Nog'' is a fictional character appearing in a TV series (of the same name, originally broadcast 1959–1965 and 1982) and a series of illustrated books (published 1965–1977), created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. The TV seri ...
'' and ''
Ivor the Engine
''Ivor the Engine'' is a British cutout animation television series created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms company. It follows the adventures of a small green steam locomotive who lives in the "top left-hand corner of Wales" a ...
''. Another Smallfilms production, ''
Bagpuss
''Bagpuss'' is a British animated children's television series which was made by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate through their company Smallfilms. The series of thirteen episodes was first broadcast from 12 February to 7 May 1974. The title char ...
'', came top of a BBC poll to find the favourite British children's programme of the 20th century.
Background
In 1957, Postgate was appointed a
stage manager
Stage management is a broad field that is generally defined as the practice of organization and coordination of an event or theatrical production. Stage management may encompass a variety of activities including the overseeing of the rehearsal p ...
with
Associated-Rediffusion
Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, ...
, the company that then held the commercial weekday television franchise for London.
Attached to the children's programming section, he thought he could do better with the relatively low budgets of the then
black and white television
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
productions.
He wrote ''
Alexander the Mouse
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
'', a story about a mouse born to be king. Using an Irish-produced magnetic system—on which animated characters were magnetically attached to a painted background, then filmed using a 45 degree mirror—he persuaded
Peter Firmin
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a su ...
, who was then teaching at the
Central School of Art
The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Cra ...
, to create the painted backgrounds. Postgate later recalled that they broadcast around 26 of these programmes live-to-air, a task made harder by the production problems encountered by the use and restrictions of using magnets.
After the relative success of ''Alexander the Mouse'', Postgate agreed a deal to make his next series on film, for a budget of £175 per programme (a minuscule amount even at that time).
Making a
stop motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
animation table in his bedroom, he wrote the Chinese serial ''The Journey of Master Ho'': a formal Chinese epic, about a small boy and a water-buffalo. This was intended for deaf children, a distinct advantage in that the production required no soundtrack, which reduced production costs. He engaged a painter to produce the backgrounds, but as the painter was classically Chinese-trained he produced them in
three-quarter view, rather than in the conventional Egyptian full-view manner needed for flat animation under a camera.
This resulted in Firmin's characters looking as if they were short in one leg, but the success of the production provided the foundation for Postgate and Firmin to start up their own company, solely producing animated children's television programmes, initially for
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
, but soon afterward with the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
.
Postgate's initial BBC career was not solely concerned with Smallfilms. To gain experience, he accepted a contract as a television director in the BBC Children's Department in 1960, on a show entitled ''Little Laura'', another animated series made on film, written and drawn by
. The series continued in production until 1962, with Postgate credited also as animator on the 1962 series. He also wrote serials for long-running BBC children's programmes ''Blue Peter'' and stories for ''Vision On''.
Postgate and Firmin made children's animation programmes, based on concepts that mostly originated from Postgate. Firmin did the artwork and built the models, whilst Postgate wrote the scripts, did the stop motion filming, and voiced many of the characters. ''Smallfilms'' was able to produce two minutes of TV-ready film per day, twelve times as much as a conventional stop motion animation studio,
with Postgate moving the (originally cardboard) characters himself, and working his
camera frame-by-frame with a home-made clicker. As Postgate voiced so many of the productions, including the
story tapes, his distinctive voice became familiar to generations of children.
They began in 1959 with ''
who wanted to sing in a choir, based on Postgate's wartime encounter with Welshman Denzyl Ellis, who was once a
.
...