24 Clangers

First  watched : 16  November  1969

How  the  memory  plays  tricks ! I'd  have  sworn  this  was  broadcast  in  The  Magic  Roundabout   slot  on  a  weekday  but  no. It  actually  replaced  Ken  Dodd  and  the  Diddymen  on  a  Sunday  night  and  only  27  10-minute  episodes  were  ever  made  ( though  a  new  series  is  in  production  at  the  time  of  writing ).

Clangers  was  the  first  Smallfilms  production  since  Pogles'  Wood  and  could  hardly  have  been  more  different. Where  the  latter  seemed  an  elegaic  farewell  to  a  fast-disappearing  way of  life, Clangers  embraced  the  space  age  and  anticipated  finding  quirky  new  forms  of  life.

Clangers' most  unique  feature  was  the  script  which  was  originally  written  in  English  but  performed  through  swanee  whistles  which  kept  the  intonations  but  rendered  the  words  unintelligible. Oliver  Postgate  then  provided  a  voiceover  narration  to  make  it  coherent.

I  have  to  confess  I  thought  it  was  a  load  of  nonsense  and  failed  to  engage  with  it  at  all  but  I  realise  that  puts  me  in  a  very  small  minority.