Happy 40th Birthday to Bagpuss

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On Wednesday the 12th February 2014-
 Bagpuss, the pink stripy cat with stories to tell, will be turning 40. 
 Any child born in the 80s-90s will remember Bagpuss and the excitement they'd feel when the narrator would start the story about the the little girl who owned a shop and would find lost and broken things to display in the window. Amazingly, Bagpuss only produced 13 episodes and yet the program will go down in history! 


Bagpuss was produced in 1974 by the company Smallfilms, created by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate. Oliver Postgate being the narrator for Bagpuss.
The children's program was played on the BBC for many years and was rated the UK's favourite children's TV program in 1999. The main part being Bagpuss and his friends; 
Professor Yaffle- the carved wooden book-end 
Madeline- The rag doll
Gabriel- the banjo-playing toad
and of course...
The Mice.


I wanted to remind myself of the opening story at the start of Bagpuss so I tapped it in on YouTube and within 20 seconds a customer turned to me and said; 'Wow, That's Bagpuss! I could recognise that music from anywhere, thank you for playing that!'  What a wonderful program to trigger so many memories of childhood. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRo8o-86kZE

In each episode the characters would tell a different story and song, they'd explore the different toys and items in the shop and turn them into fun adventures. My favourite story being Bagpuss's story about mermaids and magic. Each episode of Bagpuss really portrayed the magic behind each toy and how they could come to life. The characters had their own quirks and personalities that made them different from the rest.

The program taught children to believe and see toys in a different way, through magic!


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