The Bagpuss Syndrome | What is it? | Have I got it? | What are the symptoms?

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A box of exposed unwanted Super8 cine film was donated to our shop this week. I didn't have the heart to throw it away. This was when I discovered that I've got Bagpuss syndrome. Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to transfer the cine film footage digitally and restore it to its original state (Bagpuss style). Preserving a little bit of 1970's history in the process.

The result was a beautiful piece of film history, which is a perfect short distraction from the current global distraction.

WHAT IS BAGPUSS?
Bagpuss is a British children's television series, made by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate through their company Smallfilms. The series of 13 episodes was first broadcast from Tuesday 12 February [2] to Tuesday 7 May 1974. The title character was "a saggy, old cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams".[3] Although only 13 episodes were made, it remains fondly remembered,[4] and was frequently repeated in the UK until 1986.[5] In early 1999, Bagpuss topped a BBC poll for the UK's favourite children's television programme.

Each programme began in the same way: through a series of sepia photographs, the viewer is told of a little girl named Emily (played by Emily Firmin, the daughter of illustrator Peter Firmin),[6] who owned a shop. Emily found lost and broken things and displayed them in the window, so their owners could come and collect them; the shop did not sell anything.

She would leave the object in front of her favourite stuffed toy, the large, saggy, pink and white striped cat named Bagpuss. Emily then recited a verse:[3]

Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss, old fat furry catpuss
Wake up and look at this thing that I bring
Wake up, be bright, be golden and light
Bagpuss, oh hear what I sing

After Emily had left, Bagpuss woke up. The programme shifted from sepia to colour stop motion film, and various toys in the shop came to life: Gabriel the toad (who, unlike most Smallfilms characters, could move by a special device beneath his can without the use of stop motion animation) and a rag doll called Madeleine. The wooden woodpecker bookend became the drily academic Professor Yaffle (based on the philosopher Bertrand Russell, whom Postgate had once met),[7] while the mice carved on the side of the "mouse organ" (a small mechanical pipe organ that played rolls of music) woke up and scurried around, singing in high-pitched voices. Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner provided the voices of Madeleine and Gabriel respectively, and put together and performed all the folk songs. All the other voices (including the narrator and one out-of-tune mouse) were provided by Postgate, who also wrote the stories.

The toys discussed what the new object was; someone (usually Madeleine) would tell a story related to the object (shown in an animated thought bubble over Bagpuss's head), often with a song, accompanied by Gabriel on the banjo (which often sounded a lot more like a guitar), and then the mice, singing in high-pitched squeaky harmony to the tune of Sumer Is Icumen In as they worked, mended the broken object. There was much banter between the characters, with the pompous Yaffle constantly finding fault with the playful mice: his complaint, 'Those mice are never serious!' became his main catchphrase. However, peace was always restored by the end of the episode, usually thanks to the timely intervention of Bagpuss, Gabriel or Madeleine. The newly mended object was placed in the shop window so that its owner might see it in passing and come in to claim it. Bagpuss then yawned and fell asleep, and he and the others became toys again as the colour faded to sepia and the narrator spoke.

And so their work was done.
Bagpuss gave a big yawn and settled down to sleep
And, of course, when Bagpuss goes to sleep,
All his friends go to sleep too.
The mice were ornaments on the mouse organ.
Gabriel and Madeleine were just dolls.
And Professor Yaffle was a carved, wooden bookend in the shape of a woodpecker.
Even Bagpuss himself, once he was asleep, was just an old, saggy cloth cat,
Baggy, and a bit loose at the seams,
But Emily loved him.

Bagpuss episode 1 | Ship In A Bottle

#Bagpuss #Oliverpostgate #Super8