Children’s TV

Junk Rescue – Series 2 (2019)

Posted on by Kent Film Office
Presenters Zoe Pocock (wearing a pink jumpsuit) and Danny Sebastian (wearing a patchwork waistcoat and jeans) in Junk Rescue pictured sitting down together on a wooden box and smiling at the camera.

Presenters Zoe Pocock and Danny Sebastian in Junk Rescue ©Muck N Brass

Starring: Zoe Pocock and Danny Sebastian
Production Company: Hello Halo
Kent Locations Used: The Historic Dockyard Chatham

CBeebies Junk Rescue (2018-) is back! The series shows how the things we throw away can be turned into something useful, through combining traditional crafts and creative child-led makes.

The Kent episode Frayed Yarn, involves Danny, Zoe, and their Junkyard Helpers finding some frayed yarn in the junkyard. Zoe and the helpers then make something out of sewing leftovers.

The series stars presenters Zoe Pocock (Horrid Henry: The Movie) and Danny Sebastian (Bargain Hunt).

The Frayed Yarn episode was filmed in the Ropery at The Historic Dockyard Chatham.

Set on the River Medway, The Historic Dockyard Chatham is a popular film location. It offers Georgian and Victorian architecture, maritime environment, dry dock, cobbled streets, and industrial buildings. The Dockyard has previously featured in TV productions such as the Hetty Feather series (2015-2020).

Junk Rescue can be seen on CBeebies on Monday 27th May 2019 at 4.10pm and episodes will air daily till Friday 31st May 2019, ending with the Kent episode.

For more information about Kent’s Filming History please visit our Movie Map. 

Bagpuss (1974)

Posted on by Kent Film Office
Stuffed toys sit in a room with a dark oak-panelled desk behind them. On the left, sitting on a blue and green tin, is Gabriel, a green toad holding a banjo. Underneath him is a grey mouse wearing a white t-shirt and blue plaid shorts. Underneath the mouse is Professor Yaffle, a wooden woodpecker wearing wire-rimmed glasses. In the middle, sitting on a cushion, is Bagpuss, a pink and white stripy cat. Above him on the desk either side of his ears stands a mouse – the left one wearing a blue and pink plaid dress, and the right one wearing a navy-blue dress. At his feet sits another mouse, this one wearing a red t-shirt with a yellow cravat. On the right, sitting in a wicker chair, is Madeleine, a rag doll with ginger curly hair wearing an orange, yellow, green and white striped dress. On her lap sits yet another mouse wearing red shorts and a yellow patterned shirt.

Bagpuss (1974) © BBC

Creator: Oliver Postgate, Peter Firmin
Starring: Oliver Postgate, Sandra Kerr, John Faulkner
Production Company: Smallfilms
Kent Locations Used: Blean – Canterbury

Bagpuss (1974) was an animated children’s TV series created by Smallfilms which aired on BBC2 in 1974. The series follows Bagpuss, “a saggy old cloth cat”, who lives in a shop that houses lost things. Each of the thirteen episodes feature Bagpuss and his friends the mice, a rag doll named Madeleine, Gabriel the toad, and Professor Yaffle the wooden woodpecker, coming to life and investigating the objects their owner Emily brings them.

The series was created by Smallfilms, a TV production company founded by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, who also produced popular children’s stop-motion animated programmes The Clangers (1969-1974), Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog. The production was a collaboration between the two men, with Firmin making the models and drawing the artwork, and Postgate writing the scripts and voicing and animating the characters.

Sandra Kerr voiced Madeleine the rag doll and John Faulkner voiced Gabriel the Toad. Both actors also wrote and performed the folk songs. Bagpuss, the narrator, and additional characters were voiced by creator Oliver Postgate.

Peter Firmin, a man with grey hair and a beard, holds Bagpuss, a pink and white striped cat stuffed toy. Firmin wears a blue jumper with a grey shirt underneath. Behind him is a black wood-panelled cowshed with a peg tile roof.

Bagpuss with Peter Firmin outside the studio / barn where the programme was filmed  © Kent Online

Bagpuss, as well as Smallfilms’ other productions, was shot in a studio in Blean, near Canterbury. The studio was originally a disused cowshed at Firmin’s family home. The exterior of the shop appearing in each episode’s opening scene was also filmed at Firmin’s home and featured his daughter Emily.

Blean is a village in the district of Canterbury which is home to the popular Blean Woods Nature Reserve, one of the largest woodlands in England. Smallfilms The Clangers (1969-1974) was also shot in Blean.

Despite only airing for one series, Bagpuss garnered nationwide acclaim and in 1999 it won a BBC poll becoming the nation’s favourite BBC children’s programme.

Until Sunday 28th July 2024, the original Bagpuss puppet will be on display in The Beaney House of Art & Knowledge in Canterbury, along with Rupert the Bear.

Bagpuss first aired on BBC2 from Tuesday 12th February to Tuesday 7th May 1974. It is now available to purchase on DVD.

For more information about Kent’s Filming History please visit our Movie Map.

The Clangers (1969 – 1974)

Posted on by Kent Film Office
Five Clangers, pink, mouse-shaped creatures wearing black shoes and the females different colour tabards or waistcoats and the males armour, stand on the surface of a blue, moon-like planet some in and some next to their crater shaped burrows some of which are covered by metal dustbin lids.. In the background is the dark night sky with twinkling stars an iron chicken flying in the top right of the image. The Clangers are waving at the chicken satellite.

The Clangers (1969-1974) © Channel 5

Creator: Oliver Postgate, Peter Firmin
Production Company: Smallfilms
Kent Locations Used: Blean – Canterbury

The Clangers (1969-1974) was a children’s stop-motion TV series which was broadcast on BBC One. The series consisted of short 10-minute episodes chronicling the lives of the Clangers, a family of pink mouse-like creatures who live below the surface of a far away planet populated by music trees and speak only in whistles. They lived in crater like burrows that were covered with dustbin lids to shield against meteor impacts and lived on blue string pudding and green soup from the planet’s soup wells harvested by the soup dragon.

The series was created by Smallfilms, a TV production company founded by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, who also produced popular children’s stop-motion animated programmes Bagpuss (1974), Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog. The production was a collaboration between the two men, with Firmin making the models and drawing the artwork, and Postgate writing the scripts and voicing and animating the characters.

The Clangers, as well as Smallfilms other productions, was shot in a studio in Blean, near Canterbury. The studio was originally a disused cowshed at Firmin’s family home.

Peter Firmin sits against a white background. He is wearing a navy-blue jumper with a light blue shirt underneath. He holds two puppets in his hands, one of the Froglets, an orange oval-shaped alien with black stick legs, the other the spotted green Soup Dragon. In front of him, on a table, stand six other puppets – three Clangers, another two Froglets and the Irone Chicken., a metallic bird made from Meccano.

Peter Firmin and the Clanger puppets at the Sidney Cooper Gallery in Canterbury © Kent Online

Blean is a village in the district of Canterbury which is home to the popular Blean Woods Nature Reserve, one of the largest woodlands in England. Smallfilms’ Bagpuss (1974) was also shot in Blean.

The series is a fondly remembered British classic. A revival series began airing in 2015 narrated by Michael Palin and airing on CBeebies.

The Clangers (1969-1974) was broadcast on BBC One from Sunday 16th November 1969 until Friday 10th November 1972. A final special episode was broadcast on Thursday 10th October 1974. The series is now available to purchase on DVD.

For more information about Kent’s Filming History please visit our Movie Map.