The iconic and much-loved British cult classic animated television show, Clangers, is set to make a welcome return to its home on the BBC after 45 years.
The joint announcement is made by CBeebies, Coolabi, Smallfilms and US 24-hour pre-school network, Sprout, who together are co-producing the new pre-school series, with BBC Worldwide for its international channels. BBC Worldwide is also confirmed as the international distributor for the show. The £5 million production is already underway and is set for a highly anticipated return to the small screen in 2015.
Clangers, which previously launched on the BBC in 1969, are pink, long-nosed, inventive and loveable mouse-shaped creatures who live on a small blue planet, out in the starry stretches of space, not far from Earth. Its surface is peppered with holes topped with metal dustbin lids, which flip open with a Clang! to reveal steps down to their home beneath the surface of the planet - containing a series of interconnecting tunnels and caves. Kind and generous creatures, they communicate with distinctive whistles, and a narrator comments on the thrilling and often hilarious events which occur in every episode.
The Clangers are a family. The cast of characters consists of Major, Mother, Small (a boy), Tiny (a girl) and Granny. Other favourites returning to the new series are The Soup Dragon, who provides green soup from the soup wells; The Iron Chicken, whose favourite food is nuts and bolts; the Glow Buzzers, who create a magical light inside the caves, and the mischievous Froglets. These and many other peculiar creatures, make a simple, sometimes surreal, but always harmonious world of fun, imagination, exploration and invention, which pre-schoolers and parents alike will enjoy over and over again.
The recurring themes within the Clangers include: the importance of community, caring for the planet and encouraging and nurturing a sense of wonder and natural curiosity.
The classic Smallfilms series, originally created by founding fathers of UK animation, Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate (Bagpuss, Ivor The Engine, Noggin The Nog), will be produced in stop motion animation by specialists, Factory Transmedia (Strange Hill High, Raa Raa The Noisy Lion), and award-winning puppet makers and producers, Mackinnon and Saunders (Tim Burtons Corpse Bride, Wes Andersons Fantastic Mr Fox, Chicken Run, Mars Attacks, Bob The Builder, Raa Raa the Noisy Lion, Frankensteins Cat and Postman Pat).
