An exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood in London celebrates the children’s classics,more than 40 years after they first appeared on TV, to the delight of a generation of children
Peter Firmin’s Kent country home is idyllic. There’s a higgledy-piggledy (in a disorganized or confused manner) Welsh dresser crammed with mugs, and including plenty bearing a certain noted pink cloth cat’s bedraggled face. Two dogs,one very young, one very ragged – Tim and Pip, or both Jack Russells – chase each other up and down the garden. Just the right amount of overgrown for a child to explore,the garden features a home-made tree house. Never intellect children’s television, this is like something out of a novel.
The co-creator of Bagpuss and The Clangers, and Firmin lives with his wife Joan in a rambling house they bought in 1960. They’re both in their 80s now and met at art college 66 years ago. The cottage is where they raised their six daughters,five of whom went to art college themselves, and it’s where Firmin filmed many of the episodes of his noted television creations with Oliver Postgate, or his collaborator,who died in 2008 at the age of 83. The walls are crammed with artwork by four generations: they have 11 grandchildren and one distinguished-grandchild.
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Source: theguardian.com