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Photograph: Oliver Postgate being advised by Bagpuss in the studio, 1974.

Bagpuss was first seen on 12 February 1974. The charming children's stop motion animation was made by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, starring the "saggy old cloth cat" Bagpuss. He lived in a strange shop - owned by a little girl called Emily - which didn't actually sell anything, but was a home for lost property. Only 13 episodes were ever made, but the programme has remained popular down the generations and was voted the all-time favourite children's programme in 1999.

The opening of Bagpuss was shot in sepia with Emily – Firmin's actual daughter – in clothes that suggested an Edwardian setting. After Emily left Bagpuss came to life, with Postgate providing his voice, and the film changed to colour. When Bagpuss awoke so did his friends: Professor Yaffle the woodpecker bookend, Gabriel the toad and Madeleine the rag doll, as well as the musical mice on their magical mouse organ. Together they inspected whatever item Emily had left them. Gabriel and Madeleine – voiced by John Faulkner and Sandra Kerr – provided songs and stories, although the mice often sang too.

With their production company Smallfilms, Postgate and Firmin created some of the most loved children's programmes seen on the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, working from an outbuilding in Firmin's home. Apart from Bagpuss they made Pogle's Wood, The Clangers, Ivor the Engine, and Noggin the Nog.