Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner – The Music From Bagpuss
Earth Recordings – 16 November 2018
‘Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a little girl and her name was Emily, and she had a shop.
‘There it is. It was rather an unusual shop because it didn’t sell anything. You see, everything in that shop window was a thing that somebody had once lost, and Emily had found, and brought home to Bagpuss.
‘Emily’s cat Bagpuss: the most important, the most beautiful, the most magical… saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world. Well, now one day Emily found a thing. And she brought it back to Bagpuss…’
Rather delightfully, the ‘thing’ that we once thought lost is a set of pristine recordings of the Bagpuss soundtrack, together with outtakes and rehearsals from the original sessions…
I’m sure most readers of this website have that opening narration seered into their folk memory. And, as a child of the late 70s, it’s as familiar to me as the jungle wallpaper of my first bedroom and the smell of new Star Wars figures.
Bagpuss, although a lunchtime children’s television show that only lasted 13 episodes and first broadcast in 1974, was regularly repeated for the next 13 years (and found an audience beyond on VHS and DVD).
This meant that many generations of viewers grew up with Bagpuss and his friends: the singing mice from the mouse organ and Professor Yaffle, a carved, wooden bookend in the shape of a woodpecker (whose fervent dismissal of anything magical or unexplained bears a striking similarity to another professor: Richard Dawkins).
But this collection showcases the musical accompaniment of two other characters Madeleine and Gabriel, played by Sandra Kerr (mother of Nancy) and John Faulkner (as well as some mouse organ interludes, also voiced by the pair). Back in the 70s they were a folk-singing couple, steeped in the British folk tradition and adept at multiple instruments.
Pairing them with the magical world of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin (creators of The Clangers, Noggin the Nog and Ivor the Engine) resulted in arguably the greatest British children’s television show of all time (and it was voted as such in a 1999 BBC poll). They brought a wealth of songs and tunes that seemed wrought from the fibre of ancient Albion – a mixture of reworked traditional material and new songs and tunes that sounded old as the dales.
You may be confused if you already own Bagpuss: The Songs & Music released in 2000 on Fellside’s ‘Small Folk label’, while a delightful collection, this new release features the 1970s originals, including never-before-heard audio, all of which were mastered and transferred from Oliver Postgate’s original tapes. They sound remarkably pristine but with an appropriate homemade warmth.
There’s a splendid innocence to the recordings, none of the knowing, meta-music that permeates kids TV these days. It’s an enchanting collection that works on its own without the visuals. And I’m sure people without any knowledge of the TV show but who love wyrd British folk of this vintage will find much to enjoy.
Its sprawling 49-tracks will delight completists. But – as usual with these kinds of compilations – standout songs such as (astonishingly brilliant) The Miller’s Song, Princess Suite and The Weaving Song (recently covered by Stick In The Wheel on Follow them True) bear the most repeating.
Listening again, it’s no wonder that Sergeant Howie’s execution at the end of The Wicker Man was doubly terrifying for viewers of Bagpuss. The song the Summerisle chorus chant as the policemen burns to death (Sumer Is Icumen In) is the same tune as We Will Wash It, as sung by the mice from the mouse organ. Now there’s a mash-up I never want to witness…
We will find it, we will bind it,
We will stick it with glue, glue, glue
(‘I humbly entreat you for the soul of this, thy servant, Neil Howie…’)
We will stickle it
Every little bit of it
We will fix it like new, new, new
If you are looking for a Christmas present for a folk-loving dad (or mum) who wants something they can play that the kids won’t scream to turn off, this is it. If you are simply hankering for timeless folk, splendidly played and sung, that sounds ancient as days, but as fresh as a daisy, look no further. It’s the most important, the most beautiful, the most magical… saggy old soundtrack in the whole wide world.