It seems many, many, years ago that I watched as a child, on BBC 1, 'The Clangers', about a moon-like planet inhabited by intelligent mice-like creatures known as 'Clangers'. There were also an assortment of other creatures who made this grey dwarf - planet their home, the 'Froglets' and the 'Soup Dragon'.
'The Clangers' consisted of a family of rodent - type aliens who walked on their hind legs and lived under the surface of their world, occasionally popping up to the surface to see what had landed on their planet, whether that would be space debris or hapless Earth astronauts.
'The Clangers' would emerge from their subterranean home via metal dustbin like lids secured over the many craters of their world.
'The Clangers' were made of wool (as they still are now, apparently) and made to appeal to kids or a family audience, there was nothing scary about these aliens and they certainly didn't go round invading Earth or kidnapping humans for experimentation, as the 'greys' supposedly do. They communicated with whistles or hoots and fed on soup prepared by the Soup Dragon, their friends the Froglets, would just appear, no matter what the Clangers themselves were doing.
When the environmental message was just getting out in the '70s, memories of the start of 'The Clangers' suggested that it was as if they were observing our planet and the announcer (possibly) Oliver Postgate (who is sadly no longer with us), used to announce that any alien including the Clangers would not wish to visit Earth.
His explanation was that it was an overcrowded, smelly, part of the universe to visit, thanks to the activities of humans, with perhaps the sentiment holding true both then and now.
The new 'Clangers' have had a 5 million pounds re - vamp with ex - 'Monty Python' man and traveller to all parts foreign, Michael Palin narrating the series.
The original series was made by 'Small Films' who were also responsible for 'Bagpuss', another popular tv series from the era, which involved a young girl called Emily and her friend a moth - eaten material cat, and his friends and they all lived in an antique shop.
How the kids of today with their playstations and tablets will take to this new series of 'The Clangers' remains to be seen, but let's just hope that it will be appreciated and loved for the appealing characters and story lines, just as it was by the previous generation of viewers.
