Identify: The Works of Oliver Postgate and Smallfilms

Few British animators can boast the instantly recognisable aesthetic of Oliver Postgate. Over 20 years, he and Peter Firmin, the other half of his two-man production company Smallfilms, produced some of the most beloved and remembered children's programmes of the 70s and 80s, from Ivor the Engine to Bagpuss.

The defining element of the Smallfilms aesthetic is the sound and the hand-crafted feel of everything in the world.  Their animations maintained this aesthetic as a sort of defining philosophy across all of their animations, whether cut-out, stop motion or puppetry. Postgate has described his work as 'surrealist but logical' which certainly holds true. Characters and worlds are imaginatively designed and at times surreal in their features, but follow a certain logic that keeps them grounded in their own universe as to be easily accessible to all ages. This is thanks partially to Postgate's warm and inviting opening narration, which to this day defines a lot of children's programming in the 70s and 80s.

On the surface no stock sound effects were used in the production of Smallfilms shorts, instead Postgate and Firmin created the soundtracks and soundscapes themselves. The result is a patient, dreamy and innocent soundscape to much of their work, which is part of what makes it so timeless and fondly remembered. Characters have unique and defining sounds that punctuate their actions, which makes them stand apart from their contemporaries.