Michael Palin: Narrating The Clangers is ‘Zen-like’
By Mark Savage
Entertainment reporter
1 June 2015
From the section Entertainment & Arts
Michael Palin says The Clangers are “a little bit subversive”
Monty Python star Michael Palin has called narrating the new series of The Clangers “a Zen-like experience”.
The actor tried to recreate the “reassuring” tone of co-creator Oliver Postgate, who provided the commentary on the original 1960s series.
“I find the voice of the narrator is like getting slightly high,” he told the BBC.
“Everything’s happening around you, you’re not quite sure what it is, but it’s comforting.”
The Clangers, which debuted on the BBC in 1969, tells the story of a colony of mouse-type creatures who inhabit a small blue planet not far from earth.
Eking out a threadbare existence, the knitted aliens spoke in a swooping whistle, while the late Postgate observed their activities.
A cult favourite, it ran for two just years – but has now been resurrected for a £5 million new series on CBeebies.
Several episodes have been written by Postgate’s son, Daniel, while original co-creator Peter Firmin serves as an executive producer.
He said technological advances meant the stop-motion characters were more “sophisticated” than the 1960s original.
“They can dance, they can fly, they can jump,” he said. “Our simple technology, with the feet tin-tacked to the surface of the planet [meant] we couldn’t make them go up in the air except with strings.
“It’s so much more exciting now because they can do so much more.”
Source:: BBC Entertainment
