Ivor the Engine

A quick post today and rather a silly one. I learned today that some lost episodes of Ivor the Engine have been unearthed.

Peter Firmin was rooting around his pig shed (as you do) when he came across a box of old videotapes that belonged to the sadly missed Oliver Postgate. The discovery includes 26 missing black and white episodes of the show that were made between 1962 and 1964.

Postgate and Firmin’s company, Smallfilms were commissioned in 1958 to make six black and white stop motion films, these were very succesful and a further two series were then made (the missing 26 episodes) however it was always thought that they had been lost for good.

The Ivor I recognise from my childhood is the star of the 40 remade colour episodes that Smallfilms produced during the mid 1970′s, and I had no idea that Ivor was originally made in the 1950′s…

So Ivor, Jones the Steam, Idris the Dragon, Owen the Signal and Dai Station all get a new lease of life.  A happy find indeed.