..and she adores it. Passing on the Postgate baton to the next generation made me feel like the old parenting skills were holding up nicely. I'll certainly tune in for the documentary.

Michael Rosen's son doesn't like Bagpuss, we discovered during the documentary, and I was about to comment on the thickness of said offspring when I noticed that Rosen and son were sitting directly behind me at the screening.

The Bagpuss ep screened was The Mouse Mill - the zenith of children's TV IMHO

for creating beautifully realized worlds of the imagination that children loved to visit.

One of the aspects of their programmes that I find most endearing was how they managed to gently instruct youngsters as to the importance of kindliness, respect for others and environmental issues and instill in them an understanding of common human failings. They never preached, but must have influenced millions of children in an entirely positive way.

Some years ago I did the press and promotion for a record of music from The Clangers. The guy that put the record together and I were going to visit Oliver Postgate at his home, but he fell ill and we didn't go. I so wish I had met him... he was one of the good people of this world and I wanted to thank him sincerely for bringing so much kind-hearted magic into our lives.

The Charlie Brooker tribute was wonderful... he understood what Postgate did for us.

My prime love of any of the Smallfilms oevre was Oliver Postgate's gentle narration which, whilst instructional, was never condescending. So much TV for kids, then and now, converses in BIG CAPITAL LETTERS with hugely over-exaggerated gestures and expressions. It annoyed me as a kid, it annoys me now. No such thing from Mr Postgate. He simply talked in his beautifully modulated, gentle, hypnotic tones. Love of the subject oozes from every frame of every Smallfilms production. Who amongst us would not want our kids to feel some of that joy as we felt it when we were young? I suspect that the work of Postgate and Firmin will continue to find followers for some years to come.

I bet that was a good day at the NFT.

I just went there to see what I might find and it wasn't really what I was expecting.

There *is* some reference to his Smallfilms days but it's obviously not what was on his mind for the last few years. I lost interest after the first few rants.

Met him at a signing for his autobiography. I got to hold Professor Yaffle and Major Clanger...sorry there's just something in my eye...

about one of the previous sessions at the NFT featuring Firmin and Postgate.

There was a session with Cosgrove Hall team (Dangermous, Chorlton and the Wheelies, Wind In the Willows etc) happening at the same time and when they heard that Oliver and Petter were in the building they all came down to pay homage to their heroes.

They bought with them this big metal case with several of their creations encased in protective foam, obviously specifically designed to keep them safe. After chatting a while Oliver said 'Do you want to meet the cat?'

He pulled out a plastic shopping bag and out came the familiar moggie. I noticed that Peter Firmin carreid around Major and Tiny Clanger in just such a bag at the weekend. But as he said "they're just puppets". Not to some of us, sunshine!

..of reducing grown men to tears, it's a year to the day since Oliver Postgate died. He regarded as perfectly normal a request to have a book signed by Bagpuss for my brother. Indeed the cloth cat has an honorary degree from the University of Kent.