Ivor delivers Coal to Grumbly Gasworks, tomatoes to Mr Davy and Fish to Mrs Thomas. We see a typical day in the life of Ivor the Engine. When the colour series was subsequently released on DVD, some of the episodes whose content linked, were edited together, with the relevant closing and opening titles and credits removed. In October 2010, however, film copies of all 26 episodes were discovered in a pig shed. These would often each form part of a longer story.Īlthough the six original black and white episodes were subsequently released on video, the two longer black and white series (totaling 26 episodes) were not and for many years were thought to have been lost. The colour series consisted of 40 five-minute films. In the 1970s, the two longer black and white series were re-made in colour, with some alterations to the stories, but they did not revisit the original six. Black and white episodes were 10 minutes each. There then followed two thirteen-episode series, also in black and white. The original series was in black and white and comprised six episodes which told how Ivor wanted to sing in the choir, and how his whistle was replaced with steam organ pipes from the fairground organ on Mr Morgan's roundabout. Anthony Jackson provided the voices for Dai Station, Evans the Song and Mr Dinwiddy. Voices were performed by Oliver Postgate, Anthony Jackson and Olwen Griffiths. The music was composed by Vernon Elliott and predominantly featured a solo bassoon, to reflect the three notes of Ivor's whistle. The sound effects were endearingly low-tech, with the sound of Ivor's puffing made vocally by Postgate himself. The series was written, animated and narrated by Oliver Postgate. The series was originally made for black and white television by Smallfilms for Associated Rediffusion in 1958, but was later revived in 1975 when new episodes in colour were produced for the BBC. Ivor the Engine used stop motion animation, of cardboard cut-outs painted with watercolours. The story lines drew heavily on, and were influenced by, the works of South Wales poet Dylan Thomas. Postgate decided to locate the story to North Wales, as it was more inspirational than the flat terrain of the English Midlands. Ivor the Engine was Smallfilms' first production, and drew inspiration from Postgate's World War II encounter with Welshman Denzyl Ellis, a former railway locomotive fireman with the Royal Scot train, who described how steam engines came to life when you spent time steaming them up in the morning. Having produced the live Alexander the Mouse, and the stop motion animated The Journey of Master Ho for his employers Associated Rediffusion/ ITV in partnership with Firmin, Oliver Postgate and his partner set up Smallfilms in a disused cow shed at Firmin's home in Blean, near Canterbury, Kent.
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