Meet the woman whose magical music brought Bagpuss to life

A condensed version of this article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

The golden age of children’s television, and a happy place for many young viewers, are evoked in an instant by a moving new audio drama called Patchwuff, thanks in part to Sandra Kerr. So Radio Times spoke to the folk star whose music woke up Bagpuss, and is making magic happen again...

“I was delighted,” says Kerr about her involvement in the new short story written by Andrew T Smith for Mulgrave Audio. “Especially after I’d read the script, which I thought was delightful and enchanting, but also poignant and relevant.”

Patchwuff tells the tale of Peter, a boy whose best friend is a cloth dog made by his grandmother. Patchwuff is a "mopey mess of a mutt" with "a patchwork body stuffed with fluff and warm feelings". One day an important visitor to Grandma's house decides that Patchwuff’s stories should be brought to TV.

The idea was sparked by the likes of Emily and Bagpuss, Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh, and Alastair Grahame and The Wind in the Willows, as Smith explains to RT.

“What happens to the bond between a child and their best, not-quite-imaginary friend as time goes by? How do our memories of these formative childhood friends shape the people we become, and what comfort can they bring in difficult, grown-up times?”

Joyous and nostalgic, the story is not afraid to enter the grown-up world, touching on ageing and dementia. The latter is summed up in a song called Forget-Me-Knot, so how did Kerr go about writing it? “The forget-me-knot is the symbol of the Alzheimer’s Society, and coming from a background of wonderful folk songs and ballads, I always have a reference point when I’m writing.

"So many of our ancient songs and ballads have been couched in the language of flowers and plants. Forget-me-knot was my starting point and so was the ballad tradition of folk song. I based it loosely on a version of Scarborough Fair that we have in Northumberland called Whittingham Fair, and it has a beautiful tune. So I started there but went off in different directions.”

Essex-born multi-instrumentalist Kerr, now 84, was a member of folk collective The Critics Group along with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, and for many years was a music lecturer at Newcastle University.

Patchwuff's golden-age theme is reinforced by some spirited narration from former Blue Peter presenter Valerie Singleton – a casting coup that Andrew T Smith calls "a dream come true".

"Val trained as an actress before she moved into presenting," he continues, "so I knew she could elevate what was on the page. The sheer sound of her voice carries a cachet as well – a warmth and feeling of safety for anybody who grew up with her work."

"What a pleasure it was to hear that unmistakeable voice again," adds Kerr. "Perfect."

The project emerged from Kerr's association with Mulgrave co-founder Bob Fischer, with whom Kerr presented a live event called Bagpuss and Beyond.

And the soundscape for Patchwuff is a cosily familiar one thanks to instruments that were also used for Bagpuss, such as the concertina, autoharp and Appalachian dulcimer. “They were appropriate,” explains Kerr, “those small, intimate, friendly-feeling instruments that sound like you’ve always heard them, and don’t dominate the text or the lyrics.

"Because folk song is about lyrics as well as beautiful tunes, and certainly for Bagpuss and for Patchwuff where you’ve got a very strong narrative, it needed songs that were intimate and gentle.”

Kerr and fellow folk musician John Faulkner first got the gig for 1974 series Bagpuss after Oliver Postgate ("amazing and genius-like," says Kerr) heard and liked the music that the duo had created for Sam on Boffs’ Island, an educational show produced by Michael Rosen that Postgate and Peter Firmin had provided animation and puppets for.

Postgate and Firmin's Smallfilms comprise some of the best-loved children's series of all time, including The Saga of Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Pogles' Wood, Clangers and, of course, Bagpuss.

"Oliver at that time was looking for a different kind of sound for a new series he was going to make. I don’t think he quite knew what he wanted but he said that in the past the music for Smallfilms had always been created quite formally. It had been composed and written down in manuscript form and then played by a small string orchestra or quartet or whatever. And he wanted a different sound for Bagpuss."

It was Kerr and Faulkner's music that brought Bagpuss and his friends to life, accompanied the pink-and-white cat's fantastical stories, motivated the mice to repair the lost objects that Emily brought into her shop, and lullabied all the toys back to sleep at the end of each episode.

Emily was played by Emily Firmin, the youngest of six daughters of Bagpuss co-creator Peter Firmin, who was responsible for many of the characters, props and drawings.

"Peter was another delightful and hugely creative man," says Kerr. "I also ought to make a shout-out for Joan, Peter’s wife, who made a lot of the costumes and dressings for the sets. She was an extraordinarily creative craftswoman and not mentioned in any of the films."

As well as helping provide the music, Kerr was also asked to voice Madeleine the rag doll, Bagpuss’s voice of reason amid all the chaos.

“Yes, that was her role, and I was very happy with that. I came across a wonderful website where there was a Marxist analysis of the characters, absolutely wonderful, very funny, very clever, and it said that Madeleine was the earth mother who wore a striped dress, the socio-political significance of which has never been explored [laughs]!"

Faulkner, meanwhile, voiced the banjo-playing Gabriel the toad.

It’s no surprise that folk’s narrative tradition married so well with Postgate’s work. “Oliver was the ultimate storyteller, and when you hear him with that beautiful, brown, velvet, safe voice, it’s so enchanting.

"We had enormous fun doing Bagpuss. If you listen carefully especially when we're singing the mouse rounds, you can hear us giggling because it was such fun to do.” Readers of a certain age, and also their children, will fondly remember the weekly, high-pitched chorus of "We will fix it!"

In terms of the collaboration, Kerr explains: "We had masses of freedom in what we created, but sometimes he would send us a text, a lyric, and say he wanted some music for that. We would look at it and our minds would go, 'What has the tradition done here? What can we draw upon?'

"Sometimes he’d say something like, 'I want a tune for mending split cabbages' or something and we’d find an Irish jig that felt like it was just the right thing. Sometimes he’d present us with a storyboard for us to improvise to. And other times there were part-lyrics which we would add to, or tweak, to make some variety in the kind of songs that we used."

There was one exception that suddenly springs to Kerr's mind. "I have to come clean here, I have to fess up! The Porcupine Song was Oliver’s, pure and simple, start to finish. That was his lyric, that was his tune, the only one he created and it’s delightful and it was from that that we created Bagpuss's opening sequence of notes that you hear."

These were clearly happy times for the creative Kerr. "I absolutely loved Oliver to bits, I just thought he was charming, he was fun, he was thoughtful, but that thoughtfulness was a really important aspect of his character for me.

"I remember later on in the 70s when I discovered feminism and I was at my most strident, Oliver came to dinner and I think I challenged him about something he said – and, bless him, he was quite startled. But then he was totally conciliatory and thought back over what he’d said and I won’t use the word apologise, it’s not appropriate, but he did rethink the whole thing and I think that was the only time Oliver and I ever crossed tiny, tiny little Bagpuss swords!"

Kerr still tours, often with her folk-star daughter Sandra and Sandra’s husband James Fagan. "Yes, I'm still performing, still waving my arms about in front of choirs, still trying to enthuse people to sing at workshops all over the place. So yes, life is still very exciting – and I just daren’t stop!"

Occasionally on the road, she plays music from Bagpuss, to strong reactions: “There are always people who come up in tears saying how much they loved it when they were children, how hearing it again took them back to those times and how they saw Bagpuss as a place of security.”

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Why does Kerr think it still resonates, as her poignant project Patchwuff is proving, decades later? “I think it’s because we love stories. There just isn’t time in the history of the world for everybody to tell theirs, so it’s great that we have stories that many of us can relate to.

"We all had a favourite toy that was important to us and that we talked to, and I love the fact that it’s Patchwuff that teaches Peter and tells Peter stories. It’s the kind of turnaround thing that Oliver would have done, and did do in Bagpuss.

"One of the things I loved was the way he would take something traditional like The Frog Prince and totally turn it upside down. The frog didn’t want to be a frog prince so he kissed the princess and she became a frog princess!"

And as for the show about a saggy old cloth cat, "We knew it was special and fun and we knew it was a great coming together of traditions and creativity and ideas, but I don’t think at the time that we knew that over 50 years later, people would still be relating to it and talking about it and be moved by it.

"People say, 'Are you tired of it?' No I’m not, I’m immensely proud of it. I mean how often does a creative artist get that chance in their life?

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Patchwuff and other Mulgrave Audio dramas are available from mulgraveaudio.co.uk. Their next play, A Very Yorkshire Wormhole, is out later this year and stars Jonathan Linsley – best known as Crusher from Last of the Summer Wine.

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