Tuesday, June 16, 2015

The Clangers

They have remade The Clangers. Series 3 is now available on the BBC iplayer. It's interesting to compare the differences between the original 1970's episodes with the most recent ones. Here are examples of the opening episodes from the first and most recent series.

What do you think?

Click here for a link to the opening episode from the 1970's

and click here for the most recent episode. Only available for the next month.

Notice how linguistically sophisticated and varied the original introduction is in comparison to the simple lexical choices and visually more dynamic the recent introduction is. Notice also the long, slow sweep of the camera from Earth to the 'star' where the Clangers live, compared to the fast forward focus in the recent series. There is also something terrifying and alienating about the black expanse of the cosmos in the original compared to the sub-urban blue sky of the the recent one.

It's interesting to consider what these differences tell us about childhood, the expectations and assumptions we have of childhood experience.

Click here for a recent interview with Peter Fermin on Radio 4's Front Row about his work on The Clangers.

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