The Vernon Elliot Ensemble - Ivor the Engine and Pogle’s Wood

SOUNDTRACK

Smallfilms (a partnership between writer and narrator Oliver Postgate and animator Peter Firmin) made some of the most endearing children’s television shows from the 50s through to the 70s, including Noggin the Nog, The Clangers and Bagpuss. Then there was Ivor the Engine, a small green Welsh locomotive, and the lesser known Pogle’s Wood. The parping brass, steam whistles and eccentric orchestration is instantly evocative of afternoons round your gran’s, marmite on toast and homemade fruitcake. If you never saw these shows as a nipper the warm sunny glow that emits when you press play might be completely lost, but these are still incredibly sophisticated soundtracks for what were wonderfully crafted animated shorts.