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Postman Pat and the Greendale Rocket

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Postman Pat and the Greendale Rocket is a half hour special. It is written by John Cunliffe with additional story material by Elly Brewer.

Summary[]

The Greendale Light Railway, its steam train, the Greendale Rocket and Greendale's railway station are all being restored and the Bains family is coming to run it.

Characters[]

Characters Introduced[]

Vehicles[]

Locations[]

Cast[]

Trivia[]

  • This episode is loosely based of the stories The Greendale Light Railway, Along the Tracks, A Ride on a Train and The Newest Story from Postman Pat's Story Box, written by John Cunliffe and published in 1995.
    • As Cunliffe is credited as the main writer of the episode, it is most likely that he wrote this episode separate from the previous four stories about the railway.
  • This episode is the first of many things.
    • The first episode where the Bains family and the Greendale Rocket appear.
    • The first episode where Pencaster is seen onscreen.
    • The first episode to have multiple voice actors and no narration. This is also the first episode with a full voice cast.
    • The first episode to be animated by Cosgrove Hall.
    • The first episode to be aired in the 2000s and the 21st century.
    • The first episode where all of the characters' models gain some new features; such as eyebrows and some of them getting more fashionable outfits.
    • The first episode where the characters have lip-sync animation. This is to provide more expression when the characters talk in several scenes.
    • The first episode to be produced and filmed in 16:9 widescreen.
  • The barometer in the Bains old house is the same one from Postman Pat and the Barometer.
  • Changes were made to recent BBC Broadcasts for the safety of younger viewers.
    1. Mr Pringle's "off you go" line when the children begin to explore the station.
    2. Julian's line "Try that gap down there"
    3. Mr Pringle forcing the shed doors open.
    4. The children flicking paint at each other from their brushes.
    5. Pat hitting Ted Glen's hand with a mallet by accident. In its place, with the sound effect still inactive, Julian ducking the paint from the children's paintbrushes is shown.
    6. Dorothy and the Reverend Timms kneeling on the track clearing weeds. In its place, the shot of Ted dusting the Rocket's nameplate and the shot of the Pringles and Gilbertsons cleaning up the station are shown again.
    7. Pat holding up the hairdryer at Jess while cleaning the letters.
  • In recent BBC Broadcasts, Mrs. Goggins' line "I've always said 'a storm sends folk a wee bit loopy'." is cut.
  • This episode was adapted into a handheld videogame for Nintendo's GameBoy Advance.
  • In some scenes, Jess' second series head was used.
  • When Alf is cutting the wood at the station, a Spottiswood & Company crate and label from "Bertha" can be seen.
  • The tea mugs from "Bertha" are used when the villagers have their meeting at the school and when Pat, Ted and Ajay toast the Rocket on their way back to Greendale.
  • A fishing rod from "Charlie Chalk" can be seen in the post office.
  • The toy mouse in Nikhil's pushchair is quite similar to the sugar mouse from Postman Pat's Birthday.
  • Pat’s cough sweets from Postman Pat's Foggy Day can be seen on the table where Julian is doing his homework.
  • The sack Jess stows away to Pencaster is the sling that Pat used to carry Jess in Postman Pat takes a Message.
  • Granny Dryden's shopping bag from Postman Pat takes the Bus and Postman Pat and the Beast of Greendale can be seen by the sofa in the Bains old house.
  • Miss Hubbard's Bicycle can be seen in the schoolyard.
  • Although Granny Dryden, George Lancaster and Major Forbes do not appear in this episode, their names can be seen on three of the smudged letters at the post office.
  • A clip of this episode was seen in the first episode of the 2024 mini-series “Mr Bates vs The Post Office”.

Goofs[]

  • In the close-up of Jess in the van, his Series 2 head (except for his nose, eyes and mouth) was reused.
  • Jess can be heard licking Sarah Gilbertson's face as a way of saying "Thank You", but his tongue is not seen.
  • After all the letters are picked up, Pat takes them away with him in his van instead of giving them to Mr. Pringle.
  • When we first see the station, an up-turned plastic rubbish bin can be seen which would not have existed in the days of the railway's closure. Also, under the boarded-up windows, the station cafe windows have shutters which would not have been invented when it closed down.
  • When the school first come to the station, Bill is missing his eyebrows.
  • When Julian, Katy and Tom find the engine shed, Julian says "Have a look in." to the twins, but he does so himself.
  • When the school find the Greendale Rocket, Julian refers to it as a train even though the locomotive is the only stock standing in the engine shed.
  • Julian wipes dust off the Rocket's nameplate to read it, even though it is easy to make out before hand.
  • During the entire scene when Pat talks to Ted, Pat's van's left wing mirror is pointing down.
  • When Julian tells Pat "We found the Greendale Rocket.", Pat says "You never have!" as though Julian had said "We've found the Greendale Rocket." when he should have said "You never did!"
  • During the meeting at the school, Ted is missing his eyebrows.
  • When Pat and Ted start cleaning the Rocket, Pat removes a large piece of moss that was not there before.
  • When Ted looks inside the Rocket’s firebox, there’s a piece of hair on the dome. But in the next scene when he pulls his face out covered in soot, it’s gone.
  • Aerial shots show the overgrown trees cleared up around the station, but not when the camera is level with the set. Aerial shots also show that a car park has been built outside the station, but other shots show that area is still covered in trees.
  • When Nisha, Meera and Nikhil arrive at the station, Meera says "Look, Mum, that must be him." without moving her lips.
  • Mrs. Goggins says Pat should not be driving in the wind and rain, so what does she expect him to do in order to get the post through instead?
  • Before Pat comes to the first flooded road, Jess has been blurred out as he is not meant to be there, but this only makes it too much more obvious and Jess can still be easily seen.
  • When Pat comes to the first flooded road, he says "Oh, dear! Floods everywhere!" without moving his lips. The same thing happens again when Pat comes to the next flooded road and says "Floods everywhere!"
  • Some of the stormy scenes look more like they take place during the night than the day.
  • When Mrs. Goggins says "Oh well at least you tried, Pat." a small dot appears under her mouth. Then when she says "We'll have to cancel the grand opening. Who'd want to stand about watching a steam train in this weather?" the dot is above her mouth.
  • Despite how strong the wind was, Pat's hat did not blow off in the wind. However, the wind briefly tugs at P.C. Selby's helmet even though it is a heavier form of head gear than Pat's hat.
  • For some reason, Pat has his van windows open in the rain.
  • For some reason, Pat turns off his van's engine when he comes to the second flooded road.
  • Between his first two trips to the post office on the day of the storm, the hands on the clock in the post office are pointing to 7 o'clock.
  • Ajay's eyebrows are missing when he gets the Rocket finally on the move.
  • In real life it would take a strong vehicle to move the rocket out of its shed instead of a few men.
  • To transport the mail bags, Ajay, Pat and Ted should have used the mail truck to start with, instead of piling them on top of the coal in the Rocket's coal bunker which would not have had enough room to store so many anyway.
  • All three mail bags are perched on the Rocket's coal bunker on the journey back to Greendale, but when they arrive, one is in the Rocket's cab with Ted.
  • As Pat, Ted and Ajay carry mail bags to the post office, Ajay says "Are we nearly there, Pat?" even though they had just walked past it and gone round the corner from it in the previous shot.
  • At one point, the post office is missing its sign.
  • A lot of the letters have had all the writing smudged off from the rain, so Pat cannot possibly have delivered it all.
  • In the shot before Pat delivers the Reverend's letters, Jess is still not in the van. Pat has also his windscreen wipers on even though the rain has stopped and there is no more left to wipe off.
  • Julian talks about Pencaster as if it is hundreds of miles away even though it is only the neighbouring town. Any how, Julian should know that the distance between Greendale and Pencaster should mean nothing after the grand re-opening of the Greendale Light Railway and its station.
  • We see Meera's mouth say "Greendale" while the Rocket whistles. Before hand, she pauses after she says "we're moving soon to..." while the Rocket whistles. If Meera realised the Rocket was going to drown out what she was going to say, why did she bother carrying on anyway? Then Meera later says she was going to tell Julian, even though she already had.
  • The Rocket was still too far away to drown out Meera when she first tries to tell Julian she's moving to Greendale.
  • When the Rocket pulls into the station at the grand opening, Ted is not in the cab with Ajay.

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Video[]

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