The first series of the Postman Pat television series was first aired from 16 September 1981 to 27 September 1982 in the UK, 15 May to 7 August 1985 in New Zealand and 10 to 26 June 1991 in Australia. All thirteen episodes were both written by the creator John Cunliffe and narrated by Ken Barrie.
Episodes[]
- Postman Pat's Finding Day - Pat searches for Katy Pottage's lost doll.
- Postman Pat and the Magpie Hen - Pat discovers that one of Dorothy Thompson's hens is living the life of a magpie after his sandwiches and keys are stolen.
- Postman Pat's Birthday - Pat is puzzled as to how everyone on his rounds knows it's his birthday.
- Postman Pat's Rainy Day - After a shower of rain, the road is blocked by a landslide. Pat must send a message to Peter Fogg so he can clear the road.
- The Sheep in the Clover Field - After clearing away some sheep, Pat and Ted are seen off by a bull and Ted sprains his ankle.
- Postman Pat's Tractor Express - Pat has to take a ride on a tractor to deliver a registered letter to campers.
- Postman Pat's Thirsty Day - It is a hot day in Greendale and the old village pump has dried up, so Pat asks Ted Glen to fix it.
- Postman Pat's Windy Day - Pat struggles to deliver the post in the wind and also loses his hat.
- Postman Pat's Foggy Day - Pat is having trouble trying to do his rounds in the fog.
- Postman Pat's Difficult Day - After waking up late, Pat has a very problematic day.
- Postman Pat Goes Sledging - Pat has to take a ride on a sledge to deliver a parcel to George Lancaster.
- Letters on Ice - Pat goes skating on the tarn and delivers some of his letters at the same time.
- Postman Pat Takes a Message - Pat is in a race against time to get a message to the Reverend Timms.
Characters Introduced[]
- Pat Clifton
- Jess
- Mrs. Goggins
- Ted Glen
- Alf Thompson
- Dorothy Thompson
- Bill Thompson
- Reverend Timms
- Julia Pottage
- Katy and Tom Pottage
- Lucy Selby
- Sylvia Gilbertson
- Sarah Gilbertson
- Charlie Pringle
- Rebecca Hubbard
- Granny Dryden
- Sam Waldron
- Peter Fogg
- George Lancaster
- Major Forbes' Bull (not seen in person)
- Bert (mentioned)
- Auntie Jean (mentioned)
- Elsie Timms (mentioned)
- Cousin Joan (mentioned)
- Cousin Sylvia (mentioned)
- Mr. Pottage (mentioned)
- Aunt Alice (mentioned)
- Sally (mentioned)
- Sally's Husband (mentioned)
- Jim (mentioned)
- Major Forbes (mentioned)
- The Headmaster (mentioned)
- Mrs. Atkinson (mentioned)
- The Campers (mentioned)
- The Jacksons (mentioned)
- The Pencaster Postman (mentioned)
- Sara Clifton (not named; mentioned)
Vehicles[]
Songs[]
- Postman Pat
- The Farmer's Song
- The Handyman Song
- Mobile Shop
- Jess the Cat
- Miss Rebecca Hubbard (instrumental)
Trivia[]
- An alternate version of the Series 1 intro and outro was used for later reruns, with all of the scenes reshot to include the official Royal Mail logo on PAT 1. The outro included a reshot of Pat with the current crest on his hat (from Pat's Windy Day to Series 8), and there were no big envelopes with the credits on them. This version was modified again for 2004 DVD releases and reruns on CBBC and CBeebies. Some of the intro shots were replaced with scenes from Postman Pat's Foggy Day, Postman Pat's Difficult Day and Postman Pat Takes a Message. The outro went into reverse when the Woodland Animations logo appeared at the end.
- Starting in 2005, the Cantonese dub was released in Hong Kong on VCD (as well as the English, European Portuguese and Czech versions in 2014) feature the second series intro and closing credits sequence from 1996, with the opening and closing theme from 2003. The logo from the third to fifth series was also used in the intro.[2]
- This is the only series to feature Ken Barrie as all the voices.
- It is also the only series to have only one narrator, if not counting the educational videos.
- The bird ambulance heard in the first series was also heard in several episodes of the BBC sitcom "Last of the Summer Wine" and it was also heard in the shows "Gran", "The Adventures of Portland Bill" and "Wimpole Village".
- In 1991, both Series 1 of Postman Pat and Tugs debuted on Australian television on ABC on 10 June, with each episode of all 13 episodes from the series and all 13 episodes from Tugs airing on the same day with Postman Pat airing at 4:30 and TUGS airing at 4:45.
- Before Ivor and his wife Josiane Wood had created Woodland Animation and Ivor was at Filmfair Animation, there was talk about started about a certain postman who lived in the Yorkshire dales. The BBC approached Ivor about this concept and it was here that he decided to produce Postman Pat instead of merely directing and animating.[3][4]
- Ivor and Josiane Wood had to remortgage their own house in order to fund the series.[5]
- In 1994, Fuji Television, a Japanese television network, commissioned Woodland Animations to recreate photos of the series for books. This was because Fuji Television was hesitant to buy the series for Japanese broadcasting rights, as it looked as if the characters were members of the Yakuza (Japanese mafia), who would have three fingers and a thumb. The head of the foreign distribution for the series, HIT Entertainment, and Fuji Television's programming executives decided that Pat's missing finger was not that obvious, but the book series would be withdrawn for the Japanese market until the artists added an extra finger for Pat's hands.[6] So Woodland Animations created four-fingered hands (hands with a complete set of 5 digits) for the puppets for photo-shoots, which would be depicted in the picture books and other promotional material. The original Celia Berridge/Joan Hickson illustrated books were also edited to include the fourth finger. The picture books released in Japan were:
- Despite there being no English female actress until Postman Pat Takes the Bus, the Korean, Hebrew, Finnish and Swedish dubs of the first series already had a female actress to provide the female and children voices while a male actor provided the narration and the male characters' voices.
- At least three Finnish dubs exist for this season: one for TV, the other for VHS, and the third for modern releases since the 2000s. The 2000s dub has the audio of the intro and end credits from the second series playing on the first series intro and outro.
- In late 2000, this series was remastered to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary.
- Series 1 last aired on CBeebies in August 2007 and from May to June 1st 2007 on BBC Two's CBeebies block.
- In the later reruns on CBeebies, the episodes were cropped from 4:3 to 14:9[7].
References[]
- ↑ https://www.awn.com/news/postman-pat-kicks-30th-birthday-celebration
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/postmanpat-cantonesedub
- ↑ https://www.skwigly.co.uk/a-british-animation-legend-ivor-wood-part-3-woodland-animations/
- ↑ https://ivorwood.wordpress.com/2015/07/13/ivor-wood-at-woodland-animations/
- ↑ https://twitter.com/mcranimation/status/931116098887483392
- ↑ https://twitter.com/tehflyingkipper/status/1579809425539596289
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfOSsZ2RrSE