A few years ago, I gave a talk about the motor industry and was struggling to explain the remorseless and terrifying importance of the production line when I came across an episode of Clangers. This was the Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin stop-motion series about a community of pink knitted puppets living on a small blue planet.
The episode I was thinking of was ‘Goods’, first released in February 1970. A mysterious machine lands on the Clangers’ planet and Major Clanger sets it in motion. Pretty soon the Clangers’ underground home is deluged with plastic goods: hats; flower pots; teaspoons; pastry cutters; beakers and so on and they can’t turn the machine off. I seem to remember it took the Soup Dragon and Froglets’ top hat to save the day and Tiny Clanger got a knitted rabbit for her troubles.
