Hand-Made Television

Hand-Made Television explores the ongoing enchantment of many of the much-loved stop-frame children's television programmes of 1960s and 1970s Britain. The first academic work to analyse programmes such as Pogles' Wood (1966), Clangers (1969), Bagpuss (1974) (Smallfilms) and Gordon Murray's Camberwick Green (1966), Trumpton (1967) and Chigley (1969), the book connects these series to their social and historical contexts while providing in-depth analyses of their themes and hand-made aesthetics. Hand-Made Television shows that the appeal of these programmes is rooted not only in their participatory address and evocation of a pastoral English past, but also in the connection of their stop-frame aesthetics to the actions of childhood play. This book makes a significant contribution to both Animation Studies and Television Studies; combining scholarly rigour with an accessible style, it is suitable for scholars as well as fans of these iconic British children's programmes.

• aesthetics
• animation
• bibliography
• Britain
• Great Britain
• knowledge
• play
• television
• British and Irish Literature

“Rachel Moseley’s book brought out, to me, the most interesting aspects of Smallfilms work: the infusion of nostalgia, and the concerns with materiality. I was inspired by her analysis of stop motion as a handmade craft process, and encouraged by her treatment of the Smallfilms worlds as worthy – indeed necessary – subjects of academic attention. ... It was, most of all, a pleasure to read the work of a fellow Smallfilms fan, who showed with deft touch how we can celebrate and elevate the work of Firmin and Postgate without losing the spark of magic that made us love their programmes in the first place.” (Alice Sage, Curator at V&A Museum of Childhood)

• University of Warwick, UK

  Rachel Moseley

Rachel Moseley is Associate Professor in Film and Television Studies, and Director of the Centre for Television History, Heritage and Memory Research at the University of Warwick. She has published widely on popular television and film.

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