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Ivor the Engine
Ivor's Birthday
It's Ivor's birthday and everyone wants to help him celebrate. Jones the steam proudly accompanies him around the town collecting presents, good wishes -- and a few surprises!
32 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 1996
About the author
Oliver Postgate
135 books9 followersOliver Postgate was an English animator, puppeteer and writer. He was the creator and writer of some of Britain's most popular children's television programmes. Pingwings, Pogles' Wood, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Clangers and Bagpuss, were all made by Smallfilms, the company he set up with Peter Firmin, and were shown on the BBC between the 1950s and the 1980s, and on ITV from 1959 to the present day. In a 1999 poll, Bagpuss was voted the most popular children's television programme of all time.
In 1957 he was appointed a stage manager with Associated-Rediffusion, which then held the ITV franchise for London. Attached to the children's programming section, he thought he could do better with the relatively low budgets of the then black and white television productions. Postgate wrote Alexander the Mouse, a story about a mouse born to be king. Using an Irish-produced magnetic system – on which animated characters were attached to a painted background, and then photographed through a 45 degree mirror – he persuaded Peter Firmin, who was then teaching at the Central School of Art, to create the background scenes. Postgate later recalled they undertook around 26 of these programmes live-to-air, which were made harder by the production problems encountered by the use and restrictions of using magnets.
After the success of Alexander the Mouse, Postgate agreed a deal to make the next series on film, for a budget of £175 per programme. Making a stop motion animation table in his bedroom, he wrote the Chinese story The Journey of Master Ho. Setting up their business in a disused cowshed at Firmin's home in Blean near Canterbury, Kent, Postgate and Firmin worked on children's animation programmes. Based on concepts which mostly originated with Postgate, Firmin did the artwork and built the models, while Postgate wrote the scripts, did the stop motion filming and many of the voices.
They started in 1959 with Ivor the Engine, a series for ITV about a Welsh steam locomotive who wanted to sing in a choir. It was remade in colour for the BBC in 1976 and 1977. This was followed by Noggin the Nog for the BBC, which established Smallfilms as a reliable source to produce children's entertainment, when there were only two television channels in the UK. The Clangers and Bagpuss, perhaps their most popular works, followed in the early 1970s.
In the 1970s and 1980s Postgate was active in the anti-nuclear campaign, addressing meetings and writing several pamphlets including The Writing on the Sky. In 1986, in collaboration with the historian Naomi Linnell, Postgate painted a 50-foot-long (15 m) Illumination of the Life and Death of Thomas Becket for a book of the same name, which is now in the archive of the Royal Museum and Art Gallery, Canterbury. In 1990 he painted a similar work on Christopher Columbus for a book entitled The Triumphant Failure. A Canterbury Chronicle, a triptych by Postgate commissioned in 1990 hangs in the Great Hall of Eliot College on the University of Kent's Canterbury campus.
In his later years, he blogged for the New Statesman. Postgate's voice was heard once more in 2003, as narrator for Alchemists of Sound, a television documentary about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. In 1987 the University of Kent at Canterbury awarded an honorary degree to Postgate, who stated that the degree was really intended for Bagpuss, who was subsequently displayed in academic dress.
After his death there was huge recognition of his influence and effect on British culture, and affection for the role his work had played in many people's lives. His work was widely discussed in the UK media and many tributes were paid to him and his work across the internet. Charlie Brooker dedicated a portion of his Screenwipe show to Oliver Postgate, and the way he influenced his own childhood, on an episode that was to be broadcast the day after Postgate's death.
In 1957 he was appointed a stage manager with Associated-Rediffusion, which then held the ITV franchise for London. Attached to the children's programming section, he thought he could do better with the relatively low budgets of the then black and white television productions. Postgate wrote Alexander the Mouse, a story about a mouse born to be king. Using an Irish-produced magnetic system – on which animated characters were attached to a painted background, and then photographed through a 45 degree mirror – he persuaded Peter Firmin, who was then teaching at the Central School of Art, to create the background scenes. Postgate later recalled they undertook around 26 of these programmes live-to-air, which were made harder by the production problems encountered by the use and restrictions of using magnets.
After the success of Alexander the Mouse, Postgate agreed a deal to make the next series on film, for a budget of £175 per programme. Making a stop motion animation table in his bedroom, he wrote the Chinese story The Journey of Master Ho. Setting up their business in a disused cowshed at Firmin's home in Blean near Canterbury, Kent, Postgate and Firmin worked on children's animation programmes. Based on concepts which mostly originated with Postgate, Firmin did the artwork and built the models, while Postgate wrote the scripts, did the stop motion filming and many of the voices.
They started in 1959 with Ivor the Engine, a series for ITV about a Welsh steam locomotive who wanted to sing in a choir. It was remade in colour for the BBC in 1976 and 1977. This was followed by Noggin the Nog for the BBC, which established Smallfilms as a reliable source to produce children's entertainment, when there were only two television channels in the UK. The Clangers and Bagpuss, perhaps their most popular works, followed in the early 1970s.
In the 1970s and 1980s Postgate was active in the anti-nuclear campaign, addressing meetings and writing several pamphlets including The Writing on the Sky. In 1986, in collaboration with the historian Naomi Linnell, Postgate painted a 50-foot-long (15 m) Illumination of the Life and Death of Thomas Becket for a book of the same name, which is now in the archive of the Royal Museum and Art Gallery, Canterbury. In 1990 he painted a similar work on Christopher Columbus for a book entitled The Triumphant Failure. A Canterbury Chronicle, a triptych by Postgate commissioned in 1990 hangs in the Great Hall of Eliot College on the University of Kent's Canterbury campus.
In his later years, he blogged for the New Statesman. Postgate's voice was heard once more in 2003, as narrator for Alchemists of Sound, a television documentary about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. In 1987 the University of Kent at Canterbury awarded an honorary degree to Postgate, who stated that the degree was really intended for Bagpuss, who was subsequently displayed in academic dress.
After his death there was huge recognition of his influence and effect on British culture, and affection for the role his work had played in many people's lives. His work was widely discussed in the UK media and many tributes were paid to him and his work across the internet. Charlie Brooker dedicated a portion of his Screenwipe show to Oliver Postgate, and the way he influenced his own childhood, on an episode that was to be broadcast the day after Postgate's death.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 21, 2021
This was one of the two Ivor books I'd never read as a child. Having a youngling of my own now is the perfect opportunity to right this terrible wrong, despite her still being far too young to appreciate it. Well, perhaps I'm just reading it for myself!
This is such a sweet book, brimming with kindness and joy and only the calm happiness that an Oliver Postgate children's book can bring. The illustrations are lovely and detailed - the green vistas of the top-left hand corner of Wales are so charming and full of character.
The story revisits many of the characters from previous Ivor stories, pulling them all together in a touching close to the series - especially with grumpy old Dai Station showing warmth and kindness and revealing his true caring nature.
Recommended for everyone who isn't a stonehearted meanie.
This is such a sweet book, brimming with kindness and joy and only the calm happiness that an Oliver Postgate children's book can bring. The illustrations are lovely and detailed - the green vistas of the top-left hand corner of Wales are so charming and full of character.
The story revisits many of the characters from previous Ivor stories, pulling them all together in a touching close to the series - especially with grumpy old Dai Station showing warmth and kindness and revealing his true caring nature.
Recommended for everyone who isn't a stonehearted meanie.
December 12, 2025
It was Ivor’s Birthday and Jones the Engine driver arranged to have a Birthday cake made, it was made of coal and Gunpowder and Ivor loved it they then made Ivor a huge blanket to cover his engine, this embarrassed Ivor and it made him very hot, so Jones took Ivor to the Zoo and gave the Blanket to Lucy the Elephant which made everyone very happy, Ivor had a great Birthday in the end, great illustrations.
October 25, 2020
Well, when you read a book that reminds you wonderful times with your taid, you're allowed to be a little bias. Postgate and Firmin weave their magic again, this time in 'the top left-hand corner of Wales". It's a sweet little story that touches on everything that just makes us feel hopeful and kind within our communities. Firmin's valleys might be more reminiscent of the south but I'll forgive him because the illustrations are just too darned lovely.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews