We can all stickle it

Growing up in the 1970s, I was fed a diet of BBC children’s programmes like Bagpuss and The Clangers. If you’re unfamiliar with them, please allow me a short childhood reminiscence.

Bagpuss was first shown in 1974 — the story of a magical cloth cat that came alive. Every episode a young girl, Emily, would wake up Bagpuss and give the cat a mysterious object she had found. Bagpuss would then raise his friends from their…