Bagpuss was one of the best of the really good childrens TV programmes in the UK in the 1970s. Made by Oliver Postgate of the wondrous SmallFilms, it was a very simple formula, with familiar characters in the same setting - an old-fashioned shop - where the toys came alive when a little girl called Emily left some broken object there to be mended. Bagpuss was the cuddliest "soggy old cloth cat" a body could imagine, I wish the merchandising people had realised the selling points of kids tv back then, I would have loved a Bagpuss of my very own!

There were pictures of the shop, and of Emily cuddling Bagpuss, all in sepia tones, and then everything came alive and in colour.