Bagpuss to return on BBC iPlayer this bank-holiday weekend

The nation's favourite piece of lost property, Bagpuss, will be returning to the small screen.

First airing on 12 February 1974, the cat has been synonymous with growing up in the 1970s despite there being only one series of the children’s show.

All 13 episodes will be available on BBC iPlayer from Sunday 30 May until Tuesday 29 June.

The first episode of Bagpuss will be shown on BBC Four at 7.25pm this Sunday as part of an evening of classic children’s shows.

For those too young to remember the show’s format, Bagpuss is a fictional kids show set in a shop filled with lost property, though none of the items are ever sold.

Emily, the young shop owner attempts to find the owners of the items by placing each in the shop window, including a pink-and-white “saggy, old cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams”.

The sagging cat comes to life when Emily leaves the shop each night, as does the accoutrements of other brick-a-brack.

His friends included Professor Yaffle (a woodpecker-shaped bookend), a toad called Gabriel, Madeleine the rag doll, in addition to mice ornaments from a magical mouse organ.

Oliver Postgate, creator of Bagpuss, was also behind other classics such as The Clangers and Noggin The Nog.

He told RadioTimes of his inspiration behind Bagpuss: “‘Bagpuss was also a character that I had in my head. I’d drawn him and named him but I hadn’t got a role for him.”

“It was Oliver’s idea that cats sit in shop windows and bask in the sun… then we asked, “Who should run this shop?” and he looked around and there was [Peter’s daughter] Emily, aged seven at the time and he said, ‘You’ve got her already, she’s there,’

“Oliver and I went to Cardiff years ago for a puppet week. I took Bagpuss and all the girls practically swooned and wanted to hug him. I thought it amazing that an old saggy cloth cat should have that sort of reaction, but it does. Even today.’