UK, 1959-1965
5 series, 21 episodes, average 5m
16mm film, black and white, 4:3
mono, English
A British animated fantasy television series created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin.
Premise
The adventures of the viking Noggin the Nog and his crew.
Episodes
The Saga of Noggin the Nog
The King (1959)
The Ship (1959)
The Journey (1959)
The Island (1959)
Nogbad the Bad (1959)
The King of the Nogs (1959)
Noggin and the Ice Dragon
The Little Man (1961)
The Journey (1961)
The Hot Water Valley (1961)
The Dragon (1961)
The Treasure (1961)
Nogbad the Bad (1961)
Noggin and the Flying Machine
The Jar (1963)
The Birds (1963)
The City (1963)
Noggin and the Omruds
The Great Invention (1964)
Under the Hill (1964)
The Challenge (1964)
Noggin and the Firecake
The Crown of Flowers (1965)
The Dream (1965)
The Sorceror’s Sword (1965)
Production Notes
The character of the Viking “King of the Northmen” first appeared in the BBC children’s television series of the same name, broadcast between 1969 and 1965, though it was repeated, sometimes with two episodes edited into one, until 1977. It was created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin of Smallfilms and the title is said to have come about while Firmin was travelling on the London Underground: “Going on the tube to north London, because the TV studios were up there, I remember seeing Neasden and thinking: Noggin.” 1 The Guardian website, 28 July 2014. His then young daughter Hannah had recently seen the film Nanook of the North (1922) and her inability to pronounce the title correctly lead to her refer to herself of “Nooka of the Nooks” and the name was applied to the programme’s female leading character.
The look of the characters was inspired by a set of Norse chess figures from the Isle of Lewis which Firmin had seen in the British Museum.
The show was revived in 1982 for six more episodes which remade episodes of the black and white series in colour. There were also a series of books published from 1965 to 1971, one of which, Noggin and the Moon Mouse (1967), introduced characters that would get their own Smallfilms series, Clangers (1969-1974).
In 1971, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre first staged Noggin the Nog – The Rings of Nudrug, a musical play written by Postgate and Firmin and directed by Michael Simpson. It ran for 27 performances between 23 December 1971 and 15 January 1972 with Piers Rogers playing Noggin, Jane Sandbrook as Nooka, Paul Chapman as Nogbad and Stuart Knee as Prince Knut.
References
Books
- The Routledge Companion to Folk Horror by Robert Edgar and Wayne Johnson (eds.) pp.218, 223
- The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy by David Pringle (general ed.) p.109 – credits, review
- The Window in the Corner: A Half-century of Children’s Television by Ruth Inglis p.71
