Ivor The Engine - The Dragon

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When the colour series was subsequently released on DVD, some of the episodes whose content linked, were edited together, with the relevant closing and opening titles and credits removed. Ivor The Engine returned to television screens in 2004 to promote the BBC Wales digital channel 2W. Computer-animated rather than using Smallfilms' original stop-motion approach, three promos - each lasting less than a minute - were made. Postgate, Oliver; Firmin, Peter (2006). Ivor the Engine: The elephant. London: Severnside. ISBN 0-9552417-2-3.

Wales: Where the series takes place, specifically the "Top Left-Hand" corner. Welsh naming traditions are used (Jones the Steam, Dai Station, Evans the Song), the Choir competes in eisteddfods (a Welsh festival of literature, music and performance) and Idris, Ivor's dragon friend, is specifically a red Welsh Dragon, which features on the flag. Really, the whole series is like a love letter for Welsh culture. The Speechless: Ivor can't talk like a human, but manages to communicate with Jones via his whistle and steam exhaust. Given Jones' reactions, Ivor can be quite a Deadpan Snarker at times! Ivor the Engine hears the sound of a Welsh choir for the first time, and wants to join in, though he knows this is impossible. The local fish-and-chip shop owner. A plump woman with a big voice, she is kind and cheerful and serves the choir with food after their sessions. Volcano Lair: Idris the Dragon and his family live in Smoke Hill, a former volcano that eventually becomes extinct. A major subplot in the series is about figuring out an alternative home to keep the dragons warm, as they cannot survive long in cold climates.Owen the Signal inhabits a signal box near Ivor's shed and makes an occasional appearance in the episodes. A small, red Welsh dragon who also sings in the choir for a time. Having been hatched from an egg in Ivor's fire, he lives with his wife Olwen and any of their twins, Daian and Blodwen, in the extinct volcano Smoke Hill. As well as singing, he proves useful by cooking fish and chips for the choir using his fiery breath. A robust and larger-than-life pigeon-fancier, who occupies a house by the railway, and is engaged to Miss Price from Llangubbin. It is Mr Brangwyn who provides the elephant's boot for Alice: he obtained said boot during the time he once spent in India. Ivor the Engine is a British cutout animation television series created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms company. It follows the adventures of a small green steam locomotive who lives in the "top left-hand corner of Wales" and works for The Merioneth and Llantisilly Railway Traction Company Limited. His friends include Jones the Steam, Evans the Song and Dai Station, among many other characters. Owen the Signal inhabits a signal box near Ivor's shed and makes an occasional appearance in the episodes. Evans the Song

When Idris' home Smoke Hill lost its heat, Jones and Ivor took Idris to see Mrs Griffiths in her shop in Llanmadd. After seeing Idris and his brethren, and Ivor's self-whistling, Mrs Griffiths apologises to Jones for thinking him mad and agrees to help the dragons. Mrs Griffiths and her fellows at the Antiquarian Society hire Mr Hughes the Gasworks to fit out Smoke Hill with gas heating and in the series one finale Smoke Hill, now a gas-fired volcano, is reignited and all the characters sing in gladness. However, the gas-heating includes a gas meter that only takes half-crowns, which are no longer "legal tender". On a few occasions, the gas meter runs out and Jones and Ivor have to search high and low for more half crowns. With the help of all of Ivor's friends, Jones is able to replace Ivor's whistle with three organ pipes donated from the local roundabout. Now all they need is the choir committee and the railway management to agree to Ivor joining the choir.

Ivor is having a lovely time in the snow. With a winch attached to his front, he is pulling the children on sledges up the hill. He pulls too many at a time and ends up wheel-deep in the snow. Various rescue attempts prove futile. Our Dragons Are Different: Idris the Dragon, his wife Olwen, and twins Gaian and Blodwen, are all red heraldic Welsh Dragons (like on Wales' flag). They are about the size of dogs, can fly, breathe fire, sing, and are hatched from eggs in extremely hot temperatures. In Idris' case, he was hatched in Ivor's firebox. Idris and other dragons of his kind cannot survive long outside of hot climates (which is why they prefer to live in volcanoes), and a subplot of the series has to do with keeping the dragons warm after Smoke Hill, their volcano, goes out. Compare it to another Postgate series Noggin the Nog, which features an ice dragon driven out of his cold cave by a bonfire. A rich and eccentric aristocratic lady who enjoys the occasional glass of port and has new hats sent from London every week. She is also technically the owner of the railway, having bought it when the line was threatened with nationalisation. However, she does not bother much with the day-to-day running and things remained much the same after she bought it.

Heroic Dog: Nell the Sheepdog, who runs to get help with Ivor when Jones gets trapped in a quarry after trying to rescue one of her sheep, and later the Fire Brigade when Ivor is derailed in the snow. Five-Episode Pilot: More like six. The original six episodes were made to show how Ivor got his three-tone whistle and joining the choir. Parents Know Their Children: Jones the Steam and Ivor have a very close bond after so many years working together, but Jones usually acts as a sort of parental figure for Ivor, who is good hearted if sometimes a little disobedient, like a child. Jones can usually guess at Ivor's moods quite easily. Oliver 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.

Being a hot dragon, Idris doesn't like the cold, so when he’s not at Smoke Hill, he likes to travel around in Ivor's boiler or visit the oven at the local Bakers. Idris ensures he stays away from water, as it its coldness means certain death for dragons. Postgate, Oliver; Firmin, Peter (2006). Ivor the Engine: The dragon (2nded.). London: Severnside. ISBN 0-9552417-3-1. Unfazed Everyman: Jones the Steam, who accepts wholesale the idea that his steam engine is alive and dragons exist. In fact, most of the characters accept Ivor's sentience without question (save Mrs. Griffiths of the Antiquarian Society), but, given the general unusual events that tend to occur, Jones rarely loses his tranquility. They Would Cut You Up: The reason that Idris and the other dragons fear national exposure by Mrs. Griffith's Antiquarian Society. The Society ends up declaring the dragons dangerous to the public, and wants them kept in heated cages at the National Museum. Ivor The Engine is entirely bogus as far as Wales is concerned - it's built entirely on a picture of Wales given by Dylan Thomas! Then, literally in the bath, I came to realise what the story was: the engine wanted to sing in the choir, which is obviously what a Welsh engine would want, so from then on it fell into place.

The choir are going on their now annual outing to Tewyn beach. They are planning a very special surprise for Ivor.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. Ivor goes off with Banger's Circus as "The Singing Engine". His replacement is a Juggernaut built by Bynon Smith. It turns out to be a lot less reliable than Ivor. Postgate's genius lives on at museum". Canterbury City Council. 16 December 2008. Archived from the original on 31 October 2010 . Retrieved 20 October 2010. A small, red heraldic dragon who also sings in the choir for a time. Having been hatched from an egg in Ivor's fire, he lives with his wife Olwen and their twins, Gaian and Blodwyn, in the extinct volcano Smoke Hill. As well as singing, he proves useful by cooking fish and chips for the choir using his fiery breath. Mystical India: Bani Moukerjee, the elephant keeper, wears a turban and speaks with a stereotypical Indian accent. This ended up getting the book series banned thanks to political correctness authorities getting worried about offending ethnic minorities.