Major Clanger has made a flying machine. With some ceremony the Clangers pump up the compressed air balloons which power it. Major Clanger takes his seat, the machine leaps into action and flaps itself to pieces. Major Clanger is disconsolate but Mother Clanger sends Small Clanger and Tiny Clanger to the soup-wells in their pole-car (a sort of wheeled punt) to fetch some green soup for him. Major Clanger drinks the soup and settles down for a rest. Meanwhile Small Clanger and Tiny Clanger go outside to look at the remains of the flying machine. Tiny Clanger knocks one of the power-balloons and it comes off and shoots up into the sky. This interests Small Clanger who grabs the empty balloon and runs to the soup-dragon and asks her to blow into the balloon with light-airs from her cooking. She does this. Small Clanger ties Tiny Clanger to the balloon and, holding on to the string himself, leaps through the caves in long leaps supported by the balloon. The other Clangers come and dance around them. Suddenly the string comes undone and Tiny Clanger rises to the roof where she remains, squeaking, while the Clangers try various ways of fetching her down. In the end they bounce Small Clanger trampolinically in a tablecloth until he bounces high enough to grab her
CBeebies Stargazer Maggie has made a very interesting discovery with her telescope... a small blue planet, home to some new CBeebies friends - the Clangers! Tiny and Small take Maggie on a journey around their home, where we meet the whole Clanger family as well as the other wonderful inhabitants - the Soup Dragon, the Froglets, the Iron Chicken and the Sky Moos.
A Sky Moo gives Small Clanger a strangely shaped little thing that it has found in space. None of the Clangers has a clue what it is. Small decides to give it to the Iron Chicken for her nest, but as she is flying back down in the Music Boat she sees a big thing with a strange piece missing in its side. Reuniting the little thing and the big thing has a very surprising result!
When Major Clanger decides that the Soup Dragon must be fed-up with dishing up soup for them all every day, he invents a machine to collect the soup instead. But when he takes some soup without even asking the Soup Dragon, he overfills the machine and it gets stuck in the doorway. Only with the help of the Soup Dragon can it be freed, and as it is freed, it explodes everywhere. Perhaps sometimes it is best to leave things as they always were.
It is Granny's birthday and all the Clangers are planning their presents for her. Small asks Major Clanger if he can help him invent something for her but Major says his work is too difficult for such a young Clanger. Small decides to invent something himself, something which involves puffballs, airfruit and three extremely acrobatic - or should we say aerobatic - froglets.
A strange little egg-shaped creature lands on the planet - an Eggbot. It sings a high note - doh. It proceeds to explore and gets stuck in a cave deep underground, where it is heard by the sleeping Clangers. They are amazed when they hear another note, a low doh, and find a giant Eggbot come to rescue the little Doh, with the help of six other singing Eggbots - Ray, Me, Fah, Soh, Lah and Te!
As the air grows cold, a crystal shaped seed lands on the Clangers' planet. Granny helps Tiny to plant it and it quickly grows into a wonderful Crystal Tree. Other seeds fall and soon there is a small forest of them. Mother Clanger has heard that these amazing trees can sparkle and glow, but none of the Clangers know how this is done, until, completely by accident Tiny discovers that music is the answer.
Tiny is stuck for ideas for a new tune to make up, so she asks Mother and Major what kind of tune they would most like to hear. Major wants something 'bold and stirring' while Mother would like something 'light and charming'. Tiny's best attempts to please them both come to nothing, until a ride on a Skymoo gives her the inspiration she needs.
Tiny Clanger has made up a lovely new tune to play with her singing flower friends. Mother Clanger thinks Tiny is very talented, but when Tiny suggests Mother should have a go, she gets very flustered and rushes off to her garden. But Major Clanger has a plan - and soon there is the sound of lovely music coming from the garden.
A Skymoo accidentally knocks the Iron Chicken out of her nest, and in falling to the surface of the Clangers' planet she hurts her wing. But although Major Clanger manages to mend it, she has lost her confidence and can't fly. It takes all the ingenuity of Small Clanger, and another intervention by the Skymoo, to get her back to her nest under her own wing power.
Small is really upset when, out fishing in the music boat with Major Clanger, he not only fails to catch anything but also misses seeing the two spectacular lights that streak across the sky - meteors, as Granny later tells him. Major Clanger determines to cheer Small up by inventing a 'meteor machine'.
Tiny and her flower friends are playing a lovely tune with the music trees when suddenly they hear a strange voice joining in; it seems to be coming from high in the sky. On investigation, Tiny discovers a lone flower singing as she travels alone through space on a rocky asteroid. Tiny discovers that the flower is lonely and comes up with a clever plan to help her.
Baby Soup Dragon is upset because his mother won't let him use her big ladle and help make the soup. Tiny and Small tell him not to worry - he can help them instead. He does, and he enjoys it so much that he decides he wants to be a Clanger instead of a Soup Dragon. But after a little while, the Clangers are not so sure this is a good idea!
Tiny and Small find a box that has fallen from space. It contains just two circles of black cloth, but these are no ordinary circles - they are holes, and one leads to another. Tiny and Small are very excited and try to tell Major about their discovery, but he is too busy to listen and so they decide to do their own experiments, with quite amazing results.
Major Clanger has invented a machine for cleaning up the planet. But when he gets called away by Granny, Small and Tiny can't resist trying it for themselves. Unfortunately, it proves harder to control than they thought, and they accidentally suck up a swarm of Glow Buzzers. It takes all their ingenuity to rescue them!
Small decides that there should be a Dragon Day to thank the Soup Dragon for being so kind as to provide them with soup every day. The Soup Dragon is quite overcome, especially when everyone gives her presents. The Iron Chicken arrives late and exhausted, but it turns out that her present is the best of all.
A little Hoot lands on the Clanger's planet and causes mayhem with his incessant mischievous hooting. The Clangers decide it has to go home. But with the Hoot Planet so far away, how can they attract its attention? Luckily, Major has just invented a make-it-louder machine that does the job perfectly.
It's a very cold day on the Clangers' planet. So cold, that the Iron Chicken has to come down to the living cave to get warm! But when a Sky Moo wants to do the same, she finds the doors are frozen shut and she can't get in. Granny comes to the rescue with a clever plan to keep her and the other Sky Moos warm.
When Tiny Clanger receives a message from the Iron Chicken that 'it's coming', she is mystified as to what the 'it' might be - and even more puzzled that no one will tell her. Everyone seems to be in on the secret, but in the end, Tiny gets a brilliant surprise!
Major, Mother, Granny and the Soup Dragon go on a trip, leaving the Iron Chicken in charge.
A space tortoise is woken up by a mysterious tune Tiny first heard coming from the sky.
Tiny and Small are in the music boat. They find a sticky green pod on a Sky Moo's snout.
Major makes Baby Soup Dragon a one-dragon band kit. It turns out not to be a good idea.
In space, Tiny and Small discover the memory box Mother made when she was a little girl.
Two hoots come to visit the Clangers. Tiny wants Big Hoot to play a duet with her.
Major invents a system so he can hear the other Clangers when they call him for soup.
Major invents something new, but what can it be for? Tiny and Small give him an idea!
A purple froglet has appeared, and the other froglets don't know what to make of it.
Major invents a machine that can send bubbles containing voice messages out into space.
Animation about a family of small creatures who live on, and inside, a planet. The Soup Dragon cheers Tiny up when the Iron Chicken goes away on a trip.
Granny, Tiny and Small find a forgotten tunnel leading somewhere unexpected.
The Clangers are visited by a rare, strange and beautiful creature - a moon whale.
Tiny, Small and Baby Soup Dragon are outside playing when they hear the sound of something approaching from space. They look up and gaze in awe as they see a large space module hurtling towards the planet. It gets slower and slower as it nears them until eventually it lands a little way away, a door opens and from out of it steps a strange creature in a space suit – they don’t know what it is but we can see it’s a human astronaut! They rush back underground to tell the others.
The Iron Chicken is in her nest singing along to her radio, when suddenly it stops working. Major Clanger is fishing nearby and tries to repair it on the spot but in the end decides he will have to take it to his workshop. The Iron Chicken is distraught but Granny assures her that Major knows what he’s doing, and reluctantly the Iron Chicken returns to her nest where she receives a visit from the Wols, who suggest they create their own radio station – Radio Wol. It is a huge success.
Major is busy in his workshop and three froglets are helping. When he’s finished, Major is so pleased he gives each froglet a medal to thank them for their help. When the other froglets see the medals they all want one. But Major has no more work to do, and there are no more medals. The medal wearing froglets now see themselves as better than the other froglets, and soon the two groups are not talking to each other. It takes all of Major’s and Granny’s cunning to settle this froglet dispute.
It feels like an earthquake shakes the Clangers’ planet. Major and Small go out to investigate. The music trees’ notes have been shaken off, so Small puts them back on, before discovering what has happened to cause this - the eggbot has crashed onto the planet and is stuck in a crater. Meanwhile, Tiny discovers that the notes on the music trees are now in the wrong order. Small has an idea that if he can rescue the eggbot, the eggbot will be able to help get the notes back in the right order.
Tiny is poorly but Small thinks that some music might make her feel better. And he’s right!
Small comes to the rescue when Granny, Major, Mother and the Soup Dragon get into trouble.
Small finds a strange looking object in space. He gives it to Mother as a present for her garden – an ornament. But this is more than an ornament as Mother is the first to discover. This ornament can memorise tunes it hears - Mother singing, and the singing flowers, Tiny’s panpiping and even the music trees. And most amazingly, it plays them back together in perfect harmony. And the Clangers have a final surprise when it plays them musical sounds that they have never heard before!
Nothing is going right for any of the Clangers today. Mother’s new plant is drooping, Tiny’s new tune doesn’t sound very good, Granny’s knitting colours clash, Major’s rocket has broken down and Small’s night light has run out of glow honey. But suddenly a wave of beautiful coloured light from a strange star passes over the planet and has a magical effect - everything changes for the better. All the Clangers are delighted until they notice that the star is fading away before their very eyes.
The Skymoos have collected bits of metal from the Iron Chicken’s nest and are building a special nest of their own on the Clangers’ planet. The Clangers are intrigued - who can it be for? Tiny decides to decorate it with flowers from Mother’s garden, and Granny makes a special blanket for the nest. Soon a large group of Skymoos arrives. All the Clangers go indoors to give the Skymoos some peace. Granny realises something special is about to happen - the birth of a Baby Skymoo.
It’s Small’s birthday. Tiny is planning to put on a special show for him, which involves using her scooter and calling on help from the froglets and the singing flowers. But her scooter has developed a squeak. She calls on Major to help her mend it, but when Small accidentally overhears them talking about a scooter, he thinks that must be what he is getting for his present and he’s very pleased. But what he ends up with is not quite what he expected - but much more exciting.
Small is out fishing and Baby Soup Dragon is helping his mum, so Tiny has no-one to play with. He plays catch by himself but it’s not much fun. Major Clanger notices that Tiny looks bored and makes him a special cone-shaped gadget which launches a cotton ball up into the air for the user to catch in the cone. Mother calls Tiny to ask for some help in the garden and Tiny leaves the gadget on the floor while she goes off to help her mum. But when she gets back, the gadget has disappeared.
Tiny has invited the Wols for a day out on the Clangers Planet. She has planned a whole lot of activities for them all. She is going to show them her bedcave, introduce them to everyone they haven’t met before, give them soup to eat and then end with a wonderful musical extravaganza. But she hadn’t counted on the Wols curiosity and soon the Wols are leading Small and Tiny a merry chase. But all’s well that ends well – at least until Major Clanger decides to join in the music.
While out practising her flying, Baby Skymoo is relying on the Cloud to catch her if her flying abilities let her down. And the Cloud is happy to help. But this time Baby Skymoo flies in another direction, and the Cloud isn’t there to help. Helpless, Baby Skymoo falls through one of the holes in the Clangers’ planet and lands up in Mother’s garden. She isn’t hurt, but how is she going to get back out of the underground caves and find her mother again? Luckily, the Cloud is summoned to the rescue.
A strange, flying metal caravan lands on the Clangers' planet. It turns out to be a travelling shop, and its owner is a robot salesman. He has things he thinks the Clangers will like, and he's right - they do. However, they don't realise at first that the salesman wants to be paid. And when they do, they of course don't have any money. The dilemma is resolved when the robot spots the one thing he would really like in return. Unfortunately, though, that thing turns out to be Tiny's precious radio hat!
Out fishing in the music boat, Small catches a strange-looking object. He doesn't know what it is, but he thinks Tiny might like it, so he gives it to her as a present. At first she is really pleased and puts it in her bedcave. But when she tries to get to sleep, it makes strange shadows on the wall and becomes rather scary. Tiny decides she must get rid of it. But this is not as simple a job as it sounds! Wherever she puts it, it has a mysterious habit of coming back to her bedcave...
A meteor shower is about to hit the Clangers' planet. Major and Small shelter on the Iron Chicken's nest, while the others find cover in the living cave. But when the shower stops, they find that a giant meteor has fallen and blocked the double doors to the inside. With Major and Small not yet back, Mother, Granny and Tiny have to think of a way to remove the boulder themselves. They make their way to Major's workshop to see if they can invent a machine to help.
Major invents a Clanger finder, but it is not very useful – it always finds the Clanger who is holding it. Major is disappointed – he hadn't thought of that. But Granny comes up with a better suggestion to keep him busy: he could mend their clock, which hasn't worked for some time. Major Clanger has a think, then brightens up immediately. He can do better than that – he will build a new clock, and it will be his best invention ever. But it turns out the others don't agree.
Major invents a giant magnet. Everything metal flies towards it, from soup tankards to knitting needles. Mother and Granny tell Major to take it outside where it can't do any harm. But then the Iron Chicken lands, and after an unfortunate incident where she gets stuck to the magnet, she tells Major, Tiny and Small about a strange sound she has heard in space. They investigate and find a moon whale trapped in an old metal rocket booster. The magnet turns out to be the perfect thing for the rescue.
When Tiny is out fishing in the music boat, she catches four strange metal objects. They are a bit like hoots but much smaller. She takes them home to show Small, but when Small arrives and looks in the music boat with Tiny, the metal things have gone. Where could they be? Could they be living things? Tiny and Small don’t have to wait long for an answer. They can hear a 'tooty' noise nearby, and when Tiny plays a tune on her panpipes, the toots join in. Before long, toots and hoots are playing together.
Major’s spanner, Mother’s trowel, even Baby Soup Dragon’s cotton ball disappear on the same day. One moment they are there, the next moment they have disappeared! Tiny and Small search for them everywhere but with no luck. Granny decides to take their mind off the mystery by telling them a story about a hunt for treasure. And this gives Major, Mother and Granny an idea – they will set up a special treasure hunt for the little ones. This leads to unexpected results and a very happy ending.
There's going to be a dance fiesta on the Clangers’ planet with a glitterball trophy for the winner. Baby Skymoo really wants to take part, but she is a bit shy and isn't sure if she can dance very well. For the first few dances, Baby Skymoo just watches from the sidelines as Major leads a military twostep, the froglets indulge in some hip hop and Major and Mother excel in a tango. It is only in the final dance, a Viennese waltz, that Baby Skymoo lets go and shows her real dancing talent.
Baby Soup Dragon gets his tail stuck in the doors leading to the living cave. Annoyed, he wonders why he has a tail at all. His mother tells him it’s for balance, but as this seems a boring idea, Baby Soup Dragon determines that he will explore other possible uses. He tries using his tail as a cotton ball bat, as a steering aid, and even for fanning away glowbuzzers like a skymoo. But in the end he finds, in an exciting discovery, that balancing is not such a boring thing after all.
Tiny and Small are playing cotton ball, but the game keeps getting interrupted by froglets jumping out of the top hat. This distracts Tiny, and she ends up carelessly flipping the ball into the hat to see where it will go. But when she looks into the hat, she finds there is nothing there. Curious as to where it has gone, she climbs into the hat and finds herself in a world of top hats, where each hat is the portal to a strange new place. She only gets back home with the help of the blobs!
Baby Soup Dragon is up early, looking for interesting things that might have fallen on the planet overnight. He finds several coloured jewel-like things and puts them in his collecting bag to show everyone. Small Clanger is also up early, fetching soup for breakfast as a surprise for the other Clangers. But when Baby Soup Dragon and Small’s soup trolley collide by accident in the soup wells, all the 'jewels' get scattered and covered in soup. No-one could have guessed what would happen next.
Four objects of various shapes and colours arrive on the Clangers’ planet. They disappear underground as a fifth one arrives. The objects can change shape to disguise themselves and hide from the Clangers, so they go unnoticed. But the fifth object is discovered upon its arrival, and Granny realises this is a group of 'hide and seekers', travelling the universe on an intergalactic game of hide and seek. Intrigued, the Clangers join in the seeker’s successful quest to find the four hiders.
A space dustcart drops a lot of rubbish on the Clangers’ planet. The Clangers notice that one of these bits looks surprisingly like a robot. Major Clanger tries to get it to work, and to his astonishment, he succeeds. The robot comes to life, and even more amazingly it seems able to speak in Clanger-ese, although in a voice different from the Clangers’ whistle. The Clangers soon discover that this is a household helper robot. But sometimes helpfulness can be too much of a good thing.
On a small blue planet far away, it's polling day for the Clangers! Coinciding with 1974's general election, this episode sees narrator Oliver Postgate trying to persuade the ever-popular woolly creatures of the merits of party politics. But the Clangers aren't taken with the prospect of a society ruled by one group - even though the Soup Dragon stands for election on a 'free soup for all' ticket. There’s one episode called ‘Vote For Froglet’, which I’ve never seen. And you won’t! It doesn’t exist [any more]. I was so angry in 1973, the Winter of Discontent, when the Miners Union and the government were locked in mortal combat and the economy of the country was going into the ground, that I honestly thought, having been in Germany at the end of the War and seen what happened when an economy collapsed completely, I really got frightened, I thought the process of government was completely buggered by inter-party squabbling. So I went to the BBC and said, “Can I do a little Clangers film about the election?” It’s basically about the narrator, that’s me, being the interlocutor as well, telling the Clangers that they’ve got to vote, either for the Froglet or for the Soup Dragon. And they refused point blank to have anything to do with it. It was a sort of tiny morality play really. It only lasted three to four minutes and I made it complete in three days. Suggestions that this no longer exists are completely inaccurate. The British Film Institute has a copy which you can see for free on the web here http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-vote-for-froglet-1974/
'Clangers Extra' as first broadcast on the BBC Red Button channel on the 20th June 2015