26 episodes of "The Clangers" was broadcast on BBC1 starting in November 1969. Only people of a certain age will remember these loveable creatures originally, although they can still be seen on many internet video's for any curious youngsters amusement.
The Clangers were a family in space. They were small creatures living in peace and harmony on – and inside – a small, hollow planet, far, far away: nourished by Blue String Pudding, and by Green Soup harvested from the planet's volcanic soup wells by the Soup Dragon.
The word "Clanger" is said to derive from the sound made by opening the metal cover of one of the creatures' crater-like burrows, each of which was covered with an old metal dustbin lid, to protect against meteorite impacts (and space debris).
Nowadays the Clangers must really appreciate their dustbin lids because while there are about 2,000 active satellites orbiting Earth at the moment, there are also 3,000 dead ones littering space. What's more, there are around 34,000 pieces of space junk bigger than 10 centimetres in size and millions of smaller pieces that could nonetheless prove disastrous if they hit something else. No wonder the Clangers don't have time for being on TV these days they must be too busy dodging space junk!