The Complete Bagpuss Episode Guide

Obscure Bag Fact: Each episode of Bagpuss is carefully timed with precision, every episode lasting between 14'31 and 14'34 minutes exactly, averaging out at 14'33. The longest episode is "The Wise Man", while the shortest are "The Old Man's Beard" and "The Fiddle".

1 : Ship In A Bottle

2 : The Owls of Athens

3 : The Frog Princess

4 : The Ballet Shoe

5 : The Hamish

6 : The Wise Man

7 : The Elephant

8 : The Mouse Mill

9 : The Giant

10 : The Old Man's Beard

11 : The Fiddle

12 : Flying

13 : Uncle Feedle

Top Moments : Bagpuss has many, many great moments over its thirteen episodes. Looking back, obviously the best has to be Yaffle discovering the mice playing a trick on him in The Mouse Mill. The idea of the mice getting one over on Yaffle was tried again in Flying, though is nowhere near as successful. But perhaps the most touching moment of the series is where Yaffle is enchanted by the beauty of the ballerina in The Ballet Shoe.

In fact, since watching all thirteen episodes I honestly considered changing my "favourite character" vote in Yaffle's favour in an old poll I used to run on this site. However, for such a distinguished Professor, he really doesn't know a lot, unlike the smart-arsed Gabriel. Look at how few times he gets the object right - just three instances (The Elephant, The Fiddle and Flying). Yaffle's best episode, and possibly the greatest of all, is The Wise Man. This is the most psychologically intriguing episode of Bagpuss. Professor Yaffle takes his sole turn as storyteller and crafts a tale of a wise old Chinaman that lived on a island with only turtles for friends. Part of the wise man's reason for liking the turtles is that "they didn't talk and ask him silly questions", while he smashes a bridge to isolate him from a nearby island. Without realising it, Yaffle is revealing his inner need for isolation and his inability to form relationships without those around him. Freudians that watch the show will also regard Yaffle as an anal retentive, with his constant need to describe the object of the week as "filthy" or "dirty". For more cod psychoanalysis of what are really just children's characters for pre-schools, how about The Elephant? Interest is stirred by Bagpuss's story of an elephant that gives up its ears for mice. Could this be Bagpuss's way of saying he feels emasculated by the mice, that he gives some of his own energy up so that they might wake? Hmmmmm...

Finally, The Fiddle sees the mice doing a great rendition of "London's Burning" and, while not a great last episode, if you can watch the Mice singing "we will fix it" for one last time in Uncle Feedle without getting a lump in your throat then you're made of stone.

Continue on to "Mad, Bad and Utterly Bizarre Moments..."