The 1960s was a golden era of children’s television, and much of its radiance was supplied by the voice and creativity of Oliver Postgate.

Working with Peter Firmin from a converted cowshed near Canterbury, he brought to life many gems that are now regarded as classics of the genre, from The Pogles and The Clangers to Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog. Postgate, who wrote and narrated, while Firmin took care of the drawings and puppets, founded their own production company, Smallfilms, becoming purveyors of quality during a gentler period in children’s entertainment.

Their biggest success story came in 1974, when a saggy old cloth cat called Bagpuss sauntered on to our screens. The 13 stories were regularly transmitted for 13 years until the show faded from the schedules. An upturn in public interest in the cat, which was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Kent in 1998 and a year later was voted the most popular BBC children’s show, gave it cult status.

Smallfilms’ output did not stir up interest only among children. The first outing for The Clangers — a family of mice-like creatures who lived on a moon made of cheese, and the company’s first production in colour — was in 1968. Postgate's and Firmin’s show was well received at a time when interest in space exploration was high and man was about to set foot on the Moon — a Nasa official described it as an attempt to introduce a note of realism to the fantasy of the space race.

And when the weekly transmission of the earlier Ivor the Engine clashed with board meetings at Associated Rediffusion, for which the series was made, proceedings were suspended while a television was wheeled into the board-room to show the programme.

Richard Oliver Postgate, the second son of Raymond and Daisy, was born in Hendon, Northwest London, in 1925. His father had been a conscientious objector in the Great War and had endured imprisonment, before working for the Daily Herald — then edited by his future father-in-law, the socialist politician George Lansbury — and becoming a leading socialist journalist and writer. Oliver began his education at the private Woodstock School on Golders Green Road, London, and Woodhouse County Secondary in North Finchley before being evacuated to Devon, where he attended Dartington Hall School.

Returning to Finchley in 1942, he joined the Home Guard and studied at the Kingston College of Art, in the hope that the war would not interrupt his dream of becoming a stage director. But his call-up papers arrived soon after, by which time Postgate had decided to follow his father’s example and became a conscientious objector. The decision led to three months’ imprisonment. During his spell at Feltham Juvenile Prison he was given the task of preparing the stage for the visit of a local dramatic society. After serving his sentence he spent the rest of the war labouring on farms, including a relative’s dairy farm in Dorset.

In 1946 Postgate was working as a winch-tractor driver for the Dartington Hall woodlands department when he was offered the job of ambulance driver for a relief team set up in Germany by the Save the Children Fund. On his return, determined to establish a career, he decided to try his luck at acting. He enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and, at the end of his first year, won the Gold Medal for Acting. He left before completing the course, however, and secured a job as actor-cum-stage director for a repertory company in Brighton, earning £3 10s a week.

Other engagements followed, but by the start of the 1950s, Postgate’s interest in acting had waned, replaced instead by a passion for inventing. After a series of his ideas had been rejected, he worked as a freelance designer for a company specialising in designing and setting up exhibitions, then Kay’s Industries for which he launched a button-plating plant. A variety of jobs followed before he secured casual work as a stage manager for Associated Rediffusion, the independent television company which owned the weekday London franchise from 1954 before it merged with ABC to become Thames.

Postgate was employed on New Horizon, a science programme, and his inventiveness was recognised when he was asked to design and make numerous visual devices. During a stint on children’s programmes, he felt that he was capable of writing better material than what was currently being transmitted. Before long, he had written six episodes of his first creation, Alexander the Mouse, which were shown live. While seeking an artist willing to draw more than 20 backgrounds as well as several cut out figures for a £30 fee, he met his partner, Peter Firmin. The programme was a success, and a further 20 stories were commissioned.

Live recordings were fraught with difficulties, so subsequent projects were recorded on film, beginning with The Journey of Master Ho, a series of silent films for the deaf.

Postgate’s breakthrough came with his next project, Ivor the Engine, although initially he had been uncertain how to develop the idea.