Editing Smallfilms (section)

==Background==
In 1957, Postgate was appointed a [[stage manager]] with [[Associated-Rediffusion]], the company that then held the commercial weekday television franchise for London.<ref name="CliveBanks"/> Attached to the children's programming section, he thought he could do better with the relatively low budgets of the then [[black and white television]] productions.

He wrote ''Alexander the Mouse'', a story about a mouse born to be king. Using an Irish-produced magnetic system - on which animated characters were magnetically attached to a painted background, then filmed using a 45 degree mirror - he persuaded [[Peter Firmin]], who was then teaching at the [[Central School of Art]],<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.dragons-friendly-society.co.uk/peter/pf6.htm| title = Peter Firmin pages at the Dragons' Friendly Society}}</ref> to create the painted backgrounds. Postgate later recalled that they broadcast around 26 of these programmes live-to-air, a task made harder by the production problems encountered by the use and restrictions of using magnets.<ref name="CliveBanks">{{cite web|url=http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/Oliverpostgateinterview.htm|title=An interview with Oliver Postgate|publisher=Clive Banks|date=March 2005|access-date=9 December 2008}}</ref>

After the relative success of ''Alexander the Mouse'', Postgate agreed a deal to make his next series on film, for a budget of £175 per programme (a minuscule amount even at that time).<ref name="CliveBanks"/> Making a [[stop motion]] animation table in his bedroom, he wrote the Chinese serial ''The Journey of Master Ho'': a formal Chinese epic, about a small boy and a water-buffalo.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.dragons-friendly-society.co.uk/articles/article/BKSTSpage_1.htm| title = The Journey of Master Ho}}</ref> This was intended for deaf children, a distinct advantage in that the production required no soundtrack, which reduced production costs. He engaged a painter to produce the backgrounds, but as the painter was classically Chinese-trained he produced them in [[Perspective (graphical)|three-quarter view]], rather than in the conventional Egyptian full-view manner needed for flat animation under a camera.<ref name="CliveBanks"/> This resulted in Firmin's characters looking as if they were short in one leg, but the success of the production provided the foundation for Postgate and Firmin to start up their own company, solely producing animated children's television programmes, initially for [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]], but soon afterward with the [[BBC]].

Postgate's initial BBC career was not solely concerned with Smallfilms. To gain experience, he accepted a contract as a television director in the BBC Children's Department in 1960, on a show entitled ''Little Laura'', another animated series made on film, written and drawn by [[V. H. Drummond]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/68d4d64fd4df42de94b8922088027a3c | title = ''Little Laura'', BBC, 1960| date = 15 December 1961}}</ref> The series continued in production until 1962, with Postgate credited also as animator on the 1962 series.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/65028ba86a5f4512b78f8046462b7c30 | title = ''Little Laura and the Rocket'', BBC 1962| date = 11 April 1962}}</ref> He also wrote serials for long-running BBC children's programmes ''Blue Peter''<ref>{{cite web | url = http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/dae11a81a17a4b21b990fd4fc7ad14f7 | title = ''Little Watha''| date = 12 August 1963}}</ref> and stories for ''Vision On''.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/3e98042c12474766a8eabfab72320319 | title = ''Vision On''| date = 9 June 1964}}</ref>