The greatest children's storyteller of the last 100 years
Somehow I'd missed Charlie Brooker's screen burn piece on Oliver Postgate.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/dec/13/charlie-brooker-screen-burn-oliver-postgate
Postgate himself was a committed pacifist, and forgive me if I sound like a wuss, but I swear you could hear it in his voice, which never shrieked or gurgled or patronised, but maintained a steady, dreamlike pace on each soundtrack. It was recorded quite basically, so it often sounded like he was speaking from a cupboard in the corner of the room, but that merely added to the charm. Stuff your bird or whale song, forget about breezes in cornfields or lapping waves and waterfalls: there is no more calming sound in the world than the voice of Oliver Postgate. With him narrating your life, you'd feel cosy and safe even during a gas explosion. It floated above all these stories, that voice; wound its way through them. It was the kindest, wisest voice you ever heard, and now it's gone.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/dec/13/charlie-brooker-screen-burn-oliver-postgate
Postgate himself was a committed pacifist, and forgive me if I sound like a wuss, but I swear you could hear it in his voice, which never shrieked or gurgled or patronised, but maintained a steady, dreamlike pace on each soundtrack. It was recorded quite basically, so it often sounded like he was speaking from a cupboard in the corner of the room, but that merely added to the charm. Stuff your bird or whale song, forget about breezes in cornfields or lapping waves and waterfalls: there is no more calming sound in the world than the voice of Oliver Postgate. With him narrating your life, you'd feel cosy and safe even during a gas explosion. It floated above all these stories, that voice; wound its way through them. It was the kindest, wisest voice you ever heard, and now it's gone.