Record of the Week today is also our 2018 Soundtrack release of the year, the simply wonderful Bagpuss release on Earth Recordings. 12th of February, 1974, and for an audience of small children at 1:45pm, a life irrevocably coloured by the wayward wonderings of one saggy cloth cat. Some 44 years later and Earth Recordings opens the door to Bagpuss & Co. once again, revealing for the first time the original music in all its newly-mastered splendour. Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner’s compositions are so joyous, a patchwork of traditional pieces, improvisations and half-remembered tunes. Such a beautiful and loving presentation too, beautiful new artwork from Hannah Alice and liner notes from Stewart Lee, Daniel Postgate, Frances Mckee (The Vaselines) Andy Votel and Sarah Martin (Belle & Sebastian). Wonderfully simple music that is so evocative and - for a certain generation - evocatively linked to that saggy cloth cat. For another, it’s a thrilling entry point to a very special new world. 

"Between them Sandra and John could play every sort of instrument from a mountain dulcimer to an Irish fiddle. They knew and could sing every tune in the world and didn't bother with written music, except as a last resort. They were exactly suited to Gabriel the Toad and Madeleine the Rag Doll and in those roles were happy to play whatever music and sing whatever songs would be needed." - Oliver Postgate