Ivor The Engine - The Dragon

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Ivor has to deliver some pigeons to Mr Brangwyn. Thanks to Evans the Song, they end up escaping and on Miss Pryce's roof. There follow some amusing attempts to get them down. colour episodes were made, each lasting just five minutes. They were shown often by the BBC until the mid 1980s. Gideon Coe uses Ivor's Cruising Theme as the musical bed over his last song leading up to midnight on BBC 6 Music to say nighty night. They Would Cut You Up: The reason that Idris and the other dragons fear national exposure by Mrs. Griffith's Antiquarian Society. The Society ends up declaring the dragons dangerous to the public, and wants them kept in heated cages at the National Museum.

Our Dragons Are Different: Idris the Dragon, his wife Olwen, and twins Gaian and Blodwen, are all red heraldic Welsh Dragons (like on Wales' flag). They are about the size of dogs, can fly, breathe fire, sing, and are hatched from eggs in extremely hot temperatures. In Idris' case, he was hatched in Ivor's firebox. Idris and other dragons of his kind cannot survive long outside of hot climates (which is why they prefer to live in volcanoes), and a subplot of the series has to do with keeping the dragons warm after Smoke Hill, their volcano, goes out. Compare it to another Postgate series Noggin the Nog, which features an ice dragon driven out of his cold cave by a bonfire. When Idris' home Smoke Hill lost its heat, Jones and Ivor took Idris to see Mrs Griffiths in her shop in Llanmadd. After seeing Idris and his brethren, and Ivor's self-whistling, Mrs Griffiths apologises to Jones for thinking him mad and agrees to help the dragons. Mrs Griffiths and her fellows at the Antiquarian Society hire Mr Hughes the Gasworks to fit out Smoke Hill with gas heating and in the series one finale Smoke Hill, now a gas-fired volcano, is reignited and all the characters sing in gladness. However, the gas-heating includes a gas meter that only takes half-crowns, which are no longer "legal tender". On a few occasions, the gas meter runs out and Jones and Ivor have to search high and low for more half crowns. In his later years, he blogged for the New Statesman. Postgate's voice was heard once more in 2003, as narrator for Alchemists of Sound, a television documentary about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. In 1987 the University of Kent at Canterbury awarded an honorary degree to Postgate, who stated that the degree was really intended for Bagpuss, who was subsequently displayed in academic dress.

In this section

A small, red heraldic dragon who also sings in the choir for a time. Having been hatched from an egg in Ivor's fire, he lives with his wife Olwen and their twins, Gaian and Blodwyn, in the extinct volcano Smoke Hill. As well as singing, he proves useful by cooking fish and chips for the choir using his fiery breath. It's winter in the top left-hand corner of Wales and Ivor's railway is not running because of deep snow. Llaniog needs supplies soon, though, as Eli the Baker is nearly out of flour. What Ivor needs is a snowplough. Idris is still missing when the representative of the antiquarian society arrives to interview Jones about him. After a few embarrassments, Jones and Ivor find Idris in the most obvious place.

National Anthem: "Do you know 'Land of My Fathers'?" asks Idris when he first hatches from Ivor's firebox. The Grumbly and District Choral Society, delighted to see a real Welsh dragon, oblige by singing their national anthem, accompanied by Ivor and Idris. A rich eccentric who enjoys the occasional glass of port and has new hats sent from London every week. She is also technically the owner of the railway, having bought it when the line was threatened with nationalisation. However, she does not bother much with the day-to-day running, and things remained much the same after she bought it. Mr. Dinwiddy

A rich and eccentric aristocratic lady who enjoys the occasional glass of port and has new hats sent from London every week. She is also technically the owner of the railway, having bought it when the line was threatened with nationalisation. However, she does not bother much with the day-to-day running and things remained much the same after she bought it. Postgate's genius lives on at museum". Canterbury City Council. 16 December 2008. Archived from the original on 31 October 2010 . Retrieved 20 October 2010. Wales is where you have little railways going along the tops of hills, which is much less boring that hurtling up the slumbering Midlands plain in the middle of the night," he told science fiction enthusiast Clive Banks, "so we decided it would be nice to set it in Wales."