The co-creator of children's TV favourites like Ivor The Engine and Bagpuss has died.
Peter Firmin, who - along with the late Oliver Postgate - dreamt up such other enduring childhood favourites as The Clangers, Basil Brush and Noggin The Nog, passed away at his home in Kent on the weekend after a short illness.
He was aged 89.
The Essex-born artist, who until recently had continued to work on a multi-million reboot of The Clangers - the woollen pink moon-habiting creatures who spoke only in in strange whistles - won the hearts and imaginations of youngsters from the late '50s onwards with his creations.
But it was the tale of the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Ltd and Jones the Steam, Dai Station and, of course, Ivor himself, that delighted little ones in Wales.
Originating in black and white - the episodes would be remade in colour for the BBC in the mid-'70s - the jerkily animated cartoon told of a plucky little locomotive with a mind of its own, a whistle for a mouth and a burning desire to sing in a male voice choir.
Inspired by the works of Dylan Thomas, it also featured a little dragon called Idris who lived inside Ivor's coal fire box.
Lost episodes of the programme were found by Firmin on his farm in Kent in 2013 - in a pig shed, all of places.
Nearly 40 rusty reels of videotape were discovered under what was described as "a large pile of steaming mess," the 16mm footage thought to have been stashed there by Postgate sometime before his death in 2008.
Bagpuss was another of Firmin's best loved creations - the tale of a 'saggy old cloth cat ' who sat forgotten in the window of a bric-a-brac shop until closing time when he and his fellow stuffed toys magically came alive.
It ran from February to May 1974 and, although it lasted for only 13 episodes, it became almost synonymous with growing up for an entire generation.
