“Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss, old fat furry cat puss…” I loved Bagpuss when I was little. The story of a saggy, old cloth cat who could be rhymed into life by his owner, a little girl called Emily. In each episode, Emily brought an object she’d found and Bagpuss and his friends – the mice on the Mouse Organ, Madeleine the rag doll, Gabriel the banjo-playing toad and academic woodpecker Professor Yaffle – would go on an adventure based around Emily’s find.

It was animated and narrated by Oliver Postgate – who also did The Clangers and Ivor The Engine – and, even now, the sound of his voice is the most comforting thing in the world. I loved Bagpuss then, and I still love it, because it was gentle, but also strange and weird and magical. It had nothing to do with my life, it wasn’t trying to teach me anything, and there were no ‘child’ characters you were supposed to relate to (Emily, the only human, was a bit of an eccentric herself, stocking her always-shut shop with lost items). Bagpuss was about the stories, the crown jewels of a frog princess, mice using a ballet shoe as a rowing boat, a small, squashy creature called a Hamish. Because if your toys could come to life, would you want them to do mundane, everyday things? Bagpuss and his creators decided no, and it made a children’s TV classic.

From Bagpuss to Sabrina: the Stylist team’s favourite children’s TV shows