Ivor the Engine

Did You Know?

• The sound of Ivor's puffing was made vocally by Oliver Postgate himself.
• The music was composed by Vernon Elliott and predominantly featured a solo bassoon, to reflect the three notes of Ivor's whistle.

Episodes

The first Ivor the Engine stories were six black-and-white episodes. They covered the little engine’s wish to join the choir and the replacement of his whistle with steam organ pipes taken from Mr. Morgan’s fairground roundabout. After that came two more black-and-white series, each with thirteen episodes running ten minutes apiece. During the 1970s, those two longer series were remade in colour, with some story changes, though the original six episodes were not revisited. The colour version had forty five-minute films, often linked together to form longer narratives. The six original black-and-white episodes later came out on video, but the twenty-six episodes from the two longer black-and-white series were not released and were long believed lost. When the colour series was released on DVD, episodes with connected content were edited together, and their opening and closing titles and credits were removed.

Home releases

BBC put out several Ivor the Engine videos during the 1980s and early 1990s. Around the early 1990s, a different video appeared, featuring six black-and-white stories from the original late-1950s series (first broadcast on Associated-Rediffusion) alongside seven colour episodes from the 1970s BBC run, all presented individually. Oliver Postgate introduced that release.

Characters

Ivor is the steam locomotive of the Merioneth and Llantisilly Rail Traction Company Limited. Unlike real ones, he has a mind of his own. Ivor can drive himself and use his whistle to communicate. His fondest dream is to sing with the Grumbly and District Choral Society, a dream that is realized when his whistle is replaced with three pipes from an old fairground organ. He becomes the first bass of the choir, as well as providing them with a means of getting from place to place. Ivor enjoys doing all sorts of things that humans do. As well as singing in the choir, he likes visiting the seaside, making tea from his boiler and spending time with his friends. He is fond of animals, and has several of them among his friends. He can be willful and disobedient at times, and it is not unknown for him to go and do his own thing when he should be working. He dislikes shunting and timetables. Although Ivor has no technical basis, he does have technical information and a place of origin. As stated in series 2 episode 14 'Smoke hill' it is quoted that Ivor is 'just an ordinary small Box tank, 3 Cylinder Straight linked, 0-4-0 engine By Huntington & Pottage of Crewe'. Edwin Jones is Ivor's driver. He is a cheerful and kind-hearted man who perhaps sympathizes more than most railway staff with Ivor's idiosyncrasies. Postgate and Firmin describe him as 'an ordinary engine driver who is there to cope with whatever needs to be coped with'. People who are new to the area find him rather eccentric for talking to his engine. When not driving Ivor or helping the engine with his latest flight of fancy, he enjoys fishing and day-dreaming. The station master at Llaniog, he is a stickler for the regulations of the railway, but bends the rules occasionally to help his friends. His life is made a little difficult by the fact that Ivor really does not care much for regulations at all. Although he is often gloomy and overly strict, he is a good person at heart. Owen the Signal inhabits a signal box near Ivor's shed and makes an occasional appearance in the episodes. Evan Evans is the portly choirmaster of the Grumbly and District Choral Society. He is also Jones the Steam's wife's uncle. A rich and eccentric aristocratic lady who enjoys the occasional glass of port and has new hats sent from London every week.

Influences and future appearances

They are the only fictional inductees. BBC2 Wales brought Ivor back for promotional spots advertising their new digital channel “2W,” with Oliver Postgate and Anthony Jackson recording new dialogue. Some production artwork and other Smallfilms history items are displayed at the Rupert the Bear Museum, now part of the Canterbury Heritage Museum on Stour Street in Canterbury. BBC Radio 6 Music presenter Gideon Coe used Ivor’s Cruising Theme as the music for his final song before midnight to say goodnight. The Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway runs an annual Ivor the Engine Weekend every August. The functional programming language Idris was named after the dragon from the show. Ivor appears alongside Jones the Steam in an iPhone game. Rapido Trains UK produced an OO Gauge model of Ivor the Engine.