The Clangers' squeak packs a punch, as scripts reveal swearing

With their strange whistling and lovable adventures on a small, hollow planet, The Clangers were a favourite of 1970s children.

But what few of them will have realised is that the characters’ innocent “swanee-whistle” language disguised some rather adult language.

The son of The Clangers’ original creator and writer Oliver Postgate has now revealed his father’s scripts for the animated TV show - which the voice-over actors turned into the Clanger’s distinctive whistling sound - included “saucy language” and swearing.

Fans have long harboured questions about the underlying meaning of the sounds uttered by the pink knitted mouse-like characters.

Dan Postgate has revealed that in his father’s original scripts the Clangers can be “quite grumpy with each other”, including the use of terms such as “you rotten rodent” and “a bit of swearing”.

He told the Telegraph: “It’s from the 70s, they’re a 70s family, and I think these days Clangers come over – especially in the new series – as a loving family.

“When my dad wrote the scripts out, they sometimes call each other “you rotten rodent” and things like that.

“He had to write them out so he knew what he was aiming at when they started whistling. There are a few saucy bits of language in there, I don’t want to give too much away.”

Mr Postgate is now seeking to publish his fathers scripts for the first time with the crowdfunding publisher Unbound, under the title Clangers: The Complete Scripts 1969-1974.

Although Mr Postgate is still reading through and editing the scripts, he says: “There’s a bit of swearing in there, I think… I don’t want to specify words, but they’re alluded to, certainly.

“A bit like those old James Bond books – when he swore, they used to have the first letter of the word.”

“There’s a touch of that” in the Clangers scripts, he adds. “I think in those days the BBC didn’t read the scripts.”

Soup Dragon was 'bad-tempered' 

Mr Postgate says this swearing can sometimes translate into the characters’ distinctive whistles. “I think if you look carefully when Major Clanger kicks the double-doors, in the double-doors episode… he gives them a kick and says something quite rude at that point.”

“The Soup Dragon... was quite bad-tempered as well, I think. The only character that didn’t have any translation was the Iron Chicken, I think she was more emotive, she was either flustered or broody.”

The book also features knitting patterns, drawings, prose, and any other “bits and bobs” Mr Postgate could collate.

He hopes “to cover all bases… anything and everything that might interest the ardent Clangers fan and the odd passerby”.

In its crowdfunder appeal, Unbound, which has so fair raised nearly 50 per cent of its target, says the collection of 27 scripts “give new insight into a beloved series originally created by Oliver Postgate… the joyful revelation that the Clangers had actual words for every single scene brings these tiny characters to life in a way that's never been seen before.”

The Clangers, created by Postgate and Peter Firmin, was first broadcast by the BBC from 1969 until 1972. Postgate went on to create and write some of the most popular children's television programmes, including Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine and Bagpuss.

A new series of The Clangers began in 2015, created by Firmin and Dan Postgate and narrated by Monty Python’s Michael Palin.