Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service
Season 2, Episode 19: "Postman Pat and the Rubber Duck Race" (15 minutes)
UK: Mackinnon and Saunders
CBeebies, Thursday 16 November, 07:20
When I was little, there were three programmes I was obsessed with: Thomas the Tank Engine, Sesame Street, and Postman Pat. However, I haven't visited Greendale for twenty-odd years, so I was interested in seeing how it had changed.
To refresh my memory of the original, I also watched "Pat's Windy Day" from 1981.
Modernisation
Straight away I was reassured by the fact that the theme song hasn't changed (except for being re-recorded with a new singer). However, I immediately noted that everything was bigger and flashier: dynamic camera movements, slick animation, hordes of characters, a shiny modern depot instead of Mrs Goggins's tiny post office, and even a helicopter!
I suppose in a way it's necessary, given the expectation for higher production values these days, plus the need to grab children's attention away from their iPads, but I think it lacks the gentle snapshot of rural life that the original had. The old episode I watched just looked and felt more authentically like the Lake District: quiet, isolated, and tranquil.
Plot and pacing
I thought it might be interesting to compare the plots of the two episodes, just to illustrate my point about the difference in pace.
1981: The plot follows Pat's journey in his van, and is best described as a string of scenarios with a problem and a solution:-
- Pat finds a road blocked by a fallen tree. A farmer, Peter Fogg, turns up, chops up the tree with a chainsaw and takes the logs away with his tractor; Pat helps by moving the loose branches.
- Pat thinks he has lost his van: the owner of the mobile shop, Sam Waldron, moved it so that it wouldn't get scratched by the fallen tree.
- The van breaks down: Pat gets out and fixes some loose wires in the engine (in the process, the wind blows his hat into a pond).
- The letters for the village school get scattered around the playground by the wind: the children help Pat to collect them.
- Granny Dryden's washing has blown off the line: Pat helps her to gather it.
- Granny informs Pat that she found his hat and put it on the scarecrow to dry. Pat retrieves the hat and goes home.
- Total characters: 9
- Pat delivers a parcel to Ajay and Nisha Bains. It's a duck lure, so that Ajay can attract wild ducks and photograph them.
- Pat gets a call from his boss, Ben Taylor, who says that he has an unusual parcel. Pat returns to the depot to find that is a sack of rubber ducks for an annual race on the river.
- At the petrol station, farmer Alf Thompson and mechanic Ted Glen reminisce about duck races in their childhood. Ted admits that he cheated one year. This causes an argument, and the two challenge each other in this year's race.
- Ajay is having no luck attracting any ducks with his lure.
- Pat is in his Jeep. While driving over bumpy ground, he loses the rubber ducks into the river.
- Back at the petrol station, Dr Gilbertson calls for Ted, but can't find him. After she drives off, Ted appears from the garage with a hammer in his hand.
- Ajay notices a flock of ducks floating down the river.
- Pat takes a shortcut through Alf's farm. He explains his predicament to Alf, who acts very shifty at the mention of rubber ducks, and retreats into his barn, spanner in hand.
- Pat gets a call from an excited Ajay, who tells him about the shiny, yellow ducks he has spotted. Pat goes to meet Ajay, and explains that they are in fact rubber ducks. Ajay is disappointed at his mistake.
- Ted has finished buiding something, and is happy with the result.
- Ditto for Alf.
- Pat decides that the race will have to be cancelled. As he leaves, Ajay finally sees a flock of real ducks and happily photographs them and identifies them using a book.
- Ted and Alf have arrived for the race, with trailers covered with tarpaulins: they reveal that they have built identical giant mechanical ducks. Reverend Timms explains that the race would be unfair if two of the ducks were different, so Ted and Alf decide to have their own race. The ducks promptly sink.
- Pat arrives and explains that the rubber ducks are stuck in the middle of the river. He spots the giant ducks, and uses one of them as a motorboat to retrieve the rubber ducks.
- The Reverend thanks Pat for returning the ducks, and announces that the race can now take place.
- Total characters: 19
Technology
The use of modern technology was evident in both the story and the production of the episode. The parcel depot is industrial and shiny and full of conveyor belts and computer screens, the use of mobile phones is very prominent, and we have these strange hi-tech mechanical ducks. In terms of animation, although it's mostly via stop-motion as always (albeit with much more advanced materials and armatures than in the 80s), there is some prominent use of CGI for backgrounds, the rubber ducks, and the water. To me, this CGI was a bad choice, and it sticks out like a sore thumb. I like the use of cellophane for water in the original episodes.
Modern life, modern society
Other elements of modern life seeped into the new episode too. There is now an Asian family in Greendale, and the father of the family, Ajay, features prominently in this episode. Notably he had a mixed Indian/Northern English accent, which is quite common now in post-industrial areas around here. In fact, nearly all of the characters have Northern accents, which is very notable for a children's programme: even now in the supposedly "diverse" 2010s, and even though CBBC is now based in Manchester, nearly every character on that channel still has a standard BBC accent!
I also noted the strange inclusion of a rather adult topic, being the rise of private postal companies in the past few years. Pat still has his Royal Mail van for delivering his letters, but now has a second job (thanks to the Tory goverment and skyrocketing cost of living, no doubt) for a parcel delivery company called Special Delivery service. It's this private company that has all the shiny machinery and fancy vehicles...subtle propaganda supporting the privitization of the postal service, perhaps? Or am I digging too deep again? An interesting reflection of modern life, nonetheless.
In opposition to these modern elements, however, we do still have the some of the original characters which are now a bit anachronistic. Certainly Pat doesn't look anything like the postmen that today's children see -- I'm not even sure if they wore blue suits in the 80s, but certainly now it's red polo shirts and fluorescent jackets. Is anyone called Alf or Dorothy anymore? Certainly no-one dresses like that any more. And the prominence of the local vicar in the community is very strange; modern kids have probably never even heard the word "vicar". So it's a bit of an odd mash-up of the old and the new.
Educational value
There wasn't a huge amount of educational value to be found, except for the explanation of what a duck lure does, and Ajay's use of a book to identify the ducks, mentioning species names such as Barbary, Danish, and Golden Cascade. There is a little moral message about it being wrong to cheat, and a small element of problem solving when Pat works out how he can rescue the ducks, but other than that, not much. In fact, I think the older episode was better at being educational, as it contains a strong message of helping each other out, working as a community, and dealing with whatever life throws at you with a smile and perseverance.
But don't get me wrong. By no means at all is the new series bad. To the contrary, it is very well-made (I would expect no less from Mackinnon and Saunders) and entertaining, and does respect the source material. I just found the mish-mash of old-fashioned and modern to be misplaced.
Available to watch online until 23 November 2017
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