As classic children's TV show Bagpuss turns 50, we take a look at what child star Emily Firmin is up to nowadays, from her creative career to her passion for the environment
Today marks the 50th birthday of Bagpuss, but what came next for the human stars of the beloved show?
Many viewers will have fond memories of cosying up to watch the adventures of 'The Most Important, The Most Beautiful, The Most Magical, Saggy Old Cloth Cat in the Whole, Wide World'. Of course, the show simply wouldn't have been the same without Bagpuss' young owner Emily, who is featured in the nostalgic, sepia-tinted photographs at the beginning of each sweet episode.
As fans will no doubt recall, Emily is a Victorian child who owns a shop for 'found things', placing items in the window so that owners might locate them. Whenever Emily departs, after reciting the same verse many can recite from heart, Bagpuss and his fellow toy companions wake up, sharing stories about the mysterious items in question, and mending them.
The real Emily, full name Emily Firmin, still holds a firm place in her heart for 'Old Fat Furry Catpuss', but lives a very different life nowadays.
Fond memories and sweets payment
Former actress Emily, now 57, was just seven years old when the now iconic pics were taken, and received a bag of sweets as payment. The sixth daughter of artist and puppet maker Peter Firmin, one of the co-creators of Bagpuss, Emily filmed her memorable scenes at her parents' home in Kent.
Reminiscing during a recent interview with the Radio Times, Emily revealed: "My parents' house was pretty much a farm film studio, so my dad worked in an old cow shed and Oliver's [animator, puppeteer, and writer Oliver Postgate] studio was a pig sty, originally. Next door to him was my stable, where I kept my horse. People ask, 'What was it like?' Well, that was what it was like. I didn't realise people lived in other ways! I do remember being taken out with my mum to go and choose some very ugly Victorian shoes, which are no more, but the dress that my mum made is in The Beaney museum in Canterbury."
Intriguingly, Whitstable-based Emily has previously shared that many are surprised to see that she's still alive - having believed the photographs to have been taken in the 19th century, not the '70s.
Creative career
Taking after her creative father, who passed away in 2018 aged 89, Emily went on to pursue a career as an artist in adulthood, training at the art schools of Canterbury and Central St Martins. Since 1990, she has run Totalpap with partner and fellow artist Justin Mitchell, creating and selling works of art with a focus on 3D papier mache pictures, printed lino cut pictures, automata, and ceramics.
Emily, whose bookbinder mother Joan Firmin also taught paper crafts, told the Radio Times: "We're all pretty arty in my family. My dad had a printing press – we've got two and my sister's got one. Dad's was an 1861 Albion Press, ours is from 1865 and enormous so we can do really huge prints, which we do regularly. We have exhibitions of our work and we permanently exhibit some of it in the local restaurants in Canterbury."
Environmental endeavours
Having also inherited her parents' love of the natural world, outdoorsy Emily last year protested against proposed plans to build 1,300 homes on a plot of farmland, called Brooklands Farm, on the outskirts of Whitstable. Speaking with Kent Online in January 2023, Emily said: "We are shocked - this is beautiful, natural wilderness. It's not as simple as re-homing the animals that are there; a lot of species don't survive that kind of change."
She continued: "My father ran a country footpath group and, even up until his death, spoke with excitement when discussing nature. My parents created a wildlife meadow-slash-woodland and as a family we encouraged wildlife to appear on an old, flooded piece of unworkable farmland. I do keep an eye on what wildlife is around, and the area in Brooklands Farm is thriving."
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