Major Clanger has made a flying machine. With some ceremony the Clangers pump up the compressed air balloons which power it. Major Clanger takes his seat, the machine leaps into action and flaps itself to pieces. Major Clanger is disconsolate but Mother Clanger sends Small Clanger and Tiny Clanger to the soup-wells in their pole-car (a sort of wheeled punt) to fetch some green soup for him. Major Clanger drinks the soup and settles down for a rest. Meanwhile Small Clanger and Tiny Clanger go outside to look at the remains of the flying machine. Tiny Clanger knocks one of the power-balloons and it comes off and shoots up into the sky. This interests Small Clanger who grabs the empty balloon and runs to the soup-dragon and asks her to blow into the balloon with light-airs from her cooking. She does this. Small Clanger ties Tiny Clanger to the balloon and, holding on to the string himself, leaps through the caves in long leaps supported by the balloon. The other Clangers come and dance around them. Suddenly the string comes undone and Tiny Clanger rises to the roof where she remains, squeaking, while the Clangers try various ways of fetching her down. In the end they bounce Small Clanger trampolinically in a tablecloth until he bounces high enough to grab her
The Clangers net a passing object but it makes life a bit too exciting.
Some chickens are mild and friendly, or would like to be.
Music hath charms."... and it grows well too, which is fortunate because the soup-dragon ate most of it.
Visitors are always welcome... until they start eating the place.
Tiny Clanger finds a novel and melodious way to visit her friend.
Major Clanger’s boat rises at last, on wings of song.
The Clangers entertain some unexpected guests.
Even a dragon has feelings and must be cared for.
Be very careful what you plant. Some things grow very large and very loud.
The Clangers give their friend a beautiful voice but it does not make him popular with his own kind.
Even to Clangers, wealth does not always bring happiness.
The Clangers suffer from a shortage of consumer goods, but they prefer life that way.
A strange visitor gives the Clangers an unexpected gift.
However polite you are, some visitors just don’t enjoy themselves.
The Clangers’ caves are sweetly lit but Small Clanger is too inquisitive.
Some visitors are rather noisy and not easy to get rid of!
There are no daffodils on the Clangers’ planet but it’s not really as lonely as it looks.
Caring for a newcomer presents some problems.
Machines are useful but must be used carefully.
A garden can sometimes grow too well.
Vanity makes people a bit unsociable sometimes.
The froglets find a romantic way to remove an unwelcome guest.
Sometimes the place is too noisy to practice ones music.
One can find some use for most machines even when they don’t do just what they are supposed to.
There are concerts in the most unlikely places.
On a small blue planet far away, it's polling day for the Clangers! Coinciding with 1974's general election, this episode sees narrator Oliver Postgate trying to persuade the ever-popular woolly creatures of the merits of party politics. But the Clangers aren't taken with the prospect of a society ruled by one group - even though the Soup Dragon stands for election on a 'free soup for all' ticket. There’s one episode called ‘Vote For Froglet’, which I’ve never seen. And you won’t! It doesn’t exist [any more]. I was so angry in 1973, the Winter of Discontent, when the Miners Union and the government were locked in mortal combat and the economy of the country was going into the ground, that I honestly thought, having been in Germany at the end of the War and seen what happened when an economy collapsed completely, I really got frightened, I thought the process of government was completely buggered by inter-party squabbling. So I went to the BBC and said, “Can I do a little Clangers film about the election?” It’s basically about the narrator, that’s me, being the interlocutor as well, telling the Clangers that they’ve got to vote, either for the Froglet or for the Soup Dragon. And they refused point blank to have anything to do with it. It was a sort of tiny morality play really. It only lasted three to four minutes and I made it complete in three days. Suggestions that this no longer exists are completely inaccurate. The British Film Institute has a copy which you can see for free on the web here http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-vote-for-froglet-1974/
