[1965] The Pogles — The Children’s Series Deemed Too Frightening by the BBC
📺 Forgotten Television
The Witch appeared in The Pogles, a six-part stop-motion story created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin and first broadcast in 1965.
The story followed Mr and Mrs Pogle as they protected an abandoned baby carrying the silver crown of the King of the Fairies. A sinister shape-changing Witch wanted the crown for herself.
After its original broadcast, the BBC considered the story too frightening for its intended young audience. The six episodes were not regularly repeated, and Smallfilms was asked to create something gentler.
The characters returned in 1966 as Pogles’ Wood. The Witch disappeared, while Pippin and Tog joined Mr and Mrs Pogle for quieter stories about woodland life.
The first image shows the surviving original Witch puppet created by Peter Firmin. The final colour photograph came from the glossy Pogles’ Wood storybooks—the television series itself was entirely black-and-white.
All six original episodes survive.
