Michael Palin is "proud and pleased" to be the voice of 'The Clangers' children TV series.
Michael Palin with The Clangers
The 'Monty Python' star is thrilled to be narrating the the rebooted children's TV series, which is being revived 46 years after it first aired, and considers the project to be one of the "best things" he's been offered throughout his illustrious six-decade career.
He told Radio Times magazine: "I act as an observer to the planet, trying to work out what is going on. My favourite phrase is 'Oh dear'. And 'Oh dear' comes up a lot in the drama of the episodes!"
The Clangers are a family of mouse-like creatures who live on a planet similar to the moon.
The charming children's series was created in 1969 - just four months after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon - and ran for two series as one of first shows to be shown in colour on television.
The 72-year-old comedian recalled how he used to enjoy watching the cartoon with his sons Thomas and William.
Palin - who also has a daughter, Rachel, with his wife Helen - said: "Clangers was a haven. It was calm and very therapeutic. I loved the audacity of the swanee whistles and the wacky gentle humour."
And he hopes to bring the same warmth to the stories as the late Oliver Postgate - who created and narrated the original BBC One show.
He said: "I loved the tone that Oliver brought to the original. He did it in a nice, quizzical way. It was one of the great narrations of its kind."
The upcoming CBeebies reboot of 'The Clangers' cost £5 million to make and has been produced using the original stop-frame-animation technique with puppets, rather than CGI, in its 52-episodes.
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