THE CREATOR OF much-loved children’s programmes Postman Pat and Rosie and Jim John Cunliffe has died. He was 85. Cunliffe died in his hometown of Ilkley, West Yorkshire, last week.
His death was announced in his local newspaper today. He’s survived by his wife and one son. Cunliffe lived in the Lake District for much of his life, from which he took inspiration for Greendale, the home of renowned neighbourly postman Pat and his black and white cat Jess.
Postman Pat was first commissioned by the BBC in 1981 and became one of the corporation’s most lasting children’s tv creations, running for eight seasons and 196 episodes. Cunliffe was also behind Rosie and Jim, a 1990s children’s programme starring the eponymous rag dolls who live on a boat and come to life when no one is looking. In later life, Cunliffe turned to poetry. In 2010 he released and voiced Ghosts, a children’s story for the iPad.
