Oliver Postgate, who co-created the TV series the Clangers, has died aged 83.

American readers may not be familiar with Postgate’s groundbreaking work in children’s TV. However, after the death of Phoenix and as we move towards the Mars Sample Return mission that could bring back rocks from the Red Planet, it seems worth noting that nearly 40 years ago the Clangers opened with this piece of narration:

Of all the planets in the solar system, of all the stars in the Milky Way, perhaps the most troublesome is this one. This cloud covered planet called Earth, our planet, the home of the human race.

People have stood on the Earth and looked away into the sky and tried to imagine what life would be like on other planets, other stars.

And they have done more than imagine. They have invented things: complex rockets so powerful that they will blast away from the Earth and carry space probes to invade these distant planets. Robot devices that will land, explore, take photographs, and even dig up pieces of the unfortunate planet and make off with them.