Postman Pat and the Greendale Rocket

Postman Pat and the Greendale Rocket

Air Date	6th September 2003
Previous	Postman Pat and the Mystery Tour
Next	Postman Pat's Magic Christmas

Postman Pat and the Greendale Rocket is a half hour special which was broadcast on the 6th September 2003. It was written by John Cunliffe with additional material by Elly Brewer.

Summary

The Greendale Light Railway, its steam train, the Greendale Rocket and Greendale's railway station are being restored and the Bains family is coming to run it.

Characters

Vehicles

Locations

Greendale
Pat's House
Post Office
Greendale Primary School
Greendale Station
The Engine Shed
Ted's Workshop
The Church
River Penn
Pencaster
The Bains' Old House
Thompson Ground (mentioned)

Cast

Ken Barrie as Pat, Ted, Alf, the Reverend Timms, P.C. Selby and Mr. Pringle
Melissa Sinden as Jess
Carole Boyd as Sara Clifton, Mrs. Goggins, Dorothy, Mrs. Pottage, Doctor Gilbertson, Sarah Gilbertson, Charlie and the Radio Weather Woman
Janet James as Julian
Kulvinder Ghir as Bill, Tom and Ajay
Archie Panjabi as Katy, Nisha and Meera

Trivia

This episode marks the introduction of the Bains family and the Greendale Rocket.
This is the first episode without a narrator.
This is the first episode not to be animated by Woodland Animations. Instead, it is animated by Cosgrove Hall.
From this point onwards, the characters have moving lips.
This is the first episode with a full voice cast.
This is Melissa Sinden, Janet James, Kulvinder Ghir and Archie Panjabi's first episode in the cast.
The barometer in the Bains house is the same one from Postman Pat and the Barometer.
Changes were made to recent BBC Broadcasts for the safety of younger viewers.
1. Mr Pringle's "off you go" line when the children begin to explore the station.
2. Julian's line "Try that gap down there"
3. Mr Pringle forcing the shed doors open.
4. The children flicking paint at each other from their brushes.
5. Pat hitting Ted Glen's hand with a mallet by accident.
6. Dorothy and the Reverend Timms kneeling on the track clearing weeds. In its place, the shot of Ted dusting the Rocket's nameplate and the shot of the Pringles and Gilbertsons cleaning up the station is shown again.
7. Pat holding up the hairdryer at Jess while cleaning the letters.
In recent BBC Broadcasts, Mrs. Goggins' line "I've always said 'a storm sends folk a wee bit loopy'." is cut.
This episode was adapted into a handheld videogame for Nintendo's GameBoy Advance.

Goofs

How would Pat know if Jess had said "Thank You" to Sarah Gilbertson?
Jess can be heard licking Sarah Gilbertson's face as a way of saying "Thank You", but his tongue is not seen.
When we first see the station, an up-turned plastic rubbish bin can be seen which would not have existed in the days of the railway's closure. Also under the boarded-up windows, the station cafe windows have shutters which would not have been invented when it closed down.
When the school first come to the station, Bill is missing his eyebrows.
Mr. Pringle should have known better than to let children explore a ruined and abandoned railway station, due to broken glass and splinted wood.
When Julian, Katy and Tom find the engine shed, Julian says "Have a look in." to the twins, but he does so himself.
The chains holding the engine shed doors shut should have had a pad lock on them.
When the school find the Greendale Rocket, Julian refers to it as a train even though the locomotive is the only stock standing in the engine shed.
Julian wipes dust off the Rocket's nameplate to read it, even though it is easy to make out before hand.
When Julian tells Pat he found the Greendale Rocket, Pat says "You never have!" when grammatically he should have said "You never did!"
During the meeting at the school, Ted is missing his eyebrows.
In real life, it would take a strong vehicle to move the Rocket of its shed instead of just a few men.
When Pat and Ted start cleaning the Rocket, Pat removes a large piece of moss that was not there before.
Aerial shots show the overgrown trees cleared up around the station, but not when the camera is level with the set. Aerial shots also show that a car park has been built outside the station, but other shots show that area is still covered in trees.
When Nisha, Meera and Nikhil arrive at the station, Meera says "Look, Mum, that must be him." without moving her lips.
Mrs. Goggins says Pat should not be driving in the wind and rain, so what does she expect him to do in order to get the post through instead?
Before Pat comes to the first flooded road, Jess has been blurred out as he is not meant to be there, but this only makes it too much more obvious and Jess can still be easily seen.
When Pat comes to the first flooded road, he says "Oh, dear! Floods everywhere!" without moving his lips. The same thing happens again when Pat comes to the next flooded road and says "Floods everywhere!"
The stormy scenes look more like they take place during the night than a stormy day.
When Mrs. Goggins says "Oh well at least you tried, Pat." a small dot appears under her mouth. Then when she says "We'll have to cancel the grand opening. Who'd want to stand about watching a steam train in this weather?" the dot is above her mouth.
Despite how strong the wind was, Pat's hat did not blow off in the wind. However, the wind briefly tugs at P.C. Selby's helmet even though it is a heavier form of head gear than Pat's hat.
For some reason, Pat has his van windows open in the rain.
For some reason, Pat turns off his van's engine when he comes to the second flooded road.
Between his first two trips to the post office on the day of the storm, the hands on the clock in the post office are pointing to 7 o'clock.
Ajay's eyebrows are missing when he gets the Rocket finally on the move.
In real life, there would have been too many mail bags to store on the Rocket's coal bunker.
To transport the mail bags, Ajay, Pat and Ted should have used the mail truck to start with instead of piling them on top of the coal in the Rocket's coal bunker.
"Naughty" is not the word to describe Jess stowing away in Nikhil's buggy.
Pat, Ajay and Ted should not really be drinking mugs of tea whilst driving a railway engine.
All three mail bags are perched on the Rocket's coal bunker on the journey back to Greendale, but when they arrive, one is in the Rocket's cab with Ted.
As Pat, Ted and Ajay carry mail bags to the post office, Ajay says "Are we nearly there, Pat?" even though they had just walked past it and gone round the corner from it in the previous shot.
Pat should have reckoned that Jess might have escaped again through the bottom of his jacket.
At one point, the post office is missing its sign.
A lot of the letters have had all the writing smudged off from the rain, so Pat cannot possibly have delivered it all.
In the shot before Pat delivers the Reverend's letters, Jess is still not in the van. Pat has also his windscreen wipers on even though the rain has stopped and there is no more left to wipe off.
The Rocket was still to far away to drown out Meera when she first tries to tell Julian she's moving to Greendale.
Julian talks about Pencaster as if it is hundreds of miles away even though it is only the neighbouring town. Any how, Julian should know that the distance between Greendale and Pencaster should mean nothing after the grand re-opening of the Greendale Light Railway and its station.
We see Meera mouth "Greendale" while the Rocket whistles. Before hand, she pauses after she says "we're moving soon to..." while the Rocket whistles. If Meera realised the Rocket was going to drown out what she was going to say, why did she bother carrying on anyway. Then Meera later says she was going to tell Julian, even though she already had.
When the Rocket pulls into the station at the grand opening, Ted is not in the cab with Ajay.