First class news for Postman Pat fans: a very special delivery has arrived to celebrate the 30th birthday of the children’s favourite – news that the BBC TV series is to get a big-screen remake.


Postman Pat: The Movie will star Green Wing’s Stephen Mangan as the bumbling Royal Mail operative as well as a host of other A-list voice talents who will bring the village of Greendale alive on cinema screens for the first time.

The stellar cast for the CG 3D Stereoscopic film includes Oscar and Bafta winner Jim Broadbent, former Doctor Who star David Tennant and Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint.

For those worried that Postman Pat, originally broadcast in 1981, might struggle to be relevant to a 21st-century audience – fear not. The plot sees Pat coming face to face with the temptations of money, status and the outside world as he enters a TV talent show and gains national notoriety.

You can take the postman out of Greendale, but can you ever take Greendale out of the postman? Well, only time will tell.

On being cast as the voice for the lead character, Stephen Mangan said, “I’m absolutely thrilled to be playing the world’s best-known postman in his big-screen debut – he’s an iconic British hero and it’s a great script. However, when I excitedly told my three-year-old son that I was going to be Postman Pat, he said, ‘No you’re not, dad, don’t be silly.’”

Rupert Grint added, “I used to watch Postman Pat when I was a small boy. My brother and sisters all did at some stage. Postman Pat is one of those British symbols, I suppose – you are totally familiar with him and his cat, Jess, even if you have never watched the series. How exciting to be part of the Postman Pat heritage.”

Originally made by Woodland Animations from 1981 to 1996, Postman Pat has received several television reboots in the past decade and has remained on BBC television in some form almost continuously for the past 30 years.


Postman Pat: The Movie – You Know You’re the One begins production this month and is expected to arrive in UK cinemas in the spring of 2013.