Postman Pat is a British stop-motion animated children's television series first produced by Woodland Animations. It is aimed at pre-school children, and concerns the adventures of Pat Clifton, a postman in the fictional village of Greendale. Postman Pat′s first 13-episode series was screened on BBC1 in 1981. John Cunliffe wrote the original treatment and scripts, and it was directed by animator Ivor Wood, who also worked on The Magic Roundabout, Paddington Bear, and The Herbs. Following the success of the first series, and that of several TV specials in between, a second series of 13 episodes was produced by the same crew in 1996. Here, Pat had a family for the first time. A new version of the series has been produced by Cosgrove Hall from 2004, which expanded on many aspects of the original series. For the first time in the programme's history, Postman Pat was no longer sponsored by the Royal Mail, which previously had used the show as a marketing vehicle for them. This link was dropped in November 2000, with the Royal Mail spokesman saying the character no longer fitted in with the company's "corporate image". Subsequent to this decision, Postman Pat became an employee of the fictional Special Delivery Service.