When, as a young lad, my great-grandad was running around the Lake District fells above High Swinklebank in Longsleddale “helping” his father with the sheep there was no way he could have pictured the life of a 21st century youngster.

In the mid-19th century there were no cars and other motors, let alone television. No Postman Pat trundled up the vale in his little red van to deliver the daily mail. This was a remote place in those days.

A century and a half later millions of children (and adults too!) came to love watching Pat deliver longingly-anticipated envelopes and parcels to the good people of Greendale, originally based on the Longsleddale valley.

Now the Westmorland Gazette reports that Pat is to hit the big screen in a 3-D animated feature length film. I look forward to it in my return to childhood.