He commented in 2015 that "I got maybe half a dozen people last year saying they were the inspiration.

It bears some resemblance to Lancaster, the county town of Lancashire, which likewise is a short commute from Longsleddale, the area used as the inspiration for Greendale. John Cunliffe wrote the original treatment and scripts for the series, which was directed by animator Ivor Wood, who also worked on The Magic Roundabout, The Wombles, Paddington, and The Herbs. In his new role, Postman Pat commutes to the nearby town of Pencaster where he collects his special deliveries from the Pencaster Mail Centre.In 2004, the entire original series was released on DVD in Spain, featuring both English and Spanish audio options. The new series was commissioned by the BBC and produced by Entertainment Rights and Cosgrove Hall Films. The theme song has undergone several adaptations; from 1994 to 2006, the theme tune had additional instruments such as synthesised strings and a tambourine.

Cunliffe, interviewed about the series, has said that he chose the character of a postman since he needed a character who could visit the countryside and interact with many different people. For items that are dispatched using our standard service, we ask that you wait 14 days from the date of dispatch before reporting any items as undelivered. The edits made to the intro on the DVD involved some shots being replaced by scenes from "Pat's Difficult Day", "Pat Takes A Message", and "Pat's Foggy Day". Ingledale is another large, busy village town situated in the heart of the North Yorkshire countryside, only seen once in a special in 1991, set to make a second appearance in the revival.A new version of the series was produced by Cosgrove Hall Films from 2003 to 2008 and expanded on many aspects of the original series. The results of the study suggested that faster-paced television did not negatively impact children's attention spans, problem-solving, or comprehension. In Series 3, Kulvinder Ghir, Janet James, and Archie Panjabi joined to voice the new characters and the child characters, while Boyd continued to voice the adult females, Charlie and Sarah, Melissa Sinden and Jimmy Hibbert also joined to perform the animal characters' vocal effects and Angela Griffin joined in Series 5 to voice a new character. In 1987, Spitting Image, the topical satirical puppet series, featured "Temporary Postman Pratt" [23] in a send-up of Royal Mail's employment of temporary postal workers during busy times.

The gentle pace of life allowed Pat plenty of time to enjoy the countryside as he passed through, or even stop on quiet days to have a picnic. It was installed during the 1990s, was relocated during 2008 in preparation for a new animal area and was revamped a third time for 2013. Pratt likes to clear his workload as quickly as he can by dumping the post rather than delivering it.In this series, Pat had a family shown on screen for the first time (though his wife had been mentioned in a number of episodes [4]).

While Cunliffe visited post offices for inspiration, he has said that the character and village was not based on any one place or person. For Series 1, the original opening titles which featured Pat driving in the original version of his van with a crown logo (which Pat used until Pat's Thirsty Day) was replaced with an edited version of the shot for shot remake of the original intro (which had Pat driving the Royal Mail Van) as used when the show aired in countries like France and Australia. In Series 2, Carole Boyd joined to voice all the female characters and child characters except Granny Dryden who was still voiced by Barrie. In Series 7, Barrie left completely and MacLeod, Bradley Clarkson, and Dan Milne took over the rest of Barrie's characters.In the opening titles, Pratt can be seen driving a familiar (though yellow in colour) van along country roads before running over a black and white cat. On 3 February 2014, the first and second series were made available in their entirety for the first time in the UK, However, the titles are both season 2 with the season 3 theme which came under scrutiny from classic fans and also credits Carole Boyd as doing voices in series 1, despite it being only Ken Barrie at the time. Each episode on this DVD ends with remade credits and the Series 2 outro scenes with the "What's In His Bag" ending song of 2003-2006.