18 October: The Magic Roundabout

On this date in 1965, The Magic Roundabout was first shown on British TV. 10 things you might not know about it:

1. The series was originally in French and was called Le Manège Enchanté ('The Enchanted Merry-Go-Round'). It was written by Serge Danot, and animated by Ivor Wood and his wife, Josiane. Ivor Wood would later go on to animate The Herbs, Paddington Bear and Postman Pat.
2. The series features Mr Rusty's Magic Roundabout in the Magic Garden, which, at the start of the first episode, has somehow lost its magic, and the children no longer come to play there. A parcel arrives and inside it is a magical jack-in-the-box called Zebedee (Zebedee was originally created from a giant Pea which happened to be lying around in the animation studio. They painted it Red and added a face and the rest is history) who restores the magic.
3. The other characters include a girl called Florence and her friends Paul, Basil and Rosalie; Dougal, a Skye terrier based on the comedian Tony Hancock, Brian the Snail, Ermintrude the Cow (said to be based on the narrator's wife), Dylan the hippy Rabbit (named after Bob Dylan), a talking train, and Mr McHenry the elderly gardener who rode around on a tricycle.
4. The BBC turned it down at first, because they felt the script would be too difficult to dub into English. However, they had the idea of having a narrator tell the stories instead. The person the BBC hired to write and voice the narration was Eric Thompson, father of the actress Emma Thompson. He'd watch the footage on a special machine he operated with his foot, a pad and pencil on his lap, and write the stories.
5. The narrated stories in the English version bore little if any resemblance to the original French ones. Thompson not only made up new stories from watching the footage without any sound, but changed the names of a lot of the characters as well. Dougal was originally called Pollux; Zebedee was Zébulon; Brian was Ambroise; Ermintrude was Azalée; Dylan was Flappy; Florence was Margote; Mr Rusty was le Père Pivoine and Mr McHenry was Bonhomme Jouvence.
6. Each episode was just five minutes long and the show would be the final children's programme each weekday before the news at six o'clock. This timing ensured that as well as the kids and their parents, adults who turned on to watch the news would be watching as well. There would regularly be over 8 million viewers and the show gained a cult following. Whenever the BBC tried to move it to a different time it would get complaints, for example: "I should like to know how the BBC thinks I am going to regain my equilibrium after teaching all day if there is no Magic Roundabout to come home to?"
7. Why did the grownups like it so much? Possibly because they could interpret a lot of it with reference to the politics of the day (some said Dougal was named for De Gaulle and his interactions with Ermintrude the cow were a satire of Anglo-French relations at the time) but perhaps more likely, references to drug culture. Dougal's fondness for Sugar lumps suggested to some that he might be on LSD as that was a common way of taking that drug. Dylan usually appeared to be stoned and even Zebedee was said to be on speed because he was so jumpy. The Magic Roundabout itself could be compared with taking a trip.
8. There were two feature films in 1972 and 2005. The 1972 version introduced a new character called Buxton the Blue Cat who was from the North of England. He was welcomed by all the other characters except for one – Dougal. This film sailed even closer to the wind in terms of the drug references. The 2005 film featured a star-studded cast of voices: including Robbie Williams (Dougal), Bill Nighy (Dylan), Joanna Lumley (Ermintrude), Jim Broadbent (Brian), Kylie Minogue (Florence), Lee Evans (The Train), Sir Ian McKellan (Zebedee), and Ray Winstone (Soldier Sam). This story introduced us to Zebedee's evil twin, Zee-Bad, voiced by Tom Baker.
9. In 1992 it was discovered that there were 39 episodes which had never received the Eric Thompson treatment. Sadly, he'd died by then, so these episodes were narrated by Nigel Planer and shown on Channel 4.
10. The B side of Jasper Carrott's 1975 hit Funky Moped is a parody of The Magic Roundabout performed live.

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