The Magic Roundabout

Did You Know?

• The show's theme by Alain Legrand was a cheerful organ tune; in early black-and-white episodes it was played more slowly with a degree of sadness.
• In 1971, BBC Records released an LP titled "The Magic Roundabout" containing 10 stories from the TV series soundtracks as told by Eric Thompson.
• A revival of the series is in development at Mediawan through Method Animation and Wildseed Studios, with Jérôme Brizé's production company Magic! co-producing.

Characters

The main character is Dougal (also known as Doogal; Pollux in the original French), a drop-eared Skye Terrier. Other characters include Zebedee (Zébulon), a talking jack-in-the-box with magical powers; Brian (Ambroise), a snail; Ermintrude (Azalée), a cow; and Dylan (named after Bob Dylan; Flappy), a hippy rabbit. Two notable human characters are Florence (Margote), a young girl, and Mr Rusty (le Père Pivoine), the elderly moustached operator of the roundabout. Additional characters include Mr McHenry (Bonhomme Jouvence), an elderly gardener who rides a tricycle, and a talking locomotive with a 4-2-2 wheel arrangement and a two-wheel tender. Three other children—Paul, Basil and Rosalie—appeared in the original black-and-white serial and in the credit sequence of the colour episodes, but rarely thereafter. The characters live in a place called The Magic Garden (Beautywood in the US version). The show’s visual style features a brightly coloured, stylised park containing the eponymous roundabout. Dougal was made without legs to ease stop-motion animation, and Zebedee was created from a repainted giant pea. The look of the characters was the responsibility of British animator Ivor Wood.

English-language version

The British BBC version featured entirely new narration by Eric Thompson, created from the visuals alone without any translation of the French scripts. Thompson provided all the voices, unlike the French version where each character had a different actor. The first broadcasts aired every weekday on BBC1 at 17:50, just before the early-evening news, a slot it kept for most of its run except for brief periods in 1966, 1972 and 1973. This was the first time an entertainment programme had been transmitted in this way in the UK. The original series was made in black-and-white; from the second series onward it was made in colour, though the BBC continued to broadcast it in black-and-white. The first colour episode, titled "Chocolate Soldiers", was transmitted on 5 October 1970. At the time, BBC1 was still broadcast on the VHF band, limited to 405 lines and not supporting colour, while BBC2 was in colour on the UHF band using PAL transmission for 625 lines.

Foreign-language versions

In Italy, the series was known as "La giostra incantata" and part of it was broadcast from 1970 by RAI. Pollux/Dougal was renamed Bobo (initially Peluche), and each character had its own voice. The series was later redistributed to local broadcasters as "Bobo & Company". In Portugal, the series was called "Carrossel Mágico" (spelled "Carrocel Mágico") and aired on RTP in 1966. The dub was based on the original French version, with characters having their own voices; Pollux/Dougal was renamed "Franjinhas". It was the first foreign children's series to be dubbed into European Portuguese. In Germany and Austria it was translated to "Das Zauberkarussell"; most characters received different names except Dougal and Zebedee, who retained their French names Pollux and Zebulon. In Austria, a special version called "Gucki und seine Freunde" aired in 1974/75 as part of "Betthupferl", in which Cookie and his friend Apollonius entered the garden through a hole in a tree. In the United States, the series was called "The Magic Carousel" and aired in the 1980s on Pinwheel on Nickelodeon. This version used American actors, including Michael Karp as Dougal, and was based on the original French incarnation with word-for-word translations and voices similar to the French dub. Dylan and Mr McHenry retained their French names (Flappy and Bonhomme Jouvence), while Mr Rusty took Mr McHenry's name; most other characters kept their British names. In the Netherlands, a Dutch version aired by the NTS as "De Minimolen" ran from 5 June to 30 September 1967 on a six-days-per-week basis. The script was written by Wim Meuldijk. A brief second run aired in late summer 1980.

Film versions

Unlike the TV series, both Magic Roundabout films introduced a villain. In 1970, Serge Danot made a longer film, later adapted by Eric Thompson for British audiences as Dougal and the Blue Cat. The story begins when Dougal grows suspicious of a blue cat named Buxton who appears in the Magic Garden. Buxton serves an unseen voice, the Blue Voice, emanating from an abandoned factory, with the goal of turning everything blue. The garden’s residents are imprisoned, leaving Dougal to devise a rescue plan. A notable scene involves Buxton exploiting Dougal’s weakness by locking him in a sugar-filled room. The Blue Voice was voiced by Fenella Fielding, the only character Thompson did not voice himself. A 2005 computer-animated film, also titled The Magic Roundabout, follows Dougal, Ermintrude, Brian, and Dylan on a quest to stop Zeebad, Zebedee’s evil twin, who aims to create an eternal winter. Unlike the original series, each character had its own voice, provided by actors including Tom Baker, Joanna Lumley, Ian McKellen, Jim Broadbent, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, Ray Winstone, Bill Nighy, and Lee Evans. The film received mixed reviews, earning a 50% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Total Film ranked it the 45th worst children’s movie ever. The UK two-disc special edition DVD includes five original black-and-white episodes, viewable in English or French.