1960s Fun On The Magic Roundabout

Everyone who grew up  in the 1960s and 1970s must have memories of The Magic Roundabout. We loved it in our family and that five minute slot before the early evening news was always eagerly awaited. Originally a French children's TV programme known as Le Manège enchanté it was bought by the BBC and completely re written and redubbed by the brilliant Eric Thompson in 1965. It ran from October 1965 to Jan 1978 and became cult viewing. At one point it was moved from it's slot just before the news to earlier in the children's viewing schedule and the BBC was inundated with complaints from grown ups! The Magic Roundabout had a very distinctive style, the look of which was the responsibility of Ivor Wood who worked at Danot's studio in France at the time. Ivor Wood went on to create The Herbs (another great favourite of mine), The Wombles, Paddington Bear and Postman Pat.

BBC The Magic Roundabout

Dougal was always our favourite character. He was a little dog who appeared to float along and always seemed to have a put down for every occasion. We called our little Yorkshire Terrier puppy after him in 1971, although the original Dougal in the TV programme was based on a Skye Terrier. The other characters were Zebedee the jack in a box, Brian the snail, Ermintrude the cow and Dylan the rabbit named after Bob Dylan, The two human characters were Florence the little girl and Mr Rusty the operator of the roundabout. I remember one of the first black and white episodes of The Magic Roundabout when Florence met Zebedee and went through to the magic garden which seemed like such a magical concept to me. I remember the children on the roundabout in those first few episodes took a bit more of an active part! They certainly didn't as the episodes progressed. Apparently though their names were Basil, Paul and Rosalie. I found this Magic Roundabout mug at a car boot sale dated 1967 showing how popular it was at the time.

1960s Magic Roundabout Mug

For everyone who feels as nostalgic as I do about The Magic Roundabout I have added three episodes from the programme below that I found on YouTube. The first is an early black and white charming French version when Florence went into the magic garden for the first time. I remember the English version of this so well. The second is an early episode called The Rocking Chair and the third is a later colour episode from 1970.