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Children's television series

The Magic Roundabout is an English language children's television programme that ran from 1965 to 1977. It used the footage of the French stop motion animation show Le Manège enchanté but with completely different scripts and characters. The French series, created by Serge Danot with the help of Ivor Wood

Although the characters are common to both versions, they were given different names and personalities depending on the language. The main character is Dougal (also known as Doogal) (Pollux in the original French language version), who was a drop eared variety of the 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. There are two notable human characters: Florence (Margote), a young girl; and Mr Rusty (le Père Pivoine), the elderly moustached operator of the roundabout. Other characters included Mr McHenry (Bonhomme Jouvence), the elderly gardener who rode 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 very rarely in subsequent episodes. Dougal, Brian, Ermintrude and Dylan all reside in a place called The Magic Garden (Beautywood in the US version). The exact distance from where the roundabout and The Magic Garden are in relation to each other was never specifically stated, but, given Zebedee and Florence would always travel there by magical teleportation, it was either considerably far away or it was simply faster to get there by those means. The show has a distinctive visual style. The set is a brightly coloured and stylised park containing the eponymous roundabout (a fairground carousel). The programmes were created by stop motion animation, which meant that Dougal was made without legs to make him easier to animate. Zebedee was created from a giant pea which was available in the animation studio and was re painted. The look of these characters was the responsibility of British animator Ivor Wood, who was working at Danot's studio at the time (and who subsequently animated The Herbs, Paddington Bear, Postman Pat, Gran and Bertha).

Narration in the British BBC version was entirely new and bears very little to no resemblance to the French version. It was created by Eric Thompson from just the visuals, without any translation of the French scripts by Serge Danot. The first British broadcasts were shown every weekday on BBC1 at 17:50, just before the early evening news at 17:55. while Total Film ranked it as the 45th worst children's movie ever made. The two disc special edition of the UK DVD of the film features five of the original Magic Roundabout episodes (including the English version of "Mr. Rusty Meets Zebedee", the very first episode from 1965) on the second disc. They are all presented in the original black and white with the option of viewing them in English or in the original French. In 2006, the film was released in the U. S. as Doogal. The majority of original British voices were replaced by celebrities more familiar to the American public, such as Whoopi Goldberg and Chevy Chase. Only two original voices remained: those of Kylie Minogue and Ian McKellen. The final North American version was panned. As of September 2020, it had an 8% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It received a score of 23 out of 100 ("generally unfavorable") on Metacritic, and an F rating from Entertainment Weekly magazine. It was also a financial failure, grossing a total of 7.2 million dollars in the United States, which is considered low by CGI animated film standards.

In 2007, a new TV version of The Magic Roundabout was created, with 52 x 11 minute episodes. The series was produced by Action Synthese, Films Action, Ellipsanime and Play Production with the participation of M6, Nickelodeon UK and Disney Television France. The scripts and voices were produced in the UK. The show was directed by Graham Ralph of Silver Fox Films and produced by Theresa Plummer Andrews. Using the CGI designed versions of the original characters from the 2005 movie also produced by Action Synthese, the only new characters taken from the film are Mr. Grimsdale the baker and Soldier Sam. The series takes place after the events of the 2005 film of the same name. The new series also created a few original characters of its own such as Fly and Dougal's Auntie Primrose. Every episode would begin with Zebedee giving a brief summary to the audience of what will happen, before the plot begins. The episodes would also end with Zebedee throwing a party after the problems have been solved, with Dylan droopily remarking, "I wish it was time for bed, man " (in reference to the original series' quote "Time for bed") before drifting off to sleep. The series was first broadcast in the UK from 22 October 2007 at 8.00 am on satellite channel Nick Jr. It was also broadcast on the children's channel of China Central Television (CCTV 14) in Chinese during 2017 and was briefly available on Netflix in the US. In October 2008, a Double DVD Bumper Pack Boxset of the 2007 reboot was released from Abbey Home Media, called Dougal's Darling and The Wishing Tree. It featured 12 Season 1 episodes, all of which are in order except for the two titular episodes. In 2010, a second season of 52 11 minute episodes was created. This season included ZDF as an additional participator.

In 1975, Jasper Carrott released "The Magic Roundabout" (originally featured on his first live LP Jasper Carrot – In the Club), a short, risqué comic monologue, parodying the children's TV series, as the B side of a 7 inch single, featuring his comic song "Funky Moped" on the A side. The record was a hit, reaching number 5 in the UK Singles Chart. The show's theme music also featured on two minor UK hit singles in 1991, "Summer's Magic" by Mark Summers and "Magic Style" by The Badman.

In 1971, BBC Records released The Magic Roundabout (RBT 8), an LP containing 10 stories taken from the soundtracks of the TV series as told by Eric Thompson. The stories were: "Dougal's Experiment", "A Starry Night", "The Moody Concerto", "Dougal's Adventure", and "The Stiff Necked Heliotropes" on side one and "The Birds School", "The Piano Carrier", "Banana Skin", "The Musical Box", and "The Announcer" on side two. This album has been re released twice on CD by the BBC, first in 2005 (BBC Audio:Children's) to coincide with the 'new' film and again in 2010 (Vintage Beeb), featuring the original LP artwork and a bonus interview with Eric Thompson. French soundtrack recordings were also issued in France in the 1960s on three EPs and again on an LP Pollux in 1983, along with an original single "C'est moi Pollux".

Giant versions of Dougal and Zebedee, both the size of a small house, are featured in The Goodies episode "The Goodies Rule – O. K.?" Dougal also makes a brief appearance in another Goodies episode, "It Might as Well Be String". The title and characters appeared as a regular weekly feature in the children's comics TV Toyland, Playhour, Bonnie, and Playgroup. In Playhour Gordon Hutchings drew comic strips based on The Magic Roundabout for that magazine's front cover. No. 8 Squadron RAF nicknamed their Avro Shackleton early warning aircraft after characters from the show as well as characters from The Herbs.