Radio Times spoke to Josiane Wood, who worked on the French original – Le Manège enchanté, and many later projects – with her animator husband Ivor. Born in 1932 in Yorkshire to an English father and French mother, Ivor moved with his family to Lyon in France. Josiane was born in Egypt to a French mother and Russian father, and they also moved to Lyon, which was her mother's birthplace.
“We got married in Lyon,” says Josiane. “We moved to Paris and Ivor at the time [in the 1960s] was working at La Comète, which was an advertising company. That’s where he met Serge Danot, and where it all started.”
It took a month to shoot five minutes of film but Josiane didn't know what the animators could get the characters to do: “I didn’t have a clue how they were working. The chaps were shooting in Danot’s house in Malakoff [a suburb of Paris], and I remember going to them and saying, 'How can he move? Can he lift an arm? Can he walk?'
In other words, they were frequently multi-skilling? "A little bit," Josiane laughs. "You know, when you have to, you do it!"
“They were completely different,” says Josiane of the two versions. “I think Eric based it on what he was seeing on the films, and there was only one voice telling a story. In France we had different voices for each character.”
Actor Eric Thompson was a regular presenter on children's series Play School, and creator Joy Whitby thought he would be perfect for the Magic Roundabout job. He had a warmth to his voice that reassured youngsters, and a dry wit in his scripts, often voiced through the Tony Hancock-like figure of Dougal, that entertained adults.
When in 1966 the programme was moved from its pre-6pm News slot to an earlier slot of 4.55pm, there was an outcry among adults not yet back from work. And the BBC soon reversed its decision.
For this young fan, the show provided little, five-minute blasts of colour, comedy and fantastical escape. I especially enjoyed the sight of Dougal tucking into his favourite snack of sugar lumps, Mr McHenry whizzing about on his tricycle, Dylan (named after Bob Dylan) finding somewhere shady to have a snooze, and the trackless Train going off-piste. And I can remember making my own Zebedee, using a ping-pong ball, after watching Blue Peter.
Among the legions of fans of The Magic Roundabout is Tom Sanders, a director working in the animation business today. "The inclusion of Eric Thompson dubbing over the animation was a stroke of genius," he tells Radio Times. "This coupled with the eccentric, off-the-wall characters really resonated with the audience.
"I think it also came from the heart and that shows. It was Ivor, Serge and the whole team’s first venture into TV and they really put their heart and souls into it. Serge found that hard to replicate afterwards, as many creatives do, but Ivor seemed to use this as merely a starting point to a hugely successful career."
"So we set up with Ivor a small studio next to where Edith Piaf was born. We did The Herbs there and [spin-off series] The Adventures of Parsley. Ivor was bringing the films over to London, commuting, really. So in the end the BBC and Graham said, ‘This is ridiculous. You’re working for us, why don’t you move to London?’ And that’s how we came over.”
The Herbs (1968) proved to be another winner. Youngsters adored its colour, humour and songs – this time voiced by Gordon Rollings, another Play School stalwart. Each of Michael Bond's characters was the personification of a herb: Parsley was a shy lion, Dill a frantic dog, Sage a liverish owl, and so on.
"Ah, they're lovely," agrees Josiane. And it wasn't just the human and animal characters that were distinctive but also the intricate miniature sets and props, from brick walls to greenhouses and iron railings. "We met Rafael Esteve, who is Spanish and he worked in the theatre, mainly. He was absolutely fabulous at doing what Ivor was asking as sets. He was very inventive and could use metal... extraordinary. An absolutely charming man."
Despite some renovations that were done in the 1990s, all of the models were originals made by Ivor Wood.
STANDING OUT IN A CROWDPaddington followed in 1976, with Bond loving Ivor’s idea to have cut-out humans surrounding a furry, 3D bear to make him stand out. "Michael refused a lot of pilot films because he didn’t like what was done," adds Josiane. "And then when Ivor came with cutout paper at the back he fell in love with that because suddenly Paddington, being the main character, was quite prominent, which had been the main issue."
"I can come in here and shut the door and suddenly I’m in another world. I suppose I’ve never really grown up. Look at all the people who spend their lives doing work they don’t like, and we just come in here and enjoy ourselves."
With their recycling nous and green philosophy, and despite their diminutive stature, The Wombles were soon massive, especially backed by Bernard Cribbins's narration and Mike Batt's music. The beauty, as ever, lay in the detail: the way old newspapers were used to line the Wombles' burrow, for instance, or the way their noses would wrinkle whenever they ate – like Paddington tucking into his marmalade sandwiches.
DELIVERING THE GOODSHowever, the success of the projects didn't preclude hardship from the Woods' world. In fact, they had to remortgage their house to finance production of Postman Pat.
But as we often saw in their programmes, there was a happy ending. Beginning in 1981, Postman Pat turned out to be a first-class production, running to the great enjoyment of big and small viewers for 184 episodes, with books and videos selling all around the world.
Woodland Animation went on to produce Gran (1983), about an adventurous old lady and her grandson, Jim. It was created by Michael and Joanna Cole of Bod and Fingerbobs fame, and was narrated by Patricia Hayes, who said, "The programme is gentle, amusing and beautifully illustrated." Radio Times went behind the scenes to photograph Ivor with one of those lovely dioramas that his series were famous for.
"Ivor wanted to do something a bit different and quirky. It was based on the Laurel and Hardy style. For the scriptwriting it was an American lady, Jocelyn Stevenson. It’s fun but in those days it didn’t take off because we were told by the BBC that the clown was out of fashion."
Does that include Ivor and Josiane's son Sean? "Oh no!" says Josiane. "Sean was part of it because he did help sometimes. The funny thing when he was at school, was that people used to ask what his father did. And innocently, he said, 'Oh he’s playing with dolls.' It didn’t go down very well, as you can imagine! [laughs]."
"Ivor’s visual storytelling is also a huge part of why these characters and shows are so endearing. They each have little quirks and nuances that make them unique, whether it's Pat’s limp – apparently the armature was made too short on one side – or Charlie’s eccentric cartwheels halfway through a walk."
Incredibly, Ivor only won one award for his wonderful work, the silver medal at the New York Film and Television Festival in 1979 for Paddington. “He was a very humble man, very shy, and he didn’t really push that side,” says Josiane. It seems Ivor let his work do the talking – and it did, to millions all around the world.
The Magic Roundabout Story is on Saturday at 7pm on BBC Four, followed by a 1968 episode at 8pm.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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