As Dougal and friends turn 60, Radio Times explores the magic behind The Magic Roundabout

“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.”

Former ad executive Danot created the show using stop-motion animation, assisted by Ivor, while Josiane wrote episodes “because they were stuck in the beginning for a scriptwriter. In those days we had a tiny flat outside Paris, I used to have a tiny typewriter, typing on an ironing board because we didn’t have tables or anything like that!”

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?'

"And according to that I was writing as I went along. So it was quite funny. But I have a little bit of imagination, so it worked.” There were other tasks, too: “We did a lot of the little flowers, the leaves on the trees. That was all thrown on the bed, working all night and day to glue everything.”

In other words, they were frequently multi-skilling? "A little bit," Josiane laughs. "You know, when you have to, you do it!"

Characters in Le Manège enchanté, which first aired in 1964, included a dog called Pollux, a girl called Margot, Ambroise the snail and Zébulon. A year later, after the BBC saw the show’s huge success in France, an English version used the same footage but it was now written and narrated by Eric Thompson. And those same characters became Dougal, Florence, Brian and Zebedee.

“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.

As for all the props and models, Ivor made a lot of them himself: “He had a funny approach to everything: colourful and fun and a bit surrealistic.” Such was the craft involved that children were enchanted, and Dougal and co were soon everywhere – from wallpaper to cereal packets – especially when their escapades were viewed in colour in the early 70s.

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.

The popularity of the show merely mirrored the pattern laid down in France. As Serge Danot told Joan Bakewell on Late Night Line-up in 1968, his original series also had a wide-ranging audience: "De sept à soixante-dix-sept!"

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.

That wasn't the end of the Roundabout ride. A new series, narrated by Nigel Planer, was shown on Channel 4 in 1992, and there were two feature films, Dougal and the Blue Cat in 1970 and a 2005 CGI film, with Sir Ian McKellen, Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams among the voice artists.

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."

HERBIDACIOUS!
Indeed, Ivor then began a fruitful association with author Michael Bond and producer Graham Clutterbuck, who set up a European office in Paris for animation company FilmFair – for which Josiane kept records and the accounts. "Ivor shot something in our flat in Paris to show Graham and Michael what could be done," she says. "I’ve still got the puppet of that time, funnily enough, and a little bit of the film, which is quite interesting. And they were really happy with that.

"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."

Only 13 fifteen-minute episodes were made (plus 32 five-minute instalments of The Adventures of Parsley), and even though it has not been shown on British television for years, The Herbs caused a stir again in 2023. The reason? Puppets were exhibited, rather appropriately, at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey, causing a rush of nostalgia for visitors of a certain age.

Despite some renovations that were done in the 1990s, all of the models were originals made by Ivor Wood.

STANDING OUT IN A CROWD
Paddington 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."

TIDY TITANS
Another FilmFair classic that Ivor directed for the BBC, and that is remembered fondly to this day, is The Wombles. At the time Radio Times spoke to Wombles creator Elisabeth Beresford, and got a good insight into Wood's working methods on a visit to his studio in London’s West End. "I really couldn’t imagine myself ever doing anything else," he said.

"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.

Not that all of their children's TV hits were for the BBC. For ITV Ivor also worked on Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings (1974–6, with Cribbins and Batt involved again) and before that Hattytown Tales (1969–73).

DELIVERING THE GOODS
However, 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.

"Yes, very much so," says Josiane. "Ivor was still a freelance for FilmFair and [producer] Cynthia Felgate came to FilmFair and said, 'We have a project, why don’t you make it on your own? Why do you want to go through another company? You can do it.' So foolishly Ivor and myself said yes and then we realised the problems! That’s how Woodland Animation was created."

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.

Then there came Bertha (1985–6), about a factory machine with a mind of her own – Roy Kinnear and Sheila Walker providing the voices – and finally Charlie Chalk (1988–9), about a happy-go-lucky clown, which was Josiane's favourite series.

"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."

Is there a theme that runs through Ivor’s work? “They had a lot of charm,” says Josiane, adding, “they were character-based and he was always trying something new.” And he never wanted children in the studio while he worked “because he didn’t want to break their imagination”.

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]."

But it was this 3D style of animation that appealed to so many, including Tom Sanders: "The tangibility, the fact that they are real objects moving on screen. It gives this homely, comforting quality that really makes you feel like you’re a part of their world for that short time.

"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."

There are many who feel that more people need to know the name of Ivor Wood, who died in 2004. "Every generation since the 60s has grown up with one of his icons," adds Sanders. "Every decade has been spoilt by one of his incredible creations, and with new series of Postman Pat still being made today and The Wombles, under his designs, being remade as well, he continues to be a huge influence. So now I feel we need to show people behind the curtain and that there really was this incredible person behind their childhood and for this we should thank him."

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.

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