The Magic Roundabout was 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[1] and Wood's French wife, Josiane, was broadcast from 1964 to 1974 on ORTF (Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française). The BBC originally rejected translating the series because it was "charming... but difficult to dub into English",[1] but later produced a version of the series using the French footage with new English-language scripts that bore little relation to the original storylines. This version, written and told by Eric Thompson, was broadcast in 441 five-minute-long episodes from 18 October 1965 to 25 January 1977.
