British television series
Animal Magic
|
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Opening title, 1970
|
Presented by
| Johnny Morris
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Country of origin
| United Kingdom
|
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No.
of series
| 42
|
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No.
of episodes
| 440
|
---|
|
Running time
| various
|
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|
Network
| BBC One
|
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Release
| 13 April 1962
(
1962-04-13
)
?
8 March 1983
(
1983-03-08
)
|
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Animal Magic
is a
BBC
children's television series which ran from 1962 to 1983 from BBC Bristol.
[1]
It began fortnightly and was transmitted weekly from 1964.
The presenter was
Johnny Morris
. The show combined jovial voiceovers applied to various animals from
Bristol Zoo
with some basic educational features.
Morris' co-presenters over the years were
Gerald Durrell
,
Tony Soper
,
Keith Shackleton
, Roger Tabor, Sheila Young,
David Taylor
and
Terry Nutkins
. When Nutkins joined the show in the early 1980s, the producers tried to update it, using new video effects technology. This allowed them to do such things as "shrink" the presenters to allow them to see life from an ant's viewpoint, or to swim in a riverbed for example.
Joe Henson
and
Desmond Morris
also appeared on the show. Dotty the
ring-tailed lemur
appeared as a regular guest for eight years in the 1970s. Other animal stars included the sea lion Gemini, and two parrots, Cocky (a sulphur-crested cockatoo) and Brolly (an umbrella cockatoo). The show was discontinued in 1983 when the programme's anthropomorphic treatment of animals fell out of fashion. A new children's wildlife series,
The Really Wild Show
, began in 1986, with the former
Animal Magic
co-presenter
Terry Nutkins
as the main host.
[2]
One edition, broadcast in late 1979, featured
Tom Baker
in character as
Doctor Who
, discussing ferocious animals on Earth and other worlds. During this programme, the Doctor references the events of the then-current serial,
The Creature From The Pit
.
The 100th edition was transmitted on 4 January 1967.
Many editions of the show were
junked
by the BBC in the early 1990s when they were assumed to be of no further use. Recent documentaries such as
The Way We Went Wild
have had to resort to using clips from off-air recordings of some shows.
[
citation needed
]
In addition to airing on the BBC, the series was also aired on
ABC
in Australia,
TV One
in New Zealand and
Channel 5
in Singapore.
Theme tune
[
edit
]
The signature tune, "Las Vegas", performed by Group Forty Orchestra, was written by
Laurie Johnson
for
KPM
in 1960.
[3]
[4]
It more recently featured as the theme music for BBC Two comedy
W1A
(2014?2017). Around 1980, the original orchestral version was replaced by a
funk
arrangement (featuring an electric guitar with a
wah wah pedal
).
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Sheridan, Simon (2004).
The A-Z of Classic Children's Television: From Alberto Frog to Zebedee
. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. pp. 43?46.
ISBN
1903111277
.
- ^
"Animal Magic"
. BBC.
- ^
"Animal Magic (1962)"
.
Soundtrack Collector
. Concept and Creation
. Retrieved
31 October
2014
.
- ^
The Historic Record Quarterly, Volumes 18–21
. J. R. Wrigley. 1991. p. 18.
External links
[
edit
]
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Television
| Landmarks
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series
(David Attenborough)
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Locations
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