The Magic Roundabout is a children's television show that aired in the United Kingdom in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It featured a group of colorful characters who lived in a magical world and had adventures together. The show was known for its unique animation style and imaginative storytelling. In recent years, there have been references and jokes made about drug use in relation to the Magic Roundabout. These references stem from the character names and some of the scenes depicted in the show. For example, one of the main characters is a rabbit named Dylan, which some people have speculated is a reference to the musician Bob Dylan and his association with drugs during the 1960s counterculture movement.
33. ABSOLUTE VERY FIRST TIME. MAGIC ROUNDABOUT
The absolute very first time I watched Magic Roundabout might just have been in the late 60s. I would’ve been under 5 so suspect I missed all the drug-taking references and simply took the show at face value ie Dougal was a normal paranoid dog with an unusual but entirely innocent desire for 'sugar lumps' and Dylan was one of the few hippies in Britain who wasn’t off his tits 90% of the time. And, as for that bouncing pea-headed creature called Zebedee….well, I’d hope that even my toddler self would have had his suspicions.
The show was originally created for French TV (albeit by an English animator called Ivor Wood – which sounds like the sort of name we’d dream up at school) but it was Emma Thompson’s dad who actually made it funny (the French would hardly have managed that on their own, would they) by coming up with new characters and dialogue based on the original footage. This isn’t the first time a bunch of Brits have injected humour into some worthy French nonsense – and I’m thinking Flashing Blade (re-written by Russell T. 'Dr Who' Davies no less), the Battle of Agincourt and the 2012 Olympics when London got the nod over Paris (granted, those last 2 aren’t the best examples but it’s good to remind our Gallic friends of these defeats once in a while).
And if you think me poking fun at the French seems a bit too xenophobic, wait until you hear about Emma's dad who steadfastly refused to take his family to a French restaurant, banned berets & striped jumpers from the house and created his ‘cheddar and brie’ storyline in one of the earlier episodes as a deliberate reference to cheese-eating surrender monkeys* so I’m a positive Francophile in comparison.
*ok, I made that last one up. and the one before (the first one's true though).
The great thing about putting Magic Roundabout on just 5 minutes before the news was that it encouraged the show’s UK team to appeal to both adults and kids, something which happens all the time now (Shrek, Toy Story, every animated film from Disney since 2000) but it was quite the rarity in the 60s and 70s. I’ve just watched an episode in which Ermintrude (the red-spotted pink cow) comments on nationalising the railways - a classic topic of kindergarten banter - and there’s another where, after Zebedee tells everybody that it’s time for bed, Florence politely answers “already?” (instead of “who TF do you think you are. my dad?” which is what she should’ve said) prompting the spring-loaded giant insect with the Sergeant Major moustache to explain it’s time for the news …..which of course it really was (thus breaking the 4th wall and paving the way for the Young Ones and Deadpool – who’d have thought?).
Dougal's name outraged the French creators because they thought it was a piss-take of their President, de Gaulle - something which Emma’s dad denied in a TV interview but, fingers crossed, he was just messing with their heads even more and it really was a piss-take all along. Dougal looked like a sausage dog (is that what he was? I’ve never really thought about it – he just didn’t have any legs and so would slide around like Brian the snail) and his depressing observations on life came straight from comedian Tony Hancock who, for any younger readers, used to spend a Half Hour entertaining our folks every week on the radio and considerably longer doing the same thing in person to the wife of Sergeant Wilson off Dad's Army.
Apparently, the cheerfully optimistic Brian was based on Eric Thompson himself whilst Mollie Sugden channelled the essence of Ermintrude to create her Mrs Slocombe character in Are You Being Served (although I don’t remember Ermintrude making so many references to her furry friend). By the way, I SO fancied Miss Brahms when I was younger but we didn't have a department store in my home town for me to fantasise about our inevitable meeting and I couldn't really imagine her behind the counter at Woolies weighing up my Pick n Mix (yes, I'm sure there's some sort of innuendo in there somewhere).
Florence, at face value, appeared to be a charming little girl with her rosy cheeks and that cheeky blue bow in her hair…..but she was also the one who supplied Dougal with his regular fix of ‘sugar lumps’. Just saying. And, as for Dylan, he was played by Bill Nighy in the 2004 movie which tells you all you need to know about the character.
As ever, the theme tune was truly memorable (although it sounded like it was recorded with 19th century technology - take a listen here). The opening and closing credits always had Florence and her 3 young friends (who she ignores for the rest of the programme) bunking off school and riding the horses on the carousel (with one horse mysteriously riderless – why no conspiracy theories on the internet?) while some lecherous old weirdo cranked the music box nearby and leered at them.
Besides the drug references, Magic Roundabout was often hijacked for lazy and cheap comedic purposes (this blog being a perfect case in point). In 1975, long before his TV series and his lucrative part-ownership of the rights to ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ and well before his daughter turned up on reception in The Office, Jasper Carrott had released a novelty single called Funky Moped which was languishing in the nether regions of the charts. He then happened across one of the two most effective marketing ploys of the 70s/80s to boost sales. Unable to convince ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty to feature his song on one of their Levi 501 jeans commercials (and, as a result, delaying Nick Kamen’s striptease in the laundrette for another 10 years), he did the next best thing and made sure the BBC listened to the B-Side of the single. It was a slightly risqué take on a Magic Roundabout script and, predictably, those pompous old farts at the BBC promptly banned it, thereby catapulting it into the Top 10 with sales of half a million copies.
Listening to it again, it's pretty tame compared to what came afterwards (a few years later, Frankie Goes to Hollywood had to tell us all to relax when we wanted to come before they could sit back and wait for Mike Read and his BBC bosses to do the rest) but the suggestion that Florence was not a virgin (apparently ‘she drops them for certain’) and Dougal’s literal response to being told to piss off by Dylan was sufficient provocation for the BBC in the 70s.
Although Eric Thompson’s subtle and gentle adult humour was enough to ruffle the feathers of the French creators, Jasper Carrott’s sexual innuendo might have been more to their liking (you know how kinky the French are). “Thanks for sticking up for me” says Florence with a wink at Dylan near the end of Jasper’s track. “Time for bed” is Dylan's sleazy reply. Touché, mon ami.
Fictional Characters You Know Are On Drugs
mario- super mushroom? giant turtles? castles? ghost? yo wtf!
sonic- he's taking speed, that's why he can't stop.
goofy- man, i'll have whatever the hell he's smoking.
daffy- after that divorce, alcohol, coke, greed, pills, speedy gonzalez, fame, rehab.
earthworm jim- hmmm. maybe the worm had some shroom soil an started trippin.
snap, crackle an pop- in real life they're heavy drug dealers selling cereal to the consumers of america; they're part of a drug ring called "the breakfast club".
anybody else got any more fictional characters that keeps us laughin from their drug antics
Silky Shagsalot
Well-Known Member
puff the magic dragon..Nukulhedd
Active Member
ren and stimpy were on lsdNukulhedd
Active Member
wait. i was on lsd when ren and stimpy was on..yeah..thats what i mentfdd2blk
Well-Known Member
perkie
Active Member
this is a old english cartoon from 1970's The Magic Round About
sorry bout the link i dont know how to upload vids on her
Flavoured with a laid-back and surreal view of life, the programme reflected a heavy sixties feel. It soon achieved a cult status. The programme featured a rather off-the-wall cast. Its included Dougal, a shaggy dog who lived on a strict diet of sugar; an eccentric bouncing character called Zebedee, who would announce his arrival with a 'boing'; a rabbit named Dylan, who could have been accused of growing something considerably stronger than carrots in his vegetable patch; Ermintrude the pink cow, Florence, Brian the snail and their friends in the Garden. Thus The Magic Roundabout staked its place in television history. The most famous sentence of the series was Zebedee's standard declaration "Time for Bed" sending millions of children to sleep every evening. The Magic Roundabout was re-run on channel 4 television at the end of last year, winning yet another generation of young fans.
The characters
Interesting points of view about the Magic Roundabout I discovered while surfing the net:
Martin Ridgwell of Manchester wrote:
"I have been told that the Magic Roundabout was originally a French political satire with each character representing a figure in French politics. Apart from guessing Dougal as De Gaulle, who are the others? FRENCH politicians? I find that hard to swallow. Those of us at a certain age know that the Magic Roundabout was an Early Learning introduction to drug culture: 'It's a marvellous feeling,' Mr Rusty told Dougal about a 'trip' on his roundabout. A staple part of common room conversation was to identify the illegal substance that each character represented. Many years and several flashbacks later, I now find it difficult to recall what they were . ah, let me see. Florence was a more butch version of our Alice, an innocent abroad; Dylan, the hippy bunny, was hashish; Brian was amphetamines. But what substance was produced from those flowers Ermitrude kept chewing, that once made her triple her size and fly away? And Dougal? At the time I thought his supply of sugar cubes had something to do with LSD but now I'm not so sure. Personally I'd like to know if there is any truth in the rumour that the BBC has banned it from our screens. Anyhow, time for bed."
The Magic Roundabout: from A to Zebedee
A is for Argyll, the unlikely birth place of a children's TV cult. In 1963, Eric Thompson was handed films of an obscure French children's animation when he was presenting Play School and asked to create a version in English. Instead of trying to translate, he sat in the kitchen of their house on Scotland's west coast, turned down the volume and made up words to match the pictures. His widow, the actor Phyllida Law says: "While I was skimming stones in the loch with the girls, Mr Thompson would set himself up by the range with his cricket table and a wee whisky and rewrite the show. He'd play the original on an old Steinbeck projector. and he'd operate it with his feet. It was a laborious job." This way of working explains two things: Dougal's otherwise perplexing obsession with his Scottish heritage and some of the scripts' surrealism. Thompson's eyesight was such he often could not tell the difference between, say, a sugar lump and a house. The girls, incidentally, grew up to be the a
A is for Argyll, the unlikely birth place of a children's TV cult. In 1963, Eric Thompson was handed films of an obscure French children's animation when he was presenting Play School and asked to create a version in English. Instead of trying to translate, he sat in the kitchen of their house on Scotland's west coast, turned down the volume and made up words to match the pictures. His widow, the actor Phyllida Law says: "While I was skimming stones in the loch with the girls, Mr Thompson would set himself up by the range with his cricket table and a wee whisky and rewrite the show. He'd play the original on an old Steinbeck projector. and he'd operate it with his feet. It was a laborious job." This way of working explains two things: Dougal's otherwise perplexing obsession with his Scottish heritage and some of the scripts' surrealism. Thompson's eyesight was such he often could not tell the difference between, say, a sugar lump and a house. The girls, incidentally, grew up to be the actors Emma and Sophie Thompson.
B is for Brian the snail. "Snails," as Brian himself says, "are underestimated." It is hard to imagine how many of Dougal the dog's harebrained schemes would have ended in disaster without the measured mollusc. Thompson chose to call him Brian because he hated soppy names for animals, and he believed he was closest in character to Brian (though Law has suggested that her husband more closely resembled Dougal). Jim Broadbent does the voice in the movie, not that great such a leap from playing John Bayley in Iris when you come to think about it.
C is for cow. Ermintrude the Ayrshire is Brian's biologically unlikely love interest and has been credited with inspiring Molly Sugden's performance as Mrs Slocombe in Are You Being Served? (though whether that is a good thing is up to you to decide). According to Law, the barking bovine was based on her "theatrical and vague" self.
D is for Danot. The son of a tanner from near Sevres, Serge Danot might well have spent his life as a decorator if he had not broken his foot in an accident. But by the time he came up with the idea for Le Manege Enchante, in the early 1960s, he was working in advertising. Teaming up with the British animator Ivor Wood (see W), Danot filmed the early episodes in a derelict Parisian apartment block. Unlike the British adaptation, the original version had a separate actor playing each part. By comparison, it was also low on jokes. Yet the tale of a deserted merry-go-round brought back to life through the magic of a jack-in-the-box called Zebulon proved an instant hit, though that may have had as much to do with the dreary output of the state broadcaster ORTF as it did with Danot's storytelling. About 700 five-minute episodes were made.
E is for Eiffel Tower. One of Danot's early jobs was to help paint the Parisian landmark. It is said to have left him with an abiding hatred of green paint, which legend has it accounts for the red, white, blue and orange colour scheme of the "Bois Joli" and (excepting whatever Dylan the hippy rabbit may or may not be smoking) its lack of grass.
F is for Florence. Any resemblance between the tough but tender heroine and Emma Thompson is entirely intentional. (See also K)
G is for Gandalf. Spot the difference. In The Lord of the Rings, the future of Middle Earth lies in the balance. The plucky hobbits cross treacherous mountains to stop the evil Lord Saramon obtaining the ring he needs for world domination. In The Magic Roundabout movie, the fate of the enchanted kingdom lies in the balance. Brian, Ermintrude, Florence and Dougal brave volcanoes and icy wilderness to recover three diamond rings which the malign ice sorcerer Zebad (voiced by Tom Baker) needs to bring perpetual winter to the world. The struggle between good and evil even includes a scene in which Zebedee and Zebad fire lightning bolts at each other. And who plays Zebedee? None other than Sir Ian "Gandalf" McKellen. No wonder the film has already been called Lord of the Springs.
H is for Hancock. Eric Thompson based both Dougal's character and voice on Tony Hancock, although the dog has also been compared to another comic legend. The New Statesman once memorably described Dougal as like "Alf Garnett's moustache out for a walk". (See also X)
Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video
Sign up now for a 30-day free trial
Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video
Sign up now for a 30-day free trial
I is for Iran. Among 28 countries to which the show has been exported, though what the ayatollahs make of a cow that wears women's clothing is anyone's guess.
J is for Jasper Carrott. In 1975, the Brummie comedian released the single "Funky Moped", which reached number five in the charts The real reason for its success was the B-side. This scatological sketch about dark goings-on in the enchanted garden questioned Florence's virginity and saw Dougal relieve himself on her. The BBC banned it, and predictably, it sold 500,000.
K is for Kylie. As well as lending her voice to Florence in the new film, the pop princess sings a new theme tune that is almost as sickly as Dougal's diet of sugar cubes. The original fairground theme was speeded (no pun intended, see L) for British tastes. In 1991, it was used in the dance tracks "Magic Style" by the Badman and "Summer's Magic" by the Badman.
L is for LSD and every other drug under the sun. This is the Magic Roundabout's answer to The Da Vinci Code. In the geekish mythology of children's television only the debate about whether Captain Pugwash had a character called Master Bates generates as much heat. (It did not). Conspiracy theorists have made much of Dougal's sugar-cube habit (LSD?) and Brian's speediness (amphetamines), while the rabbit's name, Dylan, and all-round spaciness have only fuelled speculation on about what he may have been smoking. And why, too, does Ermintrude spend all day chewing flowers which makes her head spin round? In this interpretation, Mr Rusty's invitation to the others to take a "trip" on the roundabout is far from innocent. The set's psychedelic colours and Zebedee's passing resemblance to Frank Zappa are wheeled out as supporting evidence. The only flaw with this theory is that when Serge Danot created the puppets, the 1960s drug culture did not exist. Interviewed last year, Danot's widow, Martine, was aghast at the idea. "On drugs? No, absolutely not. They were all sweet characters created entirely for children, Of course, they were products of their age, the 1960s, but drugs? No, maybe that's the way you saw it in Britain, but I can assure you that here in France nobody thinks or thought that."
M is for merchandising. For all its hippy-dippy vibe, the show was ahead of its time in terms of selling spin-offs, though it is hard to see how the hyperactive Dougal was the ideal role model for Dougal-branded dog food. These days, about £800 will secure you a mint Corgi Magic Roundabout Playground set in its box (although for not much more you could probably get a life).
N is for names. "The odd one was put in to amuse us," Phyllida Law says. "Aunt Megsie was my mother. Mr MacHenry [the gardener, left] was our local chemist. Buxton the evil Blue Cat (see Y) was a cousin of mine. Tom [Eric Thompson] thought it was an extraordinary name. Buxton was quite put out."
O is for old enough to know better. After the BBC moved the programme from its slot at 5.55pm, Oxford University students created a petition, and school teachers wrote to complain. The RAF once named a helicopter after Dougal, and (in the days before such celebrity names were common) a woman from Macclesfield shocked her neighbours by naming her child Zebedee in homage. Expect the Kylie connection to push "Florence" up the baby-name chart in 2005.
P is for Pollux, the French name for Dougal. Confusingly, he speaks and barks with an English accent (that's "bow wow" rather than "ouah-ouah", but musically, Pollux proves to be categorically, 100 per cent Gallic. Can you imagine any self-respecting English dog releasing a single with the lyrics "It's me Pollux, a little bit snobbish but not snobbish for luxury, I prefer my sugar to a cigar, I love the disco of Mr Rusty"?
Q is for queer theory and The Magic Roundabout. Only kidding, though there have been a few uncalled-for remarks about Florence's footwear.
R is for Robbie Williams. The singer's decision to accept the role of Dougal appears to be an attempt to overcome childhood trauma. "I was scared of animation when I was a kid," he says. " Doctor Who was no problem but as soon as Magic Roundabout came on I used to hide behind the sofa."
S is for sex. Another outlandish claim is that the roundabout represents wife-swapping, and the permissive society (no, I do not get it, either). True Magic Roundabout fans get irritated if you even suggest that Florence is Dougal's girlfriend. As one of the many fan sites points out, the makers were not that weird.
T is for terrier. Dougal is a Maltese terrier, not as some have suggested a hairy sausage-dog. True, his lack of legs is not anatomically accurate, but it made life an awful lot easier for Danot to shoot 24-shot-a-second stop-frame animation. Despite being CGI-animated, the new Dougal is still happily legless.
U is for urban planning. The Magic Roundabout is surely the only children's programme in history to have leant its name to a traffic junction. And not any old junction. Invented by some fiends at the Road Research Laboratory in 1972, Swindon's Magic Roundabout is a roundabout that itself contains five mini-roundabouts. Despite a game attempt by the council to call it County Islands, the nickname soon won out, a tribute perhaps to the sense of druggy panic it inspires in many motorists.
V is for verbosity. Eric Thompson, (who by now you may suspect was a little eccentric) did not feel children should be talked down to, and was even known to instigate sophisticated conversations with babies in prams. When a woman once wrote to complain that the adult vocabulary used in his Magic Roundabout scripts, he reached for the Oxford English Dictionary and proceeded to write a reply employing the longest words he could find.
W is for Wood, Ivor. After the animator finished his collaboration with Serge Danot, he went on to create Postman Pat and The Wombles. This can only be meat and drink to dedicated drugs and sex conspiracy theorist, a relentlessly cheerful man with an enlarged nose who delivers packages all day, and a group of characters who wander around a park pretending to pick up litter. It is all beginning to make sense.
X is for Xenophobia. It is often said the French were offended by naming the dog Dougal, perceiving this as a slight to General Charles de Gaulle, although it is hard to believe that anyone would have known or cared. But it is true that Thompson did not trust the French, to the extent that he refused to take his family to French restaurants.
Y is for Young One. Nigel Planer, who played the hippy Neil in The Young Ones, - adapted and narrated 52 "lost" episodes shown by Channel 4 in 1992. Y is also for yawn when everyone said they were not as good as the originals.
Z is for Zebedee. Who always had the last word. Time for bed.
For example, one of the main characters is a rabbit named Dylan, which some people have speculated is a reference to the musician Bob Dylan and his association with drugs during the 1960s counterculture movement. Additionally, there is a character named Zebedee who is known for bouncing around on a spring and speaking in a high-pitched voice. Some have suggested that his behavior and appearance resemble someone under the influence of drugs.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
This interpretation is further fueled by the fact that Zebedee's catchphrase, "Time for bed," can be interpreted as a reference to the sedative effects of certain drugs. It's important to note that these drug references are largely speculative and based on interpretation. The creators of the Magic Roundabout have not publicly acknowledged or confirmed any intentional drug references in the show. Furthermore, the show was intended for a young audience and was produced during a time when drug use was becoming more prevalent in popular culture. While it's understandable that some people may find these drug references amusing or interesting, it's crucial to remember that the Magic Roundabout is ultimately a children's show meant to entertain and inspire the imagination. It's up to the viewer to decide how they interpret the content and whether or not they see any drug references in it..
Reviews for "The Magic Roundabout's Psychedelic Aesthetic: The Influence of Drugs"
1. John - 2 out of 5 stars - While I enjoyed watching The Magic Roundabout as a child, I was disappointed to learn about the drug references that were hidden throughout the film. It's unsettling to think that a children's movie would include such inappropriate content. It's important for filmmakers to be mindful of their audience and ensure that the content is suitable for the target age group. Unfortunately, in the case of The Magic Roundabout, this was not the case.
2. Sarah - 1 out of 5 stars - As a parent, I was appalled to discover the drug references in The Magic Roundabout. It's completely inappropriate to expose young children to such content, especially in a film that is marketed as a family-friendly movie. This movie could potentially lead to confusing discussions with my child and promotes a negative message about drugs. I would strongly advise against letting your children watch The Magic Roundabout due to these unacceptable references.
3. Mark - 2 out of 5 stars - I found the drug references in The Magic Roundabout to be unnecessary and inappropriate. It's disappointing to see a children's movie include such content, as it could create confusion and curiosity among young viewers. This movie missed the mark in terms of creating an entertaining and safe experience for its intended audience. I would not recommend watching The Magic Roundabout, especially if you have young children who may not fully grasp the underlying drug references.