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Dougal and the Blue Cat, Special Edition    
(Second Sight, Region Code 0) Main Feature: 79 minutes

There is a generation for whom The Magic Roundabout captures an unforgettable time in childhood, the five minutes before the six o’clock news when children’s TV merged into tea-time.

The success of the slot was its seminal approach to making children’s entertainment that adults loved too.

It wasn’t just the magical oddity of the simple setting, or the charm of the characters that made it so endearing. It was writer Eric Thompson’s world-wearily witty script. Dougal the Dog’s sarcastic and curmudgeonly muttering seemed to be Thompson’s own voice coming through, speaking over the children’s heads and straight to their parents, sometimes making references to current affairs.

Other characters included the innocent Florence; Zebedee, a jack-not-in-the-box; Dylan, the hippie rabbit and Mr Rusty, who ran the roundabout.

Frenchman Serge Danot made the stop-motion series from 1963 and Thompson’s job was to translate it for an English audience. But he went beyond the words to translate it culturally, taking an anodyne animation and giving it a whole new darker edge that went straight to English hearts – which is why the recent re-make by others missed the point and did the brand no favours.

In this feature length show from 1970, probably the first time that many would have seen it in colour, an evil blue cat called Buxton steals Zebedee’s moustache, giving him the power to rule the Magic Garden. Dougal survives capture and, so that he can rescue his friends, poses as a Scottish dog to wheedle his way into the abandoned treacle factory that is Buxton’s centre of power and also into his circle of trust.

It is not hard to spot the bits that inspired Nick Park when he was making the Wallace and Gromit film A Grand Day Out . The Times has listed this above Babe, Shrek, Chicken Run and The Nightmare Before Christmas in a "50 Kids’ films for adults" feature, and while this is somewhat generous, it does reflect the film’s underground celebrity.

Also generous are the extras on this digitally re-mastered release. In one featurette, Mark Kermode gives his view of the movie, while the other looks at the whole series, using interviews with Thompson’s actress daughter Emma, her mother, and Fenella Fielding. The entire film is also present in its original French version, so viewers can see Thompson’s improvements. Brian the snail, known to us as an endearing, ever-chirpy snail, is shouty and plain irritating in French; and the parallel versions show where Thompson makes the script changes. Due to the film format, he could not just ditch the original storyline and start from scratch, as he did with the daily shows, but he has added his unique approach to many side comments.

This is psychedelic, sarcastic and spooky, while to some it will also be a nostalgic delight.

Derek Walker