WATERSHIP DOWN (TV SERIES)

'Watership Down' is an animated adaptation for television of the novel of the same name by Richard Adams, co-produced by Alltime Entertainment of the United Kingdom and Decode Entertainment of Canada. The director of the feature film version, Martin Rosen, produced this series. Three series were produced, the first in 1999, although confusingly some sources merge the first two together as "series one" with the third being dubbed "series two". In this article, the adaptation will be considered to have ''three'' series.
The story was broadly based on that of the novel, with most characters and many incidents retained but with an increasing divergence as the series went on, and in later episodes especially some storylines and characters were entirely new. Stephen Gately sang a new arrangement of Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes", which had been included in the 1978 feature film, while Mike Batt (who wrote "Bright Eyes") and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra contributed a completely new score.
The adaptation was shown by CITV in the United Kingdom and YTV in Canada. It was generally rather poorly received in the United Kingdom, with many viewers complaining that it had lost the bite of the book thanks to its younger target audience. Some were also upset that Blackberry had been transformed from buck to doe, suspecting political correctness was at work. CITV showed only the first two series, but series three was eventually shown in Canada, and other European markets have also aired all three.
Some episodes from the adaptation were released on VHS over the years, but distribution was very uneven between countries. In October 2005, however, a Region 2 DVD box set of all three seasons was released, the first time that the third series had been made easily available to UK viewers.

Contents

Voices

Character Traits

See also

External links

Voices

Despite some die-hard fans' disappointment with the series, there are some particular links with the 1978 film treatment. John Hurt, the voice of Hazel in the film, was reappointed for the series as the voice of General Woundwort, whilst Richard Briers, the voice of Fiver in the film, appeared in the series as Captain Broom, who does not appear until very late in series 1 in the episode 'The Vision'.
The UK version of the series was voiced by many familiar faces in the world of British film and television. Comedienne Dawn French, Jane Horrocks and Rik Mayall all provided voices, as Buttercup (a one-off character in the 'Winter On Watership Down' two-part episode), Hannah and Kehaar, respectively. To a lesser extent, Stephen Gately, who performed the re-working of 'Bright Eyes', provided the voice of Blackavar, and comedy actor Stephen Mangan provided the voice of Bigwig. Blackavar was a character that was killed off in the film, but due to the series' younger target audience, as well as respecting the book, this was omitted.

Character Traits

Hyzenthlay is replaced by a character called Primrose, the connection to Efrafa is replaced by a heritage in a warren called Redstone and she also loses her psychic powers.
Fiver's power of prescience is more prominent in the series and goes blank with visions, sometimes telepathic, instead of simply delivering omens.
Vervain becomes less threatening and is displayed as something of a comical coward, rather pretentious and hypocritical.
Unlike the book and film, Kehaar severes his gull-like instincts and becomes attached to the Watership rabbits, even pushing aside his own kind in one situation.
Captain Broom, a new character, is somewhat senile and talks about his experiences like it was all fun, possibly even to the point of boring every other rabbit within earshot. (Hypothetical)

See also

★ Watership Down (film)

External links

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