Catweazle in the Netherlands

That's definitely very evocative Martinus! I loved it!

I think that we were blessed by being thrown back on our own imaginations, but also blessed in the rich stimulus! I'm class of '68 btw.

I've come to a view recently that there's an ideal volume of communications that you receive passively - a balance - and if you go beyond out, you drive out your own resources.

I'm so interested that Catweazle was so popular in the Netherlands. Although, I'd realised that it was, it seems to me that it was more universally popular there than in the UK. I'm from Australia btw, and caught what I think might have been its first run a year or two later, but I was so young that its the feeling of the characters and the situations and the memory of a few indidents that stayed with me, rather the plot of lines of particular episodes. I was too young (and isolated therefore) to be able to tap into what other watchers thought at the time!

The series Floris sounds great too - I'm intrigued I'm in Alan's debt and that of a couple of other members for summarising all of Richard Carpenter's work for me as I've been inspired to see what else he penned and how it was brought to life. Richard was clearly fascinated by magic and the supernatural in general.

Alan was the editor of 'Tis Magic' btw, but more than that, he compiled/sourced much of the material.

Kind regards,

Brett

A Dutch TV series I remember seeing on British television was 'Paulus the Woodgnome' (Paulus de boskabouter), which was dubbed for screening in the UK. Peter Hawkins, who did some of the Dalek voices for Doctor Who along with voiceovers for many children's series, provided voices for the UK narration, working alongside narrator Arthur Lowe (Dad's Army).

Hello Alan,

Answers in reverse order:

'Floris' was Dutch. Well known Flemish-Belgian series were Tijl Uilenspiegel (1961, 20 episodes), Johan en de Alverman (1965-1966, 16 episodes) and Fabian van Fallada (1969, 13 episodes), all situated in a much later time than Catweazle and Floris.

The history of Paulus the Woodgnome or, as is his original name, 'Paulus de Boskabouter' is a little more complicated matter. The stories are vagely comparable with Wind in the Willows, with the addition of Paulus and his nemesis the witch Eucalypta. She was more evil and dangerous than Catweazle, although from time to time just as bumbling as he. Creator of the Paulus stories is Jan van Oort, publishing name Jean Dulieu. Originally a violin player at the Concertgebouw Orchestra, he soon changed to the graphic arts.

Paulus started as a newspaper strip shortly after WWII (1946-1957, over 3500 episodes) and was later continued (1963-1967, over 1400 episodes, grouped into seven longer stories). Many of the newspaper strips were later combined into books. Dulieu also wrote a series of separate Paulus books, decorated with marvelous watercolors. Many stories were adapted and, often with wonderful new watercolors, published in ladies magazines and children's periodicals.

Alongside this Dulieu found time to create the staggering amount of some 900 radio plays (1955-1964) for which he not only wrote the stories, but also did all the voices except one. These radioplays lasted ca. 10 minutes each and were broadcasted just before children's bedtime. Sadly, most of them were lost, as the broadcasting company reused the recording tapes for other purposes. (The same happened to another famous tv children's series 'Kunt u mij de weg naar Hamelen vertellen, meneer?' - continuing the famous story of the pied piper of Hamelin - which was also immensly popular at the time, 1972-1976). Thank goodness almost a hundred Paulus episodes were rediscovered in private archives and made available to the general public, first on cassette tape and later on CD.

And as if this was still not enough, Dulieu tried to make an animated Paulus movie (never finished because of his perfectionism) and made a Paulus tv series. Which is what you were asking about, Alan. Well, there are two series. First, there is the original one (1967-1968, 39 episodes, ca. 10 minutes each), entirely made by Dulieu himself: story, puppets, backgrounds and voices. When Dulieu ran into financial troubles (also partly due to his perfectionism), he sold the series to Chanowsky Productions (1974-1976, 288 episodes, ca. 4-5 minutes each). This second series was more well known than the first one (and commercially much more succesful), but Dulieu had almost nothing to do with it and the characters are a lot different from the originals - and I.M.O. a lot less appealing. You simply can't beat the master. Dulieu later regretted having sold the series to Chanowsky. Many hardcore Paulus fans therefor do not reckon the second tv series to be part of the 'real' Paulus material. The Paulus tv episodes were published on VHS, which fans later copied onto DVDs. Checking on Youtube, I'm delighted to see that most of the English subtitled Paulus videos are from the first series.

I apologise for having deviated so far from Catweazle. I beseech the Spirits of the Brazen Vessel: punish thee me not! Yet both Catweazle and a number of other great children's series (Or were they really for children only? Most of them were equally loved by adults.) are so well and lovingly made and have influenced the lives of so many people in a positive way. They never seem to age and continue to attract new fans. I'm grateful for having had the privilege of getting to know and enjoy them.

I wish thee well!

Martinus

Greetings Martinus,

On the back of your recommendation/nostalgia, I've downloaded and watched the first episode of Floris: quite enjoyable! I didn't realise it was Rutger Hauer's screen debut! Definitely a rousing theme!

Amazing to note how much better the film stock for Catweazle seems to have fared over the intervening 55 years since both series were filmed, but of course, the comparison is unfair given its B/W vs colour too.

Appreciated the information

Kind regards,

Brett

I knew that Rutger Hauer was one of the stars of Floris, but I had no idea it was directed by Paul Verhoeven! Giant oaks from little acorns grow...

I just finished Ep.2 of Floris! Love Sindala's work! Very nice stuff indeed - thanks again to Martin for the tip!