Watership Down is an animated television series, adapted
from the novel of the same name by Richard Adams. It was a co-production of
Alltime Entertainment of the United Kingdom and Decode Entertainment of
Canada, and produced by Martin Rosen, the director of the 1978 feature film
adaptation.
Watership Down aired for 39 episodes and three series from 1999
to 2001, on both YTV in Canada and CITV in the UK, though the latter did not
broadcast the third series. It starred several well-known British actors,
including Stephen Fry, Rik Mayall, Phil Jupitus, Jane Horrocks, Dawn French,
John Hurt, and Richard Briers, among others. 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. In
2003, composer Eric Robertson as well as David Greene and Mike Batt were
nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic
Series for their work on the show.
 |
| Some episodes from the adaptation were released on VHS and later, DVD. In October 2005, a Region 2 DVD box set of all three series was released in the UK. |
Watership Down
Watership Down title card.png
The Watership Down title card. From left to right: Pipkin,
Bigwig, Hazel, Blackberry, and Fiver.
Genre Fantasy
Children's television
Format Animated
cartoon
Created by Richard
Adams (book)
Written by Mary
Crawford
Alan Templeton
Directed by Troy
Sullivan
Composer(s) Mike
Batt
Country of origin United
Kingdom
Canada
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 39
Production
Running time 23
minutes
Production company(s) Alltime
Entertainment
Decode Entertainment
Helix Animation
Funbag Animation Studios
Broadcast
Original channel CITV,
YTV
Original run September
28, 1999 – December 4, 2001
Plot overview
Following the basic plot of the novel, Watership Down
follows the lives of a group of rabbits as they leave their endangered warren
in search of a safe new home. They travel across the English countryside,
braving perilous danger, until they find a hill called Watership Down, where
they begin a new warren. However, they are endangered by another warren,
Efrafa, which is led by the authoritarian General Woundwort, and they are soon
forced to defend their home and lives.
Although the first series concerned themselves mostly with
elements taken from the original novel at first, later on in that same series
as well as the second and third deviated almost entirely, with many episodes
focusing solely on new characters and situations. In addition, the third series
featured a new opening sequence and style of animation, along with the loss of
many of the original voice actors. The programme became noticeably darker in
tone, adding elements of mysticsm and magic, such as Campion's encounters with
the Black Rabbit of Inle, Silverweed's psychic powers and Hannah's learning of
hedge magic.
Although the series was praised by younger audiences at the
time of the series' air, fans of both the novel and the movie gave it mixed to
negative reviews due to drastic changes from the novel (like Blackberry changed
from a buck to a doe) and its more kid-friendly tone as compared to the violence
of the movie. The third series drastically changes this to make the series more
darker in tone to try and attract more viewers. What they did however was
prevent the third series from being aired in the UK, due to it being considered
too dark. Nevertheless, the series has grown a fanbase as it went on.
Voice cast
Watership Down was voiced by many familiar faces in the
world of British film and television. John Hurt, the voice of Hazel in the
film, was reappointed for the series as the voice of General Woundwort, and
Richard Briers, the voice of Fiver in the film, appeared in the series as
Captain Broom. Dawn French, Jane Horrocks, Stephen Fry, Phil Jupitus and Rik
Mayall all provided voices, as Buttercup, Hannah, Cowslip, Dandelion and
Kehaar, respectively. To a lesser extent, the late former Boyzone member
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 and later, Silverweed, replacing Tim McInnerny who provided
Silverweed's voice for one episode in Series 1. Actor Kiefer Sutherland was
involved and played the role of a new rabbit called Hickory, but only for 3
episodes, to be replaced in Series 3 by Rob Rackstraw who also provides the
voice for Captain Campion and various other characters. By Series 3 most of the
celebrity voices were gone and were replaced by new actors, with only a few of
the original cast having decided to stay and reprise their roles and provide
additional voices.
Cast
All Series Cast
NOTE: These are the only actors to appear on all 3 series of
the TV show
Rob Rackstraw as
Campion, Hickory (Series 3), Raincloud (Series 2), Granite (Series 3)
Stephen Mangan as
Bigwig, Silverweed (Series 3), Shale (Series 3)
David Holt as
Vervain, Bluesky (Series 2), Boxwood (Series 1), Darkling
Andrew Falvey as
Fiver, Flax (Series 3)
Sue Elliot
Nicholls as Blackberry
Lee Ross as
Hawkbit
Richard Briers as
Captain Broom
Series 1/2 Cast
NOTE: The actors on this list only portrayed characters in
the first two series of the show. These roles were either dropped or recast for
Series 3.
Ian Shaw as Hazel
Rik Mayall as
Kehaar
Stephen Fry as
Cowslip
Kiefer Sutherland
as Hickory
Stephen Gately as
Blackavar
Kate Ashfield as
Primrose
Tim McInnerny as
Silverweed
Dawn French as
Buttercup
Stephanie
Morgenstern as Marigold
Anthony Barclay as
Culoci
John Hurt as
General Woundwort
Matt Wilkinson as
The Weasel
Phill Jupitus as
Dandelion
Jane Horrocks as
Hannah
Tom Eastwood as
Moss
Jo Rodriguez as
Clover
Robert Harper as
Strawberry
Janet Dale as
Bark, Tassle, Frost, Katrina
Alice and Sean
Welsh as Primrose's Kits
Series 3 Cast
Anthony Jackson as
Kehaar, Cowslip
Maria Darling as
Hannah
Paul Panting as
Strawberry
Penny Freeman
Nigel Pegram
• Series 3 Episode
Titles Error Because the only country in Europe which aired the third TV series
was Germany, the fan site Thank U Stars provided translations of each episode
title directly from the German titles. However sites like play.com and tv.com
have found and used the German translated titles and not the official ones
found on the DVD releases or on screen as they appear at the beginning of each
episode.
Unproduced episode
According to the official Watership Down TV series website
(which is now closed) Series 2 was supposed to have had an episode produced
called Dandelion's Big Story, in which he would tell a story to the younger
rabbits, with the roles of El-ahrairah, Prince Rainbow, etc. played by the
Watership Down rabbits, while Hazel and Bigwig went to Nuthanger Farm on a
raid. However, the episode was never produced and was instead replaced by
Bigwig's Way. Even so, the episode title and synopsis managed to find its way
on to the 14-disc Region 2 DVD set by Entertainment Rights and Universal, where
it replaced Bigwig's Way. The episode itself was oddly placed, on a disc with
the episodes that preceded Series 3.
The official soundtrack for the series was produced by Mike
Batt with the aid of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He had also gathered an
array of stars to provide their voices for some of the songs. As well as
Stephen Gately performing Bright Eyes, Art Garfunkel who had sung Bright Eyes
for the film sang When You're Losing Your Way In The Rain, Cerys Matthews from
the group Catatonia performed Thank You, Stars which was used in the series as
a romance theme for Hazel and Primrose and Paul Carrack from the group Mike +
The Mechanics performed Winter Song, though the song wasn't used, an
instrumental piece was in the Winter on Watership Down two parter. Mike himself
sang for the soundtrack, performing the song The View From A Hill which oddly
enough was used in the series, but only in the German version and sung by an
uncredited singer, and British voice actor Gary Martin provided the narration
for the story of Frith's Blessing for the original release of the CD
soundtrack, though in the TV series, it was Dandelion who told the tale of
Frith's Blessing.
The soundtrack has just recently been re-released as part of
the Mike Batt Music Cube released in December 2009 by Dramatico Records.
However only the orchestral pieces are on the CD and none of the recorded songs
are present, probably due to copyrights involving many of the guest singers and
their record labels[citation needed] and perhaps due to the death of Stephen
Gately[citation needed]. The re-released soundtrack has recently became
available separately from the Cube in a 2 CD set, along with the soundtrack to
the film Caravans
International television
United Kingdom
CITV (1999–2000)
Republic of Ireland
TG4 (2000–2005)
RTE Two
(2005–2011)
North America
YTV (Canada only)
Differences from the novel
Although the story was broadly based on that of the novel,
with most characters and many incidents retained, there was an increasing
divergence as the series went on, and in later episodes especially some
storylines and characters were entirely new.
El-ahrairah's name
was shortened in the series to El-ahrah.
Kehaar, in direct
contrast to the book, severs his gull-like instincts and becomes attached to
the Watership rabbits, even pushing aside his own kind at one point.
Woundwort's
backstory was altered to include a connection to a warren called Darkhaven.
Two warrens that did not appear in the original book were
added: Redstone and Darkhaven. The Redstone warren was dug beneath the remnants
of an ancient Celtic stone circle by a band of regular rabbits, but was invaded
by an Efrafan patrol. The Darkhaven warren was located beside a burning tire
yard with a large pit where the rabbits, extremely vicious in nature, would
battle for the position of Chief Rabbit.
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