Animal Magic
7 things you didn’t know about…
Avuncular zookeeper and storyteller Johnny Morris entertained generations of children as he chatted to the animals. Here we look at some of the lesser-known facts about this much-loved show…
1 Before appearing on radio and television, Johnny Morris considered moving to Germany in 1939 to teach English. However, in what turned out to be a lucky move in more than one sense, he came across a farm-owning stockbroker who offered him a job managing a farm in Wiltshire. His German connections caused drama soon after when, once the Second World War was underway, Morris was put under house arrest, on suspicion of spying for the Nazis. This came to nothing but it was several years before he was given permission to join a platoon of farm workers in the Home Guard.
2 A storyteller at heart, Johnny Morris was spotted by BBC producer Desmond Hawkins while telling tales to customers in his local pub. His radio debut came in 1946 and he became a regular on local West Country radio in the Fifties, hosting his own show, Pass the Salt.
3 As the Hot Chestnut Man in 1953, Morris was filmed telling children a story in a West Country accent, beginning his stories with: “Did I already tell you that story? No? I thought I did.” When the series ended he was snapped up by BBC Bristol in 1962 to host an exciting new show for children, Animal Magic. Based at the BBC’s Natural History Unit, around the corner from Bristol Zoo, it ran from 1962 to 1983.
4 Morris had developed his talent as a mimic on Tales of the Riverbank (1960) where he voiced the stories in his own unique style. When asked how he did it, Morris replied: “I just said what I thought a rat would say and what I thought a hamster would say."
5 On Animal Magic, children fell in love with the zookeeper and the characters he created. Morris was a gentle soul and he brought the animals to life in the same way his viewers would if talking to their toys at home. Many of the Zoo’s animals became stars in their own right. Dotty, the ring-tailed lemur appeared for eight years in the Seventies and he often ended the show with Dotty on his shoulder.
6 Animal collector, zookeeper and author, Gerald Durrell, was among Morris' co-presenters on the show.
7 For the first 17 years of broadcast, the show was filmed live, which Johnny Morris was said to prefer to the later prerecorded format, despite the inevitable unpredictability of the animals!