Watership Down | |
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Genre | Fantasy Children's television |
Created by | Richard Adams (book) |
Written by | Mary Crawford Alan Templeton |
Directed by | Troy Sullivan |
Opening theme |
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Ending theme |
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Composer | Mike Batt |
Country of origin | United Kingdom Canada |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 39 |
Production | |
Executive producers | Simon Vaughan Justin Bodle Steven Denure Neil Court |
Producers | Simon Vaughan Beth Stevenson |
Running time | 23 minutes |
Production companies | Decode Entertainment Nepenthe Productions Alltime Entertainment |
Original release | |
Network | YTV (Canada) CITV (United Kingdom) |
Release | 28 September 1999 4 December 2001 | –
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) |
Watership Down is an animated fantasy children's television series, adapted from the 1972 novel of the same name by Richard Adams. The second adaptation of the novel (after the 1978 film), it was produced by UK's Alltime Entertainment and Canada's Decode Entertainment in association with Martin Rosen (the director of the 1978 film), with the participation of the Canadian Television Fund, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit and the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit from the Government of Ontario.[1] The series stars several well-known British actors, including Stephen Fry, Rik Mayall, Phill Jupitus, Jane Horrocks, Dawn French, John Hurt and Richard Briers (the latter two also star in the film).
For the theme song, Stephen Gately performed a new arrangement of Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" (included in the 1978 film). Mike Batt (who wrote "Bright Eyes") composed an all-new score performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.[2] In 2003, composer Mike Batt was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Series for his work on the series.[3]
Watership Down aired for three seasons from September 1999 to December 2001, on both YTV in Canada and CITV in the UK,[4] though the latter aired only the first two seasons. 39 episodes were produced.