Watership Down (TV series)
Watership Down is an animated fantasy children's television series, adapted from the 1972 novel of the same name by Richard Adams. It is the second adaptation of the novel, following the 1978 film. Co-produced by Alltime Entertainment of the United Kingdom and Decode Entertainment of Canada, the series was produced by Martin Rosen, the director of the 1978 feature film adaptation. The series is produced 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 . "Watership Down" aired for 39 episodes and three seasons from September 1999 to December 2001, on both YTV in Canada and CITV in the UK, though the latter did not broadcast the third series. The series stars several well-known British actors, including Stephen Fry, Rik Mayall, Phill Jupitus, Jane Horrocks, Dawn French, John Hurt, and Richard Briers. Hurt and Briers also star in the film. Stephen Gately sings a new arrangement of Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes", which was included in the 1978 film, while Mike Batt (who wrote "Bright Eyes") and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra contributed a completely  new score. In 2003, composer Mike Batt was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Series for his work on this series. 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 series began with elements taken from the original novel, later episodes of the first series, as well as most of the second and third were almost entirely new content, with many episodes focusing solely on new characters and situations. In addition, the third series featured a new opening sequence and somewhat altered style of animation, along with many of the original voice actors leaving, only leaving a handful of the original cast to remain. The programme became noticeably darker in tone, adding elements of mysticism and magic, and  focusing on an evil new warren called Darkhaven. Although the series was praised by younger audiences at the time of the series' air, fans of both the novel and the movie were more mixed about the series due to drastic changes from the novel (like Pipkin going from a grownup rabbit to a young rabbit and Blackberry changing from a buck to a doe) and its more child-friendly tone as compared to some of the violence of the movie. Voice cast. Watership Down is voiced by many familiar faces in British film and television. John Hurt, the voice of  Hazel in the film, returns this time as the voice of General Woundwort in the first and second seasons, and Richard Briers, the voice of Fiver in the film, appears in the series as Captain Broom. Dawn French, Jane Horrocks, Stephen Fry, Phil Jupitus and Rik Mayall all provide voices, as Buttercup, Hannah, Cowslip, Dandelion and Kehaar, respectively in both the first and second seasons. To a lesser extent, former Boyzone member Stephen Gately, who was responsible for performing a special re-working of "Bright Eyes", provides the voice of Blackavar in seasons 1 and 2, and comedy actor Stephen  Mangan provides 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 voiced 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. By Series 3, most of the celebrity voices were reduced and were replaced by high-profile voice actors, with only a few of the original cast reprising their roles and providing additional voices. Season 3 only. These voices would also replace actors who  left their roles from the first two seasons, but these roles are currently difficult for fans to identify who played which role, as season 3 credits only listed the actors' names and not the roles they played. Characters. Nuthanger Farm. Duster: The farm's dog. He first appears in the first episode "The Promised Land" where he chases after the rabbits but fails in the process. He then has a small appearance in the episode "The Raid" where he barks at Hazel as he escapes from the barn. He also appeared in the episode "A Tale of a Mouse" in  which he is guarding the farm's vegetables. At the end of the episode, he chases after the farm's cat, Tabitha. Duster's breed is somewhat of a Rottweiler. Episodes. Season 3. Season 3 Episode Titles Error Because the only countries in Europe which aired the third TV series were Germany and Greece, 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 the unofficial ones found on the DVD releases or on screen as they appear  at the beginning of each episode, mostly because this season also aired in North America. Unproduced episode. According to the official "Watership Down" TV series website (which is now closed) Season 2 was supposed to have 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 Universal Pictures/Right Entertainment, where it replaced Bigwig's Way. As the penultimate season 2 episode it was oddly placed within the DVD set; it is to be found on disc 10 preceding episodes from season 3 The Nestling and The Secret of Redstone. Soundtrack. 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". Andrew Lloyd Webber composed a song called "Fields of Sun" for the soundtrack. Although this song was neither used in the show nor made available on the official soundtrack, he was still credited for the song's creation during the opening credits. The soundtrack was  re-released as part of the Mike Batt Music Cube in December 2009 by Dramatico Records. However, only the orchestral pieces are on the CD and none of the recorded songs are present. The re-released soundtrack has recently become available separately from the Cube in a 2-CD set, along with the soundtrack to the film Caravans. Currently, the music cube re-released version of the soundtrack is also available to download in Mp3 format from Amazon's UK website. Home media releases. Some episodes from the adaptation were released on VHS by Buena Vista Home Entertainment in 1999  and 2000 and later on video & DVD by Universal Pictures and Entertainment Rights in the UK, and on VHS and DVD in the United States by GoodTimes Entertainment and Reader's Digest Video. However, despite that, there has never been any proof showing that the show aired in the US, leading to the point where it was concluded that it didn't air in the US. In October 2005, a Region 2 DVD box set of all three seasons was released in the UK. In Australia, Umbrella Entertainment released the series on DVD.