Brian    "Lead on small mollusc..."

Brian is the real brains of the outfit.  Mostly affable he has been known to loose his temper. He credits others with more intelligence than himself and is often heard apologizing to Dougal unnecessarily.  He can be dim-witted and sometimes agrees with the more ludicrous of the dogs' ideas.  However after a slight pause he normally pipes up with a sentence beginning with something like "do you think" or "maybe we should.." and common sense prevails.

Considered by many the main player in the programme, Dougal even appears in  his own film called "Dougal and the Blue Cat".  Unbeknownst to many Dougal is actually a Maltese Terrier, he has two bad habits; turning around in circles and an addiction to sugar cubes.  He considers himself to be the brains in the garden, is arrogant, appallingly rude and his favourite hobbies include upsetting Ermintrude and insulting Brian.  That said, underneath it all he's a bit of a softie and he's the most popular character in the programme as much of the humour is derived from Dougal's daydreams, sarcastic wit and droll sense of humour  (Thompson once said that Dougal owed a lot to Tony Hancock).

Dylan "zzzzz"

Dylan is the infamous sleepy bunny who wakens occasionally to play his guitar.  Instantly recognizable big buck teeth and Freddy Kruger hands Dylan is not your regular fluffy bunny, indeed it is his presence that provides the most evidence to back up the theory that the Magic Roundabout was all about drugs.  Dylan is a key figure in the magic mushroom episode but other than this most of the theory is based upon the fact that Thompson created a hippy persona for him (man).

Ermintrude "I'm an Ayrshire!"

Ermintrude is the girlie animal in the series.  She harbours a crush on Dougal and nearly scores in the Don Quixote episode. Ermintrude has a habit of calling everyone dear and a scary ability to turn her head through 360°.  On a superficial level she seems to be incredibly dim, but one suspects that she merely takes great delight in teasing the others and she is the only character with a wit to match that of Dougal.

Big hands, Big feet, bad hair-do - what more can a shaggy dog ask for?  Often mistakenly referred to as Dougal's girlfriend the creators weren't actually that weird. The beginning of the Magic Roundabout series kicks off with an unhappy Mr Rusty wishing that the magic would return to his roundabout, Zebedee achieves this by bringing children to play in the garden and ride the roundabout.  Florence is the child that features in the stories with rare appearances by the other 3.   Pleasant, caring and a key player in the stories, Florence is often found smoothing ruffled feathers or worrying about Dougal.

Zebedee    "Time for bed"

Zebedee is a Boingy thing originally described as a jack-in-the-box.  Often he knows what is going to happen in advance.  It is Zebedee who brings the magic back to the garden, and in times of chaos he restores order.  The more outlandish story lines (a pink cow and a talking snail are completely normal) tend to occur because of his magic and he has the ability to turn himself into anything he chooses.  He also heralds the end of episodes with the oft spoke catch phrase "time for bed".

Roundabout Index.

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