Arthur! And the Square Knights of the Round Table

I have fond memories of 'Arthur And His Square Knights Of The Round Table' as I used to watch it as a pre school kid back in the late '60s. The Lancelot character always stuck in my mind because of his whistling 'ess' sounds. When recalling children's Television programmes down the pub I found that no-one remembered it but me and I only later discovered that it was only seen in the UK on certain regional commercial channels and having lived at the bottom of a hill, I was one of the few locals in our area to receive this alternative signal. About a year ago I was browsing in a second hand VHS store and found a compilation of 6 episodes, 'There's An Elephant At The Drawbridge', 'A Nice Knight For A Wedding', 'Paris Picnic', 'Octopus', 'Would You Believe A Beanstalk' and 'Which Wizard Versus Which Witch'. This was available on 'The Family Hit! Collection' produced by Castle Communications PLC. The quality is excellent as is the sound. Hope this is of use! Les.

Les.

Well, it had to be: it was the first one. At least, to the best of my understanding, 'Arthur' was the first Australian-produced TV cartoon series. It was a regular and favourite show on Sunday nights when I was a kid, and it was in fact a long, long time before I found out that it wasn't American.

Since then I've read interviews with the series' creators, who admitted they had no idea at all what they were doing. Perhaps this is why it worked so well. It had a slightly off the wall eccentricity to it which set it apart from other similar fare. The voice characterisations were great (Lancelot, Arthur and the Black Knight's voices are still embedded in my brain 35 years later. I'm fairly sure that John Meillion (known to US audiences mainly via Crocodile Dundee) was responsible for some of them, though I can't prove this.

An objective critical review of something I haven't seen since the late 60's is pretty difficult, so I won't even try: I'll just say that it has a lot of fond memories associated with it, that Black Knight was sometimes in drag, that Arthur reminded me (physically) of the King in The Wizard of Id, and that I can still hum the theme song.

It was a bunch of Australian animators having a go an art form which didn't even exist here at the time, and pulling it off surprisingly well. I saw a video of it in a supermarket about 10 years ago and am still kicking myself for not buying it.

I was very fond of Arthur and the Square Knights of the Roundtable in childhood. For a while though with school, music commitments and broadening my movie-watching horizons Arthur and the Square Knights of the Roundtable was a childhood favourite that I forgot about. Until recently recalling childhood favourites and also having a friend who remembered the series fondly too and whose memories were admittedly stronger than mine. Re-visiting, I loved Arthur and the Square Knights of the Roundtable as much as I did as a kid. The character designs are a little rushed through and sketchy, however the colours and backgrounds are detailed and fluid, the colours are vibrant also and care did go into it. The music is brilliant, the theme song is a classic and the rest of the music is really catchy and never annoying, actually if there was anything that I did remember very vividly it was the theme song. As a kid, I did find the series very funny and lots of fun to watch, but from an older perspective not only was it still that but I was surprised and impressed by how surreal and ahead of its time it was(for the 60s), in a time now where the humour, gags and dialogue is distasteful or too safe that was a really nice and welcome approach. The stories are never dull, often breakneck in pace even, and always engrossing. For a history lesson, look elsewhere but for sheer entertainment value- which was what Arthur and the Square Knights of the Roundtable was always meant to be more like- you have a real winner here. The characters are wonderfully wacky, with deliciously offbeat villains, and the voice acting is done with great enthusiasm and verve, it was clear that the voice actors knew what the series was meant to do and they went for it bearing it in mind. Overall, an absolute riot, if you can find it it is well worth tracking down. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I will never forget this series & have searched long and hard to see it again. Without doubt this was one of (If not) the best cartoon of its era. Dialogue is witty & fresh. The inhabitants of the kingdom always entertain with their adventures. The voices are etched into my memory. Sadly it seems to be a forgotten gem of TV in Australia. It is long over due for a rerun or two in my opinion. I wasn't aware that it had traveled out of Australia and am glad to see others have also enjoyed it. Can't wait to see it on DVD when it hits Australia ( have seen it for sale in the UK). I hope that i missed episodes in the past so i can savor the delight of seeing them for the first time. In short if you can watch this Sssssuper Ssssseries Sssssires.

It's funny how far a little creativity can go... There is no way that the Austrailian (Really? Blew my mind when I found this out) authors of these zany pieces could have thought that kids in Africa living rooms would be tuning in to watch when it hit the screens of the Lagos State broadcaster TWO DECADES later, yet I and probably several thousand now-middle-aged Nigerians grew up watching endless repeats of a dozen or so episodes of A&TSKOTRT. I'm still wracking my head trying to remember the names of the haunting tune that was used for continuity (of course the Theme Song itself is indelible "...if you're locked up in a tower/he's at rescues on the hour/ he's Aurthur! Aurthur!) but there were one or two sax pieces which I can only vaguely grasp and it's KILLING ME to recall now. Anyway, I never tired of it then, and I'd bet my kids and I would still love it now...