The Magic Roundabout

Yeah.

He of Magic Roundabout.

Yeah.

I didn't know she'd died, did you?

The creator of The Magic Roundabout.

Yeah, she died, she died the other, literally the other day.

Not quite so famous, a lady called Cheryl Hall, and she was the girlfriend of Citizen Smith.

Even Dylan the rabbit would make a better job than this crap we've got at the moment.

Pam Millett says, what about Jasper Carrot's version of the Magic Roundabout? Yes, I remember that.

And Funky Moped, of course.

Tony Whitworth says, he's off on one now, Champions, Doctor Who, The Sweeney and The Avengers.

My mate directed him in the play.

I was ever so jealous.

But anyway, Andy Borg says, Emma Thompson's dad wrote The Magic Roundabout.

That's correct.

And we used to play it in the discotheque.

When I was working in Cheeky Pete's in Richmond people would say, "Can you play the Magic Roundabout?" And it was basically a rude thing about Magic Roundabout.

"Of course you can, Zebedee," said Dougal.

[laughs] And then Florence piped up with something.

She acted with both of her daughters, and those daughters, of course, are Sophie Thompson and Emma Thompson.

Her husband was Eric Thompson, actor, writer, director, and most famously, the man who took a French children's television program rewrote and narrated it in English, and gave generations of British children the magic roundabout.

Quite a family, and quite a house, because Eric and Phyllida brought Emma and Sophie up in West Hampstead, a 1930s house in a very handsome street, the finest street in West Hampstead.

Architecturally, it doesn't quite have the firepower of the grandest streets up the hill in Hampstead, But when it comes to inhabitants, good grief.

Justine Green looks back at her life.

Phyllida Law was a Scottish actress who was married to fellow actor Eric Thompson, who narrated and adapted The Magic Roundabout for TV.

Together, they had daughters Emma and Sophie, who continued the acting dynasty.

She worked extensively in television, including appearances in Dixon of Dock Green and Rumpole of the Bailey, but she's probably best known for her film work.