The Animals of Farthing Wood (TV series)

Synopsis

The television series followed the basic plots of the series of books, although certain elements were changed. It followed the animals of Farthing Wood, who were forced to flee their homes after humans started destroying the wood to build houses. Led by Fox, and guided by Toad, the animals left Farthing Wood on a journey to White Deer Park, a nature reserve where they would be protected.

Unlike other children's series and films, The Animals of Farthing Wood did not feature much comedic content but rather relied on its strong storyline and plot, and multiple main characters are killed or die during the journey. Series 1 chronicled the journey to White Deer Park, Series 2 took place in White Deer Park and chronicled the feud between the Farthing Wood animals and the hostile blue foxes, the third, final series chronicled the invasion of the rats into White Deer Park and the animals' attempts to fight them off.

The episodes were made in both the UK and France. Because of this, in Series 1 the motorway's carriageways have traffic driving on the right hand carriageway of the motorway. However, they are briefly seen in Series 3 driving on the left hand side.

Cast

Fox, the leader of the Animals of Farthing Wood, was voiced by Rupert Farley in the UK and Ireland version but in the US version he was played by Ralph Macchio.

In France, Germany, Italy, Norway and Sweden the cast included the following:

Buzz Books

These are based upon the characters in the television series. Some parts had happened differently.

Broadcasts and releases

In France the programme is known as Les Animaux du Bois de Quat'sous ("The Animals of the Wood of Quat'sous"). It first aired on France 2 in 1994, and in Switzerland at the same time on TSR. It also aired in the following countries:

It also aired in Brazil (TV Cultura, Os animais do bosque dos vinténs), featuring Élcio Sodré (Fox), Vanessa Alves (Vixen), Maximira Figueiredo (Owl), Francisco Bretas (Toad), Neuza Azevedo (Mole and Adder), Eudes Carvalho (Badger), Zaíra Zordan (Lady Blue) and Fábio Tomazine (Scarface). 26 episodes were also broadcast in Japan by Shizuoka Asahi Television. The series was broadcast by the ABC in Australia (28 May 1996 – 28 April 2003) where it also became popular.

Adventures of Fox

Comes last on the Greatest BBC Children's Video ever along with Fireman Sam, Pingu, Spider, William's Wish Wellingtons, Clangers, Nursery Rhyme Time, Noddy's Toyland Adventures, Funnybones, Hairy Jeremy and The Little Polar Bear. It has clips from the following episodes:

Merchandise

Apart from books and videos, there was also a Farthing Wood CD and in the mid-1990s, a 130-part magazine for children entitled "Farthing Wood Friends" was also developed. Audio tapes recapping the first two seasons were released, with the story being told to young fox cubs by several of the cast who would also debate the events and mimic some of the other characters.

There are also three TV tie-in books available, one to accompany each of the TV series:

These follow the same storylines, but are presented in a comic-strip style.

Watered-down versions of episode storylines were also featured as a running story in 'Farthing Wood Friends', illustrated using photographic stills from the series. Between magazine coverages of second and third series episodes, abridgements of Colin Dann's original stories were used to fill the void, entitled 'Tales From Farthing Wood'. Another book adaptation of the running story employed for series one was released by Ted Smart Publishing, with illustrations by Stuart Trotter.

Episode stories were also abridged for Buzz Books, Reed Children's Books' range of storybooks based on popular children's characters. The Farthing Wood stories in this range started with five books to begin with, then steadily expanded to cover the remainder of series one and series two. Illustrations were produced by William Heinemann in favour of using stills from the series.

Hornby, known mainly for its model railways, produced collectable figurines of the series ensemble, released in batches or 'presentation packs'. They were as follows:

1st Series: Fox, Badger, Mole, Weasel, Toad & Owl

2nd Series: White Stag, Scarface, Kestrel, Adder, Whistler & Rabbit

3rd Series: Bully, Vixen, Plucky, Fido, Cleo, Rollo, Measly, Speedy, Hollow, Hurkel, Dash & Sinuous

The characters were also released in twin packs and later in the run, Hornby produced compatible play-scenes. Early in the run, almost simultaneous with the first series being shown in the UK, they released plush toys of Badger, Fox and Mole. Although these were rare finds in toyshops, they were the subject of a running promotion in 'Farthing Wood Friends', enabling readers to win them.

Despite the show being very popular, the series did not see any form of DVD release until 2009, with the episodes on VHS hard to find up to then (in particular the last two collections). However, there had been an increase in unofficial DVDs available on eBay.

Series 1 came out in France in February 2009.

Series 1 was released in Germany on 25 September 2009, Series 2 was released in Germany on 27 May 2011, and Series 3 was released in Germany on 24 February 2012. The German DVD releases offer both English and German audio options.

On 3 October 2016, Network released all three series of The Animals of Farthing Wood onto a DVD Box Set. This is the first time all episodes have been released in English as an official & complete set. (http://networkonair.com/shop/2553-animals-of-farthing-wood-the-the-complete-series.html)

Differences between the books and the series

There are a number of differences between the books and the television series, most notably the changing of a number of characters from male to female. This included Adder, Weasel, Owl and Kestrel, who retained the markings of a male kestrel. Owl had also been known as Tawny Owl in the books. In addition to this, the books featured a family of lizards who became the newts of the television series. New characters like the Shrews, Hurkel and Measley were introduced. Plucky is also changed from being Bold's grandson to his son. There are females that are Males now. They are Sinuous, The Big Owl and Hollow. The Fieldmice are now known as the Mice. Holly is now known as Hollow.

Minor plot changes also exist, such as the order of the pheasant's deaths, the deaths of Badger and Moley, and the motives of certain characters. Scarface has a different reason for attacking the Farthing Animals and Bold leaves the Park after an argument with his father, rather than to find a mate as he does in the books. In contrast to Badger's death, Toad and Mossy survive the television series, the former befriending the rat who killed him in the books. The cause of Sinuous death was also changed. Of the rats, Brat originally returned to the sewers instead of being killed by Sinuous, while Bully had his tail bitten off by Cleo rather than being killed by Vixen.

Scarface and his tribe were rival red foxes in the books. His mate was not also named in the books and her personality is not so developed. Too many red foxes would have been confusing for viewers, so the animators made Scarface and his family distinguishable by making them "blue foxes" (actually "silver foxes", a species with a greyish coat which is normally found only in fur farmings). Speedy was also unnamed. There are also one-episode characters that didn't appear in the books such as The Red Squirrels, Stoat and Scragg the Rat who is killed on his one-time appearance.

The only main plotline that is left out of the series is the plot of The Siege of White Deer Park, in which the character known as 'The Beast' (a big wild cat) attacks the park causing further trouble for the animals' survival. The storyline of this book is presumably removed because of too much horror and peril themes and the sub-plots that occur in the book (such as Badger mistaking Mossy for Mole) are broken down into small plot changes in the other book storylines for the series.

Credits