British TV Show About Mythical Creatures

[David Plankton]

Can you help identify this TV show? It was broadcast in the 1970's on the BBC and the time slot would be mid to late morning during the Summer holidays. Same time they used to show things like 'Why Don't You?' and 'The Banana Splits'.

My memory tells me that it was presented by David Attenborough but a look on the IMDB shows nothing like it in his CV. Each episode was only about 10-15 minutes long and had the presenter sitting at a desk in some kind of creepy old study, surrounded by dusty books and weird artifacts.
He would start talking about a mythical beast, for example the Unicorn, and quote old texts and legends while we got to see images from medieval manuscripts and the like.
He would then go on to describe early Europeans encounters with Rhinos and Narwhals in an attempt to bring it all together.

I think that there were episodes devoted to the Yeti, Sea-Serpents and probably Dragons as well.
I also thought that the title was 'Fabulous Animals', but net searches bring nothing so I could be wrong about that. One thing I am certain about is that the theme tune was a Mozart horn concerto.
Ring any bells?

 

[GNC]

It was called Fabulous Animals, here are the episodes on BBC Genome:
Click here.

 

[David Plankton]

Cheers GNC, I thought you might know.
I wonder why it's not on IMDB. I see the book's on amazon.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I don't remember it at all. Probably because I was watching those other shows.

 

[GNC]

Cheers GNC, I thought you might know.
I wonder why it's not on IMDB. I see the book's on amazon.

There was an FT article about it a few years back, I'm sure, full of praise. If Network can release Arthur C. Clarke's TV shows on DVD, it would be great if they got their hands on this Attenborough show. People still use DVDs, right?!

 

[XBergMann]

I don't remember it at all. Probably because I was watching those other shows.

Yes I used love Banana Splits

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

I've got a very well-worn copy of the book at home.

 

[David Plankton]

I seem to remember that back in the 70's, David Attenborough came across as quite sympathetic to the idea of the Yeti. I wonder what his attitude toward it is today.

 

[catseye]

I refuse to countenance David Attenborough as having an attitude that is less than sympathetic to EVERYTHING.

Except climate change and plastic.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

One of his more horrid discoveries!

The headline is grimmer than grim!
Kate Webster – murderous maid feeds fat from body of employer to her children (1879)



The headline is grimmer than grim! No, Attenborough wasn't one of those children, though he seems to have thrived on something . . .

 

[FrKadash]

There was a post by the CFZ's Richard Freeman back in 2009 on http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/

Most of David Attenborough's TV shows have been released. But not so Fabulous Animals. I wrote to the BBC last year to see if there were any plans for a DVD release but apparently there were not.

The British public pay their TV licence and fund the BBC. Ergo those programmes are ours, they belong to us, and we should be able to see them whenever we want! This is ever more acute with the sewage that pollutes our TV screens these days.

http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2009/12/richard-freeman-get-bbc-to-release.html

 

[Zeke Newbold]

I seem to remember that back in the 70's, David Attenborough came across as quite sympathetic to the idea of the Yeti. I wonder what his attitude toward it is today.

He still is. He did an interview in around 2013 in which he said that the yeti was quite probable. He made reference to footprints found in the Nepal mountains and made the - to me reasonable -point that nobody would go so far up just to make a joke.

 

[lordmongrove]

Fabulous Animals: I saw this when it was first broadcast. I e-mailed the BBC asking if they were going to release it and they said no. Pompous asses. All their archive should be available to the British public.

 

[Kondoru]

Ive got the book, though mine is incomplete

Its pretty good.

 

[Dinobot]

I've got a very well-worn copy of the book at home.

View attachment 18913

Fabulous Animals: I saw this when it was first broadcast. I e-mailed the BBC asking if they were going to release it and they said no. Pompous asses. All their archive should be available to the British public.

I seem to remember that back in the 70's, David Attenborough came across as quite sympathetic to the idea of the Yeti. I wonder what his attitude toward it is today.

Better than his attitude towards @maximus otter ....

 

[maximus otter]

Better than his attitude towards @maximus otter ....

maximus otter