Asterix The Gaul, 1970 (UK)
Another French adaptation that hit TV screens during school holidays, this one was hugely popular in the day. Sadly very little information exists about those 1970’s UK transmissions. I remember they usually popped up in the Easter holidays and sometimes in the summer holidays.
Asterix was originally the main character in a series of comic strips in Franco-Belgian comic magazine ‘Pilote’ on 29th October 1959. It would be 1970 before three Asterix stories were translated to English for the American market.
In 1967 “Asterix The Gaul” became the first animated film based on the comic album of the same name. Over the years until 1994 further animated films were released. It was in 1970 that the BBC broadcast their first Asterix and that was Asterix The Gaul, rather than be broadcast as a feature length film the BBC chose to broadcast it over several episodes. Sources differ on how many but the Radio Times advertises it as a three part series.
Since 1994 the character has lived on in live action movies, CGI generated TV series, the latest of which was scheduled for streaming on Netflix this year check Netflix for details.
As I said at the beginning hard information on the TV series is difficult to pin down but I do remember further adventures of Asterix and friends on the BBC. Anybody remember the Weetabix promotion?
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Summary
The series follows the adventures of a village of Gauls as they resist Roman occupation in 50 BC.
They do so using a magic potion brewed by their druid; Getafix (Panoramix in the French version), which temporarily gives the recipient superhuman strength.
Clips
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Details
Channel: BBC1, various
Asterix Created By: Rene Goscinnv and Albert Uderzo
Originally Transmitted: 1970
Well that was a bit of a mixed post due to lack of info but hopefully it’s brought back some memories.