Little Gems - The Magic Ball

This wonderful little animation was first shown in the early 1970s on ITV. Dates and anmes for each story are shown below (a big thankyou to John Archbold for the information).

Series 1
5/1/1971	The Story Of The Caveman
12/1/1971	The Story Of The Princess In The Castle
19/1/1971	The Story Of The Chimney Sweep
26/1/1971	The Story Of The Six Winged Lions
2/2/1971	The Story Of The Highwayman
9/2/1971	The Story Of The Circus
16/2/1971	The Story Of The Weathermaker
23/2/1971	The Story Of The Chimpanzee
2/3/1971	The Story Of The Grandfather Clock
9/3/1971	The Story Of The Toy Soldier
16/3/1971	The Story Of The Flying Carpet
23/3/1971	The Story Of The Cowboy And The Indian
6/4/1971	The Story Of The Pirates
Series 2
19/9/1972	The Story Of The Mountie
26/9/1972	The Story Of The Nervous Bagpipes
3/10/1972	Under The Sea
10/10/1972	The Story Of The Giant
17/10/1972	The Story Of The Strange Planet
24/10/1972	The Story Of The Knight And The Dragon
31/10/1972	The Story Of The Hunter
7/11/1972	The Story Of The Bee
14/11/1972	The Story Of The Drawing Book
21/11/1972	The Story Of The Eskimo
28/11/1972	The Story Of The City Of Machines
5/12/1972	The Story Of The Comic Book
12/12/1972	The Story Of The Witch

This was a particularly significant animation for the creators Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall as it was their very first series produced at the request of and for a television audience. The series won two silver medals at the Venice Film Festival of Children's Films and a silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival. Several books were released which can be seen in the Extras section or by clicking here.

The animation started off showing a few scenes of the Magic Ball in action and then it moved to a distant shot of a small town next to the sea front. I am not sure why, but there is something very comforting about the seaside shot - maybe had something to do with being taken there as a child with your Grandparents. The wonderful voice of Eric Thompson would then introduce us to the program:

Eric Thompson had a superb voice for these types of animations, slow, low key but perfectly timed. Other programs which Eric Thompson worked on, included "The Magic Roundabout" and "The Clockmaker" as well as presenting "Playschool" in the 1960s

The Magic Ball was an animation about a little boy called Sam (shown below) who lived in a seaside town called Haythornthwaite. Sam had a magic ball which he carried around with him everywhere - a bit like "The Red Balloon" book. Now Sam had an Aunt called Aunt Mill. Sam's Aunt owned a curiosity / antique type shop full of interesting, odd and truly bizarre items that Sam would stop and look at during his visits. Sam would often go looking through the shop and find interesting items to ponder about. Whilst holding an object, the Magic Ball would activate and take Sam on weird and wonderful adventures. The Ball would always bring him back home safely though always having righted a wrong or sorted out a problem or two.

On arrival back at the shop Aunt Mill would always ask "And where have you been ?" to which Sam would always reply "No where much."

Each of the adventures had similar themes with Sam sorting out problems for people. These people would always be the same e.g. the nasty King in "The Story of the Princess in the Castle" was the same character as the organ grinder in "The Story of the Chimneysweep." These small adventures only lasted around 10 minutes or so but they were superbly animated (for their time) with some great stories and ideas - no wonder they won the medals they did.


The Magic Ball Main Page	Part One The Story of The Princess in the Castle	Part Two The Story of the Caveman	Part Three The Story of the Chimneysweep	Part Four The Story of the Six Winged Lions	Part Five The Story of the Grandfather Clock	The Magic Ball Extras

And so would end yet another classic little gem of a children's television program. I really wish some program makers would look at this wonderful little animation to see why it really was so good. They could learn a lot from just watching one of the adventures of Sam and his Magic Ball. Great animation, wonderful backgrounds, exciting stories all combined to make a truly magical little adventure all packaged into 10 minutes or so of television. I would love to hear from anyone involved in the making, production of The Magic Ball so I could add further detail to these web pages.

Sam and his Magic Ball	Aunt Mill	The Prince	The Princess
Nasty king	Arkwright the Horse	Becket	The Sweep
Organ Grinder	The Chinese Prince	Evil Chinese King	Lapsang
The Chinese Princess	Cosmo	Quentin	Crispen

Backgrounds	Valerie Pownall / Peter Clark
Story by	Gerald Hagan
Written and Narrated by	Eric Thompson
Dubbing Mixer	Peter Walker / Frank Griffiths
Animation and Direction by	Brian Cosgrove