As the zoo that made Johnny Morris a childhood favourite closes, CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reminisces
Swansong for the Animal Magic we adored: As the zoo that made Johnny Morris a childhood favourite closes, CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reminisces about a world of wise-cracking chimps and snooty snakes
Bristol Zoo is to close its doors in September after 186 years open to the public, welcoming 90million visitorsThe zoo featured weekly in the BBC series Animal Magic, which aired for over 20 years from 1962 to 1983 Presenter Johnny Morris famously played a zoo keeper who talked to animals and mimicked their responses
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For a generation of TV viewers who grew up enjoying Animal Magic on BBC1, the announcement this week that Bristol Zoo is to close in September marks the poignant end to an era.
The gardens in Clifton are where presenter Johnny Morris filmed most of his animal dialogues. This real-life Doctor Dolittle talked to the zoo’s residents and, in a delirious assortment of silly voices, made them seem to talk back to him.
The apes were cockney, the llamas and camels crooned in an exotic patois, the big cats purred and the reptiles hissed — and it was always hilariously entertaining.
More than that, though, Johnny’s affectionate voices taught children to see the animals not as mere exhibits, but as individuals with their own personalities.
HEY MR KEEPER, I’M NO SCAREDY CAT: ‘Eh senor, you no come any closer. I am not adorable jaguar kitten. I am fierce wild beast, si, and I eat you for dinner snack. Grr-owwll! Andddd . . . cut. Oh really, this is too demeaning. I shouldn’t be asked to perform Amazon jungle accents, it’s actually offensive. I was born in Britain, you know. It may only be 1967 but roll on the 21st century, I say — you won’t get away with silly voices then’
DON’T CALL ME A WOOLLY JUMPER: ‘Whaddya mean, I’m an alpaca? Never heard such nonsense. I’m a Jack Russell, I am. They call me Spot but my show name is Aloysius Alexander Anthony Absolute de Pfeffel. Admittedly I’m tall for my age, but long legs run in my family. Long legs run, geddit? I’m a terrier, honest. Look at me markings. Proper pedigree, me. Go on, Keeper, throw the ball, I’ll fetch it’
I CALL THIS DANCE THE ORANGUTAN TANGO: ‘Now lean back, half turn and smile, darling, smile till your teeth hurt. The judges are going to love you: bend your back, snap those fingers and now we twirl! Yes, two-three-four, and hold me close. Get it right — this year I’m going to win that Glitterball or my name isn’t Anton Du Beke!’
OI! WHO ARE YOU CALLING BIG EARS! ‘Ear, ear. No, listen. That’s no way to take an elephant for a walk. I’m not a teacup and that is not my handle. Leggo! Come on, let’s hop instead. That’s it, one foot up and bounce. This schoolboy is doing it right, Keeper. You try it, or I’ll stamp on your toes — that’ll make you hop, Keeper’
Like millions who adored the show, I learned more about wild animals as a child by laughing at the wise-cracking chimps and snooty snakes than any textbook could teach me.
Despite his natural and fearless rapport with all sorts of animals, Johnny had no training as a handler. Born in 1916, he managed a farm before World War II and later ran a pub in Wiltshire — where a BBC radio producer overheard him entertaining regulars with his voices.
He made his first TV appearance in 1953 as the Chestnut Man, standing with a barrow of hot chestnuts like a street vendor and telling tall tales for children. Animal Magic, which began in 1962, was his own idea: he played the Keeper, in a peaked hat, doing his rounds at the zoo and chatting with his furry mates.
WHAT A NOSE! WE COULD BE TWINS! ‘Arf arf, look at this, Mavis! This is my Johnny Morris impression, look at me. I’ve got his nose, haven’t I? Whacking great long hooter. And see — when I flatten me ears down like this, don’t it just look like his long hair? We’re twins! Bet he wishes he had eyelashes like mine, though’
IT’SS JUSS-ST SS-SO SS-SSUPER TO MEET YOU: ‘Ah yes-ss! I ss-ssee you are an as-ssiduouss-ss f-f-follower of f-f-fashion. Shall I ss-sslip around your neck juss-sst ss-sso? One ss-sswift twiss-sst and I ass-ssemble myss-sself into a Windss-ssor knot. Not ss-sstrangling you, am I? Keeper, do ss-ssay ss-ssomething, pleasssse…’
DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART JOHNNY: ‘My mum reckons I look like Elton John before the hair transplant. I mean, I’m better looking but she’s got a point. Go on, you be Kiki Dee and we’ll do the duet. One, two, ‘Ooh ooh, nobody knows it!’ Who am I kiddin’, I can’t sing that line — I ain’t going ‘Ooh ooh’ for anyone. What do you take me for — a silly chimpanzee?’
The outdoor sequences were shot without sound. Johnny knew the fluffy microphones on their long booms could alarm the animals, so all the voices were added back at the studio.
After 21 years, Animal Magic fell foul of po-faced BBC apparatchiks who felt Johnny ‘anthropomorphised’ too much — that is, he made the animals seem too human. But that was, of course, the whole point!
When he died, aged 82 in 1999, he was buried with his Keeper’s cap. But his voices live on — as they do in these glorious archive photos, with the Mail imagining the chummy chatter of his animal co-stars . . .
