''The Magic Key'' is a British educational animated television series based on the "Biff, Chip and Kipper" stories from the

Oxford Reading Tree The Oxford Reading Tree is a series of books published by Oxford University Press, for teaching children to read using phonics. The series contains over 800 books. The "Biff, Chip and Kipper" stories, written by Roderick Hunt and illustrated by Al ...

published by Oxford University Press, originally written by

Roderick Hunt Roderick James Hunt is a British children's author. His most famous series of stories is ''The Magic Key'', which was first written as a part of the Oxford Reading Tree in 1985 illustrated by Alex Brychta MBE. There were originally 30 stori ...

and illustrated by

Alex Brychta Alex Brychta (born January 1956) is a British illustrator. He has collaborated with Roderick Hunt MBE on a series of children books for the Oxford Reading Tree, ''The Magic Key'', which had an animated spin-off. There were 30 books in the firs ...

. The series is a co-production between Collingwood O'Hare Entertainment Limited and HIT Entertainment, in association with the BBC and aired within the BBC Schools strand on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

from 2000 until 2001.

Plot

The series centres on the lives of three children, Biff, Chip and Kipper Robinson, their parents, their grandmother, their friends, Wilf and Wilma Page, Nadim Shah, Anneena Patel and the Robinsons' dog, Floppy. Floppy wears a collar around his neck with a golden key upon it. The key is magic, as the title suggests, and seems to do some strange things whenever one of the children asks a question and Floppy wishes for something. It starts to glow and transports the 7 children, Floppy and sometimes the Robinsons' grandmother through a vortex to other worlds, where they have exciting adventures, such as dealing with trolls in a cavern, being characters inside of a computer game, or finding the Fountain of Youth and when the adventure is done, they get a gift and the key glows and they all go home. Alongside the main story, to fit in with the book's original educational values, there are helpful hints towards teaching children the best use of English.

Characters

* Kipper Robinson * Biff Robinson * Chip Robinson * Mum * Dad * Floppy the dog * Gran Robinson * Wilf Page * Wilma Page * Anneena Patel * Nadim Shah * Mrs. May

Original Stories

The ''Oxford Reading Tree'' series was first published in 1985 with a set of 30 stories, and there are now over 300 stories altogether. It is used by more than 80% of schools in the United Kingdom, and has been translated into numerous languages in over 120 countries. The books are aimed at children aged four to nine, and could form part of an English language syllabus in line with the National curriculum, designed to help children learn to speak and read Standard English. The original book that the series is named after was first published in January 1986. It has many differences from what the TV series would have, with the titular item being kept inside a chest instead of on Floppy's collar. The latter would not always be on every adventure with the key, either and the adventures would take place in a magic doll house.

Broadcast

It ran on the BBC Schools strand on

from 2000 to 2008 and it was also on the CBBC strand on BBC One strand from October 2000 to March 2001. It also aired on

CBBC Channel CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7–16 ...

's ''Class TV'' strand in 2003 and again in 2007. It also ran during the BBC Learning Zone late night strand between August and September and again in December 2006. A Welsh version titled ''Yr Allwedd Hud'' was broadcast on the ''

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...

Ysgolion'' strand from 2001 to 2004.

Episodes

Merchandise/Home Media

To coincide with the TV series, Oxford University Press published a series of books based on the episodes in 2000. HIT Entertainment released six VHS tapes of the series. The first two – "Troll Talk and Other Stories" and "The Rook King and Other Stories" were released on October 30, 2000. The other three – "Capital Letters And Full Stops". "Adjectives And Labels", and "Sentences And Questions", were released on September 24, 2001, and were aimed to teach children the basics of the English language. Another VHS titled "The Flying Circus and Other Stories" was released in the same year, 2001. HIT would later release all 26 episodes on a two-disc box set on September 11, 2006.

References

External links

The Magic Key website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magic Key Series of children's books British television shows based on children's books British children's animated adventure television series British children's animated education television series British children's animated fantasy television series BBC children's television shows 2000 British television series debuts 2001 British television series endings 2000s British animated television series English-language television shows Animated television series about children Animated television series about dogs Television series by Mattel Creations HIT Entertainment CBeebies