7 Familles Le Manège Enchanté
The Magic Roundabout characters on a jeu de 7 familles designed by James Hodges.
Le Manège Enchanté, created by Serge Danot, first aired in France in 1964. Six years later, the BBC adopted the same footage but with completely different scripts and characters. As depicted in this set, the equivalent names are Père Pivoine/Mr Rusty, Zébulon/Zebedee, Pollux/Dougal, Margote/Florence, Pio/Paul and Ambroise/Brian. The card designs are by James Hodges (1928-2019) and must represent one of his earliest creations in the realm of playing cards and card games. Cleverly, each set of 6 cards forms a frieze. The packaging, too, is special: when folded into position, it resembles a TV set The date is slightly uncertain; if not 1965 then shortly after that.
Above: 7 Familles Le Manège Enchanté designed by James Hodges and made by B.P. Grimaud, France, c1965. 42 cards in special packaging resembling a TV set. Size: 55 x 84 mm.
Reference
TV Tropes.org: Magic Roundabout Characters►
By Roddy Somerville
Member since May 31, 2022
Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.
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