Producers have announced that they will be making new episodes of kids' classic The Magic Roundabout. This comes after a French team will make a new run of the favourite and aim the episodes at preschoolers.

The show is set to be "new and exciting" while "keeping the spirit and English humour" of the much-loved British original. The 60's classic will return with 52 11-minute episodes that will be produced by Mediawan’s Method Animation - the company behind The Little Prince and Robin Hood.

Producer Camille Oesch said that there is a "huge global interest" in reviving the programme, despite a 2005 attempt at a film flopping. The new series is expected to air in 2024 and will be aimed at a young audience of three to five year olds.

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Ms Oesch said: "We want to respect the characters, personalities and spirit of the original. It’s not a question of going back into the past, but of reviving this iconic work with the techniques of the present.

"In England, The Magic Roundabout was not just an iconic programme of the 1960s it was a cultural reference in animation, but the context today isn’t the same as in the 1960s so we have to find a path between the two."

The original show aired in the UK from 1965 until 1977. A French version was also aired between 1964 and 1974.

In 2005, kids of a new era could witness the magic of the iconic cast of characters with the release of a motion picture. Its story followed Dougal, Ermintrude, Brian and Dylan on a quest to stop Zebadee’s evil twin Zeebad.

Happy fans took to social media to share their delight at the reboot. On wrote: "Fantastic news! The return of the Magic Roundabout!"

As another added: "Some cheer finally…"

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