Watership Down

Watership Down is an animated fantasy children's television series, adapted from the 1972 novel of the same name by Richard Adams. The second adaptation of the novel (after the 1978 film), it was produced by UK's Alltime Entertainment and Canada's Decode Entertainment in association with Martin Rosen (the director of the 1978 film), with the participation of the Canadian Television Fund, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit and the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit from the Government of Ontario. Watership Down aired for three seasons from September 1999 to December 2001, on both YTV in Canada and CITV in the UK, though the latter didn't broadcast the final season. The series stars several well-known British actors, including Stephen Fry, Rik Mayall, Phill Jupitus, Jane Horrocks, Dawn French, John Hurt and Richard Briers (the latter two also star in the film). Stephen Gately performed a new arrangement of Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes", which was included in the 1978 film, while Mike Batt (who wrote "Bright Eyes") and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra contributed a completely new score. In 2003, composer Mike Batt was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Series for his work on this series. 39 episodes were produced. Plot overview Watership Down (with the use of the novel's basic plot) follows the lives of a group of rabbits as they leave their endangered warren in search of a safe new home. They travel across the English countryside, braving perilous danger, until they find a hill called Watership Down, where they begin a new warren. However, they are endangered by another warren, Efrafa, which is led by the authoritarian General Woundwort, and they are soon forced to defend their home and lives.