Zig Zag: Tales from Europe (2000)
Tales from Europe (2000) is a unit of the BBC Schools TV series Zig Zag from the 2000s, covering English for primary school pupils.
A selection of folk tales and myths from different countries around Europe, re-told using puppets, animation, illustrations and other techniques. Each story is introduced with documentary film about a town in the country where it is set.
These 15 minutes programmes were edited down from the original 20 minute Zig Zag Tales from Europe programmes first shown in 1992. The fictional structure from the 1992 episodes with a woman called Molly tunnelling around Europe to observe the cities and read the stories has been removed, but the original narration of both the documentary sequences and the stories by the character Molly (played by Denise Coffey) is still present.
Episode List
| # | Title | Broadcast |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Switzerland: The Army of Bears | 18 Jan 2000 |
| 2. | Germany: The Pied Piper of Hamelin | 25 Jan 2000 |
| 3. | Denmark: The Ugly Duckling | 1 Feb 2000 |
| 4. | Czech Republic: Godfather Death | 8 Feb 2000 |
| 5. | Holland: The Lady of Stavoren | 15 Feb 2000 |
| 6. | Greece: Persephone Rising | 29 Feb 2000 |
| 7. | Belgium: With My Right Hand | 7 Mar 2000 |
| 8. | Finland: Reeta and the Cow That Ran Dry | 14 Mar 2000 |
| 9. | Britain: Arthur the King | 21 Mar 2000 |
Order of episodes
The episodes in this re-edited version of Tales of Europe are all standalone programmes, with no linking story of a lady tunnelling across Europe in search of stories, so the order that the episodes are shown in does not really matter, and changed several times.
Repeats on the CBBC Channel in 2003 and 2004 followed the original broadcast order outlined above.
Repeats on the Learning Zone in 2003 used the order: Germany, Greece, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Britain, Holland, Czech Republic (omitting Switzerland).
Repeats on CBBC and BBC2 from 2006 to 2008 used the order: Britain, Finland, Belgium, Greece, Denmark, Czech Republic, Holland, Switzerland, Germany. The summer 2007 run on BBC2 again omitted Switzerland.
Broadcasts
| Year | Term | Sat | Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Channel | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999-2000 | Spring 2000 | Tuesday, 11:05am | Thursday, 11:05am | BBC2 | ||||||
| 2000-01 | Spring 2001 | Wednesday, 10:50am | BBC2 | |||||||
| Summer 2001 | Wednesday, 9:30am | BBC2 | ||||||||
| 2001-02 | Summer 2002 | various days & times | BBC2 | |||||||
| 2002-03 | Summer 2003 | Saturday, 3:00am+ | BBC2 | Learning Zone, 9 Aug & 20 Sep | ||||||
| 2006-07 | Summer 2007 | Friday, 11:05am | BBC2 | |||||||
| 2007-08 | Summer 2008 | Friday, 11:15am | BBC2 | |||||||
CBBC Channel
Also broadcast on the CBBC Channel 'Class TV' service of schools programmes:
- 2001-02: Summer 2002
- 2003-04: Autumn 2003
- 2004-05: Autumn 2004
- 2005-06: Summer 2006
- 2006-07: Autumn 2006 & Spring 2007
- 2007-08: Spring 2008
Credits
| Narrator | Denise Coffey |
| Writer | Kevin Crossley-Holland |
| Producer | Susan Paton |
| Series Producer | Tom Stanier |
Resources
There were teacher's notes available in the first few years of broadcasts. The Tales from Europe book by Kevin Crossley-Holland was also still available.
Links
Related programmes
- Zig Zag: Tales from Europe (1992)The original 1992 version of the series including the character Molly exploring Europe.
- Tales from EuropeThe Tales were also told by celebrity readers for a linked radio series, which continued to be repeated alongside this new version of the TV series.
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