The Magic House is a children's

Children's television series

Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...

 animation

Cartoon series

A cartoon series is a set of regularly presented animated television programs with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same characters and a basic theme...

 puppet show

Puppetry

Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation of puppets. It is very ancient, and is believed to have originated 30,000 years BC. Puppetry takes many forms but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects...

 created by Joe Austen and made for Scottish Television

Scottish Television

Scottish Television is Scotland's largest ITV franchisee, and has held the ITV franchise for Central Scotland since 31 August 1957. It is the second oldest ITV franchisee still active...

. The series was adapted from a series of children's books written and illustrated by Austen in the early 1980s. The show's 55 10-minute episodes were aired across the ITV Network

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 between 1994 and 1998. As well as the television episodes, a spin-off series of books was also produced, written and illustrated by Joe Austen. The show, which featured Uncle Teapot, Kitty Kettle, Barney Bin and other characters based on household items, proved a success with the characters appearing in adverts for the Trustee Savings Bank

Trustee Savings Bank

The Trustee Savings Bank was a British financial institution which specialised in accepting savings deposits from the poor. They did not trade their shares on the stock market and, unlike mutually held building societies, depositors had no voting rights nor the ability to direct the financial and...

 for childrens' savings accounts.

Characters

• Barney Bin
• Bessy Brush
• Grandpa Clock
• HG Well
• Kitty Kettle
• PC Pot
• Soapy Bubbles
• Uncle Teapot
• Teddy Chair
• The Eggcups
• Jack Salt
• Paddy Pepper
• Sam Spade

Ownership

In 2001 the Dundee

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

-based Austen bought back the rights to The Magic House and other shows produced by his Storyland company. Ownership of Storyland where previously in the hands of Carlton Television

Carlton Television

Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties including the cities of Solihull and Coventry of the West Midlands, south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire,...

 and Scottish Media Group in 2003.

Current

A new television series, as well as various types of books for the series, are currently being developed.

External links

• The Magic House page at Storyland
• Joe Austen, Uncle Teapot and the Foodwood, Storyland — one of the Magic House books
• Joe Austen, Soapy Bubbles' Little Troubles, Storyland — a preview of the book