This ITV kiddies show featured a good-natured wood gnome called Paulus who lived in a tall tree in the middle of the woods. He and his woodland friends were frequently being terrorised by a wicked witch called Eucalypta.
She was constantly brewing potions and casting spells to get them and was quite a scary character with an evil cackle.
Something’s brewing
That’s quite plain
The witch’s cauldron is boiling again
Paulus, you’d better take care
She’s out to get you
She’s out to get you
She’s out to get you . . . beware
Known as Paulus de boskabouter in his native Dutch, Paulus was created by Jean Dulieu (real name Jan van Oort) in the Netherlands in 1944 and first appeared on Dutch television in October 1967.
The show was dubbed into English for distribution to the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Dulieu made all the puppets for the series, the smallest of these puppets being a 3cm mouse. He also made all the scenery and dwellings.
Other characters included Professor Bramble, Uhuburu (an owl), Salomo (a raven), Gregorius (a badger) and Jackie (a unicorn).
