Johnny Morris by John Greeves
The man who bought Animal Magic to millions
Johnny Morris, man of many voices, reporter and entertainer, will be best remembered as the star of Animal Magic which ran for twenty-one years in over 400 editions. Several generations of children were captivated with his rapport and with the show’s animal stars including Dottie the ring-tailed lemur. Ernest John Morris was born 20 June 1916 in Newport South Wales. The son of a postman, Johnny Morris attended Hatherleigh Road School where his first love was music. He learnt to play the violin and together with his father who was a gifted cellist toured South Wales as a child, playing to captivated audiences. When the time came to leave school at fourteen, Johnny Morris planned to make a living on the stage. He joined the local repertory company to gain experience but the 1920s were difficult times and he moved to London when he was seventeen. A succession of jobs followed as a solicitor’s clerk, time keeper on a building site, salesman until he moved away to Wiltshire where he managed a 2,000 acre farm in Aldbourne in Wiltshire owned by the art collector Jimmy Bomford. Here Johnny allowed his interest in animals to develop even further. In 1942 he married fashion model Eileen Monro who was ten years older than him. She had separated from her former husband and relocated to Wiltshire with her two young sons Stuart and Nick. Johnny continued to work as a farm manager looking after 2,000 pigs and 600 cows for £2.50 a week. His break into radio and subsequently television came four years later when
he was discovered telling stories in his local pub by the BBC Home Service West Regional producer Desmond Hawkins another local resident of the village. Morris featured in a number of Regional series throughout the 1950s. At the beginning he gave country life talks in the Plug in the Wall series and featured in a rural-based magazine programme called Johnny Comes to Town. He was often employed on light entertainment programmes as a storyteller or a participant in such programmes as Pass the Salt a weekly broadcast where he tried his hand at a new job like brick laying, litter picking, or collecting fares on a ferry boat. A natural mimic and impersonator, Johnny first appeared on television as The Hot Chestnut Man, where he sat roasting chestnuts and telling a humorous yarn, often with a moral in a West Country accent. In 1960 he began a new series called Tales of The Riverbank a Canadian production which had been imported into Britain. The stories featured Hammy the Hamster, Roderick the Rat, GP the Guinea Pig and assorted friends along the river bank. - 41 -
