Belle et Sébastien

A DVD is now available (at least for the first series), although apparently not from Amazon. The video and audio quality is just as good as I recall when watching it some 30+ years ago after Blue Peter. The music sends shivers down my spine, and even my "GameBoy-generation" children don't mind the "dated" black & white imagery (which incidentally allows some fascinating glimpses of French mountain life in the 1960s). The story is moving and has its heart in the right place, although modern viewers might find it a little simplistic: the oh-so-cute Sébastien (Mehdi: BTW not an adopted son, but Aubry's own son from her marriage to the pasha of Marrakech) has little to do but keep proclaiming that he loves Belle. A bonus on the DVD is that the French soundtrack is also included, although all the actors on the English soundtrack also have quite strong French accents -- including the unnamed 'narrator' who introduces each episode to us.