BASFOTD
The band name Belle and Sebastian is taken from a series of children’s books (and a cartoon) of the same name by French author Cecile Aubrey. Singer Stuart Murdoch chose the name sort of randomly, and then tried to get official permission to use it. As he explains in Belle and Sebastian: Just a Modern Rock Story: “I wrote to quite a lot of people. I found out that they’d made it into a cartoon and that the cartoon was owned by Viacom, so I wrote to a man there. It’s quite annoying, ‘cause you try to do all that stuff, and nobody ever wrote back, and…it wasn’t until three years later when The Boy With the Arab Strap was released in France that Madame Aubrey bothered, and she wasn’t fine with it at all, she didn’t want us to use the name, and it was only after we went to Paris to meet her that she grudgingly let us carry on. And it was only because she liked us… At first she was determined not to let us use it, but she grudgingly let us use it in the end. She was really quite nice, quite a glamorous older lady, there was something quite Mrs. Robinson about her.”
[This has been a Belle and Sebastian Fact of the Day. B&S play March 25 at the Paramount.]
The books were adapted as a TV series in France. Here's the info:
Belle and Sebastian
France / RTLF - Gaumont / 1967 / black and white
Drama series. Adventures of a young boy and his dog in a small French village. Sebastian lived with his initially grumpy elderly grandpa.
Episode 1: The Meeting
News comes to a small village that an enormous white dog is running wild
in the mountains. Sebastien is determined that it shall come to no harm.
Episode 2: The Refuge Hut
Cesar takes Sebastien higher up the mountain pass than he has ever been
before and shows him the way to the Italian frontier.
Episode 3: The Hunt
Because they don't understand Belle, the villagers are terrified of her
and try to hunt her down. But Sebastien intervenes.
Episode 4: The Stranger
A sinister newcomer to the village gets work locally and insinuates
himself into Cesar's household.
Episode 5: Norbert's Suitcase
Sebastien is suspicious of Norbert, especially when he sees him meeting a
strange car.
Episode 6: The Customs' Patrol
Much to the disquiet of Angelina and her grandfather, Norbert begins to
exercise a bad influence over Jean.
Episode 7: The Great Pass
Jean tricks Sebastien and takes Belle for training up to the Grand Baou in
accordance with Norbert's instructions.
Episode 8: Christmas Eve
The two customs men become suspicious about Belle's activity.
Episode 9 - Christmas Day
Angelina's plans for a happy Christmas appear to be ruined and Sebastien
goes up into the mountains in search of Belle
Episode 10 - The Fire
The Commissioner from Paris arrives in the village just as disaster hits
the chalet.
Episode 11 - The Avalanche
Norbert takes to flight and Jean is involved in the Commissioner's
investigations.
Episode 12 - The Enquiry
Has Sebastien escaped the avalanche - and where is Belle?
Episode 13 - The Proof
Jean tries to find the evidence that will prove his innocence.