There was later confusion as to whether the actor who played the dwarf was named Richard Krüger and died in Strasbourg, or was Hermann Emmrich who died in 1995 and is buried in Prenzlau in north eastern Germany. It is now thought that they were one and the same person. Release The Singing Ringing Tree was theatrically released in East Germany in 1957, where it sold 5,901,141 tickets in the country of about 17 million. The film was then purchased by the BBC and cut into three parts to create a mini-series with an English-language voice-over track where the original soundtrack was simply faded up and down as opposed to being dubbed. According to the Radio Times entries in BBC Genome Project, it was first broadcast on BBC 1 on 19 and 26 November, and 3 December 1964 as part of the Tales from Europe strand. It was then repeated in March 1966, November 1969, October 1971, September 1976, April 1977 and August 1980. The original film version has been released in many countries on VHS, DVD and streaming services, and on Blu-ray in Germany by Icestorm Entertainment and the UK by Network Distributing. Both Blu-rays have the film in both its original widescreen theatrical and 1.33:1 television aspect ratios. They also have the original German-language soundtrack with optional voice-over tracks in English, French and Spanish, and various extra features. UK reactions The TV series, partly due to its foreignness as both fairy tale and for the unfamiliarity of its German production, was 'indelibly carved on the psyches' as 'one of the most frightening things ever shown on children's television'. The release of the film on home video also spurred renewed interest. A Radio Times readers' poll in 2004 voted this programme the 20th spookiest TV show ever. The Fast Show parody A spoof of the series was created as a sketch in the last season of The Fast Show, entitled, The Singing Ringing Binging Plinging Tinging Plinking Plonking Boinging Tree. References External links The Singing Ringing Tree at Cinema.de 1957 films 1950s children's fantasy films German children's fantasy films BBC children's television shows East German films 1950s German-language films German children's television series Babelsberg Studio films Films about trees Films based on fairy tales Dwarves in popular culture 1950s German films