Carnaby Street is a 26-episode animated series created by Marco and Gi Pagot (of Reporter Blues and Sherlock Hound fame), produced by Studio REVER-IMER and aired on Canal+ in France in 2000 and on Italia 1 in Italy in 2001. It's also obviously named after the London shopping street of the same name. It was also distributed by Mondo TV (yes, that Mondo TV).
J.D. (Jenny McDean), an American student who moved to London following her diplomat father, one day experiences an event that changes her life forever: a spy pursued by the goons of an enemy power chooses J.D.'s car to hide a secret message. J.D. becomes a Secret Agent in the service of Her Majesty.
It has most likely never been rerun since its original broadcast and has never been released on any home-video formats, whether analog or digital. Although merchandise was also made based on the show, it used to be almost completely lost media except for the Italian theme song
and a part of an episode of the Italian dub. In July 2025, the European Spanish dub of most episodes was uploaded on archive.org.
Carnaby Street contains examples of:
- Action Girl: J.D. works as a spy in an action cartoon and uses her athletic skills to fight crime.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Italian theme song, courtesy of Cristina D'Avena... which is also the only theme song of any version of the series that can be found online.
- Bragging Theme Tune: Like most of Cristina D'Avena's entries, the Italian theme song is about how awesome the protagonist is. According to the lyrics of the full version, J.D. is "super sportiva, sempre in forma e attiva, corpo da diva e grande agilità" ("super sporty, always fit and active, with a diva's body and great agility.")
- Gratuitous English: The Italian theme song is mostly in Italian language but the lyrics also include English lines like "You are spy, SPY, don't know why WHY..."
- Only Known by Initials: The protagonist is called J.D., which stands for Jenny McDean.