Happy 40th Birthday Danger Mouse
“He’s the greatest, he’s fantastic, wherever there is danger he’ll be there!”
Forgive me for putting the theme tune in your head, but it’s important if we are to celebrate 40 years of the greatest secret agent the world has ever known and his hapless hamster sidekick Ernest Penfold. In 1981 Thames Television broadcast the first episode of the show which would end up running for 161 episodes across a whopping 10 seasons and eventually inspire a reboot.
Danger Mouse
Danger Mouse was one of the many success stories to come our of Cosgrove Hall, the Manchester based animation studio that had in it’s current and previous incarnations produced 2D triumphs such as The Magic Ball and Jamie and the Magic Torch as well as stop motion shows like Chorlton and the Wheelies, Cockleshell Bay and specials like Cinderella and The Pied Piper of Hamelin. The one-eyed wonder was an idea that Brian Cosgrove had been tinkering around with since the studio started, but could not come up with a satisfactory sidekick to accompany the super sleuth. On the train to get the show green lit by Thames Television, he doodled a short character in a crumpled suit with huge glasses, on the train home it dawned on Brian that he had caricatured, and therefor immortalised his Brother Denis in the role!
The adventures of Danger Mouse are well remembered for their animation shortcuts such as holding a newspaper or steering wheel up to a characters face to avoid lip sync, or having the same run cycles appear episode after episode, but the show was held together by super draftspeople on tight TV deadlines managing deadlines that ticked like a countdown clock you’d find in the most nail biting of DM’s adventures! However the charm that makes the show so well loved comes not only from the design but also the writing and delivery, for which we can thank Brian Trueman. In Brian Trueman Danger Mouse found his voice, and a hilarious voice it was too. Through Trueman the villains of the show such as Greenback, found themselves flooding the earth with custard, creating dream machines, robot rebellions and getting al the bagpipes in the world to destroy all music – the dafter the better.
brining all this insanity to life was a cast of new and old faces, newest among them being a pre- Only Fools and Horses David Jason who entered the audition wearing a cast and ended up paired with a drunken actor who all but ruined his chances at the part, but Cosgrove saw something in Jason who would go on to work alongside Terry Scott as opposed to the boisterous drunk on Danger Mouse and then go on to work on Count Duckula, The Wind in the Willows and The BFG for the studio.
The show wasn’t just a successful animated show, but a successful television show full stop, beating Coronation Street and Morecambe and Wise in the ratings, pulling in 24 Million viewers. This success led to the show being one of the first to be sold to America when Nickelodeon picked up the show.
In America the show was adored and even led to a political fracas. When the Mayor of New York City, Ed Koch decided he wanted to broadcast to his constituents on a regular basis, he hadn’t considered the slot he was taking would mean New Yorkers would miss out on their regular dose of Danger Mouse. The change in schedule caused uproar, with viewers writing into newspapers and the TV station demanding that the show be reinstated in the end the Mayor had to concede that he wasn’t going to find himself more popular with the public than Danger Mouse.
The 2015 Danger Mouse reboot
In 2015 the show was rebooted by the BBC for what would end up being another 100 episodes with BoulderMedia taking over animation duties and Pointless star Alexander Armstrong alongside Comedian Kevin Eldon taking over vocals for the dynamic duo. The new show proved a huge success too, welcomed with open arms by fans old and new, proving what Thames Television Managing Director said to Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall back in 1979 when the original show was commissioned, “Every generation needs a mouse”
It’s no stretch to say that Danger Mouse changed the fortunes of British Animation. Breaking America and paving the way for other shows from Cosgrove Hall and others to do the same.
“He’s the ace, He’s amazing, He’s the strongest he’s the quickest he’s the best!”
Happy birthday 40th Birthday Danger Mouse!