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Cosgrove Hall Films

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Cosgrove Hall Films is an animation studio based in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester that is a major producer of children's television programmes. Cosgrove Hall's programmes are now seen in over eighty countries.

History

Founded in 1976 by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall, Cosgrove Hall Films was part of Thames Television until 1993 (when Thames lost its weekday ITV London licence to Carlton Television). Its first series was Chorlton and the Wheelies, the lead role being named after the district of Manchester where the company was based (the other characters were placed on wheels as this made the stop-frame animation easier). The show, sold worldwide by Thames, was never shown in Israel after a graphic designer mistakenly put a Star of David on a spell-book instead of a pentangle. The book belonged to Fenella the Witch who had a German accent and therefore was considered offensive.

One of their early employees was Bernard Sumner who went on to be an integral member of Manchester rock bands Joy Division and New Order.

DangerMouse was one of the studio's earliest international successes. The studio made 89 episodes between 1981 and 1992. In each one, Dangermouse, the world's greatest secret agent, and his well-meaning but useless sidekick Penfold, outwit the evil Baron Silas Greenback and assorted baddies.

In 1983 the studio made a 75 minute film, The Wind in the Willows, based on Kenneth Grahame's classic story The Wind in the Willows. in 2007 the studio made 75 minute film, The Jungle Book, based on Rudyard Kipling's classic story The Jungle Book. It won a BAFTA award and an international Emmy award. Subsequently the studio made a 52-episode television series based on the characters between 1984 and 1990. Legendary Stone Roses guitarist John Squire worked on this series.

Count Duckula was a spoof on the Dracula legend; its title character is the world's only vegetarian vampire. He aspires to be rich and famous. Originally he was a villain/henchman recurring in the DangerMouse series, but got a spinoff series in 1988 that rapidly became one of Cosgrove Hall's most successful programmes.

Truckers, the first book in The Bromeliad, was the studio's first collaboration with the best-selling author Terry Pratchett. The 1991 series follows the efforts of a group of nomes whose spaceship crash-landed on Earth 15,000 years ago, to return home. In 1997 Cosgrove Hall films produced two series for Channel 4 based on Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, two novels from Pratchett's Discworld series.

One of the studio's specilialites is producing programmes for young children. They made 39 episodes of Noddy (1992-1999) and 52 of Bill and Ben (2001) for the BBC. Like Bill and Ben, the 52 episodes of Andy Pandy (2002) are based on the classic characters from the 1950s. In Australia all of them were aired on the ABC, although DangerMouse, Count Duckula and Alias the Jester later aired on Network Ten.

The studio also made the Ghosts of Albion (2003) for the BBC's first fully animated webcast. This gothic tale is set in a 19th century London swarming with demons. Website visitors can learn about the production and help to develop the story. The studio also produced Scream of the Shalka, a Doctor Who animated story for the BBC website. According to Doctor Who Magazine #371 and the BBC Doctor Who website, they have animated the missing first and fourth episodes of the Doctor Who serial The Invasion.

Other animations made by the studio include The Foxbusters, Victor and Hugo, Avenger Penguins, Jamie and the Magic Torch, Fetch The Vet and Albie. They have also produced the new episodes of Postman Pat.

Series & Productions

Sources

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