Danger Mouse is a British animated television series produced by Cosgrove Hall Productions for Thames Television. It features the eponymous Danger Mouse who worked as a secret agent and is a parody of British spy fiction, particularly the Danger Man series and James Bond. It originally ran from 28 September 1981 to 19 March 1992 on the ITV network. The series spawned a spin-off show, Count Duckula, which aired between 1988 and 1993. A revival under the same name, aired on CBBC from 2015–2019.

Plot

Danger Mouse is a secret agent with the British Secret Service, and together with his sidekick Penfold is repeatedly ordered by Colonel K, the head of the Secret Service, to save the world. They work underneath Scotland Yard on Baker Street in London, hidden inside a red pillar box. Their arch-enemies are Baron Silas Greenback and his criminal organization, who try to achieve world domination by unconventional means such as stealing all famous buildings, or creating giant robots, etc. A special role is played by the off-screen narrator, Isambard Sinclair, who accompanies the action by commenting on it sarcastically, talking to the characters or musing about his private life.

Characters

Main

[Penfold in

"The Odd Ball Runaround" | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/DM3///3.JPG]

Supporting

Production

Development

The show was created by Mark Hall and Brian Cosgrove for their production company, Cosgrove Hall Films. Danger Mouse was based on Patrick McGoohan's lead role in Danger Man. The show was intended to have a more serious tone as seen in the pilot episode but Mike Harding (who wrote the music for the show) gave Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall the idea to make the series silly. "The characters had got stuck in reality and were doing James Bond type things rooted in the solid real world," said Harding, "I argued that once you invented a Mouse Secret Agent then all of creation and a good chunk of not creation was his oyster. In other words we could be as barmy (crazy) as we wanted." In an interview with The Guardian, Cosgrove said "We reckoned a secret service mouse foiling the plans of an evil toad – Baron Silas Greenback – was suitably ridiculous." Cosgrove and Hall brought in Brian Trueman, who was working as an announcer on Granada TV, as the main writer. For the voice of Danger Mouse, they picked David Jason after they saw him in the show Only Fools and Horses. For the voice of Penfold, they picked Terry Scott, who was known for the show Terry and June. On 4 June 1984, the show was (along with Belle and Sebastian) the first animated show to appear on Nickelodeon in the United States, and quickly became the second-most popular show on the channel after You Can't Do That on Television, as it appealed to both tweens and adults with its quick-witted English humour. It was often compared to American audiences as a British equivalent of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, due to its gentle satire of politics and outrageous plots. It returned to terrestrial television after the BBC purchased episodes of it to broadcast in its daytime schedules with its first broadcast on 12 February 2007 on BBC Two. The show was expensive to make, sometimes needing 2,000 drawings thus footage was reused while certain scenes were set in the North Pole or "in the dark" (i.e. black with eyeballs visible only, or, in Danger Mouse's case, simply one eyeball) as a cost-cutting measure. This time-and-money saving device was cheerfully admitted by both Brian Cosgrove, who conceived the character and the show, and Brian Trueman, who wrote almost all the scripts from the beginning.

Reception and legacy

During the cartoon's run, it reached a peak viewing figure of 7.2 million viewers on 3 January 1983, with average figures being around 3–4 million per episode. In 2001, the show was ranked third in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Kids' TV Shows. In 2008 it was named the 62nd-best animated series by IGN, who considered it one of the first British cartoons to become popular with American audiences.

Awards and nominations

Danger Mouse was nominated for 11 BAFTA awards during its original run, but did not win any.

BAFTA Films

A listing of British Academy Film Awards.

BAFTA TV

A listing of British Academy Television Awards.

Other awards

In 2012, Brian Cosgrove received a Special Award from the British Academy Children's Awards.

In other media

Comics

A long-running comic strip adaptation, written by Angus P. Allan and illustrated by Arthur Ranson, ran in Look-in magazine and was syndicated in various other magazines. Ranson also provided some backdrops for the show. Allan and Ranson's work was highly appreciated by Cosgrove Hall, and the pair were awarded an "Oh Goodness!, Oh Crikey!" award in appreciation of their services. Some of Allan's stories were adapted for the show, although Allan's name was misspelled "Angus Allen". Artist Ranson later went on to illustrate Judge Anderson in the UK comic 2000 AD.

Video games

A series of video games based on the character also appeared. The first were Danger Mouse in Double Trouble and Danger Mouse in the Black Forest Chateau (both in 1984) followed by Danger Mouse in Making Whoopee! in 1985. Two mobile games were published by ZED Worldwide; Danger Mouse: Quiz in 2010 and Danger Mouse in 2011.

Audiobooks

Some stories were also available as read-along cassettes with accompanying books. They were re-read by the cast for audio.

Merchandise

During its run, the show spawned a wide range of merchandise, including storybooks, hardback annuals, jigsaw puzzles, a Panini sticker album, View-Master reels, and of course, VHS releases. In the years since, products have continued to sell, often aimed at the now-adult audience which grew up with it, such as T-shirts, mugs, key rings, fridge magnets and posters. To coincide with the 25th anniversary, Cosgrove Hall also licensed rights to a number of companies to produce a range of new anniversary merchandise including Blues Clothing (women's and girls' underwear and sleepwear) and Concept 2 Creation (collectible figurines). FremantleMedia launched a webshop run by Metrostar e-commerce where a wide variety of goods were for sale, including the CD Audio adaptation of two of the show's episodes using the original artists voices, released by Steve Deakin-Davies: The Ambition Company.

Other appearances

Episodes

Home media

Broadcast history

The series was transmitted on ITV via the CITV brand from 1981 to 1992. The show has the initials 'DM' prominently emblazoned on his chest. This causes problems for those translating it into other languages, where a literal translation of the words 'Danger' and 'Mouse' do not have those initials; the Scots Gaelic version, for example, calls the show (and the lead) Donnie Murdo (two given names unconnected either with mice or danger). which was broadcast on STV – from 1990 to 1994 and again on BBC Alba in 2015. The series has also been broadcast on numerous channels on Boomerang (2000–06) and BBC Two (2007–09). He was Dzielna Mysz (brave mouse) in Polish, Dundermusen (Thundermouse) in Swedish, and Dare Dare Motus in French, "Dare Dare" being French slang for "as fast as possible". The Slovene translation omitted the DM initials entirely, however, dubbing Danger Mouse Hrabri mišek ('Brave Mouse'). In Australia, the show was first broadcast on ABC TV in 1982 it then moved to Network Ten in 1996. It was also the first British cartoon to break into Cheez TV, being shown on weekdays. In the United States the show was broadcast on Nickelodeon from 1984 to 1987, and 1991 to 1994. It was the first fully-fledged animated show to air on the network.

Revival

It was reported in 2013 that the series was under consideration for a revival, and in June 2014 it was announced that a new series was being made for broadcast on CBBC in 2015. The new series is produced by Boulder Media for FremantleMedia Kids. It is directed by Robert Cullen with Brian Cosgrove, one of the original creators, acting as creative consultant. Alexander Armstrong and actor Kevin Eldon voice Danger Mouse and Penfold, respectively; Dave Lamb takes the role of the narrator, whilst Stephen Fry plays Colonel K and Ed Gaughan takes over as Baron Greenback. Armstrong's Pointless co-host Richard Osman appears in the series as Professor Strontium Jellyfishowitz. John Oliver voices the character Dr Augustus P Crumhorn III and Lena Headey voices the character Jeopardy Mouse, a character newly introduced into this series. This series aired on Netflix in the US. Kevin Eldon describes the animation style as 'much the same as the original'. The first episode aired on 28 September 2015. Jazwares is the master toy partner, Penguin Books published a range of printed books, including story books, official guides, sticker books, novelty books, annuals and electronic titles and D.C. Thomson & Co. published a monthly magazine with comic strips, puzzles, fact files, poster and competitions.

Spin-off