Mark Hall, who has died aged 75, was co-creator with Brian Cosgrove of the eyepatch-wearing children’s hero Danger Mouse, and co-founder, again with Cosgrove, of one of the most successful animation studios in Europe.
Danger Mouse — the adventures of a rodent James Bond who lives in a postbox in Baker Street — was first shown on ITV in 1981, when it drew audiences of 3.5 million, and ran for some 90 episodes until 1992. At its peak it attracted an audience of more than 19 million. It also proved popular abroad, selling to more than 80 countries and becoming the first British cartoon to break into the American market.
Hall felt that the show succeeded because of the often absurd situations in which Danger Mouse (voiced by David Jason) and his bumbling hamster sidekick Penfold (voiced by Terry Scott) found themselves as they battled the wicked Baron Greenback, Count Duckula and sundry other baddies. (In one episode, for example, Count Duckula mind-controls Westminster MPs to make them as showbiz-crazy as he is). “The adults watched because of that kind of anarchy. The kids watched it because they just loved the stories and the absolutely stupid gags,” Hall recalled.
By the time they made their names with Danger Mouse, Hall and Cosgrove had been working together for more than a decade on cartoon and stop-motion animation. Hall was the business brains with a talent for model-making; Cosgrove was the ideas man, a storyboard wizard with a gift for traditional cartoon animation.
The success of the series gave them the financial security to embark on other children’s’ animation projects, including the highly popular spin-off series Count Duckula (1988-93), a spoof on the Dracula legend featuring a vegetarian vampire duck, and a feature-length stop-motion animated version of The Wind in the Willows (1983), with a voice cast that included David Jason (Toad), Ian Carmichael (Ratty), Michael Hordern (Badger) and Richard Pearson (Mole), as well as wonderfully evocative and elaborate costumes and sets.
The Wind in the Willows earned the two men a Bafta award and they went on to produce a series featuring the same characters which ran to more than 60 episodes. The pair won another Bafta for the short Alias the Jester (1985) and they had a further 15 nominations, including one for the adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The BFG (1989).
The son of a railwayman, Mark William Hall was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on May 17 1936 and, as a child, enjoyed putting on puppet shows for friends. He went on to train as an illustrator at Manchester Regional College of Art and Design, where he met Brian Cosgrove, who was studying graphic design. The pair hit it off immediately, though Hall remembered that while Cosgrove was inspired by cartoons such as Mickey Mouse, he preferred more serious stories and longer films such as Snow White and Bambi.
The pair met up again when they were both recruited to work as graphic designers by Granada Television, doing title sequences. In the late 1960s Hall left to form an independent company, Stop Frame Animations, and Cosgrove joined him about a year later. Working initially in a shed in the garden of Cosgrove’s father-in-law, they made commercials and public information films and produced their first award-winning series, The Magic Ball (1971-72), about the adventures of a time travelling boy, written and narrated by Eric Thompson, in which they mixed photographs with hand drawings. They also did the title sequence and animations for Thames Television’s children’s programme Rainbow (1972).
In the mid-1970s they founded Cosgrove Hall Productions, a Manchester-based studio working for Thames Television, which specialised in both cartoon and stop-motion animation, later moving into computer-generated imagery. Early productions included Noddy (1975); Chorlton and the Wheelies (1976-79), inspired by a dream Cosgrove had about a happiness dragon chasing heads on wheels; and the Captain Kremmen cartoon sequences for The Kenny Everett Video Show (1978-80). In 1981 they won their first Bafta, for The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
In the 1990s Cosgrove Hall began a fruitful partnership with Terry Pratchett, collaborating on an animated adaptation of Truckers, the first book in The Bromeliad (which follows the attempts of a group of gnomes, marooned on Earth after their spaceship crash-lands, to return home). In 1997 they produced two series for Channel 4 based on Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, two novels from Pratchett’s Discworld series.
Although Cosgrove Hall was an independent company, Thames Television was the majority shareholder. After the company lost its franchise in 1993, ownership passed to Granada Television and ultimately to ITV. The company continued to produce cartoons and animations after Hall and Cosgrove retired in 2000, but in later years it faced increasingly stiff competition from state-subsidised productions in Canada, France and countries in the Far East. In 2009 ITV took the decision to close it down.
Earlier this year Hall and Cosgrove announced that they had formed a new company, CHF Entertainment, with Francis Fitzpatrick, creator of the children’s television hit Jakers!, and were working on a children’s series entitled HeroGliffix.
In 1961 Mark Hall married Margaret Routledge, who survives him with their son and daughter.
Mark Hall, born May 17 1936, died November 17 2011
The pair met up again when they were both recruited to work as graphic designers by Granada Television, doing title sequences. In the late 1960s Hall left to form an independent company, Stop Frame Animations, and Cosgrove joined him about a year later. Working initially in a shed in the garden of Cosgrove’s father-in-law, they made commercials and public information films and produced their first award-winning series, The Magic Ball (1971-72), about the adventures of a time travelling boy, written and narrated by Eric Thompson, in which they mixed photographs with hand drawings. They also did the title sequence and animations for Thames Television’s children’s programme Rainbow (1972).
In the mid-1970s they founded Cosgrove Hall Productions, a Manchester-based studio working for Thames Television, which specialised in both cartoon and stop-motion animation, later moving into computer-generated imagery. Early productions included Noddy (1975); Chorlton and the Wheelies (1976-79), inspired by a dream Cosgrove had about a happiness dragon chasing heads on wheels; and the Captain Kremmen cartoon sequences for The Kenny Everett Video Show (1978-80). In 1981 they won their first Bafta, for The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
In the 1990s Cosgrove Hall began a fruitful partnership with Terry Pratchett, collaborating on an animated adaptation of Truckers, the first book in The Bromeliad (which follows the attempts of a group of gnomes, marooned on Earth after their spaceship crash-lands, to return home). In 1997 they produced two series for Channel 4 based on Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, two novels from Pratchett’s Discworld series.
Although Cosgrove Hall was an independent company, Thames Television was the majority shareholder. After the company lost its franchise in 1993, ownership passed to Granada Television and ultimately to ITV. The company continued to produce cartoons and animations after Hall and Cosgrove retired in 2000, but in later years it faced increasingly stiff competition from state-subsidised productions in Canada, France and countries in the Far East. In 2009 ITV took the decision to close it down.
Earlier this year Hall and Cosgrove announced that they had formed a new company, CHF Entertainment, with Francis Fitzpatrick, creator of the children’s television hit Jakers!, and were working on a children’s series entitled HeroGliffix.
In 1961 Mark Hall married Margaret Routledge, who survives him with their son and daughter.
Mark Hall, born May 17 1936, died November 17 2011
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