Danger Mouse is a British animated television series produced by Cosgrove Hall Productions for Thames Television.

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

thumb|upright|Danger Mouse, as seen in the title sequence

thumb|Penfold in "The Odd Ball Runaround"

  • Danger Mouse (voiced by David Jason) His catchphrases include "Good grief" when he becomes upset or shocked, "Penfold, shush" when his assistant makes a foolish remark.<!-- According to him in the 1980 pilot, his real name is Denis Moss. --> He was originally going to be brown; however, the creators thought that he and Penfold needed to be different colours. Penfold stands just over half the height of Danger Mouse, and always wears thick round glasses and a crumpled blue suit with a white shirt and a yellow and black striped tie. In the first episode, he is codenamed the Jigsaw "because when he is faced with a problem, he goes to pieces."

: Brian Cosgrove came up with Penfold's character design when he was waiting for a meeting with Thames Television, and had drawn up "this little fellow with heavy glasses and a baggy suit" and then realized he had drawn his brother Denis, who worked for the Sunday Express and "who was bald with heavy black glasses". – The unseen narrator, who occasionally interacts with the characters, sometimes to the point of halting the plot for one reason or another. In a series 6 episode, he accidentally sends Danger Mouse and Penfold back in time with his broken mike. He often voices his disdain for the show and his job towards the end of the episode and through part of the closing credits.

Supporting

  • Professor Heinrich Von Squawkencluck<!-- (voiced by Edward Kelsey) --> – An inventor mole, first appearing in the series where he was engaged in hormone experiments to grow chickens to enormous sizes. He invented the Mark III, Danger Mouse's flying car, and the Space Hopper, his personal spacecraft. He speaks in a broken German accent. Penfold is naturally leery of the professor, as he often winds up on the wrong side of his experiments.
  • Flying Officer Buggles Pigeon – Another of Colonel K's agents, who comes to the aid of Danger Mouse and Penfold in the episode "Chicken Run", and appeared in several episodes afterward.<!-- S4 ep 8: Great bone idol --> <!-- His name is a reference to James Bigglesworth. -->
  • Agent 57 – A master of disguise, appearing initially as an earthworm. Agent 57 has disguised himself so often that he forgot his original appearance. In the series 6 episode "The Spy Who Stayed In with a Cold", he gained the ability to change shape to resemble any character or animal whenever he sneezed, but when he shows Danger Mouse his original form, Danger Mouse is horrified.
  • Leatherhead – Greenback's other crow henchman. Even less intelligent than Stiletto, he appeared in several of the early episodes, where he spent most of his time reading comic books.
  • Count Duckula (voiced by David Jason) – A mad scientist wolf, he recurred as Danger Mouse's adversary starting in series 9.<!-- four episodes --> In the episode, "Penfold Transformed", he lists his full name as "Aloisius Julian Philibert Elphinstone Eugene Dionysis Barry Manilow Crumhorn", omitting both Augustus and the III. He and Greenback were at odds; once Crumhorn kidnapped Penfold and Penfold managed to escape simply because the two villains were too busy quarreling to notice his absence.

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. 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." as it appealed to both children and adults with its quick-witted English humour. It was often described by 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, an episode 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. 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.

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| 1984 (37th)

| Danger Mouse series 4

| Best Short Animation

|

|-

| 1985 (38th)

| Danger Mouse series 5

| Best Short Animation

|

|-

| 1986 (39th)

| Danger Mouse series 6

| Best Short Animation

|

|-

| 1987 (40th)

| Danger Mouse series 7

| Best Short Animation Film

|

|-

|}

BAFTA TV

A listing of British Academy Television 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 who grew up with it, such as T-shirts, mugs, key rings, fridge magnets and posters. In 2006, to coincide with the show's 25th anniversary, Cosgrove Hall 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

  • American musician & producer Danger Mouse chose his stage name as a reference to the show, initially performing in a mouse costume.
  • In the 1989 film The BFG, which was also produced by Cosgrove-Hall, a Danger Mouse poster is shown above a boy's bed. 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 ' ('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.

In New Zealand, the show was broadcast on Channel 2 from 1983 to 1987.

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. 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.

  • Danger Mouse appears on cover of Computer and Video Games magazine - September 1984.