Cosgrove Hall Productions

Cosgrove Hall Films (also known as Cosgrove Hall Productions) was an English animation studio founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall; its headquarters was in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Cosgrove Hall was once a major producer of children's television and animated programmes/films; Cosgrove Hall's programmes are still seen in over eighty countries. The company was wound down by its then owner, ITV plc, on 26 October 2009. It was mainly known for its series '' Danger Mouse'', ''The Wind in the Willows'' and ''Count Duckula''.

History

Stop Frame Productions

Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall first met while both were students at Manchester College of Art and Design, which is now part of Manchester Metropolitan University. They later became co-workers at Granada Television, where they produced television graphics.

Hall left his job in 1969 and founded his own production company, Stop Frame Productions. Cosgrove joined the company shortly after its establishment. Their first projects, for Stop Frame, included public service films and television commercials for such companies as the ''TVTimes''. From 1971 to 1972, the company released the animated series, ''The Magic Ball'', which they created in a renovated shed located in the yard of Cosgrove's father-in-law. Hall directed two animated productions for Stop Frame, ''Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo'', which was released in 1972, and the television series, ''Noddy'', which aired in 1975. The company also produced opening credits and graphics for children's TV series such as ''Rainbow'' in 1972.

Cosgrove Hall Films

Stop Frame Productions halted production, and was closed, in mid 1975. However, Cosgrove and Hall were able to find new work in animation, specifically due to their earlier work on the 1972 series ''Rainbow''. The producer of ''Rainbow'', Thames Television, an ITV company, created a new, subsidiary, animation studio called Cosgrove Hall Films. Thames hired and commissioned Cosgrove and Hall as lead animators to create new animated programmes, for this new studio, based on their earlier work with ''Rainbow''. Thames Television also hired John Hambley as Cosgrove Hall Films' first executive producer. Its first series was ''Chorlton and the Wheelies'', the lead role being named after the suburb of Manchester where the company was based (the other characters were placed on wheels as this made the stop-frame animation easier). The pop singer and musician Bernard Sumner worked for Cosgrove Hall from 1976 until 1979 as a tracer.

'' Danger Mouse'' was one of the studio's earliest international successes. The studio made 161 episodes between 1981 and 1992. In each one, Danger Mouse, the world's greatest secret agent, and his well-meaning but useless sidekick Penfold, outwit the evil Baron Silas Greenback and various scoundrels. In 1983, the studio made a 75-minute film, ''The Wind in the Willows'', based on Kenneth Grahame's classic story of the same name. It won a BAFTA award and an international Emmy award. Subsequently, the studio made a 52-episode TV series based on the characters between 1984 and 1990. All the music and songs for the feature and series were written by Keith Hopwood, late of Herman's Hermits and Malcolm Rowe. The 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 '' Danger Mouse'' series, but got a spin-off series in 1988 that rapidly became one of Cosgrove Hall's most successful programmes, and a Cosgrove Hall staple to spin-off characters from each successive cartoon. Both shows also aired on Nickelodeon in the U.S. during the late 1980s, and were popular in the ratings for the channel. In 1989, the studio produced a full-length feature based on Roald Dahl's ''The BFG''.

''Truckers'', the first book in '' The Bromeliad'', was the studio's first collaboration with the best-selling author Terry Pratchett. The 1992 series follows the efforts of a group of nomes, whose spaceship crash-landed on Earth 15,000 years ago, to return home. In 1993, the ownership of Cosgrove Hall was transferred to Anglia Television, following the removal of Thames' ITV licence and, following a series of takeovers and mergers, ownership finally belonged to ITV plc. 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 specialities was producing programmes for young children, such as ''Noddy's Toyland Adventures'', '' Bill and Ben'', and ''Andy Pandy'' for the BBC. The latter two series were based on classic characters from the 1950s. In the mid-2000s, Cosgrove Hall worked on a new version of ''Postman Pat''. The studio also animated '' Ghosts of Albion'', the BBC
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