Danger Mouse (1981 TV series)

Danger Mouse, as seen in the title sequence.

Penfold in
"The Odd Ball Runaround".

• Danger Mouse (voiced by David Jason)[4] is often called the world's greatest secret agent—so secret, in fact, that his codename has a codename.[5] He speaks 34 languages fluently, including some extraterrestrial ones. His skills are of a wide variety, including the ability to shatter metal with his voice, perform military style push-ups on his index finger,^{S1 ep 2} and reach a 7th level of meditation. He is also a practitioner of the ancient martial art of Kung Moggy. His catchphrases include "Good grief" when he becomes upset or shocked, "Penfold, shush" when his assistant makes a foolish remark. He was originally going to be brown; however, the creators thought that he and Penfold needed to be different colors.[6]

Brian Cosgrove described Jason's portrayal as "His voice had the perfect mix of forcefulness, humour and gentleness. He was totally committed to doing voiceovers for silly cartoons, which warmed my heart, and we became great friends." Jason said "I wanted to make him sound believable. We decided he would be softly spoken, very British, very heroic, but also a bit of a coward. He’d save the world, but he’d also run for it!"[4]

• Ernest Penfold (voiced by Terry Scott)[4] is a timid, bespectacled hamster, and Danger Mouse's reluctant assistant and sidekick. He is often mistaken for a mole; however, Brian Cosgrove has stated Penfold is supposed to be a hamster.[7][6] 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."^{S1 ep 1}

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".[4]

• Colonel K (voiced by Edward Kelsey):[8] Danger Mouse's boss; often mistaken for a walrus, it was revealed in an issue of Look-in magazine that he is, in fact, a chinchilla. He previously worked for Special Branch, where he was known as Special K. He is a champion piano-thrower, decorated judo expert, the first to climb Mount Everest on a pogo stick, was once an Eskimo, took up tap-dancing, is a former kleptomaniac, and cheats at croquet. During the last two seasons, he became more absent-minded, tending to frustrate both DM and Penfold with his tendency to ramble nonsense. In the episode "Four Heads are better than Two", he botches the usage of the phrase "over and out" multiple times. Other times, he becomes frustrated when Danger Mouse does not immediately respond, such as if he is in the middle of a yoga exercise.
• Baron Silas Greenback (voiced by Edward Kelsey):[9][8] The recurring villain and Danger Mouse's archenemy; a toad with a wheezy voice, although, sometimes, he was referred to as a frog. Known as Baron Greenteeth in the unbroadcast pilot episode.[6] Commonly known as the "Terrible Toad". In America, "greenback" is slang for dollar bill in many regions, adding to the sense of his commercial greed.[6] Allegedly, he turned to a life of crime as a schoolboy when other children stole his bicycle and let all the air out of its tyres
• Stiletto (voiced by Brian Trueman):[10] Greenback's henchman; a crow. He always called Greenback "Barone", Italian for "Baron". In the original British version, he speaks with an Italian accent; this was changed to a Cockney accent for the U.S. distribution to avoid offending Italian-Americans.[4] His last name is Mafiosa.^{S5 ep 7}
• Nero (sounds provided by David Jason):[11] Greenback's pet. A fluffy white caterpillar (equivalent to the stereotypical white cat frequently associated with arch villains, particularly Ernst Stavro Blofeld). He is a non-speaking character, although his noises and laugh are supplied by David Jason's voice sped up.[11] Readily understood by Greenback and, less frequently, by Stiletto. At one time, he is shown to have a form of telekinesis after falling into one of Greenback's inventions, proving to be just as much a match to DM and Penfold as his master. However, he lost this power when he was drenched in water. In the special features of Danger Mouse cartoons, audiences were informed that Nero is actually the mastermind of Greenback's schemes.

• The Narrator (voiced by David Jason):[10] The unseen narrator, who occasionally interacts with the characters, sometimes to the point of halting the plot for one reason or another (in one episode, he accidentally sends Danger Mouse back in time). He often voices his disdain for the show and his job, to the point that he refuses outright to narrate some episodes altogether. He usually comments at the end of every episode when the credits roll before the end theme tune begins. These comments—along with the episode breaks—have been cut from some releases, greatly reducing the size of this character's part. His name is Isambard Sinclair.

• Professor Heinrich Von Squawkencluck is an inventor mole, first appearing in the series where he was engaged in hormone experiments to grow chickens to enormous sizes.^{S1 ep 4} He invented the Mark III, Danger Mouse's flying car, and the Space Hopper, his personal spacecraft.^{S2 ep 1, S3 ep 1} 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 came to the aid of Danger Mouse and Penfold in the episode, "Chicken Run," and appeared in several episodes afterward.^{S1 ep 4, 10}
• Agent 57: A master of disguise, appearing initially as an earthworm. Agent 57 has disguised himself so often that he forgot his original appearance.^{S1 ep. 8} He gained the ability to alter his own molecular structure to transform into any appearance he wished. This ability went temporarily out of control in one episode when he contracted a cold, causing him to involuntarily change shape whenever he sneezed.
• 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.^{S1 ep. 8, S3 ep. 4 "Ghost Bus"}
• Miss Boathook: Colonel K's secretary, only referred to by the colonel and never seen (though sometimes heard).^{S2 ep. 1} In some versions, the Colonel's secretary is referred to as Miss Prentergast^{S2 ep. 5a} or Miss Hackett.
• Count Duckula (voiced by David Jason):[4] A fame-obsessed vampire duck who wants to appear in television. However, his utter lack of anything approaching talent makes his attempts to "entertain" rather terrifying (he has been known to use his "act" as a torture device). This resulted in a spin-off series, titled Count Duckula, starring the Count himself. The two versions of the character differ, however; the character featured in Danger Mouse is not a vegetarian, makes far greater use of his vampiric magic, and has an accent consisting of a lisp and a stutter, as well as occasional stuttering and duck-like squawks and quacks.
• Doctor Augustus P. Crumhorn III: A mad scientist wolf, he recurred as Danger Mouse's adversary less frequently than Baron Greenback (in four episodes in total). In one episode, he attempted to undermine Danger Mouse by metamorphosing into a Shirley Temple lookalike. In only one episode, "Penfold Transformed", as opposed to his stage name "Augustus P. Crumhorn III", he lists his full name as, "Aloisius Julian Philibert Elphinstone Eugene Dionysis Barry Manilow Crumhorn", omitting both Augustus and the III. Crumhorn 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.
• Fifi: Fifi is an unseen character mentioned occasionally throughout the show, but Danger Mouse is reluctant to discuss her. According to Cosgrove Hall, she is Danger Mouse's ex-girlfriend.
• J. J. Quark: an antagonistic alien who claims possession of Earth based on a cosmic charter granted to his Great-great-great-great grandfather.
• Grovell: J. J. Quark's obsequious robot flunkie who grovels whenever his name is mentioned, to Quark's consternation.
• Penfold's Aunt: Penfold's formidable aunt from Abergavenny, Wales, who sends him cookies in the episode, "The Statue of Liberty Caper". The fact that she is Welsh is stated by the piece of a witch's broom in "The Four Tasks of Danger Mouse". The broom is her fifth cousin. She denies that Danger Mouse is a real secret agent and says that he and Penfold are just playing silly pretend games.

The show was created by Mark Hall[12] and Brian Cosgrove for their production company, Cosgrove Hall Films. Danger Mouse was based on Patrick McGoohan's lead role in Danger Man.[13][4] The show was intended to have a more serious tone as seen in the pilot episode but Mike Harding gave Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall the idea to make the series silly. Mike said: "The characters had got stuck in reality and were doing James Bond type things rooted in the solid real world. 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."[14] 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."[4]

Gosgrove 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, a relatively unknown actor who had been 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[4]

On 4 June 1984, the show was the first British cartoon to appear on Nickelodeon and became one of the earliest ones to be in syndication in America,[15] as it appealed to both preteens and adults with its quick-witted English humour.[16] 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.[17][18]

The show was expensive to make, sometimes needing 2,000 drawings[19] 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.[11]

A listing of British Academy Film Awards.[24]

A listing of British Academy Television Awards.[24]

In 2012, Brian Cosgrove received a Special Award from the British Academy Children's Awards.[25]

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.

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.[26][27][28]

Two mobile games were published by ZED Worldwide; Danger Mouse: Quiz in 2010 and Danger Mouse in 2011.

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

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.

• American musician & producer Danger Mouse chose his stage name as a reference the show, initially performing in a mouse costume. [29]
• In the 1989 film The BFG, which was also produced by Cosgrove-Hall, a Danger Mouse poster is shown above a boy's bed.[11]
• Victor and Hugo (1991): Appeared as himself in the episode titled "French Exchange".
• South Park (2008): In the video, Danger Mouse is in Imaginationland.

• United Kingdom
  • ITV/CITV (1981–1992, 2013)
  • STV – broadcast the Scottish Gaelic version called "Donnie Murdo" from 1990 to 1994.
  • The Children's Channel (1997–1998)
  • Cartoon Network (2000–01)
  • Boomerang (2000–06)
  • BBC Two (2007–09)
  • UK Gold (1992–94)
  • The Family Channel (1995–96)
  • BBC Alba - rebroadcasting the STV "Donnie Murdo" version (2015)