News

To celebrate the release of Danger Mouse The Complete Collection on DVD, available now, we are giving away 2 copies of this complete collection on DVD!

Featuring the voices of David Jason, as our eponymous hero, and Terry Scott as Penfold, Danger Mouse The Complete Collection on DVD contains every episode ever made of the original 10 series!

Danger Mouse was based on the 1960s television series Danger Man starring Patrick McGoohan. Penfold was based on a doodle Brian Cosgrove did of his brother Denis who was northern editor of the Sunday Express, was bald and wore heavy black glasses.

The series ran in the UK from 1981 until 1992. Although Danger Mouse was nominated for 11 Bafta awards during this time it didn’t win any. Viewing figures for the show were higher than Coronation Street’s at one point in the early 80s. In 1984, the show (along with Belle and Sebastian) became the...

The BBC sitcom Terry & June is available to stream unedited in full, but a warning at the start of it has left one MP demanding his country back.

Starring June Whitfield and Terry Scott, the BBC sitcom Terry & June was a big hit for the corporation, particularly in the 1980s. It debuted in 1979, ran through until 1987, and the show has been made available to stream in full via the BritBox service.

To the best of my knowledge, not a single frame of the show has been edited or altered. In spite of if being a programme very much of its time, the decision has been made to leave the material in tact, and instead just add a warning at the start.

This seems a decent way of doing things. Retrospectively censoring material to modern sensitivities is a dangerous and evolving path. Letting people wander unwarned into family-targeted viewing...

British publicist and marketing consultant Freddie Ross Hancock, whose clients included Sophia Loren, Julie Andrews and Benny Hill, and helped bring the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to New York, has died in the city at the age of 92.

Born Freda Ross in 1930 in North London, she learned the public relations business working for the Holland America cruise line for two years, after which she joined the Universal Film Corporation of America as assistant head of publicity in the U.K.

In the early 1950s she set up her own publicity firm, Freda Ross Associates, representing performers such as Benny Hill, Dick Emery, Bob Monkhouse, Terry Scott and Hugh Lloyd. She met comedian and actor Tony Hancock in 1954 when she was 24, and persuaded him to take her on as his publicist.

In 1959 Ross and Hancock began an affair, although he was married, but they lived together openly from...

Click here to read the full article.

Freddie Ross Hancock, the British marketing consultant and publicist who represented Sophia Loren, Julie Andrews, Benny Hill, Theodore Bikel and Jim Dale and helped bring the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to New York, has died. She was 92.

Ross Hancock died Sunday at her home in Manhattan, friend and former Warner Bros. executive Luke Fontneau announced.

Another of her clients was popular English comedian and actor Tony Hancock. They began a romantic relationship in 1957 while he was married and wed in December 1965, but soon after she filed for divorce, he died by suicide in 1968 at age 44.

After Hancock’s death, she moved to the U.S., where she worked as an acquisitions executive for American Video Films, served as vice chairman of the U.S. wing of the Royal Television Society and consulted for companies including Miramax.

She was honored as...

Dame June Whitfield, best known to television audiences for her supporting role in Absolutely Fabulous, has died at the age of 93, the BBC reports. A cause of death has not been disclosed.

Whitfield’s career in British entertainment spanned six decades. In 1992, she was cast in Absolutely Fabulous as the mother of Jennifer Saunders’ Edina Monsoon. The sitcom ran for a total of five seasons, then returned for a series of three 20th anniversary specials in 2011 and 2012. Whitfield last reprised her role in 2016’s feature-length film Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.

Prior to AbFab, Whitfield co-starred as Rose Garvey in the British comedy Beggar My Neighbour,...

British actor and comedian Bill Maynard, a cast member in five Carry On films and best known as Claude Jeremiah Greengrass in the police television series Heartbeat, has died at age 89. He died from complications after suffering a fall from his mobility scooter and being hospitalized.

Maynard was known for his wild off-stage life, sharing similarities with his grizzled Heartbeat television character. At one point, he was known as the highest-paid TV comic in Britain, but did not take good care of his finances. He then retreated to smaller stage roles before returning to glory with several successful television series.

Born Walter Frederick George Williams on October 8, 1928 in the village of Heath End in Surrey, Maynard embarked on his show business career at age 8, performing impressions in Working Men’s Clubs. He later was a band singer and stage actor, adopting his stage name from a wine advertisement. He became...

Recently revived on TV with Alexander Armstrong, Kevin Eldon and Stephen Fry among the voice cast, Danger Mouse is also set to storm the big screen. Sony Pictures Animation and StudioCanal have hatched a plan for a movie, with producers Neal Moritz and Toby Ascher overseeing the diminutive super-spy shenanigans.Starting life as an animated series from Cosgrove Hall in the early '80s, Danger Mouse was a secret agent, channelling James Bond and Danger Man, and getting involved in a lot of very silly nonsense on a weekly basis.He lived underneath a pillar box on Baker Street and drove a flying car; his sidekick was the blundering hamster Penfold; his "M" was Colonel K. (a chinchilla); and his arch enemy was the wheezy toad Baron Greenback, who had a crow henchman called Stiletto and was always up to dastardly schemes like trying to melt the North Pole. Occasional secondary villains included Count Duckula,...

Danger Mouse is back! This slick, self-aware, modern revival boasts plenty of action and jokes...

It’s been over a year since the BBC announced it was remaking Danger Mouse, a show which has a special place in the hearts of a generation of children. Understandably, there’ve been nerves; can Danger Mouse thrive without David Jason and Terry Scott? Will the new team stick with what made the show great in the first place? Is there a place for Danger Mouse on television today? Will this ruin childhoods?

Based on the first episode of the revived series, the answer to all of those questions is tentatively ‘yes’. Except that last one; as we’ve said before on this site, even the worst remake can’t have any genuine impact on your childhood. And, happily, Danger Mouse is far from being the worst remake.

Fans of the old show will...

Simply Media

To celebrate the release of An Actor’s Life For Me, Hugh and I and Get Well Soon on DVD, we are giving 2 lucky WhatCulture readers the chance to win a bundle containing all three!

An Actor’s Life for Me is a British sitcom starring a stand out cast including John Gordon Sinclair (Gregory’s Girl), Victor Spinetti (A Hard Day’s Night and Gina McKee (Notting Hill). Written by The Vicar of Dibley’s co-writer Paul Mayhew Archer, and based on a hit Radio 4 series, it originally aired in 1991. Robert Neilson (Sinclair) is a struggling actor, desperate to hit the big time, however unrealistic his ambitions are and never quite achieves the dizzy heights he aspires to.

With the help of his incompetent agent Desmond Shaw (Spinetti), he tries to secure the romantic lead opposite Kim Basinger, attempts to play a corpse while suffering from a...

HBO star John Oliver (“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”) and Lena Headey (“Game of Thrones” Queen Cersei) are cast as voice over talent for the BBC and FremantleMedia’s revamped animated series “Danger Mouse.” The beloved 80s cartoon was about a secret agent mouse and his hamster friend Penfold and was originally voiced by David Jason and Terry Scott.The announcement was made at Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. Oliver is reportedly cast as scientist wolf Dr. Augustus P. Crumhorn III, and Headey will voice the U.S. Secret Agent Jeopardy Mouse. “Danger Mouse” will air on the BBC’s kids’ channel […]...

The upcoming Danger Mouse reboot may feature female characters who were previously male.

The move is said to fit into the BBC's plans to make female characters more prominent in children's shows, reports The Guardian.

Cbbc will air 52 new episodes of the classic 1980s cartoon in 2015. The original series featured very few female characters.

"Characters that might have been male in the past will now be female characters," Cbbc controller Cheryl Taylor said.

However, she did not specify which characters could see gender swaps.

CBeebies controller Kay Benbow said of the move: "I still feel the default tendency is for there to be a male lead or a male presenter."

The new series will see Danger Mouse and Penfold still stationed at their iconic red post box. However, it will be filled with modern technology, including the title character's eye patch being replaced by a multi-function 'iPatch'.

Sir David Jason...

Over two decades since it wrapped, much loved 1980s British cartoon series "Danger Mouse" is coming out of retirement with FremantleMedia Kids & Family Entertainment teaming with the BBC to produce a 52-episode new series to air on Cbbc next year in the UK.

A parody of the Bond films and TV's "Danger Man", the Cosgrove Hall Films production followed an eye-patched white mouse who is also the world's greatest secret agent. He and his bespectacled and reluctant hamster assistant Penfold work out of their base within a red postbox.

Together they battled the evil machinations of the wheezy voiced toad Baron Silas Greenback and his crow assistant Stiletto Mafiosa. On occasion the vampire Count Duckula was the antagonist, and he went on to score his own spin-off series.

161 episodes were produced over a decade and the show proved to be an international hit, even in the United States market where...

Danger Mouse will return next year with a new 52-episode series on Cbbc.

The original Cosgrove Hall Films production ran for ten series from 1981 to 1992, on Citv in the UK and Nickelodeon in the Us.

Original co-creator Brian Cosgrove will consult on the new series and said: "When I helped to create Danger Mouse I had no idea the show would be such a huge success both in the UK and overseas.

"I am delighted that a whole new generation will be introduced to his daring deeds and thrilled to be part of this new 21st century series.

"I can't wait to find out what he's been up to for the last 23 years."

The rights to the Danger Mouse character are now owned by FremantleMedia Kids & Family Entertainment, which is collaborating with the BBC on the new series.

Fremantle had teased the possible return of the character in March 2013, following...

Danger Mouse is being considered for a TV reboot by FremantleMedia after its success as part of Citv's Old Skool retro weekend earlier this year.

Citv celebrated its 30th birthday in January with a weekend of classic series including Sooty, Fun House and Press Gang. Danger Mouse was the biggest hit of the weekend, pulling in record viewing numbers for Citv.

Broadcast has confirmed that FremantleMedia Kids and Family Entertainment are now holding talks about reviving the kids' animation for a full series.

Danger Mouse was produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Thames Television between 1981 and 1993.

David Jason voiced the eponymous Danger Mouse, who was joined on his spy adventures by timid, bespectacled hamster Penfold (voiced by Terry Scott). The primary villain was wheezy-voiced toad Baron Silas Greenback (voiced by Edward Kelsey).

President of FremantleMedia's Kids and Family Entertainment Sander Schwartz said: "[Danger Mouse] is something we might be looking to do in the not-too-distant future.

Los Angeles, CA, December 11, 2012– Hasbro, Inc. (Nasdaq: Has) announced the integration of all of its content initiatives, including television, film, commercial productions and short-form content, under Stephen Davis, president of Los Angeles-based Hasbro Studios. Davis, who has overseen global TV development, production and distribution for Hasbro since launching the studio in 2009, will report to Hasbro Chief Marketing Officer John Frascotti to ensure the seamless integration between the entertainment and global marketing teams. Hasbro Studios produces a number of top-rated, award-winning multi-platform shows that are seen in more than 170 countries globally and here in the U.S. on The Hub, a television network for kids and their families that is a joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: Disca, Discb, Disck). In addition to television, Davis will now lead Hasbro’s Film Group in Los Angeles and the company’s Rhode Island-based studio responsible for producing the company’s commercials and short-form content.

For any child raised between the mid-seventies and early nineties, the work of Brian Cosgrove, and his creative partner Mark Hall will be instantly familiar. From the adventures of a not particularly successful rodent secret agent, and the bizarre home life of a vegetarian vampire duck, to the stop-motion antics of Ratty, Badger, Mole and Toad, their creations dominated afternoon TV in a way that Rastamouse could only dream of.

In addition to his work on children’s TV series, Cosgrove produced and directed the 1989, animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel The Bfg, which comes to Blu-Ray this week. Cosgrove recently took the time to talk to HeyUGuys about the film, as well as his other work, his views on Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox, and his frequent collaborations with the actor David Jason.

On watching the film again, 23 years after it was first released and thinking back to the production.

Danger Mouse: The Complete Collection 30th Anniversary Edition

Stars (the voices of): David Jason, Terry Scott | Produced by Cosgrove Hall

Released to coincide with the characters 30th Anniversary, this new DVD boxset of the complete series of the classic Cosgrove Hall animated series Danger Mouse features every single episode ever made, in original broadcast order, along with a veritable feast of special features – including the never-before-seen featurette, Danger Mouse and Friends.

Featuring a voice cast that includes British institution David Jason as Danger Mouse and former Carry On and Terry and June star Terry Scott as his bumbling assistant Penfold, the series was first broadcast in September 1981 and has since been oft-repeated on television, capturing the hearts of generation after generation of British children – myself included. In fact the series’ popularity is so great that it ranked third in a nation poll of the nation’s 100 greatest kids...

To celebrate the 30th birthday of the greatest secret agent the world has ever known and one of Britain’s best loved animated characters, Danger Mouse, this September FremantleMedia Enterprises is releasing Danger Mouse – The Complete Collection 30th Anniversary Edition as a 10-disc DVD set featuring every single episode of Danger Mouse and, for the first time ever, in the correct screening order. The collection also comes with a brand new extra feature exclusive to this release, the never-seen-before featurette “Danger Mouse And Friends”.

First broadcast on 28th September 1981 and starring David Jason as the intrepid hero and Terry Scott as his faithful but bumbling assistant Penfold, Danger Mouse was an instant hit with children and adults alike and has since become a national institution. The show’s enormous popularity was confirmed when it ranked third in Channel 4’s poll of the 100 Greatest Kids’ TV Shows, just behind The Simpsons and The Muppet Show,...

Love ‘em or loathe ‘em, the Carry On films entertained cinema audiences with their naff jokes, bawdy humour and naughty innuendos for 34 years, with a long shelf-life beyond that. Thirty-one films were made between Carry On Sergeant (1958) and the awful Carry On Columbus (1992), during which time a gang of popular comic actors and comedians formed a now-legendary team that made the series so popular. Now it's time to see which of those great Carry On stars made the most films...

The bespectacled, spindly-framed Charles Hawtrey came next, with 23 films. Another debut from Carry On Sergeant, he was often the eager innocent in the early C-Os. In the period films he was Charles Hawtrey, the eccentric high-camp Englishman, whether he was the Duc de Pommfrit in Carry On Don’t Lose Your Head or Private Widdle in Carry On Up the Khyber. As Chief Big Heap in Cowboy, only Hawtrey could...

The Armageddon Factor. Hmmphh. Sounds a bit like a cross between Gladiators and The X Factor in which Simon Cowell, Many Faces Of Louis Walsh, a Minogue Sister and People’s Pop Princess Cheryl Cole decide which bicep-bulging goons go head to head in mortal combat. In fact, it turns out to be both an orchestrated war between the planets of Zeos and Atrios.

Oh, and more crucially, it’s the last instalment in the Key To Time saga.

The past 26 weeks have boasted some of the best examples of late 1970s Who - witty snowbound Hustle prototype The Ribos Operation, explosion in imagination factory The Pirate Planet and summery Zenda update The Androids Of Tara. One of the good things about the season is that the linking theme isn’t always crowbarred in at inopportune moments. That’s the great thing about the quest motif - you simply start...

Veteran actress June Whitfield appeared on BBC Breakfast News this morning to talk about a few things - including her upcoming Doctor Who role as Minnie "The Menace" Hooper. Whitfield - famous for roles opposite Tony Hancock and Frankie Howerd, a star of Terry and June with Terry Scott and of course Absolutely Fabulous - appears in the clip below alongside David Tennant, Bernard Cribbins and Barry Howard (Hi-De-Hi!)... (View this video and other related clips on YouTube)...