30 Years On
By Eric Lilleør
Editor of movieScope Magazine
30 years ago the leafy suburb of Chorlton-cum-Hardy became home to Cosgrove Hall Films - today one of Europe’s largest animation companies and one of only a few in the world that have the ability to do all three types of animation under one roof.
To you and me that means CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) along the lines of Shrek or Toy Story. Stop-Motion puppet animation, which is as it sounds, puppets and sets just like Andy Pandy or Bill And Ben and of course 2D/drawn animation meaning traditional drawn cartoons.
Cosgrove Hall has put its stamp on numerous award-winning productions from classics such as DangerMouse, Count Duckula and The Wind In The Willows to the more recent Andy Pandy, Bill And Ben, Engie Benjy, Little Robots and Postman Pat.
This article marks the first in a series that takes you behind-the-scenes of Cosgrove Hall to introduce you to some of the departments and key people responsible for the studio’s ongoing success.
Today Cosgrove Hall remains near Manchester, but is now housed in 25,000-square-foot custom-built studios, including two 3,500-square-foot model animation stages with computer-controlled motion camera rig and complete lighting and filming production facilities, plus workshops for puppet construction, wardrobe and set building. Complete drawn production facilities are also based in-house and include full editing backup. Additionally, the studio is fully equipped with Cambridge Animation Systems 2D/3D cartoon animation system Animo.
Everyone has their own particular Cosgrove Hall favourite, but one figure stands head-and-shoulders above their mountain of successes. DangerMouse was one of the studio’s earliest international successes, conceived in 1976 as an extension of Patrick McGoohan’s “Danger Man” character from the sixties. The studio made 89 episodes between 1981 and 1992. In each one, DangerMouse, the world’s greatest secret agent, and his well-meaning but useless sidekick Penfold, outwit the evil Baron Silas Greenback and assorted baddies.
Cosgrove Hall’s most popular (drawn) cel animated show after DangerMouse, the spin-off Count Duckula was a big money-spinner, proving popular with viewers of all ages. The show took all the best aspects of DangerMouse (well, except for Penfold!) and improved on them, making it one of the best cartoons in the Cosgrove Hall portfolio.
Count Duckula often centred on Duckula’s adventures in search of riches and fame, assisted by the castle’s ability to teleport around the world. Another regular part of the story was Igor and his attempts to turn Duckula into a proper vampire. Some episodes featured Duckula’s nemesis Doctor Von Goosewing (obviously based on Dr. Van Helsing, the nemesis of Dracula); a vampire hunter who blindly refuses to believe the current incarnation of Duckula is harmless. Still others featured a whole array of bizarre, often supernatural foes, from zombies to mechanical werewolves.
The series first aired in 1988. In all, 65 episodes were made, each about 22 minutes long.
But for many it’s in the 3D realm that Cosgrove Hall truly excel.
In 1983 the studio made the 75-minute film, The Wind In The Willows, based on Kenneth Grahame’s classic story by the same name. The initial film adaptation of Grahame’s book led to a series of 52 20-minute episodes (between 1984 and 1990) as well as an additional film, A Tale of Two Toads which won a BAFTA, an international Emmy® and First Prize at the Chicago Film Festival.
The series raised the profile of the company, drawing attention to their ability to produce quality animation that shied away from the explosions and overly-simplistic stories of other children’s series at the time.
The establishment of Cosgrove Hall and its subsequent emergence as one of the driving forces of the UK animation industry has been of international importance, fostering some of Britain’s most talented animators, many of whom have moved on to works overseas for the likes of Tim Burton, Pixar and Disney.
A LITTLE HISTORY…
Two very forward thinking gentlemen, Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall, founded the company back in the early 70’s. They spent ten years working at Granada Television until Mark took the brave step to leave Granada to set up Stop Frame Animations.
Stop Frame struck up a relationship with Ruth Boswell at Thames Television, providing the title sequence and short stop motion films to Rainbow (ITV, 1972-95). The success of the Rainbow films led the company to become a fully-fledged subsidiary of Thames Television in 1976.
Mark, how did it all begin?
Brian and I attended Manchester’s Regional College of Art together and it all really began when we both worked in Granada Television’s graphics department in the 60’s where we started to experiment with our first rostrum camera. We made our first film The Magic Ball in 1971. My first interest in animation came when I first saw Brian creating a storyboard. A spark was set off when I saw the pictures being put together for a film. Having made quite a few opening titles and worked with Brian on several different projects at Granada, our talents melded. In general, I was the background man and he was the character man but we were both interested in storytelling and wanted to do longer pieces of work. We were given the opportunity in 1971 when I left Granada Television - Brian joined me a year later - and got my first programme “Sally And Jake” into Rainbow at Thames Television. It was one of the first 3D puppet animations. We had our own company, Stop Frame Animations, making TV adverts, which paid the mortgage. Then I produced quite a bit for Thames Television. In 1976 we formed Cosgrove Hall with Thames Television and were a wholly owned subsidiary of Thames. From then on we stopped making commercials and did what we really wanted, which was to make children’s programmes and tell longer stories. Being employees was a good way to get funding and get onto television and it worked until 1993 when then Thames Television lost their ITV franchise. We had to stand on our own two feet. The first six weeks after that was spent producing ideas. We came up with Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, Chorlton And The Wheelies and Jamie And The Magic Torch, all of which got made.
Danger Mouse turned into one of your earliest international successes…
It aired for the first time in 1981 and made it onto U.S. television in 1984. The first time I really got the feeling we were successful was when on the school run with the kids; the children were aping some of the characters in DangerMouse. In a way, the playground is where your success starts. Penfold (DangerMouse’s cowardly sidekick) was popular and I sat back, amazed, listening at their voices at school. The series was a hit across the generational divide. Adults were watching with kids, because the level of humour was aimed at the family. Mums and dads would get the references to films, while the kids would get the action and the very bad gags. The deal with Nickelodeon didn’t seem that important at the time, but historically it was -
Because then came Count Duckula…
Yeah, Count Duckula was done as a co-production with Nickelodeon simply because of the success we had in North America with DangerMouse. It proved we could turn series out on time, on budget, and work with co-producers. Artistically the great North American animation studios influenced us both, although we both had our own style. Brian loved Tex Avery and Hanna-Barbera and I was more influenced by Disney. Brian is the natural receiver of funny characters and, while I like Hanna-Barbera, my heart and soul was more of the Disney animators.
You have since retired…
Yeah, we both retired in 2003 but we still stand proudly beside the new Managing Director Anthony Utley and the present team at Cosgrove Hall. The tales of us meeting at Granada Television in the sixties, Brian animating in his garden shed - the studio still get asked for its location and permission to visit it - and the birth of Cosgrove Hall Films have been regaled by us more and more frequently recently. It’s not that in our retirement we have become the Norma Desmonds of the Animation World. It’s more to do with the industry finding its way into today’s fast-paced, multi-platform world - whilst rediscovering the past that lead the way.
So how is the cartoon environment different now from the 70’s?
When we first started, a world where programmes will be watched on phones, PDAs, in cars and on computers, is one that was almost unimaginable. It was a privilege to be there at the beginning and it’s now a pleasure to watch as the industry adapts and grows into the future. We have no doubt it is the talent listed in this directory that will ensure this happens. Funding and all the difficult issues aside, it is the belief, commitment, hard work and incredible skill included in these pages that will ensure the development and continuation of the industry that we are so privileged to have been a part of.
TODAY & THE FUTURE…
Since Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall departed the great Cosgrove Hall ship, it has gone through a massive re-structure over the last eighteen months and has started to sail in a new direction since the appointment of new Managing Director Anthony Utley.
At present Cosgrove Hall employs approx. 80 creative and talented professionals, many of whom have been with the company since the early days. Now, alongside their renowned studio-for-hire-work, Cosgrove Hall is increasingly devoting time to looking for and developing co-productions and its own IP (Intellectual Property). “We’re streets ahead of where we were a year ago, with a much simpler remit and structure,” says Utley, who joined Cosgrove hall from BBC Worldwide where he was involved in the financing and marketing of shows for nearly two decades. “Now I want us to be the UK’s leading studio, and with the shows we have in the department we are certainly getting there.”
The team is at present in discussions with Simon Cowell’s Production Company, Syco, to produce an urban music based series for teenagers. The story focuses on a group of streetwise kids and could feature one of the artists on Cowell’s music label, Syco Records. The show, possibly a blend of live-action and animation, could be produced using Toon Boom Harmony - animation technology acquired from Canadian software outfit Toon Boom that will see Cosgrove Hall develop its own animation style in the UK rather than sending production elsewhere.
