2010
The Sad Demise of Cosgrove Hall
FOR OVER 25 years, Manchester-based animation studio Cosgorve Hall Films produced some of the very best and most fondly remember cartoons in the country. From the iconic Danger Mouse, to beautiful stop-motion affair such as The Wind in the Willows, the studio built up a reputation for quality, and justifiably became one of the biggest animation houses in Europe.
It is therefore terribly sad to report that Cosgrove Hall has been closed down for good by ITV, and sadder still that the closure of such a proud, British business has been hardly noticed by anyone at all.
Indeed, I only became aware of the studio’s closure after deciding to pay a visit to Cosgrove Hall’s website, which I found redirected straight to ITV’s own homepage. Wondering what on earth was going on, I hit Google and tried to find some news.
After much searching, I managed to find out that after closing Cosgrove Halls’ studio in Chorlton in early 2009, ITV then put the business under review in October of the same year. Ploughing deeper into the search results, I managed to find this sole paragraph that confirmed that as a result of the review, Cosgrove Hall Films officially ceased trading at the end of that month.
And that was that, a great studio quietly put out of its misery, garnering a couple of sentences of mention in the media.
Personally speaking, I find this very sad indeed. I had the very good fortune to work with some of the talented folk at Cosgrove Hall, when I was developing my Carrotty Kid idea for TV. The people there were lovely and enthusiastic, and really wanted to produce great cartoons despite being starved of cash at nearly every turn. The studio spent much of it’s final years as a ‘studio-for-hire’, producing work on behalf of other companies, but the desire to try and return to what they did best, in producing their own, original shows was clearly and passionately evident. It’s just a pity that they weren’t given any real chance to do so.
So, a sad and ignoble end to one of the country’s finest animation houses, and another kick in the gut to a home-grown animation industry which was already on the floor. Surely our kids deserve better than nothing but imports and a diet of reality TV talent shows? I’d like to think so, and if you feel the same why not join up and support the Save Kids’ TV campaign?
If Danger Mouse can no longer save the day, maybe we can.
- Fanton.
28 Comments
So, what do you think?
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That is too sad. Many an after-school-time was spent watching Duckula and it remains to this day one of my favourite cartoons ever. Sigh. Another one bites the dust. :’{
I couldn’t agree more with everything you said, dude – what a crime that ITV didn’t have the decency for a proper send-off. Growing up, Cosgrove Hall were THE best British animators on TV, and seemed to be responsible for all the best shows – line animation as well as stop motion. Danger Mouse and Count Duckula were fab shows for kids – not the franchise-heavy faux-anime crap that’s peddled on TV these days with big eyes, wacky hairstyles, mouths out of synch and an over-reliance on selling a million action figures! BananaMan, Danger Mouse, Wind In The Willows – not sure if they did the Trap Door, or not…but literally, all the best cartoons of the 80′s were Cosgrove Hall….maybe with the exception of Filmation of course, responsible for Tarzan, the Space Sentinels, He-Man etc etc
They didn’t do Bananaman though.101 Film Productions did him. CMTB Animation (later merging with Aardman) did The Trap Door.
Thanks for your comments, folks!
Yup, very sad news indeed. So much of their output was hugely influential on a young Fanton, so it’s terrible to see the shutters come down on what was one of Britain’s best studios. A truly awful shame.
Sigh!
Oh no, at school I was known as Penfold Hamster (my initials are PH) and my best mate at the time was Danger Mouse (yep you guessed his initials are DM) – loved Cosgrove Hall – sadly they will be missed : (
Nooo! I didn’t know the name of Cosgrove Hall, but I LOVED so many of their cartoons. I think they should be the one nominated for a state funeral…
The business community can be a cold and heartless place, run by
people who’ve lost touch with the child that lives in us all, or
perhaps they never had an inner child. A great many art treasures
don’t reside in dusty museums, but, in the vibrant inner workings
of annimation studios. In my mind works classified as children’s
programing take more creativity to produce and have a broader
impact in people’s lives than paintings, statues, and what-not
that are bought and sold for millions of pounds, or dollars.
( depending on where you live). I don’t know who now holds
the keys to the vaults that store the Cosgrove Hall Collection
of films and movies, but, I certainly wish they’d make them
available to the public, because, I’d buy a great many of them
and I’m certain a great many others would as well.
This is indeed terrible news, Cosgrove-Hall produced some of the finest animated work this country has produced. Dangermouse, Count Duckula, Wind in the Willows, The BFG!
I hate that the TV companies are starving Kids TV to death, this is a prime example of the malaise.
I was a great fan of Cosgrove too. Duckula, Victor and Hugo and Danger Mouse are the only things that I kept me from doing my homework back in school. Does anybody know a way where we can purchase DVDs of these series?
It is a travesty that Britains biggest & best known animation studio is no more. Everyone who cherishes quality animated shows should post at TheBusinessDesk.com’s article on the closure and say…
Three words: You Suits Suck.
What are Cossgrove and Hall doing these days have they retired or are they still involved in animation in some way? They dont appear to have a website so its like they have vanished off the face of the earth. How many happy hours were spent with “Danager moose” as my son called him.
The demise started as soon as their final MD Anthony Hutley took over, he was totally useless and hadn’t a clue how to run a business. It’s really sad because it was a fantastic company with great people but ununfortunately they recruited him, a total shower in my opinion. Having dealt with him first hand I can say this unequivocly, he was embarrassingly bad. So sad!
Very sad
It was such a British company…we need this in animation today…we don’t want other countries taking over…
We are great at the quirky..silly…funny…surreal..so such a shame this is being lost..
This was a major loss and very quietly brushed under the carpet, I had no idea this had happened. We seem to excel in this country at mismanaging gems like this company. ITV want shooting for letting it go, surely talent like this can be made profitable? It’s not as if we’re gonna run out of kids to watch cartoons is it.
I have alot of affection for CH because my grandad was an animator with them, contributing towards BFG, Count Duckula & Danger Mouse. He once took me there as a kid for the day and i got a whole load of memorabilia which, unfortunately, is now worth a tasty sum in todays collectors market! But kids will be kids lol. A tragic loss on the North-West & the UK as a whole, they were truly a diamond worthy of our pride.
Just a reminder that C-H didn’t just make memorable cartoons in the UK, but for the whole world: I found this web site because the Danger Mouse theme somehow got stuck in my head this morning, and I was fondly remembering watching it as a teen on the Nickelodeon cable TV channel here in the USA. Finding out what happened was just another kick in the gut, along with a lot of other good companies and shows going under.
I also hit up Amazon: the complete DVD collection, new, is now available here in the States for US$29.95, down from $89.95. Wow…as much as that makes it so affordable and impossible to pass up, it’s also another kick to the gut…
The damage was started when Thames lost it’s ITV franchise in 1991. Granada took it over, Granada and Carlton married to become ITV plc, who has now disgracefully killed it off, shut down the Chorlton studios and sold them off for demolition and development into no doubt apartments for the “young professionals”.
The modern day ITV makes me sick.
[...] YEAR, in this very blog that you are now reading with your eyeballs, I wrote an entry about the closure of Cosgrove Hall Films, one of Britain’s best-loved animation studios, responsible for the likes of Danger Mouse and [...]
There is now a rather EXCITING update to this story HERE: http://www.andyfanton.com/2011/10/cosgrove-hall-return/
Hooray!
Really sad news all be it that I have found out rather late in the day. I was looking for “The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship” on DVD and saw the bad news. Stop motion still has a place in animation even though digital is seen as the be all and end all of animation. As a digital modeller and animator I fond memories of all their work and I think that digital media has a long way to go until it is as rich as The Wind in the Willows. Gone but not forgotten.
Just found out about this after an Aardman desperate plea.
Having been brought up on CH programmes, I’m appalled ITV could not shift this world class production house on to a more deserving home
- BBC
- Sky TV
We can find >£10bn to piss up the wall on the Olympics, and the further obsecne waste of money like the ridiculous ‘Cultural Olympics’ with their of money on luvvie back-slapping crap, but nothing to save a UK exporter like CH, or the world class UK forensic science service.
I despair at this country.
Such sad news. Spent many a Sunday evening in front of the TV with my children watching episodes of Wind In The WIllows. Danger Mouse is certainly another classic. It is television that will probably never be produced again, and that is sad indeed. We can only hope for better than reality TV!
[...] spy shows from the big and small screen, the series – made in 1981 by Manchester’s famed Cosgrove Hall Films and running on Thames TV until 1992 – quickly developed a dazzling style and character of its [...]
[...] spy shows from the big and small screen, the series – made in 1981 by Manchester’s famed Cosgrove Hall Films and running on Thames TV until 1992 – quickly developed a dazzling style and character of its [...]
[...] spy shows from the big and small screen, the series – made in 1981 by Manchester’s famed Cosgrove Hall Films and running on Thames TV until 1992 – quickly developed a dazzling style and character of its [...]
that is too sad.
something has to be done.
I went to school with a tall thin chap with too-short trousers and a pointy nose. His name was Victor, no joke.
Awwwww! I’m gutted!! I was looking for this studio online, hoping they had some placements I could do. :/