He's the strongest he's the quickest, he's the best...Danger Mouse

The world's greatest secret agent

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The Cult History

Danger Mouse is, without a doubt, a cult hero. It’s that simple—a hero to many children from the early 1980s, he made his original debut for Thames Television in the UK in 1981 and ran, for the original series, until 1992 on the ITV network.

Created by Mark Hall and Brian Cosgrove for their production company (Cosgrove Hall), the show was based on Patrick McGoohan’s lead character, Danger Man.

Originally the idea for Danger Mouse started on a more serious note, but Mike Harding, the theme tune writer (listen here), gave Cosgrove and Hall the idea of making the show silly, so they changed the direction of the now cult hero. As this happened, the duo brought in Brian Trueman (a then-TV announcer) as the show’s primary writer.

On 4th June 1984, Danger Mouse was a real groundbreaker as the first British cartoon with a US audience. It appeared on Nickelodeon and became the second most popular show on the network appealing to a broad audience with its quintessential British humour.

Danger Mouse did see a return to TV when the BBC purchased episodes to broadcast in its daytime schedules, starting again in 2007. Then, in 2015, DM was remade for CBBC, with new voice actors but sticking to the original animation sequences.

The original series of Danger Mouse was costly to create, needing upwards of 2000 drawings, so, like many other cartoons, animators reused certain scenes. They also used clever animation, setting scenes in the North Pole where all would be white or pitch black where you could only see the character’s eyes.

In 1983 the show hit a viewing figure of five million, which would be unheard of for an animated cartoon on children’s television today.

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The Characters

The main characters' characterisations made the animation stand apart from others at the time. The voice actors chosen for each of these also supported the whole ‘silliness’ of the animation.

Danger Mouse (Voiced by David Jason, then Alexander Armstrong in 2015)

DM is often described as the world’s greatest secret agent, but, in truth, he was always a bit of a coward, even when he did save the world.

His distinctive eye patch and pure white fur make him stand out amongst other cartoon heroes of the time. He was initially going to be brown, but the makers decided they wanted him to stand out against Penfold, his sidekick.

Keeping him traditionally British, his catchphrase was “Good Grief” and was typically flippant to dangerous situations that he and Penfold found themselves in.

Penfold (Voiced by Terry Scott and Kevin Eldon for the 2015 remake)

Penfold is a suit, glasses-wearing hamster and the somewhat reluctant sidekick to Danger Mouse. 

Penfold was created as Brian Cosgrove was waiting for a meeting. In the first episode, he takes on the codename ‘Jigsaw’ because he goes to pieces when faced with a problem. He started to draw Penfold; when he finished, he realised he’d drawn his brother.

Colonel K

The boss of Danger Mouse, although he looks like a walrus, is a chinchilla. He will often make mistakes and bluster when talking to Danger Mouse and often struggles with getting the ‘over and out’ message correct before signing off. Worth watching series nine and ten as he comes into his own.

Baron Silas Greenback

Danger Mouse’s archenemy is a toad. He is known for his wheezy voice and schemes to capture his enemy and acquire world domination. He was known as Baron Green Teeth in the unseen pilot. In the USA, the greenback is slang for a dollar, adding commercial greed when the show aired. He took his pet Nero (a fluffy white caterpillar) everywhere with him, often squeezing his life out.

Stiletto

Stiletto (whose last name was Mafiosa) was the henchman for Baron Greenback undertaking his dirty work. Stiletto is a crow voiced with a mock Italian accent by Brian Trueman, the show's primary writer. When the show first aired in the US, the accent was changed to Cockney to avoid offending Italian Americans.

Spin-Offs

• Count Duckula (1988-1993) used many of the same skills, voices and animation techniques, and this wouldn’t have happened without DM leading the way.

• Comic strip animation in Look In magazine 

• The cast-made read-along audiobooks are challenging to come by now.

• Video games were released in 1983 and 1985

• Annuals, puzzles, and keyrings were all produced but are now purchased by children of the era…that’ll be me, then.

Fun Facts

1. David Jason voiced Danger Mouse and also narrated the animation. He took on the name Isambard Sinclair to do this, often discussing the situation with the show's hero.

2. The American producer and musician Danger Mouse took his name from the show.

3. In 1989 Cosgrove and Hall produced the film The BFG. Above one of the children’s beds was a poster of, you guessed it, Danger Mouse.

4. The first name of Penfold is Ernest.

5. Danger Mouse appeared in the 2008 South Park film in an InaginationLand sequence.