Jackanory

Jackanory is a long-running BBC children's television series. It was made to interest children in reading. The show began on 13 December 1965. The first story was the fairy-tale Cap-o'-Rushes read by Lee Montague. Jackanory continued to be broadcast until 1996. They made around 3,500 episodes in its 30-year run. The final story, The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne, was read by Alan Bennett. It was broadcast on 24 March 1996. The show returned on 27 November 2006 for two stories.

Jackanory
Genre	Children's television
Created by	Joy Whitby
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	3,500+
Production
Running time	15 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC1 (1965–1996) CBBC (2006)
Release	13 December 1965 (1965-12-13) – 24 March 1996 (1996-03-24)
Related
Jackanory Playhouse Jackanory Junior

The show's format had an actor read from children's novels or folk tales, usually while seated in an armchair. From time to time the scene being read would be illustrated by a specially made still drawing. They were often done by Quentin Blake. Usually a single book would take five daily fifteen-minute episodes, from Monday to Friday.

A few Jackanory stories took the form of a play rather than stories being read. These were made in a series of fully cast and dressed for costume dramas. These were named Jackanory Playhouse and were thirty minutes in length. These included a dramatisation by Philip Glassborow of the comical A. A. Milne story "The Princess Who Couldn't Laugh."

Title

The show's title comes from an old English nursery rhyme:

I'll tell you a story

About Jack a Nory;

And now my story's begun;

I'll tell you another

Of Jack and his brother,

And now my story is done.^[1]

List of readers

Tom Baker Floella Benjamin Alan Bennett James Bolam Helena Bonham Carter (5 programmes reading the Way to Sattin Shore stories) Kathy Burke Earl Cameron (5 programmes reading the Brer Rabbit stories) Brian Cant Bernard Cribbins (114 programmes) Peter Davison Judi Dench Denholm Elliott Clement Freud Ann George John Grant (55 programmes reading his Little Nose stories) Joyce Grenfell Sheila Hancock Susanne Hart Wendy Hiller Michael Hordern Jeremy Irons Martin Jarvis Stratford Johns James Robertson Justice Arthur Lowe Joanna Lumley Alfred Marks Trevor Martin Rik Mayall Sylvester McCoy Geraldine McEwan Paul McGann Ian McKellen George Melly Paul Merton Spike Milligan Hayley Mills Lee Montague Patrick Moore Jon Pertwee Ted Ray Miranda Richardson Bob Roberts Tony Robinson Gordon Rollings Patsy Rowlands Willie Rushton Margaret Rutherford Prunella Scales Peter Sellers Elaine Smith Maggie Smith Patrick Stewart Elaine Stritch Mollie Sugden H. E. Todd Patrick Troughton Ann Way Mary Webster Billie Whitelaw Kenneth Williams (69 programmes) Victoria Wood (reading the Ten in a Bed story) Wendy Wood (Auntie Gwen) and even Prince Charles (reading his own book; The Old Man of Lochnagar). Ben Kingsley (The Magician of Samarkand) John Sessions (Muddle Earth) Matthew Corbett Rupert Everett John Hurt Alan Rickman

References

1. I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 233.

Other websites

• Jackanory on IMDb