November 22, 2011

Mark Hall, Acclaimed British Animator

With creative partner Brian Cosgrove, Hall created such animated series as Danger Mouse and Jamie and His Magic Torch.

Mark Hall, who created the popular British children’s animations Danger Mouse and Jamie and His Magic Torch, died November 17, 2011, in Manchester, England. He was 75.

According to news reports, Hall died following a short illness.

Hall collaborated closely with college friend Brian Cosgrove, whom he met at Manchester’s Regional College of Art in the 1950s. They worked as graphic designers for Granada Television in the 1960s, and formed their own animation company, Cosgrove Hall Productions, in 1976. Through their company, the duo created cartoons notable for their surreal elements and frequent sense of wonder.

Their best known creation was Danger Mouse, about a secret agent mouse, and his sidekick hamster Penfold. It first appeared on television in the 1980s, and at its peak, the show attracted 19 million viewers.

Hall and Cosgrove also created Jamie and His Magic Torch cartoons about a boy whose flashlight takes him to fantasy lands after bedtime. They also produced an animated version of Kenneth Grahame’s book Wind in the Willows, about the adventures of such characters as Rat, Mole and Toad of Toad Hall.

The team retired in 2000, but had recently reformed their animation company under the name Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick Entertainment, with the intention of producing new animation.

Hall’s son Simon will continue his father’s work. He is also survived by his wife, Margaret Routledge, whom he married in 1961, and a daughter, Rachel.

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