The Dream Machine

The Dream Machine

October 14, 1981 TV Episode Danger Mouse

Studio
Cosgrove Hall Productions
Distributor
Thames Television

Synopsis

Greenback drives Danger Mouse and Penfold crazy with his dream machine.

Characters

Danger Mouse, Ernest Penfold, Colonel K, Baron Greenback, Stiletto

Credits

Directing

Director
Brian Cosgrove, Chris Randall
Assistant Directors
Jean Flynn, Dan Whitworth

Producing

Producer
Brian Cosgrove, Mark Hall

Voices

Voice
David Jason (Danger Mouse, Narrator), Terry Scott (Ernest Penfold), Edward Kelsey (Colonel K, Baron Greenback), Brian Trueman (Stiletto)

Music

Music
Mike Harding

Art Department

Backgrounds
Malcolm Turner
Paint and Trace
Philip McMylor, Roy Huckerby, Peter Kidd, Monica McCartney

Camera

Camera
Frank Hardie, Wendy Hardie

Editing

Editor
John McManus

Music Department

Music Production
Richie Close

Companies and other credits

  • A Cosgrove/Hall Production
  • ©MCMLXXX

Production notes

Think James Bond meets Monty Python with an eyepatch-wearing rodent as Bond. In this cartoon, the "Greatest Secret Agent in the World" lived in a mailbox, drove a flying car and had a trembling hamster in suit and glasses as a sidekick. Danger Mouse originated in Britain in 1981 and came to the U.S. in 1984, where it became an instant hit on Nickelodeon.

Together with aforementioned hamster Penfold ("Crumbs!"), Danger Mouse foiled the nefarious plots of Baron Silas Greenback, a croaky-voiced toad with a caterpillar-like pet named Nero. Greenback's chief henchman was Stiletto, a crow in a gray trench coat who spoke with a Cockney accent (Italian in the original British version). The knife-wielding baddie was backed up by fellow crow LeatherHead.

In every episode, DM's walrus-like commander, Colonel K, blustered his way through a mission assignment, taking Danger Mouse and Penfold everywhere from the Bermuda Triangle to the depths of space.

The show scored with both kids and adults, amusing the latter with nonstop political and social satire delivered with that unmistakably dry British wit. As an added treat, the offscreen narrator often digressed into routines of his own, threatening to walk off the job or singing sappy songs to cheer our heroes on.

The plots were always spectacularly silly, whether it was the Baron's threat to destroy the world with the combined bagpipe music of all of Scotland, or an escaped enzyme that turned everything white (surely an inexpensive episode to animate). The show also featured Agent 57, master of disguise, and introduced Count Duckula, the vampire duck who went on to star in his own self-titled series.

Always heroic and always entertaining, Danger Mouse was a major hit for the fledgling Nickelodeon, which aired the show's 89 episodes from 1984-87 and from 1991-94.