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Jamie
and
the Magic Torch (1976
- 1978)
producers:
Cosgrove Hall Productions
for
Thames Television
animation:
cel animation
episodes: 39 x
10mins
"Down the Helter Skelter, faster and faster,
towards Cuckooland..."
No two nights are ever the same for young
Jamie - although each begins in
exactly the same fashion, in Jamie's bedroom,
with Mum tucking him into bed
and closing the door behind her. 'Sleep well,
Jamie' she says. This is the signal
for Jamie to wake up his sheepdog pal Wordsworth,
grab his Magic Torch and
shine it at the floor. A magic Helter Skelter opens
up and Jamie and Wordsworth
slide round and round, down and out of a magic
tree and into the extraordinary
nonsensical realm of Cuckooland...
Cuckooland is a effervescent place with purple
tress and candy-striped fields.
Inhabitants include Bullybundy the Showbusiness
Rabbit with extraordinarily
large feet and an ego to match, Officer Gotcha
the unicycling truncheon-eating
Keystone Cop, Nutmeg the ragdoll, Jo-Jo Help
the unhelpful handyman, Strumpers
Blunkett with the trumpet nose, and Jamie's favourite
chum Mr Boo, a roller-skating
professor and inventor who tours Cuckooland in
his incredible Submachine
correlating infinitesimal facts and figures.
Strange people are met and
strange problems solved using equally-strange
solutions before the Magic
Tree reappears to beckon Jamie and Wordsworth back
to the Helter Skelter
and up home to bed...
Actually, Cuckooland bears more than a passing
resemblance to Pepperland
from that classic animated feature Yellow
Submarine. The 'barmy' inhabitants are
eccentric animal/human creations with a 'pop-art'
design to them, and there
is an emphasis on bright rainbow/paintbox
colour. Mr Boo is akin to Captain
Fred, guiding our heroes around in his orange-red
Submachine, encountering
strange people and things and not-so-much having
adventures, rather taking
part in 'experiences'. Is there a deeper significance
to any of the encounters?
Certainly. Maybe. Probably not. But it's a
splendid bit of jolly nonsense, with
THAT memorable 'rocking' theme tune to get
everyone all nostalgic for the series
as soon as they hear the first guitar strum...
Jamie was Cosgrove Hall's first 2D animation
series, being produced alongside
their first stop-motion production, Chorlton
And The Wheelies. Prior to these
series Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall had been
working together as Stop
Frame, under whose name they'd made the likes
of Noddy, Sam And The
Magic Ball and Captain Noah And His Floating
Zoo...
Jamie, Wordsworth and the Magic Torch are
currently being reinvented by
rights holders Freemantlemedia who are touting
the idea of a live-action film
of the series - Jamie as a real-life movie?
- Where are they coming from,
Cuckooland?
In
the news
The
Hound: March 2002
Live-action Torch movie in development...
Jamie
on DVD
Jamie
and the Magic Torch: Complete Series 1
Region
2 / Fremantle / April 2002
Jamie
and the Magic Torch: Complete Series 2
Region
2 / Fremantle / April 2003
producers: Brian
Cosgrove, Mark Hall
exec prod: John
Hambley
writer: Brian
Trueman
animation
director: Keith
Scoble
post-prod
director:
Chris Taylor
music: Joe
Griffiths
drawn by: Graham
Garside, Jean Flynn,
Jane
Johnstone, April Spencer,
Bernard
Dickin
rostrum: Frank
Hardie
film editor: Dave
Street
narrator: Brian
Trueman
On
the web
Cosgrove
Hall Ate My Brain
Nyanko's got lots more Jamie
info for you...
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