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 March 24, 1996. They made around 3,640 episodes and 2,330 missing in its 30-year run. The final story, The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne, was read by Alan Bennett. The show returned on 27 November 2006 for two stories.

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

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

Other websites

Category:1965 British television series debuts
Category:1996 British television series endings
Category:2006 British television series debuts
Category:2006 British television series endings
Category:1960s British television series
Category:1960s children's television series
Category:1970s British children's television series
Category:1980s British children's television series
Category:1990s British children's television series
Category:2000s British children's television series
Category:BBC children's television series
Category:BBC One television series
Category:British anthology television series
Category:British children's fantasy television series
Category:British English-language television shows
Category:British television series revived after cancellation
Category:CBBC original programming
Category:CBeebies original programming
Category:Reading and literacy television series