Jackanory

Jackanory is a long-running BBC children's television series that was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. The show was first aired on December 13 1965, the first story being the fairy-tale Cap o' Rushes read by Lee Montague. Jackanory continued to be broadcast until March 24 1996, clocking up around three thousand five hundred episodes in its 30+ year run. The show would return on November 27 2006, with a new series beginning in 2007 on CBBC, along with a similar show for younger children, Jackanory Junior, broadcast on Cbeebies.

The show's format, which varied little over the decades, involved an actor reading from famous children's novels or folk tales while seated in an armchair, although later episodes took the radical step of allowing the presenters to stand up. From time to time the scene being read would be illustrated by a specially-commissioned still drawing, often by Quentin Blake. Usually a single book would occupy five daily fifteen-minute episodes, from Monday to Friday. A few Jackanory stories took the form of a play rather than stories being read, in a series of thirty minute fully-cast and costumed dramas entitled Jackanory Playhouse. These included a dramatisation by Philip Glassborow of the comical A. A. Milne story, "The Princess Who Couldn't Laugh."

Origin of 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

'bout Jack and his brother;

and now my story is done.

Revival

In November 2006 Jackanory returned with comedian John Sessions as the revived programme's first narrator reading The Lord of the Rings parody Muddle Earth, written by Paul Stewart (and illustrator Chris Riddell). The second narrator was Sir Ben Kingsley, reading The Magician of Samarkand by Alan Temperley. They were broadcast in three 15 minute slots on CBBC and BBC One and later repeated entire on BBC One on consecutive Sundays The readings of Muddle Earth were heavily accompanied by animation and featured actors speaking lines (all animated characters were voiced by John Sessions), leading to criticism that the spirit of the original programme, a single voice telling a tale with minimal distractions, had been lost. The Magician of Samarkand was a similar production, without additional actors speaking lines; Sir Ben Kingsley read the lines of all the characters. Both of these stories were produced and directed by Nick Willing

Rather than a series of books taking a particular time slot consecutively for a number of weeks in the year, it is envisaged that new readings will be dropped into the schedule as specials at irregular intervals.

CBeebies is running a weekly series of Jackanory Junior shows.

List of readers

• Tom Baker
• Floella Benjamin
• Alan Bennett
• James Bolam
• Helena Bonham Carter
• Kathy Burke
• Earl Cameron (5 programmes reading the Brer Rabbit stories)
• Brian Cant
• Bernard Cribbins (111 programmes)
• Peter Davison
• Judi Dench
• Denholm Elliott
• Clement Freud
• John Grant (55 programmes reading his Little Nose stories)
• Joyce Grenfell
• Sheila Hancock
• 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
• Lee Montague
• Patrick Moore
• Jon Pertwee
• Miranda Richardson
• Bob Roberts
• Tony Robinson
• Gordon Rollings
• Margaret Rutherford
• Willie Rushton
• Prunella Scales
• Peter Sellers
• Elaine Smith
• Maggie Smith
• Patrick Stewart
• Elaine Stritch
• H. E. Todd
• Patrick Troughton
• Billie Whitelaw
• Kenneth Williams (69 programmes)
• Victoria Wood (reading "Ten in a Bed")
• Wendy Wood ("Auntie Gwen")
• and even Prince Charles (reading his own book The Old Man of Lochnagar).

Other information

• Blur frontman Damon Albarn made reference to the show Jackanory in their first number one hit "Country House" in 1995. The lyrical passage is "He's got morning glory, life's a different story, everything's going jackanory"
• Some master copies of Jackanory Playhouse were irretrievably disposed of by Adam Lee of the BBC archives in 1993.
• Six actors who have played the Doctor in Doctor Who have recited Jackanory: Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy, and Paul McGann.
• The series was cartoon-parodied on the 1989-1991 CITV series "Round the Bend", in a segment titled Nursery Crimes.
• British post-punk group Television Personalities wrote a song titled "Jackanory Stories." The song begins with the sing-song phrase "Jackanory, jackanory" (See "Slang" below).

Slang

"Jackanory, jackanory" said by a someone in the sing-song tones of the theme tune indicates that he/she thinks that someone else is making up or "stretching" a story, i.e. lying.

References

External links

• British Film Institute Screen Online analysis and listings (incomplete)
• The Mausoleum Club full listings 1965-69 and 1970-74
• Stop Messin' About: The Kenneth Williams Website via archive.org
• Nostalgia Central
• New Chapter Opening for Jackanory: BBC News report
• Jackanory at bbc.co.uk
• The new Jackanory at CBBC