'DangerMouse' creator Mark Hall dies

Well, I’m sad to report that Mark Hall, the creator of the British cartoon “DangerMouse,” has died.

I remember watching the show on Nickelodeon in the 1980s and thoroughly enjoying it. Though I don’t think I’ve seen it since.

He also created Jamie and his Magic Torch, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen. He was 75. Here’s the Associated Press write-up:

His son Simon Hall said Friday his father died overnight in his family home in the northern city of Manchester after a short illness.

Hall worked closely with his college friend Brian Cosgrove. The two met at Manchester’s Regional College of Art in the 1950s and worked as graphic designers for the television channel Granada TV in the 1960s. They formed their own animation company, Cosgrove Hall Productions, in 1976 and went on to create a series of magical, often surreal cartoons.

Their best known creation was “DangerMouse” — a cartoon secret agent mouse that first appeared on television in the 1980s with his sidekick hamster Penfold. The show attracted 19 million viewers at its peak.

They also created “Jamie and his Magic Torch” cartoons about a boy whose torch takes him to fantasy lands after bedtime. They also produced an animated version of Kenneth Grahame’s book “Wind in the Willows,” about riverside animals including Rat, Mole and Toad of Toad Hall.

Hall and Cosgrove retired in 2000, but had recently reformed their animation company under the name Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick Entertainment and had planned to produce new animation.

“Mark was one of life’s real gentlemen and it’s wonderful he got to see his company reborn,” said Adrian Wilkins, who is operations director at Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick Entertainment. Wilkins said Hall’s son Simon will continue his father’s work.

Hall is survived by his wife and two children.