Collingwood O'Hare
Encyclopedia
Collingwood O'Hare is a TV animation studio based in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 headed by writer/director Tony Collingwood and producer Christopher O'Hare. Responsible for animated TV series 'Oscar's Orchestra', 'Dennis the Menace', 'Gordon the Garden Gnome', 'Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!' and 'The Secret Show', among others.

History

Collingwood O’Hare Entertainment began in 1988 when Collingwood’s graduation film RARG attracted the attention of The Muppets’ Jim Henson
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...

 at its very first screening. The film was an instant hit and went on to win numerous awards, including The British Animation Award’s Best Film for Children. It received a BAFTA nomination and won the outstanding achievement award for Best Short Animated Film in 1988. RARG premiered on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 in the UK and was a centerpiece of PBS’ Long Ago and Far Away children’s strand in the USA.

RARG paved the way for a number of feature film collaborations between 1990 and 1992 for Tony Collingwood: Rover Dangerfield
Rover Dangerfield
Rover Dangerfield is an animated feature film produced by Hyperion Pictures and released by Warner Bros., starring the voice talents of comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who also wrote and co-produced the film. It is about a street dog named Rover, who is owned by a Las Vegas showgirl. Rover gets dumped...

, Bébé's Kids
Bebe's Kids
Bébé's Kids is a 1992 animated comedy film produced by the Reginald Hudlin and Hyperion Pictures, directed by Bruce W...

 and Thumbelina
Thumbelina (1992 film)
Thumbelina is a 49-minute animated film originally released on June 8, 1992 and based on the classic story, Thumbelina by Hans Christian Andersen...

.

A commission from ITV and Scottish Television
Scottish Television
Scottish Television is Scotland's largest ITV franchisee, and has held the ITV franchise for Central Scotland since 31 August 1957. It is the second oldest ITV franchisee still active...

 for 26 x half-hour episodes of the original series, Captain Zed and the Zee Zone
Captain Zed and the Zee Zone
Captain Zed and the Zee Zone is a short-lived CITV television series, airing in the United Kingdom. When children go to sleep its Captain Zed and his partner PJ job to prevent children from having nightmares in the dreamzone...

, created by Tony Collingwood, quickly followed through 1991-2, establishing the company as producers of long-form series animation.

The company continued to expand and in 1992, Helen Stroud, former development executive at Primetime/RPTA, joined as Head of Development. She remains a core member of the Collingwood O’Hare team.

In 1994 Collingwood O’Hare was approached to produce a classic Dr Seuss property, Daisy-Head Mayzie for Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...

 and the Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...

. Tony Collingwood adapted the partially completed Dr Seuss manuscript for the small screen and Christopher again produced. The half-hour special achieved a Primetime Emmy Nomination in 1995, and scooped a prestigious US CableACE Award for Best Children’s Program the same year.

At around the same time, Collingwood O’Hare fully created, developed and produced the international music-based animation series Oscar’s Orchestra for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 and Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner. Alongside CBS Television Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW Television Network , though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on...

. This original and innovative series, starring Dudley Moore as Oscar the Piano, went into US syndication.

In 1997, Collingwood O’Hare brought The Beano’s classic comic character, Dennis the Menace ‘to life’ for the small screen, with 26 half-hour shows called Dennis & Gnasher
Dennis the Menace & Gnasher (1996 TV series)
Dennis and Gnasher is an animated British TV series based on characters from The Beano comic, which ran from 4 February 1996 until 5 July 1998. The series was produced by Collingwood O'Hare and Beano Productions in association with Flextech, Polygram and BBC Television, distributed by HiT...

. Dennis & Gnasher was the BBC’s number one rated children’s show and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Children’s Animation in 1998. This classic series continued to air on CBBC until 2006 and rates particularly well with 6-9s.

Collingwood O’Hare’s next original production was the charming Animal Stories
Animal Stories
Animal Stories is a British pre-school animated television series. Cartoon Network TOO began airing this program on 5 June 2006. It also aired on Playhouse Disney in the US in the early 2000s.-References:...

, a series of 52x5-minute animated poems for CiTV and Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...

, affectionately narrated by the Oscar nominated actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne (UK) or Alan Marriott (USA). The series, which follows the life, loves and problems of different members of the animal kingdom, was created by Trevor Ricketts and Christopher O’Hare and developed for television by Tony Collingwood. Animal Stories won the 2001 Children’s BAFTA for Best Pre-School Animation.

Animal Stories has successfully driven a programme of ancillary exploitation, including 16 Animal Stories book titles, published by Harper Collins in the UK, with a 2-book tie-in deal in the US with Random House and a 26 title anthology in France with Atlas, released with plush collectable toys. Animal Stories was released on video on the HiT Video
HIT Entertainment
Hit Entertainment is a British-American entertainment distribution company established in 1989, and originally the international distribution arm of Jim Henson Productions called Henson International Television...

 label, with an exclusive to M&S, and two volumes on DVD in the USA through Blast Films. Animal Stories continues to sell well around the world via international distributor Foothill Entertainment, and has recently sold back into the UK on Cartoonito
Cartoonito
Cartoonito is a British preschool television channel in the UK, available in both English and French. The channel usually airs programmes directed towards children under age 8, or "kids" versions of popular children's shows...

.

The Magic Key, a 26 x 15-minute series for HiT Entertainment
HIT Entertainment
Hit Entertainment is a British-American entertainment distribution company established in 1989, and originally the international distribution arm of Jim Henson Productions called Henson International Television...

, CBBC
CBBC
CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...

 and BBC Education, based on the phenomenally successful Oxford Reading Tree reading scheme, was produced throughout 1999 and 2000.

Also produced at this time was the second series of Candy Guard’s acclaimed adult animation sitcom Pond Life, for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

. The series had its first run in the USA on Oxygen
Oxygen (TV channel)
Oxygen is an American cable television specialty channel with television programming marketed towards women, with a format similar to Lifetime.- History :...

 in Spring 2001. Target Entertainment distributes the series.

Collingwood O’Hare returned to the pre-school arena with the production of the half-hour special Eddy & the Bear, based on Jez Alborough’s best-selling children’s book trilogy Where’s My Teddy?, It’s the Bear and My Friend the Bear. Set in a beautiful wood, during the perennial summer of childhood, Eddy & the Bear is the delightful story of a little boy’s first ever friendship - with a ten-foot tall bear! Bear is voiced by Robert Lindsay, with Frances de La Tour narrating.

The Eddy & the Bear special premiered on ITV on Christmas Day 2001. A series of 26x11 minute episodes followed, airing in two parts, April 2002 and Spring 2003. Walker Books published four tie-in storybooks and two sticker books in the UK and is distributed by Granada – excluding UK and USA rights, which remain with Collingwood O’Hare.

The Eddy & the Bear series and special scooped two awards at Cartoons on the Bay 2001, for Best Series and Best Characters. The half-hour special also received nominations in 2002 from both the RTS and the British Animation Awards. The series won the BAFTA for Best Pre-School Series in 2002.

After almost ten years gestation, Collingwood O’Hare also completed an original 75-minute television feature, The King’s Beard, for CiTV and Granada in 2001. The King’s Beard was a key fixture in ITV’s 2001 Christmas schedule, airing on Christmas Eve and repeated the following festive season 2002.

In 2003 Collingwood O’Hare expanded their production expertise with the creation of their first computer animated series. 52x5-minute episodes of Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto! were animated entirely in house on CelAction 2D, for CiTV. Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto! is a vibrant celebration of the friendship between Yoko (a bird), Jakamoko (an armadillo) and Toto (a monkey). The stories are told solely through music and action, with a look and sound inspired by traditional Spanish, Latin American and African art and music. Roger Jackson composes the inspirational score. The series was designed and co-directed by Andrea Tran, another key member of the Collingwood O’Hare team. 26 x 1-minute ‘Fez Moment’ interstitials have also been produced.

Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto! has already won numerous industry awards: ‘Best Pilot’ at the 26th Annecy International Festival of Animation and at Cartoons on the Bay 2000. Best TV Series for Children at The Bradford Animation Festival 2003. Best Writer award for Tony Collingwood at the British Animation Awards 2004 and two BAFTAs, including Best Writer for Tony Collingwood again, and Best Pre-School Animation 2004.

Collingwood O’Hare’s next major production was 52x10-minute episodes of Gordon the Garden Gnome
Gordon the Garden Gnome
Gordon the Garden Gnome is a British animated children's television series aimed at getting children interested in gardening. The series premiered on CBeebies in 2005...

 for CBBC, CBeebies
CBeebies
CBeebies is the brand used by the BBC for programming aimed at children 6 years and under. It is used as a themed strand in the UK on terrestrial television, as a separate free-to-air domestic British channel and used for international varients supported by advertising, subscription or both...

 & ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...

. Starring gardening guru Alan Titchmarsh as the voice of Gordon Gnome, the series takes a humorous look at gnome society, helping to raise awareness of nature and the environment amongst young children in a familiar garden setting.

Gordon made his public debut in 2002 at Eureka! the UK’s only dedicated children’s museum, in Halifax, as part of their new £2m interactive Global Garden installation. Gordon Gnome premiered on the BBC in 2005 and has continued to enjoy regular transmissions on the CBeebies Channel each year since. Endemol
Endemol
Endemol is an international television production and distribution company based in the Netherlands, with subsidiaries and joint ventures in 23 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Poland,...

 have sold the series worldwide, and secured three seasonal DVD Volumes, Spring, Summer and Back to School Adventures, released through Paramount Video, plus licensing a range of garden gnomes and accessories in stores.

Building on the company’s success in the pre-school market, 2004 also saw Collingwood O’Hare embark on a major co-production with CCI Canada, in association with Silver Fox Films, for 52x10-minute episodes of Harry & His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs. (Channel 5/Playhouse Disney UK/Cartoon Network USA.) A second 52 episodes was produced through 2006/7.

This delightful series is a journey into the imagination of a 5-yr old boy as he jumps into his bright blue bucket, crammed full of toy dinosaurs, and discovers magic and adventure in dinoworld. The series was adapted for television by Tony Collingwood, from the best selling books by Ian Whybrow and Adrian Reynolds.

Harry is proving a success in other areas too. An initial DVD release in 2006 will be followed by two further titles in 2007. Story, sticker, activity and colouring books are also planned through 2007-8. With a master toy license already signed with Fisher Price, plus outdoor toys and apparel already signed up, and a touring theatre show already in the pipeline, little Harry is heading for big things.

Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!, Gordon the Garden Gnome and Harry & His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs all received their USA premiere in the launch line-up for Cartoon Network USA’s pre-school initiative Tickle U.

Collingwood O’Hare’s largest and most ambitious series to date is The Secret Show, a quirky secret agent show cool enough for today’s sharp and demanding 7-12 year olds.

The Secret Show is an original, comedy adventure series, created by Tony Collingwood, Like Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!, it was animated entirely in the company’s London studio on computer CelAction 2D and is another successful collaboration with composer Roger Jackson, with Tony Collingwood and Andrea Tran co-directing.

It’s about ‘secret people doing secret things’ and follows two U.Z.Z secret agents, Victor Volt and Anita Knight as they save the planet from assorted villains intent on world domination.

The scale and complexity of this 52x13-minute production has been to a level that the company could not have dreamt of producing only a few years ago. A major commission from CBBC and BBC Worldwide, the series was financed within only a few months of the presentation of its pilot episode at Cartoon Forum Spain in fall 2004. It was in full-blown production through 2005-6.

The Secret Show premiered on CBBC in September 2006 with an initial run of 26 episodes within TMi. The second season premiered in a dedicated slot in BBC2's new Saturday morning kids’ line-up in February 2007 and currently features as a key part of CBBC’s autumn re-branding 2007.

Re-packaged into half-hour episodes for the USA, season one of The Secret Show kicked off to a terrific start in January 2007 on Nicktoons Network, with the second season premiering in June 2007.

Alongside the production of the series, the Collingwood creative team has also produced substantial new animation segments and special features for inclusion on three DVD releases planned for 2007. These include three live-action mini-documentaries on the production process, original Outtakes/Gags, a Martian Dub, Character Profiles and Commentaries, plus a series of animated Professor Professor ‘totally untested and highly dangerous’ lectures.

In conjunction with BBC Worldwide and Penguin books a range of storybooks, joke and activity books were created for release in 2007.

And for CBBC/BBC WW, with new media company Complete Control, Collingwood O’Hare has created a Secret Show web game for CBBC ( www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc ) - be a Secret Agent and help U.Z.Z retrieve a secret object from THEM base), as well as writing for and developing a fully interactive dedicated Secret Show website, ( www.thesecretshow.com ), including its two additional web games. This is the largest web site to ever accompany the launch of a British children’s animated series.

Future projects include the company’s first CGI animation series Parpazoids, to be ‘aired’ initially as musical, gag-based shorts, online games and ring tones, followed by 52 x 10-minute adventures; a fantasy comedy-adventure series, Thorgar, (‘He’s bigger than you are!’); Ding! Dong! Ping! Pong!, 52 x 11-minute multiple choice adventures for pre-schoolers and the live-action comedy drama series NinCOMproof.

List of cartoons

  • Animal Stories
    Animal Stories
    Animal Stories is a British pre-school animated television series. Cartoon Network TOO began airing this program on 5 June 2006. It also aired on Playhouse Disney in the US in the early 2000s.-References:...

    (1998–2002)
  • Bebe's Kids
    Bebe's Kids
    Bébé's Kids is a 1992 animated comedy film produced by the Reginald Hudlin and Hyperion Pictures, directed by Bruce W...

    (1991)
  • Busy Buses
    Busy Buses
    Busy Buses was an animated children's program about the lives of a group of friendly talking buses.It was originally shown on The Children's Channel, and later on Tiny Living....

    (1999–2003)
  • Captain Zed and the Zee Zone
    Captain Zed and the Zee Zone
    Captain Zed and the Zee Zone is a short-lived CITV television series, airing in the United Kingdom. When children go to sleep its Captain Zed and his partner PJ job to prevent children from having nightmares in the dreamzone...

    (1991)
  • Daisy-Head Mayzie (1995)
  • Dennis and Gnasher
    Dennis the Menace (UK)
    Dennis the Menace, later called Dennis the Menace and Gnasher and now Dennis and Gnasher, is a long-running comic strip in the British children's comic The Beano, published by D. C...

    (1996)
  • Eddy and the Bear (2001)
  • Gordon the Garden Gnome
    Gordon the Garden Gnome
    Gordon the Garden Gnome is a British animated children's television series aimed at getting children interested in gardening. The series premiered on CBeebies in 2005...

    (2005–2007)
  • Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs
    Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs
    Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs is a series of children's books written and drawn by Ian Whybrow and Adrian Reynolds. The series is about a 5-year-old boy named Harry, who has a bucket full of dinosaurs. In the books the dinosaurs talk to Harry but seem to be toys to the other characters...

  • The King's Beard
  • Oscar's Orchestra
    Oscar's Orchestra
    Oscar's Orchestra is an animated TV series that was shown on CBBC.It was set in the distant future, and was about a talking piano called Oscar, who rebels against the evil dictator of the world, Thaddius Vent, who has banned music...

    (1994–1997)
  • Pond Life (1998–2000)
  • RARG (1988)
  • The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!
    The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!
    The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! is an American/Canadian/British animated television series that premiered August 7, 2010 on Treehouse TV in Canada, on September 6, 2010 on PBS Kids in the US and also in the UK on CITV and Cartoonito...

    (2010-)
  • The Magic Key
    The Magic Key
    The Magic Key is a series of books published for children as part of the Oxford Reading Tree, from Oxford University Press. The books are written by Roderick Hunt, illustrated by Alex Brychta, and primarily follow the lives of three children, Biff, Chip and Kipper Robinson, their parents and...

    (Season 1 only) (1999–2001)
  • Thumbelina
    Thumbelina (1992 film)
    Thumbelina is a 49-minute animated film originally released on June 8, 1992 and based on the classic story, Thumbelina by Hans Christian Andersen...

    (1992)
  • The Secret Show
    The Secret Show
    The Secret Show is a British animated show commissioned by BBC Children's in partnership with BBC Worldwide. First debuted in 2006, it currently airs on CBBC, The Den, ABC, BBC One, BBC Kids, MBC3 and TSR 2...

    (2006–2009)
  • Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!
    Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!
    Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto! was a 52-episode animated television series, produced by Collingwood O'Hare and HIT Entertainment, aired from 2003 to 2005, and was part of Cartoon Network's Tickle-U preschool television programming block in the United States...

    (2002–2005)

External links

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