25 Years of Cosgrove Hall: All the characters that have ever been broadcast by the studio. © Cosgrove Hall.

There's an episode of Cosgrove Hall's new series Albie, about the fantasy world of a little boy, that encapsulates what fans love about the studio. Albie has been sketching animals ('impressionist moose') before going to bed. His mean sister warns him of nightmares. Sure enough, Albie is woken by his drawings, that complain about their lack of realism. 'These legs would look daft even on an elk!' one moose whinges in a Manchester accent. 'It's artistic license!' Albie protests. 'It's indecent assault!' the moose retorts.

Albie creates a world Terry Gilliam would love. © Cosgrove Hall Films.

After that, things get seriously strange. There's head-swapping. There are harmony-singing Welsh buffalo ("We are Welsh and we come from Wales," sung to "Men of Harlech"). There are two hippos that blow up Albie's garden. One hippo looks at his partner and exclaims, 'You were only supposed to blow the ruddy doors off!' in a Michael Caine accent. After that, Terry Gilliam might lie down.

All in a ten-minute segment supposedly aimed at young children. And that's not mentioning the technical innovations. Albie and his environment are traditionally drawn, but the animals (at least in their daylight appearances) have CG textures, creating a reality-fantasy contrast that works extremely well. Small wonder Albie is picking up prizes. So far it's snagged the British Animation Award for Best Children's Series, the Best European Programme at Cartoons on the Bay and the Best Young Writer award in the U.K. trade Broadcast.

A Successful History
Albie represents a new generation of programmes from a 25-year institution, now Europe's biggest toon studio. Founded in 1976 by college friends Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall, Cosgrove Hall started life in a disused warehouse near Manchester, north England. For American readers, its three most familiar creations are Dangermouse, about a hero rodent agent, Wind in the Willows, a puppet version of Kenneth Grahame's classic, and Duckula, about a neurotic vampire duck.

The founders Brian Cosgrove (left) and Mark Hall with some early signs of success.

Head of public relations AJ Read knows the trio's enduring popularity: "If you do a search on the Internet, you get 180,000 returns on Dangermouse. It's still on in the States and I get American emails every week, chasing information and merchandise...It's huge." In its heyday, Dangermouse pulled in vast audiences and was among Britain's most-watched programmes. "I think that for a children's cartoon, it would be very difficult to get those figures now, mainly because of the spread of channels," says Read. "A lot of children just put on Cartoon Network. It would have to be a stunning piece of well-marketed animation to get near Dangermouse."

Other keynote Cosgrove Hall titles include the 1990 feature The BFG, based on the book by Roald Dahl; the same year's Truckers, a beautiful model version of Terry Pratchett's novel (with animation by the late Paul Berry); and the Emmy-winning Peter and the Wolf (1996), co-produced with Chuck Jones. There have also been Foxbusters, Fantomcat and Rocky and the Dodos, while the model Animal Shelf airs in America. An exhibition of the studio's history is running at the Lowry Centre in England.