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Jackanory was a long running BBC children's television series that was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. It began in January 1965 and continued until 1996, clocking up around 3,500 episodes in that time.The show's format, which hardly varied 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.
Readers on Jackanory have included:
- Tom Baker
- Floella Benjamin
- Alan Bennett
- James Bolam
- Helena Bonham Carter
- Brian Cant
- Bernard Cribbins - 111 programmes
- Peter Davison
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- Arthur Lowe
- Joanna Lumley
- Rik Mayall
- Sylvester McCoy
- Geraldine McEwan
- Paul McGann
- Ian McKellen
- George Melly
- Paul Merton
- Spike Milligan
- Lee Montague
- Patrick Moore
- Jon Pertwee
- Miranda Richardson
- Tony Robinson
- James Robertson
- Margaret Rutherford
- Willie Rushton
- Prunella Scales
- Peter Sellers
- Maggie Smith
- Patrick Stewart
- Elaine Stritch
- Patrick Troughton
- Billie Whitelaw
- Kenneth Williams - 69 programmes
- and even Prince Charles.
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.
