Jackanory

"I'll tell you a story, About Jack-a-Nory, And now my story's begun, I'll tell you another, Of Jack and his brother, And now my story is done."

Long-running CBBC show in which a famous person would read a well-known children's book, typically in 15-minute chunks over the course of a week. The stories ranged widely, with Fairy Tales, Roald Dahl, Winnie the Pooh and The Moomins amongst many others. The storyteller would be in a location reflecting the story, and illustrations would appear.

The show was relaunched in 2007, with John Sessions reading Muddle Earth and Sir Ben Kingsley reading The Magician Of Samarkand. These had more of a dramatisation aspect to them that the originals, especially Muddle Earth. This did not lead to a further season, although Jackanory Junior was launched, reading picture books on CBeebies.


 * Don't Try This At Home: Unfortunately not used during Rik Mayall's famous reading of George's Marvelous Medicine, during which he acted out mixing up the famous medicine. There were some complaints after several kids copied him and filled their parents' baths with paint, floor polish and various other household chemicals.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: You will recognise the narrator. Storytellers included multiple Doctors, Kenneth Williams, Rik Mayall, Willie Rushton (who was irretrievably associated with Winnie the Pooh), Patrick Stewart, Spike Milligan, Danny John-Jules and Prince Charles (reading his own children's novel The Old Man of Lochnagar). The narrator who did the most episodes was Bernard Cribbins (The Wombles, Wilf Mott).
 * Long Runner: The first series lasted from 1965 to 1996. That's longer than Doctor Who!
 * The Narrator
 * Poorly-Disguised Pilot: The relaunch didn't lead to Jackanory continuing, but it did lead to a Muddle Earth cartoon series.
 * Spin-Off: Jackanory Junior; Jackanory Playhouse, a series of half-hour plays.