Brian Trueman dies aged 92 as tributes paid to writer of beloved kids’ cartoons from Danger Mouse to Count Duckula
THE beloved kids’ cartoons writer Brian Trueman has died aged 92.
Tributes have started to pour in for the “absolute gentleman” who played an iconic role in creating characters such as Danger Mouse and Count Duckula.
His loving son Ben paid tribute to his dad saying: “He was clever, funny, resilient, an absolute gentleman, loving and loved.
“We will all miss him so much.”
His passing was announced tonight by Ben who said he had lived “92 years of happy life”.
Trueman is also known as the voice of many of his characters including Nanny from Count Duckula.
The Manchester-born star worked with the British animation studio, Cosgrove Hall, for much of his career.
Trueman is credited with 79 episodes of the original Danger Mouse series which was a hit in the 80s.
He also helped to create four episodes in the long anticipated 2015 remake which starred TV legends Alexander Armstrong and Stephen Fry.
His other major hit was Count Duckula where he helped to create 11 episodes.
Trueman is also credited for various Wallace and Gromit projects.
He was a writer on Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, as well as helping to create at least one episode of the TV series by Aardman, according to his IMDB profile.
Elsewhere, he helped to write Wind in the Willows, Cockleshell Bay, Chorlton and the Wheelies and Jamie and the Magic Torch.
He started his career with the BBC working on the radio before making his mark on TV in 1957 on the comedy The Clitheroe Kid.
Trueman was also a newsreader and presenter at Granada Television.
Across his nearly four decade TV career, Trueman was involved in 23 shows where he produced hundreds of iconic scripts.
More touching messages have started to pour in for the beloved personality on social media.
One said: “Godspeed Brian Trueman, a true talent in TV & radio who’ll be fondly remembered.”
Another heaped on praise, writing: “He’s the greatest, he’s fantastic. Very sad news about Brian Trueman, whose CV and legacy is essentially making millions of us happy.”
A third replied to Ben’s tribute saying: “Your father curated many happy childhood memories for me and my sister in that list alone.
“What a happy legacy to leave. Sympathy to you and your family.”
What is Danger Mouse?
KNOWN as “the world’s greatest secret agent” Danger Mouse was a beloved TV character in the 1980s and 90s.
Danger Mouse, voiced by David Jason, ran on ITV from 1981 until 1992 before it got a reboot in 2015 until 2019.
The original was created by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall and produced by British studio Cosgrove Hall.
The small white mouse sported an iconic eyepatch and red belt when he first took to TV screens.
His favourite catchphrases are “Good grief!”, “Penfold, shush!” and “Blast!”
He was joined by his sidekick Ernest Penfold on most of their adventures fighting crime.
The main villain for the show was the toad Baron Silas Greenback.
The original show’s run lasted for 10 seasons and was made up of 89 episodes.
In this time it was nominated for several BAFTA’s.
Brian Trueman was the main writer for the show and he also helped to create Count Duckula – a spin-off character from Danger Mouse.
The mouse was even voted as the seventh most heroic TV character of all time in a survey of 2,000 UK telly fans in 2017.