Crackanory is a storytelling television series aimed at adults, inspired by the children's series Jackanory. It is broadcast on the UKTV channel Dave. Each episode features a tale narrated by a contemporary comedian or actor, using a mix of live action, original music and animation, all read from the same oversized chair in a set designed to reflect the story. The first series attracted critical acclaim and drew more than half a million viewers to Dave.
Recurring elements include the fictional company Tripec Plastics, the town of Specsham, and the character "Fat Nicola from accounts".
First series Episode 1 Jack Dee "Bitter Tweet" Sally Phillips "What Peebee Did Next"
Episode 2 Rebecca Front "Fakespeare" Kevin Eldon "What Do You Say?"
Episode 3 Harry Enfield "The Teacup Has Landed" Sarah Solemani "Pleasure Drone" and
Episode 4 Sharon Horgan "The Translator" Charlie Higson "The Road to Hell"
Episode 5 Richard Hammond "Becoming Zoe" and Jessica Hynes "My Former Self"
Episode 6 Hugh Dennis "Head In the Clouds" Stephen Mangan "The Newsreader" and
Live action actors in the series include Alex Macqueen, Cariad Lloyd, Katherine Jakeways, James Bachman, Martha Howe-Douglas, Nick Mohammed, Vera Filatova, Cassie and Connie Powney
Second series A second series was broadcast in 2014 and featured comedian Rik Mayall, who had recorded a story prior to his death. (He had performed George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl on the original Jackanory.) Channel boss Steve North called it a "complete privilege" to work with Mayall. Episode 1 Vic Reeves "In Space No-one Can Hear You Clean" Rik Mayall "The Weatherman"
Episode 2 Ben Miller "Man's Best Friend" Sue Perkins "Return to Sender"
Episode 3 David Mitchell "The Surprise" Katherine Parkinson "The Crisis Plan"
Episode 4 Johnny Vegas "Self Storage" Meera Syal "The Obituary Writer"
Episode 5 Warwick Davis "The Untangler" Emilia Fox "Murder He Wrote"
Episode 6 Simon Callow "Let Me Be the Judge" Ruby Wax "I'm Still Here"
Live action actors in the second series include Simon Farnaby, Rosie Cavaliero, Michael Fish, Alice Lowe, Elis James, Victoria Wicks, Lucy Montgomery, Dominic Coleman, Tom Meeten and Sara Pascoe.
Third series The third series, commissioned by UKTV, was broadcast in December 2015 and was sponsored by the Amazon-owned digital audio service Audible. The guest story readers for the six-part series include Christopher Lloyd, known for his roles in long-running sitcom Taxi and as Doc Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy. Episode 1 Paul Whitehouse "Uncivil War" Carrie Fisher "Dread and Breakfast"
Episode 2 Catherine Tate "The Catchment Area" Richard Ayoade "The Frogbeast of Pontfidd"
Episode 3 Jimmy Carr "The Zombie That Roared" Christopher Lloyd "Di Sat Nav"
Episode 4 Robbie Coltrane "The Last Laugh" Sarah Millican "Abbatnoir"
Episode 5 Morgana Robinson "The Truth About Suz" Greg Davies "The Vexed Message"
Episode 6 Simon Bird "Unlucky for Sam" Tamsin Greig "Bob's House"
Live action actors in the third series include Janine Duvitski, Amy Hoggart, Ray Panthaki, Kerry Howard, Marcia Warren, Kerry Godliman and Steve Oram.
Fourth series The fourth series, also commissioned by UKTV, was broadcast in January and February 2017. Each half-hour episode contained one story rather than two.
"We are thrilled to be bringing back the award-winning Crackanory for a fourth time on Dave. It has become one of our landmark brands, and the ambitions of the show continue to grow with each new series. We're hugely excited to see the storytelling format evolve into a single narrative per episode, and to reveal the talented narrators who will be taking a seat in the iconic Crackanory chair."
Episode 1 Dara Ó Briain "A Close Slave" by Tony Way
Episode 2 Sheridan Smith "Living with a Lie" by Nico Tatarowicz
Episode 3 Bob Mortimer "The Despot of Tea" by Arnold Widdowson
Episode 4 Anna Friel "The Survivor" by Alexander Kirk
Episode 5 Mel Giedroyc "Proxy Lady" by Katherine Jakeways
Episode 6 Doc Brown, "Devil's Haircut" by Sarah Morgan
Episode 7 Mackenzie Crook, "The Disappearance" by Toby Davies
Episode 8 Miriam Margolyes, "Pickled" by Kevin Eldon Live action actors in the fourth series include Moya Brady, Tom Bennett, Neil Bell, Matthew Steer, Sophia Di Martino and David Gant.
References
External links
Crackanory at The British Comedy Guide Series and Episodes Harry Enfield returns with a twisted spin on Jackanory storytelling classic Website