Jackanory

Did You Know?

• Coverage of the live broadcast of the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 was interrupted so Jackanory could be shown.
• A spin-off series, Jackanory Playhouse (1972–85), was a series of thirty-minute dramatisations, including a dramatisation by Philip Glassborow of the A. A. Milne story "The Princess Who Couldn't Laugh".
• Jackanory Junior, a version for younger children, aired on CBeebies between 2007 and 2009.

Revival

In late 2006, Jackanory made a short-lived comeback. Comedian John Sessions was the first to read, tackling Paul Stewart’s Lord of the Rings parody Muddle Earth. Sir Ben Kingsley followed with Alan Temperley’s The Magician of Samarkand. Each story aired as three 15-minute segments on CBBC and BBC One, then repeated in full on BBC One over consecutive Sundays. The Muddle Earth readings used heavy animation, with Sessions voicing all characters and occasionally Joe’s lines, drawing criticism for straying from the original’s simple, single-voice format. The Magician of Samarkand was similar, though Kingsley read both narrative and dialogue without extra actors. Nick Willing produced and directed both. That year, each story got a DVD release with bonus galleries and a behind-the-scenes film for Muddle Earth. No further episodes followed, but Muddle Earth later received another TV adaptation.

Cultural influence

In the Ashes to Ashes series 2 finale, set in 1982, Philip Glenister as Gene Hunt appeared as a guest reader on Jackanory, as imagined by Alex Drake. The band Television Personalities released a song titled "Jackanory Stories" on their album ...And Don't the Kids Just Love It. Jackanory is mentioned in the Blur song "Country House" and the Elastica song "Annie", both from 1995. The phrase "Jackanory, jackanory" said in the theme tune's tones indicates that someone is thought to be lying or stretching a story. In 2013 the UK TV network Dave launched Crackanory, an adult version of Jackanory featuring two 15-minute tales per episode narrated by comedians and actors.