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The following is an episode list of the British television series Count Duckula produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Thames Television. It was first shown on ITV during its CITV output on weekday afternoons. Four series were made comprising 65 episodes which aired between 6 September 1988 and 16 February 1993.
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "No Sax Please, We're Egyptian!" "The Mystic Saxophone" | 6 September 1988 | 24 December 1988 (Sneak Peek) 7 January 1989 | |
Duckula, Igor and Nanny travel to Egypt in an attempt to recover an ancient artifact known as The Mystic Saxophone. Note: Dr. Von Goosewing makes a brief appearance inside the pyramid before his first appearance. | |||||
| 2 | 2 | "Vampire Vacation" | 13 September 1988 | 14 January 1989 | |
Duckula travels to Spain to escape the dreary Transylvanian weather, meets his pyromaniac cousin and fights the deadliest bull in Spain. Note: The first official appearance of Dr. Von Goosewing. | |||||
| 3 | 3 | "One Stormy Night" | 20 September 1988 | 21 January 1989 | |
Chaos looms in the castle as Goosewing's Frankenstein monster awakens, Nanny hides in the attic, Duckula seeks a snack, Igor gets lost and a stone replica of Duckula's evil ancestor is resurrected! | |||||
| 4 | 4 | "Transylvanian Homesick Blues" | 27 September 1988 | 28 January 1989 | |
Duckula, Igor and Nanny take a literal rollercoaster ride through time. | |||||
| 5 | 5 | "Restoration Comedy" | 4 October 1988 | 4 February 1989 | |
Bored with the look of the castle, Duckula hires a designer to redecorate the castle with Goosewing not too far behind... | |||||
| 6 | 6 | "The Mutinous Penguins" | 11 October 1988 | 11 February 1989 | |
Lost in the Arctic seas, Duckula, Igor and Nanny must survive bloodthirsty pirates, defrosted Vikings and Dr. Von Goosewing in order to find their home. | |||||
| 7 | 7 | "Dr. Von Goosewing's Invisible Ray" | 18 October 1988 | 18 February 1989 | |
Dr. Von Goosewing, along with his new invisible ray, invades the castle in another attempt to kill Duckula. | |||||
| 8 | 8 | "Down Under Duckula" | 25 October 1988 | 25 February 1989 | |
While in Australia, Duckula accidentally sells the clock to a wallaby owner and must retrieve it before dawn rises in Transylvania. | |||||
| 9 | 9 | "All in a Fog" | 1 November 1988 | 4 March 1989 | |
Inspired to be a detective, Duckula travels to England to solve a mystery, filled with old criminals, a homage to Sherlock Holmes and Goosewing's Fog Machine. | |||||
| 10 | 10 | "Castle Duckula: Open to the Public!" | 8 November 1988 | 11 March 1989 | |
Duckula has some money troubles and decides to open Castle Duckula to the public for some extra cash. | |||||
| 11 | 11 | "The Ghost of McCastle McDuckula" | 15 November 1988 | 18 March 1989 | |
Duckula, Igor and Nanny, on holiday in Scotland, hope to stay at the Glenn Sparrows Hotel but Igor takes Duckula to see an old relative, in hope that it will transform him back to his old, evil blood-thirsty ways. | |||||
| 12 | 12 | "Igor's Busy Day" | 22 November 1988 | 25 March 1989 | |
An engaged couple spend the night in Castle Duckula, which bores The Count and frustrates Igor. Note: The couple are caricatures of Brad and Janet, the central protagonists of the cult horror-comedy musical, The Rocky Horror Show and its film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show | |||||
| 13 | 13 | "Autoduck" | 29 November 1988 | 1 April 1989 | |
Duckula tries to create a world record for the world's fastest car. | |||||
| 14 | 14 | "The Vampire Strikes Back" | 6 December 1988 | 8 April 1989 | |
Duckula meets his hero, space explorer Tremendous Terrance, and ends up being stuck on Planet Cute, much to Igor's displeasure. | |||||
| 15 | 15 | "Hardluck Hotel" | 13 December 1988 | 15 April 1989 | |
Duckula goes to stay at a worn-out and run-down hotel for the weekend but he has cash problems and ends up doing all the work for the manager unaware that Igor and Nanny are also staying there. Note: the manager of this hotel is a caricature of Basil Fawlty, the central character of the BBC's sitcom series, Fawlty Towers. | |||||
| 16 | 16 | "Hunchbudgie of Notre Dame" | 20 December 1988 | 22 April 1989 | |
Duckula, Igor and Nanny are involved in a series of art thefts in Paris mainly because of Gaston & Pierre who have the deeds to the castle. It's up to Duckula & Igor and the police to solve the mystery. | |||||
| 17 | 17 | "Dear Diary" | 3 January 1989 | 29 April 1989 | |
Duckula and Goosewing discover their grandfathers' diaries, and history is sure to repeat itself! | |||||
| 18 | 18 | "Rent a Butler" | 10 January 1989 | 6 May 1989 | |
Duckula sells Igor and Nanny to an agency to make some money. All goes well, until he is invited to dinner to the house where Igor and Nanny are serving. | |||||
| 19 | 19 | "Jungle Duck" | 24 January 1989 | 20 May 1989 | |
Duckula unwillingly buys a set of encyclopedias and he, Igor and Nanny travel to the jungles of darkest Africa to find the Lost Temple. | |||||
| 20 | 20 | "Mobile Home" | 31 January 1989 | 27 May 1989 | |
Thinking he is rebuilding the castle, Duckula accidentally sells it to The Crow Brothers in disguise, brick by brick! | |||||
| 21 | 21 | "A Fright at the Opera" | 7 February 1989 | 3 June 1989 | |
| 22 | 22 | "Dr. Goosewing and Mr. Duck" | 14 February 1989 | 10 June 1989 | |
Goosewing creates a formula for carpet stains removal that when accidentally drunk, the victim becomes the complete opposite of their original selves. Von Goosewing becomes a vampire, Duckula becomes a real vampire, Igor is loving and Nanny becomes intelligent. | |||||
| 23 | 23 | "Town Hall Terrors" | 21 February 1989 | 17 June 1989 | |
A pair of frightened villagers enter the castle, who make Duckula decide to renovate his home, but he first needs a grant from the Town Hall. | |||||
| 24 | 24 | "Sawdust Ring" | 28 February 1989 | 24 June 1989 | |
Duckula, Igor and Nanny join the circus. | |||||
| 25 | 25 | "Duck and the Broccoli Stalk" | 7 March 1989 | 1 July 1989 | |
Thanks to Goosewing's vegetable grower, Duckula, Igor and Nanny find themselves up a broccoli-stalk and into a giants' castle. | |||||
| 26 | 26 | "A Family Reunion" | 21 March 1989 | 13 May 1989 | |
Duckula is chosen to host the family reunion on Halloween but he's not too keen on the idea as he knows that his relatives will kill him if they discover that he no longer drinks blood and he despises being a vampire, so he decides to fake it. | |||||
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | 1 | "Ghostly Gold" | 12 September 1989 | 6 January 1990 | |
Duckula travels to the black mountains in the Yukon to find treasure and gold. | |||||
| 28 | 2 | "Ducknapped!" | 19 September 1989 | 13 January 1990 | |
A ransom note is sent to Castle Duckula stating that The Count had been kidnapped, despite still being in the castle. He shows the note to Nanny, who thinks he HAS been kidnapped. | |||||
| 29 | 3 | "The Lost Valley" | 26 September 1989 | 20 January 1990 | |
Duckula, Igor and Nanny go to watch a film called 'The Lost Valley' and get trapped inside the film. In the end of the film, they end up in the commercials. | |||||
| 30 | 4 | "The Incredible Shrinking Duck" | 3 October 1989 | 27 January 1990 | |
Von Goosewing tries shrinking the Castle to put in a glass snowglobe model, but he loses the snowglobe. | |||||
| 31 | 5 | "Hi-Duck!" | 10 October 1989 | 3 February 1990 | |
Duckula, Igor and Nanny take an aeroplane to Nice, which gets hijacked by the bumbling French crooks, Gaston and Pierre. | |||||
| 32 | 6 | "Prime-Time Duck" | 17 October 1989 | 10 February 1990 | |
Transylvanian Television arrive at the castle to feature it in a television programme, much to Igor's misery. However, Igor is cast as The Count and Nanny as The Countess; meanwhile, the real Count Duckula is cast as all the servants. | |||||
| 33 | 7 | "Bloodsucking Fruit Bats of the Lower Amazon" | 24 October 1989 | 17 February 1990 | |
Igor attempts to have the family bat bite Duckula to turn him into a proper vampire again, but when it transpires that the bat is fully trained, he tricks The Count into going to the Amazon to find another bat. | |||||
| 34 | 8 | "The Count and the Pauper – I Ain't Gonna Work on Maggots' Farm No More!" | 31 October 1989 | 24 February 1990 | |
Duckula is sick of life at the castle and plans to leave Transylvania, but during a walk, he bumps into Sid Quack – an incredible lookalike – and they both decide to swap roles for a while, Duckula as a hard-working, underprivileged farm boy, while Sid becomes a spoilt, rich aristocrat. | |||||
| 35 | 9 | "Arctic Circles" | 7 November 1989 | 3 March 1990 | |
Duckula travels to the North Pole and fires Igor for a penguin butler called Jyves. | |||||
| 36 | 10 | "Transylvania Take-Away" | 14 November 1989 | 10 March 1990 | |
Duckula, Igor and Nanny head to China in search of missing treasure. | |||||
| 37 | 11 | "Whodunnit?" | 21 November 1989 | 17 March 1990 | |
Duckula gets a letter stating that his Great-Uncle had died, when he goes to the reading of the will, it transpires that his uncle was murdered, and when The Count can't recall where he was on the night of the murder, he believes he killed him, confessing to Igor that he wants to be a true vampire again. | |||||
| 38 | 12 | "No Yaks Please, We're Tibetan!" | 28 November 1989 | 24 March 1990 | |
The trio climbs the Himalayas, despite warnings about a Yeti. | |||||
| 39 | 13 | "Beau Duckula" | 5 December 1989 | 31 March 1990 | |
Duckula joins the French foreign Legion. | |||||
| 40 | 14 | "Mississippi Duck" | 12 December 1989 | 7 April 1990 | |
Count Duckula and his servants travel onto a steamboat in the River Mississippi, where he tries to become a jazz trumpet player. However, this wasn't what everyone else on the boat had in mind... | |||||
| 41 | 15 | "Amnesiac Duck" | 19 December 1989 | 14 April 1990 | |
Duckula falls down a hole in the castle's cellar causing amnesia, which leads to him lusting for blood once again! | |||||
| 42 | 16 | "The Mysteries of the Wax Museum" | 2 January 1990 | 21 April 1990 | |
The Mad Scientist creates robot doubles of Duckula, Igor and Nanny to rob the Bank of England. | |||||
| 43 | 17 | "The Return of the Curse of the Secret of the Mummy's Tomb Meets Frankenduckula's Monster and the Wolf-Man and the Intergalactic Cabbage..." "A Very Long Title" | 9 January 1990 | 28 April 1990 | |
Duckula is chased by an alien cabbage, a werewolf, a mummy, Frankenstein's monster, Von Goosewing, and some angry villagers. Just an average day in Castle Duckula, then. NOTE: US TV guides list this as A Very Long Title. | |||||
| 44 | 18 | "The Lost City of Atlantis" | 16 January 1990 | 5 May 1990 | |
The trio find the Lost City of Atlantis. | |||||
| 45 | 19 | "Bad Luck, Duck" | 23 January 1990 | 12 May 1990 | |
Duckula's attempts at showing Nanny that superstitions are complete nonsense cause him a lot of pain. | |||||
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46 | 1 | "Private Beak" | 22 October 1990 | 17 April 1991 | |
Duckula becomes a private detective in Chicago. | |||||
| 47 | 2 | "Astro Duck" | 29 October 1990 | 24 April 1991 | |
Duckula's new computer causes problems for TRASH (the Transylvanian Space Authority) and ends up landing the castle on the Moon. | |||||
| 48 | 3 | "Unreal Estate" | 5 November 1990 | 10 April 1991 | |
Duckula is fed up with the Castle crumbling around him so he decides to sell it, much to Igor's horror, in Hollywood. NOTE: This was originally the pilot episode, which like many of Cosgrove Hall, was created just for a test audience and wasn't meant to be shown to the public, but was later made into part of season 3. As a result, the animation style is much different in most scenes (closer to "Danger Mouse" style), much of first half of the episode is spent on exposition and the very first scene with Dr. Von Goosewing shows him discovering from the newspaper that Duckula was reincarnated. Duckula himself appears to be new to the fact of being a vampire (for example, is surprised by the fact he can teleport by will). The harmonica scene from the intro also appears in the episode in a full version and proper context. [1] | |||||
| 49 | 4 | "Bombay Duck (or 1,001 Transylvanian Nights)" | 12 November 1990 | 1 May 1991 | |
Duckula gets tricked by a fake Genie into going to India. | |||||
| 50 | 5 | "There Are Werewolves at the Bottom of Our Garden" | 19 November 1990 | 8 May 1991 | |
The castle's werewolf has escaped and it's up to Igor and Nanny to get it back before Duckula finds out. Note: This episode was aired as part of CITV's Old Skool Weekend Marathon. | |||||
| 51 | 6 | "Duck Ahoy" | 26 November 1990 | 15 May 1991 | |
Duckula enters a boat race hoping to win the prize money and as usual, things don't go to plan. | |||||
| 52 | 7 | "The Great Ducktective" | 3 December 1990 | 22 May 1991 | |
Goosewing tries to frame Duckula for a relative's murder with the help of Detectives Soames & Potson. | |||||
| 53 | 8 | "Dead Eye Duck" | 10 December 1990 | 29 May 1991 | |
Duckula becomes a deputy in the Wild West. | |||||
| 54 | 9 | "The Show Must Go On!" | 17 December 1990 | 5 June 1991 | |
Duckula decides to become an actor and stages the story of Jack and the Magic Walnut at the castle with himself as Jack, Nanny as The Good Fairy, Igor as The Giant and The Crow Brothers as Mushrooms, Magic Elves and Wood Pixies. | |||||
| 55 | 10 | "A Christmas Quacker" | 26 December 1990 | 26 December 1990 | |
Duckula is visited by both Father Christmas (otherwise known as Santa Claus) and Von Goosewing at the Castle on Christmas Day. | |||||
| 56 | 11 | "The Rest Is History!" | 7 January 1991 | 12 June 1991 | |
Duckula travels back in time to stop the first Count Duckula from becoming a vampire. | |||||
| 57 | 12 | "00 Duck" | 14 January 1991 | 19 June 1991 | |
The Egg decides to steal Castle Duckula to take over the world. | |||||
| 58 | 13 | "Mystery Cruise" | 21 January 1991 | 26 June 1991 | |
Nanny wins tickets to go on a cruise, but the trio becomes a nuisance for the other passengers. | |||||
Thames Television ceased broadcasting on New Year's Eve 1992 to be replaced by Carlton Television. After 1992, Thames became an independent production company, making programmes commissioned from broadcasters. Although Thames Television produced the last seven episodes, it was still a requirement to have an ITV franchise to be allowed such programmes onto the ITV network. Thames Television for Carlton Television presented for ITV. David Jason was also busy filming the first series of A Touch of Frost in 1992, and was unavailable for some of that year. According to Brian Trueman, thirteen more episodes were scripted and recorded, but were never animated due to Thames Television's loss of the ITV licence.
When the third DVD boxset was released in the UK by FremantleMedia, the seven episodes which make up Series 4 were added to Series 3. All episodes that make up Series 4 were dated 1989.
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59 | 1 | "Around the World in a Total Daze!" | 5 January 1993 | |
Von Goosewing, with the help of world famous explorer, Sibellious Smogg, challenges Duckula to a race around the world. | ||||
| 60 | 2 | "Manhattan Duck" | 12 January 1993 | |
Castle Duckula mistakenly lands in the middle of New York, on top of all places, a department store, and Count Duckula makes a bit of money by selling the contents of the house. The only problem is getting back the clock, an important part of the castle's travelling mechanism-has been sold too! | ||||
| 61 | 3 | "Alps-a-Daisy!" | 19 January 1993 | |
Duckula tries to impress a group of rich girls by winning all the winter sports. | ||||
| 62 | 4 | "Prince Duckula" | 26 January 1993 | |
After an accidental TV appearance, The Count is approached to play a Prince in a Hollywood film. | ||||
| 63 | 5 | "Venice a Duck, Not a Duck!" | 2 February 1993 | |
In Venice, the Egg plans to get his revenge on Duckula by asking all his adversaries from the past (minus Von Goosewing) to plan a nasty end for The Count. | ||||
| 64 | 6 | "A Mountie Always Gets His Duck!" | 9 February 1993 | |
Duckula travels to Canada to become a Mountie and to help an old friend, Geoffrey, to arrest and lock up a French villain on the run. | ||||
| 65 | 7 | "The Zombie Awakes" | 16 February 1993 | |
Dr. Quackbrain (Barry Clayton) lures Duckula to his dream machine for his greatest experiment, to peer inside the dreams of a real vampire (unaware that The Count is unlike any of his ancestors). | ||||
Sir David John White, known professionally by his stage name David Jason, is an English actor. He has played Derek "Del Boy" Trotter in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, Detective Inspector Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost, Granville in Open All Hours and Still Open All Hours, and Pop Larkin in The Darling Buds of May, as well as voicing several cartoon characters, including Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Willows, the BFG in the 1989 film, and the title characters of Danger Mouse and Count Duckula.
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend Television was its weekend counterpart. Granada's parent company Granada plc later bought several other regional ITV stations and, in 2004, merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc.
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London Weekend Television (LWT) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm to Monday mornings at 6:00. From 1968 until 1992, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Thames Television, there was an on-screen handover to LWT on Friday nights. From 1993 to 2002, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Carlton Television, the transfer usually occurred invisibly during a commercial break, for Carlton and LWT shared studio and transmission facilities.
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Count Duckula is a British children's animated comedy horror television series created by British studio Cosgrove Hall Productions and produced by Thames Television as a spin-off of Danger Mouse, a series in which an early version of the Count Duckula character was a recurring villain. Count Duckula aired from 6 September 1988 to 16 February 1993 across four series; in all, 65 episodes were made, each about 22 minutes long. All have been released on DVD in the UK, while only the first series has been released in North America.
Cosgrove Hall Films was a British animation studio founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall, headquartered in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Cosgrove Hall was a major producer of children's television and animated programmes/films, which are still seen in over eighty countries. The company was wound down by its then owner, ITV plc, on 26 October 2009. It was mainly known for its series Danger Mouse, The Wind in the Willows and Count Duckula.
Jamie and the Magic Torch is a British children's television series made by Cosgrove Hall Productions for Thames Television and shown on the ITV network, running from 1977 to 1979.
Victor & Hugo: Bunglers in Crime is a British crime comedy animated series made by Cosgrove Hall Productions for Thames Television and broadcast on Children's ITV from 6 September 1991 to 29 December 1992. Its eponymous characters were based on the villains Gaston and Pierre from the 1988–1993 series Count Duckula.
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Brian Joseph Cosgrove is an English animator, designer, director, producer and sculptor. With Mark Hall, he founded Cosgrove Hall Films in 1976 and produced successful animated children shows including The Wind in the Willows, Danger Mouse and Count Duckula. In 2012 he won the BAFTA Special Award.
CHF Entertainment was an animation studio formed in 2011. It was the reincarnation of the animation company Cosgrove Hall Films which closed in 2009 after 33 years. Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall formed and ran the original Cosgrove Hall creating over 1000 episodes of animated programs such as Danger Mouse, Cockleshell Bay, Count Duckula, Lavender Castle and The Wind in the Willows, and produced Fifi and the Flowertots, Postman Pat, and Roary the Racing Car. They won a number of awards, including six BAFTAs and two international Emmys.
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This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster Thames Television and its predecessor Associated-Rediffusion. Between them, they provided the ITV weekday service for London from 1955 to 1992, after which Thames continued as an independent production company until 2003.