Jackanory Junior - Season 1
Season 1
Episodes
King Arthur and the Mighty Contest
Kris Marshall tells Tony Mitton's crazy tale of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table and the quest for the Holy Grail.
The Mousehole Cat
Shobna Gulati tells Antonia Barber's classic tale of Mowser, a Cornish cat, and her battle to save the village of Mousehole.
The Great Tug of War
Don Gilet tells the story of a cheeky hare who persuades a hippo and an elephant to have a tug-of-war that neither can possibly win.
The Princess and the Unicorn
Daniela Nardini tells Wendy Blaxland's tale of a princess who looks for a magical unicorn that will save her father.
Fig's Giant
Art Malik reads Geraldine McCaughrean's re-telling of Gulliver's Travels from the point of view of Fig, a little Lilliputian girl who befriends the giant.
Ellie and the Cat
Tisha Martin tells Malorie Blackman's classic story of a spoilt, spiteful girl who gets turned into a cat by her magical Grandma and learns a big lesson from a friendly mouse.
The Last Polar Bears
Martin Clunes tells the story of a journey to the North Pole with a penguin and Roo the dog, to find the last polar bears.
The King of Capri
Holly Aird tells the Jeanette Winterson tale of a selfish king who loses his fortune and the poor washerwoman he falls in love with.
The Bun Gun
Amanda Abbington tells Jeremy Strong's wacky story of a pirate school and the pirate pupils' attempts to raid the food cupboard. Featuring swashbuckling adventure and school dinners.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Nadine Marshall tells the classic fairytale of a boy, some magic beans and an evil giant who lives in a castle in the clouds.
Bob and the House Elves
Lee Cornes tells the story of Bob, whose house is invaded by elves, and Lily, the only person who knows how to get rid of them.
The Woman Who Won Things
Sophie Okonedo tells Allan Ahlberg's story of the Gaskitt family, their cats, and a very mysterious supply teacher.
The Enormous Crocodile
Lenny Henry tells the classic Roald Dahl tale of a nasty, greedy crocodile looking for little children to eat and how the animals of the jungle try to stop him.
The Gruffalo, and Room on the Broom
Sanjeev Bhaskar reads two classic children's stories by Julia Donaldson. In The Gruffalo, a mouse travels into a deep, dark wood and encounters an owl, a snake and a hungry gruffalo. In Room on the Broom, a witch and her cat fly happily through the air on a broomstick until the witch's hat blows away
Shampoozel
Jo Brand reads a delightfully daft take on the Rapunzel story for young children. A poor barber is caught stealing herbs from a witch's garden and is forced to give her his first-born daughter, Shampoozel. The witch locks Shampoozel in a tower, where she grows her hair using the witch's special hair lotion. When handsome-but-hairless Prince Gary Baldie finds out about Shampoozel, he sets out to rescue her and in the process get his hands on the hair-growing lotion.
Rastamouse - The Crucial Plan and Da Bag-a Bling
Lenny Henry reads two tales about the coolest crime-bustin' mouse in the world, Rastamouse, written in rapping rhyme by Michael De Souza and Genevieve Webster.
In The Crucial Plan, Rastamouse and the Easy Crew - members of his reggae band - set off to capture the thief who has stolen all the city's cheese.
In Da Bag-a Bling, Rastamouse traps the rapping reprobate who is hypnotising the city's orphans with his real fly rough hip hop music. Once again Wensley Dale puts Rastamouse on the track of the crook. Rastamouse devises a clever plan to capture him using a big bag of bling as bait.
The Last Cowboys
Martin Freeman tells the story of a dog called Roo, who goes on a trip across America in search of his long-lost grandfather. Roo and his owner travel by Greyhound bus and visit a dog track, a rabbit-themed theme park and the Grand Canyon. In a series of bizarre incidents, they befriend a duck and Roo becomes the sheriff of a Wild West town.
These adventures bring them no closer to Roo's missing grandfather, however, until one snowy day they find themselves in the depths of the woods.
Harold and the Duck
Sheridan Smith reads the story of Harold, a happy dog living on a farm. Harold's world is turned upside down when a duck moves in to his house. Missing his regular cuddles and the warmth of the family kitchen, he decides to leave home and seek a happier life elsewhere. Desperate to get things back to normal, Harold finds help from an unlikely source, his arch-enemy Pud Pud the cat.
The Monster Crisp Guzzler
Angela Griffin reads Malorie Blackman's story of a little girl whose teacher turns into a dragon. Mira discovers on her first day at school that Miss Porter turns into a dragon every time she eats crisps. The headmistress is appalled and, fed up with her dragon antics, sacks Miss Potter. Mira is mortified. The next week, while on a class outing at the beach, Mira is stranded on a rock with the tide coming in fast. Only the Monster Crisp Guzzler can save her.
The Little Bear Stories
Ramon Tikaram reads two classic children's stories written by Martin Waddell, illustrated by Barbara Firth. In Let's Go Home Little Bear, two bears walk home through the snow, and Little Bear keeps hearing strange noises all around him. In the second story, Can't You Sleep Little Bear? the two bears try to go to sleep in the bear cave. Unfortunately it is too dark for Little Bear and Big Bear has to find ways of lighting the cave for Little Bear to go to sleep.
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
Rupert Penry-Jones reads a reworking of the Brothers Grimm tale, written and illustrated by Jane Ray. A king cannot understand where his 12 daughters go to every night and why their dancing shoes are worn out every morning. The king challenges various princes to find out where his daughters go every night. The prize is one of the princesses' hands in marriage. When all attempts fail, it is left to a poor soldier to try his luck.
Dimity Dumpty and Jethro Byrde
Sally Hawkins reads two stories about little people and the big things they get up to. In Dimity Dumpty we learn the story of Humpty's lesser-known younger sister, Dimity.
In Jethro Byrde, we meet a tiny fairy child and his family who are on their way to the Fairy Travellers' Picnic.
The Toad Prince
Dervla Kirwan reads the story of a toad who fell in love with a princess, written by Rebecca Lisle. Trevor the toad falls in love with Princess Petunia and manages to convince Wazp the magician to turn him into a Prince. But Prince Trevor still exhibits some alarmingly toad-like tendencies and his chances of getting Petunia's hand in marriage look very bleak. Meanwhile the evil Wazp is plotting, ready to turn any situation to his advantage.
The Snow Dragon
Adrian Lester reads the story of a boy's attempt to save the world by finding the last of the Snow Dragons. The evil Fire Dragons have conquered almost all the planet, condemning humans to living in caves underground. But the last peaceful Snow Dragon sleeps in its Ice Palace in the North.
Explorer Trauma
Tamsin Grieg reads a story of the most embarrassing parents in the world, written by Sue Mongredian.
Indiana's parents are explorers and always take him on dangerous holidays to faraway places, but Indiana would prefer a simpler life, with less embarrassing parents. When he wins the holiday of a lifetime to an ordinary British holiday camp, he wonders how his parents will cope, yet there are plenty of surprises in store for him.
The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark
Alun Armstrong reads this classic story, originally published in 1968, about a barn owl called Plop who is afraid of the dark. Through a series of meetings with different people, Plop slowly comes to realise how varied, beautiful and important darkness is. In the process, he learns to be a night-owl and can take his place next to his ever-patient mother and father as they fly off to hunt in the dark.
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