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Jamie and the Magic Torch
Genre	Animated series
Written by	Jo Kemp then Brian Trueman
Narrated by	Brian Trueman
Theme music composer	Joe Griffiths; sung by Tony Steven
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	39
Production
Executive producer	John Hambley
Running time	11 minutes
Production company	Cosgrove Hall Productions
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	28 March 1977 (1977-03-28) – January 21, 1980 (1980-01-21)

Jamie and the Magic Torch is a British children's animated television series made by Cosgrove Hall Productions for Thames Television and shown on the ITV network, running from 1977 to 1980.^[1][2]

The series was first written by Jo Kemp then later written and narrated by Brian Trueman, who later wrote shows such as Danger Mouse and Count Duckula for Cosgrove Hall.

Premise

The programme is based around the titular young boy and his torch. When shone on the floor, the torch opens up a hole into a fun fantasy world called Cuckoo Land.^[3]

The beginning of each episode has Jamie's mother tucking him into bed at night and saying, "Sleep well, Jamie." Then from under his bed, his pet Old English Sheepdog, Wordsworth, appears, holding the torch in his mouth. Jamie takes the torch and shines it on the floor, opening up a portal to Cuckoo Land (in which Wordsworth always gets stuck). The portal manifests itself as a helter skelter.

When they reach the end of the slide, they fly out into Cuckoo Land from the bottom of a tree trunk, and land on a trampoline. All of this is accompanied by a song, written by Joe Griffiths. Once in Cuckoo Land, the fun begins.

Characters in Cuckoo Land

• Mr. Boo, who flies around in his 'submachine', obsessed with counting things.
• Officer Gotcha, who rides a unicycle and eats truncheons.
• Strumpers Plunkett, who plays melodies on his trumpet nose.
• Wellibob the cat, who does everything backwards and speaks with a Glaswegian accent.
• Jo-Jo Help the unhelpful handyman.
• Nutmeg the ragdoll, whose magical pocket can produce all kinds of items.
• The Yoo-hoo Bird, who plays tricks on and runs from Officer Gotcha.
• Bullybundy, the show business rabbit with oversized feet.
• Arthur, a robot (series 3 only).

Episodes

VHS releases

The first two series have also been released on DVD, In 2024, all 3 series of the show were finally released on DVD & Blu-Ray. In July 2024, all 3 series were made available via a premium subscription to the ITVX streaming service.

References

External links

• Jamie and the Magic Torch at IMDb