Reborn Cosgrove Hall returns to Manchester
THE resurrected Cosgrove Hall animation business has taken office space in Didsbury and is recruiting more than 40 creative staff.
Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick will be based from 5,000 sq ft at Quorum Estates’ The Towers, the converted mansion at The Towers Business Park in Didsbury.
Its team will be working on a new cartoon commissioned by Channel 5 called Pip! but managing director Simon Hall expects to take on a further 100 over the next 18 months as the business starts work on two more cartoons, HeroGliffix and Powwow Pando, for ITV.
“Our traditional heart is in Manchester and the creative talent is still here and there’s new talent because of MediaCity” said Mr Hall.
The original Cosgrove Hall, founded by Brian Cosgrove and Simon’s father Mark, produced shows such as Wind in the Willows, Danger Mouse and Count Duckula from studios in Chorlton.
They left in 2004 and it was shut down by its owner ITV in 2009, but two years later Irish entrepreneur Francis Fitzpatrick teamed up with Cosgrove and Hall to launch the new business.
Mark Hall died in December 2011 but Simon is now running the venture with chief executive Adrian Wilkins and Mr Cosgrove is the creative director. Sir David Jason, who voiced characters such as Danger Mouse, is also involved. He lends his voice to several new characters and sits on the board.
“We’ll be putting £10m into the economy just from the production, let alone licensing,” said Mr Hall who has a joint venture with Macclesfield-based toy developer Carterbench.
He added: “Tax reliefs are 20% of the budget and that means we can make shows in the UK. Without that support we would have gone to Ireland, India or Canada and that would have been sad considering we’ve got such great talent.”
