Angus Allan (of Look-In magazine) speaks!

During the 1980s, British Dangermouse fans who were not content with his TV outings alone could find brand-new, full colour comic adventures every week in Look-In magazine. Amazingly, one person was responsible for every Look-In adventure DM ever crashed, karate-chopped and punned his way through. What is the story of this man they call Angus Allan (of Look-In magazine), and what is his mission? C.H.A.M.B has the answers...

Man, Mouse and Manchester

Angus recalls how his connection with the White Wonder began...

"I can remember the day Colin Shelbourn, the editor of Look-In, told me that he'd bought the rights to something called Dangermouse. He said he'd arranged a private showing of the pilot episode for me, and we took Arthur Ranson [artist of the Dangermouse strip - see Comics page] with us to some place up Tottenham Court Road. To say that I was immediately hooked would be putting it mildly. The episode was the one featuring the Loch Ness Monster. I told Colin I thought the series would be a winner. (Not that my predictions are anything to go by. I heard the first Elvis Presley record over British Forces' Radio in Cyprus during the summer of l955, and remarked to the rest of the guys - "HE won't last!")

Anyway, I went home and produced a script and a synopsis or two and brought them in to Colin the next day. He sent them to Brian Cosgrove, who okayed the lot. I only got one thing wrong - I had Stiletto call his boss 'Padrone' instead of Barone. Easily put right. Arthur went ahead and drew the first story, which Brian also okayed right away.

And so it went on. Brian Cosgrove was very complimentary indeed, and Arthur and I went up to see him at Chorlton, where we met (I forget his name) the series Art Director, an incredibly gloomy bloke with a beard. Arthur and I were both given superbly modelled statuettes of DM and Penfold - 'Good Grief/Oh Crikey Awards For Services To Dangermouse'. I liked Brian very much. He was a really nice bloke, and we seemed to get on very well.

Later, when Brian Cosgrove came down to London, he asked me along to meet David Jason. I was probably the only person in the country never to have seen either Open All Hours or, at that time, Only Fools And Horses. I had no idea that David Jason was anything else than the voice behind DM. He was a charming man, but I'll bet he thought I was a right berk.

Dangermouse ran for a long time in Look-In. He also appeared in many of the magazine's Holiday Specials and annuals, and eventually had annuals all to himself, as I'm sure you know. I did everything concerning DM, other than the illustrations... although I did do a large drawing of DM, Penfold and The Colonel in full colour (under Arthur's beady eye) for one of my younger relatives who happened to be a fan.

The biggest kick came when Brian Cosgrove asked Colin if he could use some of the Look-In storylines I'd written for adaptation on screen. It was because his own writer was busy doing the groundwork for Alias The Jester. I was very flattered, because it isn't often that that sort of thing happens. Then I did a couple of full length scripts for the screen on my own, which were very well received."

Cosgrove Hall and Look-In, PD (Post Dangermouse)

"I frankly didn't care so much for Alias The Jester, but then nothing could follow DM. The Wind In The Willows series was technically fantastic. Then came Duckula, which, despite technically superb creation, didn't really gel with me. Also, Look-In was on its way down the pan by this time. Colin's unfortunate insistance on absolutely zero violence (I did the A-Team for ages without being allowed to show a single weapon) didn't wash with the readership. We all know how kids love shoot-em-ups and all the rest. Sales fell disastrously. Arguing with Colin was no good. It was only by a superhuman effort that I managed to get him to see that running Robin Of Sherwood without bows and arrows would be laughable. He was such a nice bloke, and a great art editor. But an editor..?"

So, in conclusion...

"Although it's been a long time since I've written anything - the last was Garth for the Daily Mirror - I have always regarded my life in comic-strips as a million times better than being a King, a Prime Minister, or a Merchant Banker. And what's more it was an honest way to make a damn good living! Cheers - I lift my glass to you!"

Cheers to you too, Angus! And if you'd like to find out more about what Angus got up to after Dangermouse, you can find a couple more interviews with him on the Supermarionation Is Go Web site.

Look back in Angus - a brief bio

- After attending school and college in London, Angus's first job in publishing, in late 1952, was as an office junior at Amalgamated Press (later Fleetway, then IPC; currently Egmont Fleetway. Sort of.) He worked on the weekly comic "Comet", and the monthly titles "Cowboy Comics" and "Super Detective Library", edited by Ted Holmes.

- Following a period of national service in the 1950s, Angus returned to Amalgamated Press and became co-editor of what was now known as "Cowboy Picture Library", with Alan L. Fennell. He handled the "Davy Crockett" and "Kansas Kid" monthly titles.

- Eventually, he was headhunted to join the team producing "Marty", the first photo-strip teenage romance weekly published by Newnes and Pearson. Here he met his future wife, Gillian, and made the decision to become a freelance writer instead of editing. He has remained a freelance ever since.

- Later, he was heavily involved with Alan Fennell's Century 21 Publishing company, becoming associated with Gerry Anderson classics such as Stingray, Thunderbirds etc. He was also the mainstay scriptwriter for Alan's Look-In magazine, and at one time was writing every strip in the paper (including Dangermouse, of course!).

- Angus also wrote for many other outlets, and penned several of the "Garth" adventures for the Daily Mirror. In January 1990, he and his wife moved to France, where they have lived ever since. Although Angus no longer writes, he "keeps busy controlling three and a half acres of garden and woodland, and plays the clarinet and sings in a New Orleans jazz band for relaxation".

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