The TV genius behind iconic kids’ series Danger Mouse and Count Duckula left £66,000 in his estate, documents show.
Brian Trueman, who died last September aged 92, wrote the long-running ITV hit about the rodent MI5 spy in 1981.
Beloved kids’ cartoons writer Brian Trueman left £66,000 in his estate
Trueman while doing a voice-over for Count Duckula
He was the writer of some of Britain’s most beloved children’s cartoons, including Danger Mouse, left, and Count Duckula, rightCredit: BBC
High Court records released last week show he gave his assets to his wife Angela and their two sons, Jonathan and Ben.
He left £66,392 after nearly £6,000 in taxes, costs and debts were deducted.
The writer was best known for being the brain behind Danger Mouse, a parody of British spy fiction including James Bond.
The name was nicked from ITV’s spy thriller Danger Man, broadcast 15 years earlier in the mid-60s.
Trueman was hired by creators Mark Hall and Brian Cosgrove to be the brains of the Secret Service mouse series, which starred Sir David Jason.
He was tasked with aiming it at younger audiences than typical daytime telly.
The ex-TV presenter had turned his hand to screenwriting after a career fronting documentaries and interview shows, which included a chat with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
Both Hall and Cosgrove had initially meant Danger Mouse, who was accompanied by hapless sidekick Penfold, to be a far more serious character.
But they reversed course after execs pointed out that the premise of a rodent spy was already bizarre.
Trueman went on to pen almost all of the show’s scripts for its original 11-year run, which saw it aired around the world and hit peak viewing figures of 7.2million.
He also voiced some of its lesser-spotted characters, including villainous crow Stiletto, and the legendary Count Duckula.
What is Danger Mouse?
By Georgie English
KNOWN as “the world’s greatest secret agent” Danger Mouse was a beloved TV character in the 1980s and 90s.
Danger Mouse, voiced by David Jason, ran on ITV from 1981 until 1992 before it got a reboot in 2015 until 2019.
The original was created by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall and produced by British studio Cosgrove Hall.
The small white mouse sported an iconic eyepatch and red belt when he first took to TV screens.
His favourite catchphrases are “Good grief!”, “Penfold, shush!” and “Blast!”
He was joined by his sidekick Ernest Penfold on most of their adventures fighting crime.
The main villain for the show was the toad Baron Silas Greenback.
The original show’s run lasted for 10 seasons and was made up of 89 episodes.
In this time it was nominated for several BAFTA’s.
Brian Trueman was the main writer for the show and he also helped to create Count Duckula – a spin-off character from Danger Mouse.
The mouse was even voted as the seventh most heroic TV character of all time in a survey of 2,000 UK telly fans in 2017.
Trueman later said: “It was the best fun you could have had, but not only that, you got paid for it.
“You wait for the characters to talk to you as you act them and then you write down what they say.”
Danger Mouse became one of the first British kids’ TV shows to make the successful jump across the pond.
Count Duckula also became a spin-off success with 28 episodes of its own, despite Trueman doing almost all the voices.
Trueman returned to the show to help put together four new episodes when it relaunched on CITV with Alexander Armstrong and Stephen Fry in 2015.
His son Jonathan later collaborated with his father on later projects and still works as a copywriter.
He died after a short illness in hospital in Manchester last year, with son Ben writing he was “clever, funny, resilient, a gentleman, loving and loved.”
Danger Mouse and Ernest Penfold were both some of Trueman’s greatest charactersCredit: Rex Features 
