Meg and Mog

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Meg and Mog is a series of children's books written by Helen Nicoll and illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski. First published in the 1970s, the books are about Meg, a witch whose spells always seem to go wrong, her striped cat Mog, and their friend Owl.{{ cite web |url=http://www.janpienkowski.com/books/meg-and-mog/index.htm |title=The MEG & MOG Stories |website=www.janpienkowski.com |access-date=2 July 2024}} The first book was published in January 1972. Following the death of Helen Nicholl in 2012, the series was continued by Pieńkowski and David Walser.

TV series and adaptations

The first Meg and Mog animation appeared on the Halloween episode of the BBC children's educational series Words and Pictures in 1977.{{ cite web |url=https://www.broadcastforschools.co.uk/site/Words_and_Pictures/Series_4_(Henry_Woolf)|title=Words and Pictures: Series 4 (Henry Woolf)}}

In 2001, an animated TV series of 52 five-minute episodes was planned to be produced as a co-production between Telemagination, TV-Loonland AG and Absolutely Productions for a 2002–2003 delivery, with Loonland holding non-UK rights to the series.{{Cite web|url=https://www.c21media.net/news/tv-loonland-and-absolutely-ally-for-new-itv-toon/feed/|title=TV-Loonland and Absolutely ally for new ITV toon}}

For unknown reasons, this plan never came through, and Absolutely instead teamed with Happy Life and Varcara to produce the series instead for a late-2003 delivery, with CITV purchasing UK broadcast rights{{Cite web|url=https://www.c21media.net/news/meg-mog-to-fly-again-on-itv/|title = Meg & Mog to fly again on ITV}} and Target Entertainment securing worldwide distribution.{{cite web | url=https://www.awn.com/news/target-launches-kids-animation-division | title=Target Launches Kids & Animation Division }} The series was first broadcast in the UK within that time.{{cite book |last1=Crump |first1=William D. |title=Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film |date=2019 |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=9781476672939 |page=187}}

It was produced by Carl Gorham and directed by Roger Mainwood, featuring the voices of Alan Bennett as Owl, Fay Ripley as Meg and Phil Cornwell as Mog with additional voices by Morwenna Banks and Paul Shearer.

A successful stage play also ran in London in the 1980s, starring Maureen Lipman as Meg.{{cite web |url=https://www.davidwood.org.uk/plays/plays_the_meg_and_mog_show.htm |title=Meg and Mog Show homepage |website=www.davidwood.org.uk |access-date=2 July 2024}}