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{{Infobox Television
| image                = 
| caption              = 
| genre                = [[Children's television series|Children's television]]
| creator              = Joy Whitby
| country              = United Kingdom
| language             = English
| num_episodes         = 3,500+
| runtime              = 15 [[minute]]s
| channel              = [[BBC One|BBC1]] (1965–1996)<br />[[CBBC Channel|CBBC]] (2006)
| first_aired          = {{start-date|13 December 1965}}
| last_aired           = {{end date|1996|03|24|df=yes}}
| related              = Jackanory Playhouse<br />Jackanory Junior
}}
'''''Jackanory''''' is a long-running [[BBC]] children's television series. It was made to interest children in reading. The show began on 13 December 1965. The first story was the fairy-tale ''[[Cap-o'-Rushes]]'' read by [[Lee Montague]]. ''Jackanory'' continued to be broadcast until 1996. They made around 3,500 episodes in its 30-year run. The final story, ''[[The House at Pooh Corner]]'' by [[A. A. Milne]], was read by [[Alan Bennett]]. It was broadcast on 24 March 1996. The show returned on 27 November 2006 for two stories.

The show's format had an actor read from children's novels or [[folk tale]]s, usually while seated in an armchair. From time to time the scene being read would be [[illustrate]]d by a specially made still drawing.  They were often done by [[Quentin Blake]]. Usually a single book would take five daily fifteen-minute episodes, from Monday to Friday.

A few ''Jackanory'' stories took the form of a play rather than stories being read.  These were made in a series of fully cast and dressed for [[costume drama]]s. These were named ''Jackanory Playhouse'' and were thirty minutes in length. These included a dramatisation by [[Philip Glassborow]] of the comical [[A. A. Milne]] story "The Princess Who Couldn't Laugh."

==Title==
The show's title comes from an old English [[nursery rhyme]]:

:I'll tell you a story
:About Jack a Nory;
:And now my story's begun;
:I'll tell you another
:Of Jack and his [[brother]],
:And now my story is done.<ref name=Opie1997>I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 233.</ref>

==List of readers==
{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
*[[Tom Baker]]
*[[Floella Benjamin]]
*[[Alan Bennett]]
*[[James Bolam]]
*[[Helena Bonham Carter]] (5 programmes reading the ''Way to Sattin Shore'' stories)
*[[Kathy Burke]]
*[[Earl Cameron (actor)|Earl Cameron]] (5 programmes reading the ''[[Brer Rabbit]]'' stories)
*[[Brian Cant]]
*[[Bernard Cribbins]] (114 programmes)
*[[Peter Davison]]
*[[Judi Dench]]
*[[Denholm Elliott]]
*[[Clement Freud]]
*[[Ann George]]
*[[John Grant (children's author)|John Grant]] (55 programmes reading his ''Little Nose'' stories)
*[[Joyce Grenfell]]
*[[Sheila Hancock]]
*[[Susanne Hart]]
*[[Wendy Hiller]]
*[[Michael Hordern]]
*[[Jeremy Irons]]
*[[Martin Jarvis (actor)|Martin Jarvis]]
*[[Stratford Johns]]
*[[James Robertson Justice]]
*[[Arthur Lowe]]
*[[Joanna Lumley]]
*[[Alfred Marks]]
*[[Trevor Martin]]
*[[Rik Mayall]]
*[[Sylvester McCoy]]
*[[Geraldine McEwan]]
*[[Paul McGann]]
*[[Ian McKellen]]
*[[George Melly]]
*[[Paul Merton]]
*[[Spike Milligan]]
*[[Hayley Mills]]
*[[Lee Montague]]
*[[Patrick Moore]]
*[[Jon Pertwee]]
*[[Ted Ray (comedian)|Ted Ray]]
*[[Miranda Richardson]]
*[[Bob Roberts (folksinger)|Bob Roberts]]
*[[Tony Robinson]]
*[[Gordon Rollings]]
*[[Patsy Rowlands]]
*[[Willie Rushton]]
*[[Margaret Rutherford]]
*[[Prunella Scales]]
*[[Peter Sellers]]
*[[Elaine Smith (actress)|Elaine Smith]]
*[[Maggie Smith]]
*[[Patrick Stewart]]
*[[Elaine Stritch]]
*[[Mollie Sugden]]
*[[H. E. Todd]]
*[[Patrick Troughton]]
*[[Ann Way]]
*[[Mary Webster (actress)|Mary Webster]]
*[[Billie Whitelaw]]
*[[Kenneth Williams]] (69 programmes)
*[[Victoria Wood]] (reading the ''Ten in a Bed'' story)
*[[Wendy Wood]] (''Auntie Gwen'') and even
*[[Charles, Prince of Wales|Prince Charles]] (reading his own book; ''[[The Old Man of Lochnagar]]'').
*[[Ben Kingsley]] (''The Magician of Samarkand'')
*[[John Sessions]] (''Muddle Earth'')
*[[Matthew Corbett]]
*[[Rupert Everett]]
*[[John Hurt]]
*[[Alan Rickman]]
{{col-end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Other websites==
*{{imdb title|0177448}}

[[Category:1965 television series debuts]]
[[Category:1996 disestablishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1960s British television series]]
[[Category:1970s British television series]]
[[Category:1980s British television series]]
[[Category:1990s British television series]]
[[Category:British children's television series]]
[[Category:1965 establishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1996 television series endings]]
[[Category:English-language television programs]]