When Arabel's father, Ebenezer Jones, drives his taxi home late one night he comes across 'a large black bird, with a hairy fringe around its beak. So, no more Arabel and Mortimer stories were done apart from a special one-off Arabel’s Tree-House, which Joan wrote for Jackanory’s 25th birthday programme in 1991. Malcolm James, the designer of the bird, suggested that perhaps we should mount the entire production using puppets in the likeness of Quentin’s illustrations and that all the sets, furniture and props should be specially built to look as though they were a three-dimensional visualisation of Quentin’s pictures. he cries when astonished or upset, 'Down the hatch' he thinks before gobbling bowler hats, stairs, telephones. Actually, as it was not possible for one creature to contain the mechanisms for all these movements, several versions had to be made to cover the different actions.

The second series' second third was originally shown on Mondays at 4:00 pm and Wednesdays at 3:55 pm from 14 to 30 November 1994.

Another series of children's books about Arabel and her raven Mortimer are illustrated by Quentin Blake, and have been shown on the BBC as Jackanory and drama series. Me gusta cómo pasa a ser tan cotidiano y normal tener a un cuervo que no le gusta volar en casa, quien pasa dejando destrozos pero de las maneras más ingeniosas. Two little girls were duly cast as try-outs for Arabel, a kitchen `set’ was specially built and two days were spent testing the whole operation. Meetings were held between the Director, Roger Singleton-Turner (a long-serving member of the Children’s Department who’d worked on programmes from Jackanory to Grange Hill), me and Lizza over the final points of the script; with the various workers in the Visual Effects Department; with the Costume Designer, and with John Christie, the Lighting Cameraman. ARABEL'S RAVEN; THE ESCAPED BLACK MAMBA; THE BREAD BIN; MORTIMER'S TIE; MORTIMER AND THE SWORD EXCALILBUR and THE SPIRAL STAIR.

Her best-known books are those in the James III saga, of which The Wolves of Willoughby Chase was the first title, published in l962 and awarded the Lewis Carroll prize. Quentin provided us with reference sketches which all the people working on the project had photocopied and pinned up in every available place so they could keep as near as possible to his likenesses.

The shooting of the series took seven weeks: an exhausting business, especially for the puppeteers who had to stand with their arms in the air while doing all manner of manipulations which they couldn’t see except with the use of small monitors, all the while speaking lines, moving the puppets motions and trying not to get any parts of their bodies in shot! After the initial shock, and helped I’m sure by the fact that Lizza had worked in puppet theatre, they gave their blessing.

Angela Beeching is the Executive Producer for Children’s Fiction at the BBC and is the Producer responsible for Mortimer and Arabel. Rediscover the A Puffin Book series and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this highly anticipated edition of More Arabel and Mortimer.Late one night, as Mr Jones drove his taxi home through a storm, he spotted a large black bird with a hairy fringe round its beak sprawled out in the road.