Mr. Men

Roger Hargreaves

The Mr. Men series began as a side project of Roger Hargreaves' while he focused on his advertising career, creating commercials for Askit Powders featuring a series of characters titled The Miseries, which have been seen as precursors to the Mr. Men characters. The first six Mr. Men books were published in the United Kingdom on August 10, 1971. Mr. Tickle was the first Mr. Men character created by Hargreaves, inspired by his son Adam, who had asked him what a tickle looked like. Hargreaves responded with a round, orange figure with long, bendy arms.[4][5][6] The account of the first book's creation is currently being disputed. According to John Malam, who wrote Roger Hargreaves' entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, the inspiration for his initial creations came while doodling at work. Malam told Amelia Tait of the New Statesman in 2021 of the anecdote about his son's query: "It became too good to dispute and no doubt helped in the early marketing campaigns."[1]

Over the course of the 1970s, Roger Hargreaves produced 38 more Mr. Men in addition to Mr. Tickle, as well as producing a number of other Mr. Men books. In the 1980s, Roger Hargreaves began the Little Miss series with Little Miss Bossy, and he produced 21 characters and books. The Little Miss series was created to appeal to his twin daughters.[7] As well as this, two special Mr. Men stories were created in 1984 and 1985 (Mr. Nobody and Mr. Christmas). Both of these books have been re-released in later years. Roger Hargreaves died in 1988.

Adam Hargreaves

In 2003, 15 years after his father's death, Adam Hargreaves took over the Mr. Men, starting with three new Mr. Men characters and three new Little Miss characters; Mr. Cool, Mr. Rude, Mr. Good, Little Miss Scary, Little Miss Bad and Little Miss Whoops.[8] Adam stated he had never drawn any of the characters before his father's death and it took three years for him to learn how to.[9] He also said continuing the series was "strangely cathartic, even though I was sitting at my dad’s desk and in his office, it gave me something to concentrate on".[6] He also created Little Miss Christmas to accompany Mr. Christmas after the book was rereleased with new illustrations. Despite his father's passing, the books written by Adam have "by Roger Hargreaves" on the front covers as he feels Roger's name is "synonymous" and "part of the [Mr. Men] brand".[9]

A competition was held in the British Sunday Times newspaper for children to submit their own Mr. Men character for inclusion in a limited edition celebrating the 30th anniversary of the series. Mr. Cheeky was selected as the winning entry, submitted by then-eight-year-old Gemma Almond. Her creation led to a book featuring her character being published; it was sold only in W H Smith branches, with a portion of the proceeds going to a charity, supporting children with leukemia.

In April 2004, Hargreaves' widow Christine sold the rights to the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters to UK entertainment group Chorion for £28 million. They called their company THOIP.[10][11] In 2006, to celebrate 35 years of Mr. Men and 25 years of Little Miss, Mr. Birthday and Little Miss Birthday were published. In October 2006, Adam Hargreaves created the first Little Miss character based on a real person; Stella McCartney, who he named Little Miss Stella. This was published as a limited edition of 1,000 copies for use as fashion show invitations.[12][13]

In February 2011, 20th Century Fox and 21 Laps Entertainment announced plans for an animated film.[14]

In 2011, Sanrio, the Japanese design company best known as the creators of Hello Kitty, announced that they had reached an agreement to acquire the rights to the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters from Chorion after the company was forced into administration, so they used the THOIP company to take over.[1][15] This marked the first time that Sanrio had licensed a third-party character since owning the rights to Osamu Tezuka's Unico character in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which was returned to Tezuka Productions after Tezuka's death in 1989. Sanrio had also acquired the license to produce Peanuts merchandise for the Japanese market.

In 2016, four new characters were launched to celebrate the series' 45th anniversary: Mr. Marvelous, Mr. Adventure, Little Miss Fabulous, and Little Miss Sparkle. Little Miss Explorer, a special book for Heathrow was also launched. Little Miss Valentine was introduced to the US market in 2019 with Little Miss Inventor being the latest mainline character to receive a book. Adam Hargreaves has also created several commercial characters, such as Mr. Glug for Evian water, Little Miss Miracle beauty cream, Mr. and Little Miss Gap, and Mr. First for money transfer company World First. In 2017, Adam Hargreaves launched a new series of books featuring characters from the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, with each book focusing on a different incarnation of the show's titular character.[4] These were followed by editions based on the Spice Girls in 2019.[16][17]

On 10 August 2021 (the 50th anniversary of the first book), special editions were published and new characters were introduced as part of a public vote to select two who would join the main characters, Mr. Brilliant, Little Miss Kind, Little Miss Brave, Mr. Calm, and Little Miss Energy. The chosen Mr. Men for the competition were Mr. Calm and Little Miss Brave.[18]

On 6 October 2021, it was announced that a brand new Mr. Men Little Miss television series would be produced by Endeavor Content.[19] On 6 November 2024, it was announced that Watch Next Media would take over production of the new television series with the show being developed throughout 2025 and production aiming to start in 2026.[20]

Setting

The stories are set in a fictional universe called "Misterland", which is inhabited by the Mr. Men and Little Misses themselves, as well as some ordinary human characters such as shopkeepers, doctors and postmen. There are also various animals; Walter the Worm is the main animal who appears frequently.[22]

Original TV series (1974–1976)

The Mr. Men characters were adapted into an animated television series called The Mister Men,[23] consisting of 28 episodes in total, with the first series beginning on 31 December 1974.[24] They were produced by Terry Ward's company Flicks Films (formerly known as 101 Film Productions) in partnership with Trevor Bond,[25] and it was broadcast on BBC1. Actor Arthur Lowe provided the narration and voices and used regional accents for some of the characters.[25] The musical theme was composed by Tony Hymas.[26]

Series 1: The Mister Men (1974–1975)

Series 2: Mister Men (1976)

When the second series was broadcast, the series name was shortened from The Mister Men to Mister Men.

Unaired episodes

Two episodes were not aired but were included on all home media releases.

When the series was released on home media, it was released with the name Mr. Men, rather than the original broadcast name of The Mister Men. The entire series was released to VHS and DVD in October 2003 in the UK.

Little Miss (1983–1984)

The thirteen original Little Miss characters were adapted into a BBC TV series starring Pauline Collins as the Little Misses, with John Alderton as the Narrator and the Mister Men. The series was produced and directed by Terry Ward and Trevor Bond, who also produced the 1974 series. Music was written by Dave Cooke,[52] who also wrote the music for The Mister Men rescore. When the new episodes of Little Miss were broadcast on BBC1 beginning on 14 February 1983, they were paired with reruns of The Mister Men series. The paired episodes were billed in Radio Times as a single programme, titled Little Misses and the Mister Men.[53] The theme music and background music of The Mister Men reruns was changed and rewritten to match the style of the Little Miss music. Whilst previously thought lost, in December 2025, Scotchka uploaded 12 of the rescored episodes to Youtube,[54] leaving only one episode lost.[55] Little Misses and the Mister Men aired on BBC1 from its debut until its last BBC1 airing on 15 June 1987. Less than a year later, reruns of Little Misses and the Mister Men were moved to BBC2 beginning on 27 January 1988 until the last airing on 22 December 1988.[56] This was the first Mr. Men based series to air in the United States, getting two VHS releases from Warner Home Video with an American redub in 1986.

Episodes

The entire series was released to VHS and DVD in October 2003 in the UK.

Mr. Men and Little Miss (1995–1997)

Another series, Mr. Men and Little Miss, was produced by Marina Productions in 1995 and originally aired on British and Irish television from 1995 to 1997; these stories had in it Geoffrey Palmer, Gordon Peters as the narrator, and Jill Shilling and were aired on Nick Jr. and Channel 5's Milkshake! in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The show first aired on CITV.

In 1998, 35 of the episodes were made into books, receiving a global release in 2014.

In 1996, the series was localised in the United States and Canada as The Mr. Men Show; this series incorporated live-action segments as well as three episodes from the original series redubbed with Canadian voice actors. This version lasted for only one season.

The series was a co-production between Marina Productions in France and Flicks Films in the UK. Terry Ward was the co-producer and director in London.

The Mr. Men Show (2008–2009)

By the beginning of 2007, Chorion had its series of books licensed to Renegade Animation to produce The Mr. Men Show which debuted on the Cartoon Network in North America and on Channel 5's Milkshake! in the UK in February 2008. There were only 25 characters featured in the first season, although most had their names or appearances altered; the second season had 31 characters.[69][70] The series was written and produced by Eryk Casemiro and Kate Boutilier and directed by Mark Risley. The creative team was a combined effort of personnel from Nickelodeon's Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys, and As Told by Ginger.[11] All of the opening and closing parts are narrated by Joey D'Auria (credited as Joseph J. Terry) in the US and Simon Callow in the UK.

Untitled series (TBA)

On 6 October 2021, Endeavor Content announced a new Mr. Men and Little Miss series.[19] On 6 November 2024, it was announced the series was now being produced by Watch Next Media.[71]

UK video and DVD releases

• Warner Home Video (1981)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (1988, 1995–1997)
• Abbey Home Media (1991–1994, 1998–2001, 2006, 2016–2020)
• Delta Music (2002–2015)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2008–2009)