...and he pays tribute to Rik Mayall

Ben Miller has called for children’s stories to become more gruesome.

Speaking at the launch of the new series of adult storytelling show Crackanory, the comic slammed the overprotective trend towards softening up yarns for youngsters.

‘There’s been a big mistake in taking the scariness out of stories for kids,’ he told an audience at Bafta’s London HQ. ‘I remember Jackanory from when I was really little - it was scary.

‘The move to more anodyne storytelling only started in the 1970s and now we’ve got to the stage of ‘Fluffy Bunny has lost a paperclip”.

‘The reason fairy stories used to frighten children is to allow them to deal with their own anxieties. The king and queen were the mother and father; the giant an adult they couldn’t control… Stories are supposed to be scary, I think. At least that’s what I do with my kids.'

Although Crackanory, which returns to Dave at 10pm next Wednesday, is designed for adults, Miller said he would let his two sons – aged eight and three – watch it.

Miller also paid tribute to Rik Mayall, who also reads one of the darkly comic Crackanory stories, one of the last jobs he did before his death in June at the age of 56.

‘It would have been a shame if one of the last things he did was only OK – but this is fantastic,’ he said after Mayall’s episode was screened. ‘He really wasn’t frightened to – as we say in the trade – go big. That’s really gifted, I think.’

And he recalled that on the day of the recording Mayall ‘was firecracker nervous and excited about doing it’.

Miller said he was drawn to the format of short stories because ‘it doesn’t have to have meaning or purpose. It just has to surprise you or scare you or elicit some emotion’.

Also at the event was Vic Reeves, who also reads one of the 15-minute tales. He said: ‘I never used to watch Jackanory because on my way back from school I was generally setting fire to things.’

But he said the recording experience was ‘horrible’ because ‘I never normally use an autocue. This was the first time with one, I didn’t have my specs and had to retrain my eyes.’

Click here for details of all the stories, stars and writers of series 2.And here’s Rik Mayall speaking about his appearance, in one of his last interviews:

Published: 17 Sep 2014