Apology for children's TV failure

A writer who lost more than £500,000 of investors' money in a failed children's TV show has apologised to her backers.

Alison Mackenzie, from Chatham, Kent, enlisted an army of people to help fund an animated pilot show for her series of stories called Bagees.

The adventures featured dozens of talking bags and were originally written for her children in the 1980s.

But her investors were left angered when she stopped responding to letters and phone calls when the money ran out.

More than 500 investors, recruited through a network of family and friends, contributed more than £500,000 towards the fund to create the programme.

"She just disappeared, you know. There were updates on websites, suddenly the website disappeared"
Dani Bradford, investor

Much of the money was spent on producing a pilot episode and Cosgrove Hall, the animation firm behind Postman Pat, agreed to work on the project if certain conditions were met, but the idea failed to attract any support or a broadcast contract.

However the most recent accounts state that value of the shareholders' funds was more than £300,000 and her website suggested the Bagees were expected to succeed.

Dani Bradford, a friend of Ms Mackenzie who designed the original characters, said: "She just disappeared, you know. There were updates on websites, suddenly the website disappeared.

"It's hurtful more than anything, you've put so much into it and so many people believed and put so much into it."

'Lovely idea'

Bernice Welland, of Biggin Hill, invested more than £400, and then persuaded another 20 other people to contribute a total of £13,000.

She said: "I got a couple of phone calls from Alison and she asked me would I have any friends or family who would like to invest and become shareholders and they did, because they all thought the same as me.

"They were good stories, they were good drawings and it was a lovely idea for children, it really was a lovely idea."

In an interview with BBC South East Today, Ms Mackenzie said she was sorry she had not told investors Bagees had failed, and admitted the company was insolvent.

Ms Mackenzie, who also invested thousands of pounds of her own money, said: "I have done the very best that I could have done, and it could have been different."

She added: "I can only apologise to them, and for all their support that they have given me.

"In hindsight, and having a bit more strength, you could have said right, I'll do this and this and carry on but I think I was just exhausted with all that had been done.

"But that's still no excuse and I accept full responsibility for that."

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