In idle moments, I rarely think what I would play on Desert Island Discs. Instead, I tend to focus on which subject I would pick if I were ever invited to do quasi-Celebrity Mastermind. Too broad a subject (the partition of India) and you come unstuck. Too narrow (Sam Raimi's Spiderman films) and you look lazy. I briefly consider first-century Roman emperors, or the plays of Euripides, but obviously I am kidding myself. If I could pick anything at all to display my expertise, it would be Danger Mouse.

I love Danger Mouse. Love it, I tell you. I have a cell from the original cartoon on my wall (Once Upon A Timeslip, since you asked). I know Penfold's first name (Ernest). I know the name of the villain who isn't Baron Greenback (Augustus P Crumhorn), and I know which song he is compelled to sing in Crumhorn Strikes Back! (On the Good Ship Lollipop). I even know the name of the crow who occasionally stands behind Stiletto (Leatherhead), and the hometown of Penfold's aunt (Abergavenny, though we only meet her in New York). When I consider the amount of time I must have spent memorising all this, I find it hard to believe that I have ever left the house at all.

Danger Mouse is, easily, one of the smartest, funniest, silliest shows ever to appear on TV. The puns alone could make a grown man weep (particularly an owl chemist named Dudley Poyson), and the relationship between the White Wonder and his cowardly hamster assistant, Penfold, never gets old. "Crumbs!" squeaks Penfold (voiced by the peerless Terry Scott), when they get in a scrape. "Carrots!"

It's postmodern – the hero and the narrator are both voiced by the same man (David Jason, who is never better than in this). At times, our characters can hear the voiceover, and even argue with it. And in Once Upon a Timeslip … for example, the narrator inadvertently affects the story: he announces that it's 1215, his microphone goes funny, and suddenly they're in the year 1215, rather than considering an early lunch. They find themselves stuck in a version of Robin Hood. And while you may be too mature to laugh at him describing our heroes as "coiled like a panther", just as the camera cuts to them both snoring on the sofa, I am not.

Danger Mouse and Penfold live in a pillar box on Baker Street, suggesting that they owe a little to Sherlock Holmes as well as to Danger Man, and of course James Bond, whom they cheerily parody. DM's boss is Colonel K, whose locker must surely be right next to M's at spy headquarters. Although whether his secretary, Miss Boathook, would have any time for Miss Moneypenny is a question I don't feel equipped to answer.

And in terms of villainy, DM has his own Blofeld to face, in the form of Baron Silas Greenback, a toad of unspeakable villainy. Greenback is committed to endless nefarious plans to take over the world, with the support of his crow henchman, Stiletto (whose catchphrase, "Si, Barone," still makes me smirk every time I walk past a branch of the fancy men's clothes shop, Baroni. I literally cannot read that word without hearing the voice of Brian Trueman. I consider this a good thing).

Of course, a supervillain wouldn't be a villain without his fluffy white cat, morphed in the DM universe into Nero, a fluffy white caterpillar, who speaks only in spiteful gurgles and sniggers. Luckily, DM has the support of the often hapless Colonel K, Buggles the pigeon, and the master of disguise, Agent 57, in the ongoing battle against Greenback's schemes to steal the world's bagpipes, turn wild elephants into sugar cubes, or create an unusual hazard to shipping in the form of the ghost buses.

The episode titles are often lovely, punning treats: The Spy Who Stayed in with a Cold, The Great Bone Idol, The Clock Strikes Back. Though, in fairness, the pun-free Aaagghg!! Spiders! is also a corker: Penfold's reaction to a spider is a match for my own (he runs up the wall in fear). And, like many great series, Danger Mouse spawned another: the vegetarian vampire duck whom we first meet in The Four Tasks of Danger Mouse turned out to be worth a series of his own (Count Duckula was also voiced by David Jason).

Iconic? Yes. Danger Mouse has done the hardest thing you can ask of a comedy: stand the test of time. It's as funny now as it was in the early 80s, which is very funny indeed. And, you know, the plots are pretty clever, too.

Duffers? Don't toy with me. No, no, no. Yes, I suppose you could insist it was a spy pastiche rather than a detective show, but first, DM is referred to as The World's Greatest Detective, which means he qualifies for this blog.