The covid also took away Guido Stagnaro, Milanese by adoption, born in Sestri Levante on January 20, 1925, who died on February 18 at the age of 96.
Stagnaro was the literary father of Topo Gigio, as well as one of the pioneers of TV in Italy, first in Rai and then in private networks.
A four-decade-long career that has seen him director, actor, theater and television author and above all a fruitful writer and screenwriter of over three hundred children's fairy tales, winning the National Television Direction Award several times.
In 2009 he was the exceptional testimonial of the HC Andersen Award in Sestri Levante.
From children's TV to the direction of musical shows, comedies, sitcoms and films for the small screen, Stagnaro has been a witness and protagonist of the history of Italian television and its changes.
"His was a life full of encounters, an exciting ride in the history of Italian entertainment, between reality and fantasy, lights and characters, which Guido Stagnaro told me in 2014 in the book" L'artigiano della tivù "(Mursia) ", says the author Maria Teresa Melodia in giving the news of the disappearance.
In the preface the critic Aldo Grasso wrote: "Di Stagnaro was said to be a great Ligurian gentleman, lord of his own, but even more so for the great refusal regarding his most famous creature, Topo Gigio himself. Stagnaro left to Federico Caldura ( builder of puppets) and to Maria Perego (animator of those same puppets) the legacy of Gigio, giving up the rights that would have been due to him, in order to dedicate himself to more demanding projects ".
In 1974 he was the director of the first Rai color program 'Nel Mondo di Alice', with Milena Vukotic and many famous cameos including Franca Valeri.
On the forerunner of commercial TV, Antenna3, directs programs with Enzo Tortora, the Quartetto Cetra, Ric & Gian and Donatella Rettore for which he creates the first video clips.
At the beginning of the '80s he meets Silvio Berlusconi who takes him to Fininvest, where he collaborates with Carlo Freccero on Edwige Fenech's TV debut and is the director of the first made in Italy sitcom,' I cinque del quinto piano '.
He is also the director of the 'Test' quiz with Emilio Fede.