04 Mar Radio Days – DC Thomson Comics
Sometimes as a radio journalist you are handed a project that is a true labour of love to make.
As a kid I grew up waiting for the latest issue of the Dandy and Beano to thud onto our doormat. I’d howl with delight at the latest escapades of characters like Desperate Dan, The Bash Street Kids and, of course, Dennis the Menace.
As parents, Teresa and I passed on the same cheeky, tongue-poked-out-at-authority love of reading to our son, Nicholas, whose massive collection of Beano annuals still literally bows our bookshelves.
I never thought I’d get to meet the men (and they were mainly men) who made this happen but that was the task handed to me by David Prest, the genius editor of Radio 4’s The Reunion (and MD of the rather wonderful Whistledown Productions), a series that has carried David’ personal stamp since its inception in 2005.
It matched other similar joyous Reunion’s I got to make including Play Sschool and 1966 World Cup to level out altogether more difficult programmes on tragedies such as Dunblane, Hillsborough and Zeebrugge.
The Reunion’s balance of content and audio narrative structure enables key people to tell their story within a wider context and is key to its enduring success.
As ever, all is never what you assume.
Despite its irreverent comics, DC Thomson was anything but a publishing house of fun. The Dundee based publisher had an austere reputation and the pressure to constantly create fresh characters and conjure up witty stories for up to two million avid readers each fortnightat its peak each was challenging.
One of our interviewees, erstwhile editor Maurice Heggie, gave it up for a quieter life in the Highlands for a time and we never quite landed the enfant terrible of comic sketch world – Leo Baxendale (original artist of Dennis the Menace among others) who also preferred a secluded life.
But the joy of this collective story is marvellous with bravo as ever to former Reunion host Sue McGregor for skilfully making everyone feel at ease and for squeezing every last story out of our interviewees.
Oh, and we still have a treasured Beryl the Peril drawing Bill Ritchie drew for Teresa (a massive Beryl fan) and Dennis the Menace for me, not in his infamous red-and-black hooped jumper but a West Brom blue-and-white striped shirt. The caption: ‘I used to be a Wolves fan but I’m awwwright now’.
Radio days indeed.
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