Recently, I’ve been burying myself in Radio Times letters pages of the 1970s. It can be a grim place to be, with its long, outraged analysis of various current affairs programmes. It’s almost as bad as Bluesky.
So thank heavens for the following shaft of light, published in Issue 2575, cover date 17th-23rd March 1973:
What comic does Eric read?
In the Morecambe and Wise Show (BBC1) of 23 February, Eric was reading a comic which stated that it was the Dandy, but the phrasing on the cover was: The Comic with Minnie the Minx.’ Minnie is one of the most popular characters in the Beano.Other Beano characters are Biffo the Bear, Grandpa, Lord Snooty, and Dennis the Menace (not forgetting his dog Gnasher).
Also, in a comic which was so clearly the Beano, what on earth was Desperate Dan of the Dandy doing?
The ultimate in stupidity was reached when Eric mentioned Pansy Potter, who is a regular feature of the Sparky!
Brian Spursell (aged 10)
Manchester
Sure enough, if we check Series 7 Episode 8 of The Morecambe and Wise Show, broadcast on the 23rd February 1973:
That most definitely is an issue of The Beano with a horrible fake Dandy masthead clumsily pasted over the top. This one, in fact: Issue 1578, dated 14th October 1972.
Moreover, it really is supposed to be The Dandy – as Brian Spursell (aged 10) says, Eric specifically mentions Desperate Dan, a Dandy character:
ERNIE: It’s got my beat, I just can’t make it out. I just can’t understand it at all. The market’s down four points.
ERIC: It’s got me beat as well. Desperate Dan’s just eaten four cow pies and he’s still hungry.
Although Eric does then start talking about Lord Snooty later in the sketch, a Beano character. I want my licence fee refunded.
As for why they badly mocked-up a Dandy, rather than simply using a real issue: who knows. I very much doubt it’s product placement worries; we can clearly see Ernie reading the Financial Times, and a Beano is featured in the following sketch anyway. It smacks of an emergency fix by the prop department, but you’d think it’d still be easier just to pop down the shops than to start mocking up mastheads.
Never mind. Maybe we should just ask Eric Morecambe, as the Radio Times did back in 1973:
ERIC MORECAMBE replies:
I have received several letters making the same complaint, and I am delighted, because I was just testing you.
And there’s an Eric Morecambe joke few people have read for over 50 years. You’re welcome.
13 comments
David on 22 January 2025 @ 11pm
As I was reading, I was hoping this was all leading to you tracking down Brian Spursell (aged 10) from Manchester to find out how this effected the rest of his life.
Joe Dredd on 23 January 2025 @ 3am
Being a Fleetway/IPC kid growing up, I do marvel at how often the ‘go to’ comics for these kind of things always seem to be DCT titles, particularly The Beano or The Dandy. I was quite pleased to see Marmalade Atkins reading a 2000AD prog in an episode of “Educating Marmalade”.
Zoomy on 23 January 2025 @ 6am
That’s weird in many ways! Whoever made the fake masthead has gone to the trouble of shaping it around the “The comic with Minnie the Minx” banner, which seems unnecessary, but they’ve still pasted it on not quite right, so you can see the edge of the O in ‘Beano’ sticking out the right hand side. It’s not even remotely like the actual Dandy logo of the time, and why is there a full stop after ‘Dandy’?
Useless trivia – Pansy Potter had been in the Beano originally, but not since 1958. Eric isn’t reading that specific comic, he’s reading an amalgam of the Beano and Dandy from whoever wrote the sketch’s childhood.
Andy Taylor on 23 January 2025 @ 8am
I have a strong suspicion that “Brian Spursell” is in fact Brian Spurrell. I followed him on the old binfire site but he has not noticeably come over to Bsky. He was Popmaster runner-up 2020 by the way. Anyone still over there want to ask him about the RT letter?
Andrew on 23 January 2025 @ 8am
I was also aged 10 in 1973 and I remember watching this and getting annoyed at the same things as Brian Spursell, and then discussing it with my friend Carl who was also annoyed for the same reason. Lord only knows how this slapdash approach affected the youth of the nation.
cwickham on 23 January 2025 @ 9am
> Useless trivia – Pansy Potter had been in the Beano originally, but not since 1958. Eric isn’t reading that specific comic, he’s reading an amalgam of the Beano and Dandy from whoever wrote the sketch’s childhood.
Whilst Pansy Potter was indeed in the Sparky at the time, the Sparky was from its launch until some point in 1973 aimed at a younger audience than other D. C. Thomson comics (it was then revamped to target the same age group), possibly explaining their ignorance. (Pansy also had one last stint in the Beano from around the late 80s to early 90s.)
(I’ve always suspected the preference for the Beano and the Dandy as props in comedy shows is just that they’re the two most recognisable titles, and quite possibly some of them are the result of a runner being dispatched to the nearest newsagent and picking up the first comic they see. Also, they were cheaper than IPC titles – a copy of Buster in the equivalent week would have been 1 1/2p more expensive.)
Zoomy on 23 January 2025 @ 12pm
You know, it probably WAS easier to mock up a fake Dandy than go out and buy a real one. The latter would involve deciding whose job it was to go out in the miserable October weather and find one, and more importantly whose 2p gets spent on the comic! It would have to come out of petty cash and someone would have to justify the extra expenditure, and identify who was to blame for buying a Beano when the script called for a Dandy… :)
Rob on 23 January 2025 @ 5pm
Why is my immediate reaction to that comic front page to wonder why the horn is a different length in every picture?
Rob Keeley on 24 January 2025 @ 1pm
Can’t find any reference to a Brian Spursell anywhere online, except this article. Nor any history for Spursell as a surname, though Spurell, Spurrell and Pursell can all be found. Maybe the kid was using a pen-name, or it’s another mistake?!
James on 24 January 2025 @ 2pm
With SD resolution and the small size of screens in the early 70s, I’m almost suprised that Brian was able to read that Minnie The Minx banner! ;-)
As my boyfriend’s from Dundee, and lives very close to the DC Thompson printing plant, I’m very familar with seeing those massive murals of Dennis, Dan, Bananaman and Oor Wullie they have painted on there!
John J. Hoare on 24 January 2025 @ 2pm
Just to confirm – because I have been guilty of typos in these matters before – the Radio Times letter is definitely printed as from a “Brian Spursell”.
Of course, the Radio Times may well have mistranscribed a letter written in dodgy handwriting from a kid…
Harry Dobermann on 25 January 2025 @ 7am
Andy Taylor – I have contacted the real Brian Spurrell (Popmaster) on Twitter and he has confirmed it is indeed his 10 year old self.
John J. Hoare on 25 January 2025 @ 9pm
And this is why I have a comments section on Dirty Feed in 2025.