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.
One comment
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.