BBC Four: Comics Britannia

Classic comics such as The Beano, The Dandy and Viz are to be celebrated in a three-part series on BBC Four. The programme is part of a larger comics season, where Jonathan Ross tracks down one of the elusive creators of Spider-Man. In Comics Britannia, technology that "allows the audience literally to step inside the comics" will be used on Dennis the Menace, the Bash Street Kids and Roy of the Rovers.

The documentary is due to be screened in September.

Thanks for the info, Richard.

The two I remember vividly are Whizzer and Chips and 2000AD.
I collected 2000AD from the first issue for around about 5 years. The first issue had stickers on the front that you put on your arms to make you look like The Bionic Man (You know, a cutaway of "the bionics")... ha ha ha! Still got it somewhere. Sans stickers, unfortunately.

'Comics Brittania' will also be featuring the classic 'Eagle' boys comic from the fifties, probably best known for giving us the 'Dan Dare' strip drawn by Frank Hampson.

'Comics Brittania' will also be featuring the classic 'Eagle' boys comic from the fifties, probably best known for giving us the 'Dan Dare' strip drawn by Frank Hampson.

And, of course, serializing Tintin!

The series starts this coming Monday 10th September. BBC4 will also be showing a series of comics related programs from the archives to run alongside the series. Not exclusively Brit-related material either -so who knows, there may be something Tintin/Hergé related.

Ranko
Whizzer and Chips

Okay, cards on the table - Whizz-kid or Chip-ite?

Anybody been watching these? The first two parts of Comics Britannia were very interesting. The first focussed on the "fun factory"; Beano, Dandy, etc. and profiles on spme of the artists like Dudley D. Watkins and Leo Baxendale. The second programme compared "boys and girls" comics, like Eagle and it's spin-off for girls Girl and war comics like valiant and Commando with Bunty and Jackie. I'm looking forward to part 3!

I particularly enjoyed the documentary shown last Sunday (16th September) 9pm-10pm, In Search of Steve Ditko in which Jonathan Ross went in search of his hero, better known as the co-creator of Spider-Man. Steve Ditko and Stan ("the man") Lee had worked together at Marvel for five years before Ditko suddenly quit the company.

The last repeat of this was late last night so if anybody missed it, and wanted to watch it, they may have to wait for a BBC2 repeat later in the year. It comes highly recommended!

Anybody been watching these?

I've enjoyed them a lot. Given that they're aimed at a mass audience (albeit one on BBC4) I think they've done excellently.

There'll always be quibbles about some of the details that are presented, but overall I think they've hit precisely the right note. They've been informative and enthusiastic without being fannish.

George

Personally I could have done without the cartoon effects on the Beano one, and the choice of non-comics people giving their memories was superfluous, but good to see not only the Great Dudley D. getting a profile, but also the Incredible Mr. Baxendale! Hands up who else was surprised he was still a) alive and b) so youthful!

I've thoroughly enjoyed both episodes, although the third one looks slightly less appealing. I've always been a tad cynical about the attitude that comics have only become "adult" in recent years; as we all know, BD comics have always appealed to both adults and children!

It was a pity that there was no mention of Tintin in the segment on Eagle, but then again it wasn't one of the most well-known characters featured in the comic, and it wasn't in the comic for a particularly long stretch of time, either.