Fancy that!
1 The character of Mr Benn
was created by illustrator David Mckee. He also made Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, Not Now, Bernard and King Rollo and has worked on some of the recent Paddington Bear books.
Mr Benn was partially
2
inspired by Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin, who had the same dark suit and bowler hat outfits as the character.
The cartoon was based on
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Mckee’s four original books. Another book, never completed, was Superbenn, in which the superhero Mr Benn sets out on an environmental adventure.
The only published book
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not to have a corresponding TV episode was 123456789 Benn, which saw our hero as a prisoner inspiring his fellow inmates to brighten up their cells. The
BBC felt the story was too grown up for a children’s series.
Mckee has
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had to deny that Mr Benn’s adventures, sparked by him putting on costumes such as a cowboy and a
knight, were actually drug trips following conspiracy theories.
6 The fancy dress shop was based on a real antiques shop in Plymouth, while the shopkeeper’s Fez was based on a hat Mckee was gifted from a friend.
Only 13 episodes of
7 the show were made but they were repeated twice a year for the next 21 years – and then several times afterwards. Mr Benn
8 lived at 52 Festive Road in London, which Mckee based on his own address – 54 Festing Road in Putney, south-west London. He said: “I changed it. Festing doesn’t sound too good.” 9 Actor Ray Brooks
narrated the series. Now 81, he starred in Eastenders between 2005 and 2007 and played Joe Macer, the husband of Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard) who caused her fatal brain haemorrhage when he whacked her round the head with a frying pan.
10 Sadly Mr Benn did not
make Mckee a millionaire. He said: “I signed a contract where I only got a one-off payment and no repeat fees.” Very little of his original artwork for the television series exists today, as most of it was thrown into a rubbish skip in the 1970s.
11 In 1999 there
were reports Mr Benn was being made into a film with The Mummy star John Hannah as the bowler-hatted adventurer and Sexy Beast’s Ben Kingsley as the shopkeeper. It was scrapped in 2001but Mckee has remained hopeful his character can make it to the silver screen one day.
12 The series was voted the
sixth most popular children’s TV programme in a 2001 Channel 4 poll. It was also rated number 13 in Channel 5’s 50 Greatest Kids TV Shows in 2013.