Thursday, September 04, 2014

Arena documentary on comics (1988)

Just a quick post today as I'm very busy this month. In 1988, the BBC arts programme Arena took a trip to Dundee to film a documentary on The Dandy and The Beano. It interviewed Dandy editor Morris Heggie, Beano editor Euan Kerr, and Beezer editor Alan Digby (later to become a Beano editor). The first editor of The Dandy, Albert Barnes, and The Beano's first editor, George Moonie, also appear in the documentary along with several others including Leo Baxendale.

 Some of you will have seen it before, but it may be new to others. It's on You Tube in three parts. Part 1 is here:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FiMdohGcEs

 Part 2: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=702wXJi9lCQ

 Part 3: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6gbHXH6a_k

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5 comments:

  1. John PittThursday 4 September 2014 at 15:16:00 BST

    Not seen this before, so thanks for the links!

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  2. Bruce LaingThursday 4 September 2014 at 20:13:00 BST

    An excellent YouTube find, and great to put a face to the people I have only read about (George Moonie, Leo Baxendale, Albert Barnes.)

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  3. Lew StringerThursday 4 September 2014 at 20:35:00 BST

    You're welcome John.
    You too Bruce. I take it the Comics Britannia documentary wasn't shown in Australia then? (Leo features in that too.)

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  4. John PittThursday 4 September 2014 at 23:17:00 BST

    I think Comics Britannia is somewhere on YouTube as well, isn't it? I saw it (and loved it) 2 or 3 times. Lew, did you see Jonathan Ross in search of Steve Ditko around the same time?

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  5. Lew StringerFriday 5 September 2014 at 19:05:00 BST

    Yes, at least two of the three Comics Britannia programmes are online John. as for the Steve Ditko one, yes, very enjoyable. I've always been a big fan of Ditko's work. (There are some excellent collections of his 1950s strips in print now.) Too bad he refused to be interviewed on camera though.

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