BBC Documentaries

Just Dandy (2012x269)

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Ford Kiernan celebrates the anarchic humour of The Dandy that has kept kids of all ages giggling for three quarters of a century. This classic Scottish comic has just ceased publication - but Ford discovers that there is still life left in Desperate Dan and Korky the Cat. Ford meets Dandy artists and writers, past and present, and an entire gang of fans including comedians Frank Skinner and Sanjeev Kohli, actors Brian Cox and Bill Paterson, writer Alan Bissett, veteran musicians Jimmie Macgregor and Tom Alexander, indie rocker Kyle Falconer from The View, and four-times Oscar-winning animator Nick Park. The Dandy was launched in December 1937, and - priced at just two old pence, less than a modern penny - quickly became a hit with children in an era of recession and hardship. Despite shortages of manpower and paper, The Dandy continued to publish during World War II to help keep children's morale up, and its writers and artists mercilessly lampooned Hitler and his Nazi regime.