Dennis the Menace
Dennis the Menace was a resident of Beanotown who was featured in The Beano, alongside his dog, Gnasher.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Red Nose Day 1991[[edit] | [edit source]]
Dennis the Menace was among the stars of The Dandy and The Beano to participate in Red Nose Day 1991. Along with Gnasher, Desperate Dan, and the Bash Street Kids, he raised money for Comic Relief on this day, being introduced shortly before the Viz team. First, he used a 10 pea-shooter salvo to shoot tomatoes ("Red Noses") onto his fellow stars' noses. Next, he was the one to suggest a "sponsored bed push", where they pushed Teacher's bed out of his home for charity, causing Teacher to donate his savings. He then watched as Desperate Dan cleaned celebrities' cars for charity, before Dan dropped the money they'd raised off to Lenny Henry, who crashed through the ground due to its weight. Dennis looked down the hole as Lenny snarled. (COMIC: The Totally Stonking, Surprisingly Educational And Utterly Mindboggling Comic Relief Comic [+]Loading...["The Totally Stonking, Surprisingly Educational And Utterly Mindboggling Comic Relief Comic (comic story)"])
Legacy[[edit] | [edit source]]
He appeared on the cover of the magazine's 1981 Summer Special in Dolphinarium, and appeared on the back with Gnasher, among other characters. (TV: The Rings of Akhaten [+]Loading...["The Rings of Akhaten (TV story)"], The Universe is Calling [+]Loading...["The Universe is Calling (TV story)"])
Joe Sterling once wore a Dennis jumper. (PROSE: Almost Perfect [+]Loading...["Almost Perfect (novel)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
Dennis the Menace is the titular character of The Beano comic strip Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, which later gained various TV adaptations, including the BBC's Dennis and Gnasher.
Dennis appeared on the cover of the Beano's 2013 reprinting of their 1981 Summer Special (the very magazine that appeared in The Rings of Akhaten) where he is depicted catapulting a yellow Eternal Dalek over a fence towards an unsuspecting Sergeant Slipper using a plank and wooden crate (Dennis declaring "I'm the biggest menace in the Universe!", while his dog Gnasher sniggers "Gnexterminate!"). Dennis also introduced the issue.
On screen, Dennis was voiced by Susan Sheridan in The Beano Video, Richard Pearce in the 1996 Dennis and Gnasher TV series, and by Sophie Aldred and Chris Johnson in the first and second series, respectively, of the similarly named 2009 series.
The cover of The Beano #3869 depicted Dennis facing off against Dalek-like postboxes shouting "INCARCERATE!". This references the interior Bananaman comic, which was a crossover between the various strips printed in The Beano at the time, such as Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, The Bash Street Kids, Calamity James, and Billy Whizz. The strip involved the aforementioned Dalek-like postboxes arresting everyone in Beanotown, as all crime is committed by people, therefore if everyone is in jail, there can be no crime. The narrative involves Little Eric's double life as Bananaman being revealed to the residents of Beanotown, although their memory of this is erased. The plot was done by the mayor, Walter Brown's father, who wore several masks to disguise his identity, including ones of Harry Hill and Matt Lucas.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
