THE BEANO ANNUAL 1974

So far I’ve been concentrating on TV shows that produced an annual to cash in on the show’s popularity, but for me nothing spoke of Christmas so much as the Beano annual which, I understand, celebrates its 77th birthday, as it were, this year. Once the presents were opened, the wrapping paper magically tidied away and the toys more or less discarded or broken, you’d find me tucked away in a quiet corner working my way through a chocolate bar that came in one of those bumper Christmas packs of your favourite chocolate treats (not dissimilar to pack pictured below, although if memory serves correctly, they were supposed to come in one of those netted Christmas stockings from Woolworths) and catching up with my favourite Beano characters - Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, the Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, Lord Snooty, Little Plum and all the other Beano regulars that appeared in the legendary weekly comic. 

Have you seen how The Beano has repositioned itself these days? Completely devoid of charm (Biffo is long gone for a start), it’s all fart jokes and no one receives six of the best from a well-worn slipper to reinforce the difference between right and wrong, relying instead on irony to provide lessons in good behaviour (like that ever works – right, kids?).

From 1942 to 1949 the annual was actually called "The Magic-Beano Book", which referred to the short-lived Magic Comic that had ceased publication in 1941 due to the Second World War's paper rationing. The name reverted to the original title of "The Beano Book" in 1950 - turns out it was never actually called "The Beano Annual" until 2002.

This 1974 annual cost 55p and remains the gift that keeps giving.