BBC NEWS | UK | England | Tees | Home town gains Andy Capp statue Home town gains Andy Capp statue The statue is unveiled A statue of loveable comic strip character Andy Capp has been unveiled by his creator's widow. Jean Smythe, wife of Hartlepool artist Reg Smythe, unmasked the 5ft high bronze sculpture in the town's Headland area on Thursday. The statue, by Shropshire artist Jane Robbins, captures the working class hero in a typically relaxed pose, but minus his trademark cigarette. The cartoon first appeared in editions of the Daily Mirror in 1957. The ï¿½20,000 monument now has pride of place outside the Harbour of Refuge pub, in Croft Terrace. Mrs Smythe, who still lives in the town, said: "I am very pleased that it has happened. "I would have thought that Reg would have really liked it, well I am hoping he would have done.

"The people of Hartlepool have shown a real dedication in insisting this project would go ahead and they got there in the end and I would like to thank them for it." Andy Capp | Reg Smythe ï¿½[Reg Smythe] is the most popular English humorist with Americans since Charles Dickens.ï¿½ - - Al Capp, creator of Liï¿½l Abner, Saturday Evening Post, March/April 1973. ï¿½If Reg was born in America, he would be a legend.ï¿½ Ken Layson, former Mirror cartoon editor. ï¿½Oh Andy Capp, you wife-beating drunk. Heh heh heh.ï¿½ Homer Simpson, Marge vs The Monorail, January 14, 1993. Reg Smythe was the greatest British newspaper strip cartoonist of the 20th Century ï¿½ and second only to Peanutsï¿½ Charles Schulz on a global scale. So why donï¿½t we treat him that way?

Smythe invented Andy Capp for the Daily Mirror in 1957, personally writing, drawing, inking and lettering every line of the 15,000 Andy cartoons he produced over the following 40 years. When he died in 1998, the strip was syndicated to 1,700 newspapers ï¿½ 1,000 in America alone ï¿½ translated into 14 languages and read by a combined audience of 250 million people in 52 countries round the world. (1) Andyï¿½s adventures have inspired a West End musical still revived today, a UK television series starring James Bolam in the title role and a 1973 book using Andyï¿½s antics to interpret the Gospels. His face has been used to sell not only the crisps, canned beer and homebrew kits youï¿½d expect, but also cookbooks, boxer shorts, Royal Doulton figurines, phonecards, disposable cameras and babiesï¿½ bibs.

Heï¿½s known as Tuffa Viktor in Sweden, Charlie Kappl in Austria and and Willi Wacker in Germany, where FC Nuremberg fans have made him their mascot. In every nation, readers greet him as one of their own, as a 1960s editorial in Istanbulï¿½s Hareket Gazetesi was quick to recognise. ï¿½Andy is as much Turkish as he is English,ï¿½ the editor wrote. ï¿½And he is probably Greek, Italian and Polish too.ï¿½ (2) Smytheï¿½s successors at the Mirror have published over 4,000 new Andy Capp strips of their own since 1998, continue to enjoy a global syndication of over 1,500 titles and are currently discussing plans for an animated series on British TV. Just a few months ago, in March 2012, Andy became an unlikely spokesman for the British Governmentï¿½s Change4Life campaign, which sponsored a monthï¿½s worth of strips showing his attempts to reform.

Andyï¿½s fans have remained fiercely loyal to the character since Smytheï¿½s death, as Paul Baker, the editor of Pennsylvaniaï¿½s Lebanon Daily News, found when he accidentally omitted one of the new teamï¿½s strips from his paperï¿½s March 1, 2010 edition. The result was a flood of what he called ï¿½profanity-laced attacksï¿½ from readers threatening never to buy the paper again. Reg Smythe was a far more subtle, innovative & stylish cartoonist than heï¿½s ever given credit for ï¿½Who knew a comic strip could mean so much to so many?ï¿½ Baker asked as the calls subsided. ï¿½Particularly this comic strip, set in a foreign milieu and celebrating the life of a character whoï¿½s not very likeable?ï¿½ (3) Fifty-five years after that 1957 debut, then, Andy is still as unrepentantly alive as ever.

Thatï¿½s a remarkable achievement for any newspaper strip, but all the more so for one thatï¿½s not been able to rely on the cute children and animals of a Peanuts or a Garfield for any part of its success. Andy in his day has been a wife-beater, an habitual drunk, a 40-a-day smoker, a long-term welfare scrounger, a gambler, a cheat, a bully and a liar. That severely limits his appeal as a subject for heart-warming Christmas TV specials, childrenï¿½s birthday cards or corporate branding campaigns, and yet the strip has still found its way to the very top tier of global success. Along the way, Smythe proved himself a far more subtle, innovative and stylish cartoonist than heï¿½s generally given credit for. His peers have always recognised this, however, and by 1974, Smythe had won the highest awards his profession could offer on both sides of the Atlantic. Whether you look at the statistics that chart his success or the sheer skill and consistency of the strips he produced, all his British competitors are left in the dust. Even on the global stage, his equals can be counted on one hand.

(4) Some strips today, it is true, syndicate to more newspapers than even Andy at his peak. Garfield, Peanuts and Blondie all claim over 2,000 titles worldwide, and Hagar The Horrible is close behind with 1,900. Of these strips, though, neither Hagar nor Garfield can boast anything like Andyï¿½s longevity, Hagar having so far racked up only 39 years and Garfield just 34. If we restrict the field to strips drawn by their original creator, Hagar drops still further out of contention, as Dik Browne died and was replaced by his son after only 16 years on the strip. (5-8) That leaves just Peanuts and Blondie, and here I must admit the statistics have Andy beat. Chic Young began Blondie in 1930, writing and drawing the strip right up to his death in 1973, when his son Dean took over. That gives Chic a 43-year tenure, edging out Smytheï¿½s 41, and Blondie a total lifespan to date of 82 years against Andyï¿½s 55.

The 47 countries where Blondie runs and 35 languages itï¿½s been translated into are equally impressive. Personally, I think youï¿½d find it hard to argue that Youngï¿½s work is anything like as elegant or as funny as Smytheï¿½s, but you certainly canï¿½t deny his success. For me, then, the real comparison is between Andy Capp and Charles Schulzï¿½s Peanuts. Peanuts ended with Schulzï¿½s death in 2000, by which time heï¿½d produced close to 18,000 Peanuts strips over a fifty-year span, but has continued in reruns ever since. (9) Schulz, like Smythe, wrote and drew every line of his strip personally, and continued doing so for over four decades without ever letting the standard drop. Both men struck out in bravely original directions with their chosen strips, Schulz by reflecting 1950s Americaï¿½s growing obsession with psycho-analysis, and Smythe by offering a brutal kitchen-sink realism many years before British film or television plucked up the courage to do so.

Peanuts beats Andy on any measure you care to take, whether that be creatorï¿½s tenure, syndication reach, total readership, merchandising income, international sales or adaptions in other media. But the truly remarkable thing is that Smythe holds his place in that league at all. Even without the cuddly firepower of Snoopy, Woodstock and the rest to exploit in the mass market, he took Andy to the very top of this hugely-competitive tree, and maintained his place there alongside Schulz for over 40 years. Achieving that level of success with a foreign strip in the vast American market makes him even more remarkable. And so ï¿½ I repeat ï¿½ why donï¿½t we treat him that way? Schulz fans can buy Fantagraphicsï¿½ beautifully-designed Complete Peanuts hardbacks ï¿½ currently 17 books into their full 25-volume set ï¿½ which reprint every single one of the strips chronologically, in crisp perfection, complete with an index to help you find your favourites and affectionate introductions by the likes of Jonathan Franzen and Whoopi Goldberg.

Andyï¿½s fans must scrabble around on the internet for second-hand copies of Smytheï¿½s 62 paperback collections, all of which are now out of print. Thereï¿½s no guarantee any volume will present its strips in proper chronological order, and they contain no supporting information whatsoever. The books appear in four different formats, are consistently numbered for less than half the run, and ï¿½ as I can testify - getting harder to find every day. About half the strips published in Andyï¿½s first 25 years donï¿½t appear in the collections anyway. (10) Itï¿½s the same story wherever you look. Schulz had a brand new biography published in 2007 (his second), while the only substantial source on Smytheï¿½s life remains a relatively brief essay in Les Lilleyï¿½s 1990 collection The World of Andy Capp ï¿½ also out-of-print, by the way.

Schulz was born and raised in the twin city of Minneapolis/St Paul, where he has a collection of Peanuts statues mounted in a public park, an ice hockey arena named after him and ï¿½ until 2006 ï¿½ a full-scale Snoopy theme park at the Mall of America. The only structure honouring Smythe in his native Hartlepool is a 2007 statue of Andy on the Headland, which looks nothing like him and took the council nearly a decade of timid mithering to organise. No-one expects Smytheï¿½s memory to be honoured with quite the same degree of razzamatazz the Americans give Schulz ï¿½ thatï¿½s simply not the way we do things in this country ï¿½ but he certainly deserves more recognition than he gets right now. I hope this essay will go some way towards demonstrating what a truly great cartoonist he was, and how unjust it would be to dismiss his strip as a mere relic.

Letï¿½s start with Homer Simpsonï¿½s charge that Andy is no more than a ï¿½wife-beating drunkï¿½, and consider the single most objectionable cartoon Reg Smythe ever drew. Floï¿½s sitting on the living room floor in housedress and pinny, her frowning expression flushed with anger. The table next to her has been tipped over, throwing a cup and saucer to the ground and breaking the saucer into six pieces. A nearby picture has been knocked askance by whatever force landed Flo and the table where they now are. Andy stands over her with one hand thrust casually into his trouser pocket and the other leaning against the wall. Heï¿½s looking Flo straight in the eye, and the smile on his open mouth suggests he thinks this is all pretty funny. ï¿½Look at it this way, honey,ï¿½ he says.

ï¿½Iï¿½m a man of few pleasures and one of them ï¿½appens to be knockinï¿½ yer about.ï¿½ That cartoon appeared in the Daily Mirror on August 20, 1957, just two weeks after the first Andy Capp of them all. Andy was then a single-panel cartoon, appearing only in the paperï¿½s North-of-England edition, and would not get national publication until the following April. Seeing the drawing today, you canï¿½t help but gasp at the casual cruelty it portrays, yet it was thought so uncontroversial at the time that the Mirror chose it to open Andyï¿½s very first collection. Lawrence Goldsmith is one of the three-strong team chronicling Andyï¿½s adventures today. ï¿½Itï¿½s an absolutely hideous cartoon,ï¿½ he told me when I raised this particular gag.

ï¿½But it was perfectly acceptable at the time.ï¿½ (11) ï¿½Some of my early Andy ideas were very naï¿½ve,ï¿½ Smythe admitted when discussing this cartoon with the journalist Les Lilley in 1990. ï¿½Good God! It seems horrible now!ï¿½ In another interview, he adds: ï¿½That was a dreadful cartoon, and it was terribly naï¿½ve of me to have done it. He was too savage, a proper bully.ï¿½ (12) We may be shocked by such jokes today, but readers of the 1950s took them in their stride. Sean Garnett, Goldsmithï¿½s writing partner on the strip, first read Andy as a child, but revisited many of the early collections when he and Goldsmith took over in 2011. ANDY CAPP - cartoon character contact ANDY CAPP Someone must have thought it was rather chilly round the seafront during early April 2016 so they decided to wrap Andy up in a couple of scarves - and colourful they are, too! A very popular tourist attraction is the Andy Capp statue.

It is situated next to the Harbour of Refuge public house in Croft Terrace, Hartlepool, and looks out towards the Pilot's Pier and Hartlepool Bay. Beer in hand and the summer flowers are in bloom. ...and yet more flowers on a summer's day in town. At the base of the statue there's a plaque which reads "Andy Capp Created by Reg Smythe." You can see a full size photograph by clicking on the image in the right hand column. Andy with a backdrop of flowers overlooks the bay in Hartlepool. He now has Mary Rowntree's restaurant and bar as a new neighbour as well as the Pot House. I once saw, on another website, that someone had taken a photograph of the Andy Capp statue from behind. So thanks to that person for giving me the idea to do the same. Here, Andy overlooks the Town Wall, the Pilot's Pier Lighthouse and Hartlepool Bay. Across the bay is old Middleton and the Marina. In the distance, on the right, you can just see the floodlight pylons at Hartlepool Football Club's Victoria Park and the masts of HMS Trincomalee. Andy Capp is a popular little man.

There might be a pint of beer in his right hand but the cigarettes are long gone! I bet the gentleman just coming up the steps didn't expect to be on this photograph or, indeed, on my website. I will try to find out who he is and give him a copy of the photograph. Someone commented about Andy not having his usual cigarette in his mouth. Mrs Smythe said that Reg had stopped smoking and, therefore, had decided to make Andy a non smoker! This page is dedicated to Reg Smythe July 10, 1917 – June 13, 1998. Did you know that Andy Capp is known as Charlie Kappl in Austria, Willi Wacker in Germany and Tuffa Viktor in Sweden? Be sure to read a wonderful insight into Andy Capp, Reg Smythe and the Hartlepool connection on " Cigarettes and Alcohol: Andy Capp " by Paul Slade. The photographs on this page are copyright © to Stan Laundon and must not be used, copied, or reproduced in any way without prior written permission.

This website is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Copyright © Stan Laundon.com News Andy Capp One of Hartlepool's most famous sons is cartoonist, Reg Smythe, who created the character Andy Capp. In June 2007 a statue of Andy was officially unveiled by Reg's widow Jean. The five feet high bronze effigy of the loveable rascal, who has entertained generations since he first appeared in the Daily Mirror in 1957, can be seen on the seafront near the Harbour of Refuge public house in Croft Terrace. The £20,000 statue was paid for by the North Hartlepool Partnership with the help of a £2,000 donation from the Daily Mirror. The statue itself was created by Shropshire artist Jane Robbins and captures Andy in a typically relaxed pose. A very popular tourist attraction. Andy in the spring. Andy looks across the bay with the Pilot's Pier in the foreground and the buildings of the Marina in the background. Andy taken from behind and surrounded with a nice array of flowers. Day time or night time Andy Capp is always popular. The Andy Capp plaque.

The Harbour of Refuge public house which is known to the locals as the Pot House. The Andy Capp statue is situated on a piece of green land next to the pub. You can view larger photographs by clicking on the small images above. Andy Capp, although ficticious is one of the best known characters in the North East of England. His image is supposed to be that of a typical North Eastern man. He's the little cloth-capped character who wears a scarf around his neck (because he can't afford a collar and tie) spends his money on booze and his hobby of flying pigeons with his mate Chalkie. But is this Daily Mirror cartoon really a true picture of a North Easterner or is Andy Capp simply a characature? That's a question I put to Andy's creator, Reg Smythe, on BBC Radio Teesside back in 1970. Click the audio button to listen! BBC Radio Teesside car sticker. Reg Smythe in 1970. Andy Capp on an August afternoon.

Sites Andy Capp : Wikis (The Full Wiki) The Full Wiki More info on Andy Capp Wikis Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles . Related top topics From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Andy Capp For other uses, see Andy Capp (disambiguation) . Andy Capp is a British comic strip created by Reg Smythe , seen in The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror newspapers since August 5, 1957. Originally a single-panel cartoon, Smythe later expanded it to four panels. The title is a pun on handicap , as well as a reference to the main character's trademark flat cloth cap . The strip is syndicated internationally by Creators Syndicate . The character is also licensed as the mascot for a line of snack foods , and a defunct chain of miniature golf courses in Brevard County, Florida . Smythe received the National Cartoonist Society Humor Comic Strip Award for the strip in 1974.

Contents Flo's Mum Also, various constables, barmaids, bartenders, referees, footballers, pub locals and door-to-door salesmen. Andy is a working class figure who doesn't actually work, living in Hartlepool , a harbor town in northeast England . His hobbies include pigeon racing , darts , snooker (his cue's name is "Delilah" [1] ), football (which always involves fights with the other players, and frequently ends with Andy being sent off ), occasionally cricket and rugby , betting on horses, getting drunk in the local pub (often falling into the canal and being fished out by a constable, and always, seven nights a week, arriving home late as a result), fishing (and not catching anything bigger than a goldfish ), womanizing, loafing on the sofa, and fighting with his long-suffering wife, Florrie (a.k.a. "Flo"). Andy's trademark plaid cap is always pulled down over his eyes, even when he is seen napping or bathing.

He is often unshaven, frequently intoxicated (indicated by a prominent red nose and disheveled clothing), lazy, freeloading, belligerent and confrontational - but just as frequently lovable (he always refers to Flo as "pet", and will instantly "bop" anyone who dares to be rude to her). He was often seen with a cigarette dangling from his lip until the 1980s, perhaps because that was when his creator reportedly gave up smoking himself. Similarly, Andy no longer indulges in fisticuffs with Florrie, because of concerns about the depiction of domestic violence , (which was usually portrayed in a highly stylized manner, as an iconic cartoon smoke cloud with fists and feet protruding). Instead, they now attend marriage counselling . Andy and Florrie are always on the verge of poverty. Although Flo works regularly as a charwoman , Andy is unemployed and lacks motivation, (to put it mildly). Rent on their flat and its contents are constantly in arrears, and Percy Ritson the rent collector despairs of ever being paid. Their furniture has been repossessed on several occasions.

Somehow, they always manage to recover it, and Andy is always able to afford beer and gambling money, (usually by borrowing from Florrie). Jackie the pub barman is regularly seen as well. Almost all the characters occasionally "break the fourth wall" by delivering asides directly to the reader, usually in reference to Andy's low character. The strip almost exclusively takes place in one of three locations: the pub, the street, or inside the Capp's residence at No. 37 Durham Street, (generally with Andy on the couch and Florrie yelling from the next room). Less frequently visited places include the race track (although Andy frequently bets by listening to the radio, thus saving him the trip), the marriage counsellor (in one memorable cartoon, a panoramic shot is given of the counselling office, with several file cabinets dedicated entirely to the Capps), and the football pitch, (where Andy is either being sent off, or carried off on a stretcher). Andy and Flo's best friends are their neighbours Chalkie and Rube (short for Ruby) White.

Chalkie is like Andy, a hard-drinking, hard-scrabble, working class-type who can often be seen sharing a pint with Andy at the corner pub. However, Chalkie seems to be more mellow than Andy, and more tolerant of his wife. Also unlike Andy, Chalkie was known to be employed, if intermittently, during much of the strip's run. Rube is Flo's confidante, and the two often trade gossip over the clothesline about their husbands' latest escapades. The local Vicar is also seen often. Andy despairs of his holier-than-thou attitude, as he is constantly criticizing Andy for his many bad habits and vice-ridden lifestyle. He often lets his opinion be known to Flo, who agrees with his low assessment of Andy's character. Flo's mother, an unseen character only indicated by offstage speech balloons, often chimes into the conversation, mostly with sarcastic criticism of her son-in-law. Flo's "mum", whom Andy addresses only as "Missus", is often the subject of Andy's pointed barbs about her weight and less-than-sunny disposition - but she has been known to give as good as she gets.

(Andy's mother was similarly mentioned and also delivered dialogue unseen, but her "appearances" were cut back significantly as the years went on. Andy's father has also been mentioned, though it is not clear if he is alive or not.) Flo has an older sister named Polly, who is also never seen. Continuation A bronze statue of Andy was unveiled in June 2007 in Hartlepool - Reg Smythe's hometown. [2] Reg Smythe died on June 13, 1998, and the original strip has been continued in a highly regarded pastiche of his style. For some time the writer and artist were uncredited, but in November 2004 the strip began to carry a credit for Roger Mahoney (artist) and Roger Kettle (writer). Syndication Despite its local milieu, the comic strip is syndicated in 50 countries throughout the world. In late 1970s Andy Capp was syndicated in Croatia's leading newspaper of the time Vjesnik, along with B.C. and Wizard of Id.

Andy Capp was then localized as "Dragec" (Croatian diminutive of name Drago or Dragutin) Book collections Several collections of Andy Capp strips have been published by The Daily Mirror since 1958; its more current collections are The Andy Capp Collection: No. 1 and The Andy Capp Collection: 2005, and are widely available. In the United States, Fawcett published several Andy Capp collections from the mid-1960s through the 1980s. These books are now out of print, though many used bookstores may still have some copies; as with collections of many 20th-century comic strips, quite a number of them appear on eBay almost constantly. Adaptations In 1981, a stage musical based on the strip had a short run at London's Aldwych Theatre , with songs by Alan Price and Trevor Peacock , starring Tom Courtenay as Andy Capp. An attempt to transfer Andy Capp to television in 1988 met with little success. The well known British character actor James Bolam played Andy on ITV.

The series consisted of 6 episodes that were shown once and have never been repeated. Related series When the children's comic Buster was launched in 1960, its masthead character was entitled Buster: Son of Andy Capp. Buster wore a cloth cap similar to Andy's until 1992, but the connection was not recognised in the parent strip and had limited development in the children's comic. Buster did often refer to his father, and he was seen in the comic itself attempting to find a gas leak in three frames of the 18 June 1960 issue. He was also shown in two drawn photographs in the 2 July 1960 issue, the first of which was displayed by Buster's mum with the pronouncement "It's a photo of Buster taken with Andy! You can see he's got his dad's fine straight nose". Buster's mum was often referred to by name and was consistently drawn to resemble Andy's wife Flo. The Mirror currently also runs a cartoon strip called Mandy, which started life as Mandy Capp. It is the tale of a sassy single mother and her travails with work, dating and her home and social life.

Her relationship to Andy is unclear, but the two strips have never had a crossover. Notes Andy Capp (TV Series 1988– ) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Andy is an out-of-work layabout who only wants to have a drink and read the racing news. This leaves his long-suffering wife Flo as the sole breadwinner. Stars: a list of 393 titles created 22 Apr 2013 a list of 42 titles created 27 Jun 2013 a list of 1320 titles created 20 Nov 2014 a list of 12 titles created 10 months ago a list of 65 titles created 5 months ago Search for " Andy Capp " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Add Image Add an image Do you have any images for this title?

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See full summary » Stars: Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Simon Brint Edit Storyline Andy is an out-of-work layabout who only wants to have a drink and read the racing news. This leaves his long-suffering wife Flo as the sole breadwinner. 22 February 1988 (UK) See more » Company Credits (Minffordd, North Wales) – See all my reviews It's interesting how a fictional character can be successful in one medium yet utterly unsuccessful in another. Andy Capp was a huge success in the comic strips, spawning various merchandising deals (I fondly recall my first bottle of Andy Capp's Spring Tonic) and even a spin-off character: 'Buster, Son of Andy Capp', who had his own long-running strip yet was never once mentioned in the original. Despite this success, Andy never caught on in any other medium. The West End stage musical based on Andy Capp was a flop. This short-lived TV series (running briefly in February-March 1988) was no better. This synopsis reflects only the TV series, not the comic strip. Andy and Flo Capp live at 37 Durham Street, Hartlepool.

Andy is a layabout, a drunkard, a bully, a liar and a gambler. The only reason he's not a skiver into the bargain is because he hasn't got a job to skive off in the first place. His put-upon wife Flo is kept working overtime to pay the bills. To make matters worse, Andy is a serial philanderer. This Thames TV sitcom suffered from the total unlikeability of the main character. (In the comic strip, Andy was more of a likable rogue.) The first episode dealt with Andy's promise to turn over a new leaf. (He doesn't, of course.) The sixth and final episode dealt with Andy's reluctance to celebrate the Capps' wedding anniversary. Most of the recurring characters in the comic strip get a look-in here, including the Capps' neighbours next-door over, Chalkie White and his wife Ruby. Also on offer are barman Jackie, rent-collector Percy Ritson (geddit? "writ's on"), and the 'milkie' (milkman) making his dawn rounds as Andy comes staggering home from a night on the tiles.

The Andy Capp strip was brilliant in small bites, but the character didn't seem to work very well over an extended narrative. Certain features of the comic strip just didn't make a smooth transition to live-action. Andy Capp famously wore his flat cap completely over his eyes (like Beetle Bailey and Cheech Wizard) but, in this live-action series, actor James Bolam had to wear his slightly over-sized cap a bit farther back so that he could see where he was going. I laughed at Andy and Flo's frequent fisticuffs in the comic strip, which were always drawn as a huge dust cloud with feet and fists emerging from its depths. In live action, this wouldn't work nearly so well ... in fact, in live action, a brawl between a man and a woman simply isn't funny at all. Even Andy Capp was not immune to the onslaught of political correctness. For three decades of comic-strip dailies, he sported a 'tab' (cigarette) in his mouth, but this was quietly deleted in 1988. Later, such newfangled annoyances as mobile 'phones found their way into the strip (with Andy opposed to them, refreshingly).

As great as the strip was, 'Andy Capp' the TV series was nothing much. This short-lived series is not worth a second look. 12 of 17 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes BBC News Online | Home town gains Andy Capp statue Home town gains Andy Capp statue 28 June 07 12:05 GMT A statue of loveable comic strip character Andy Capp has been unveiled by his creator's widow. Jean Smythe, wife of Hartlepool artist Reg Smythe, unmasked the 5ft high bronze sculpture in the town's Headland area on Thursday. The statue, by Shropshire artist Jane Robbins, captures the working class hero in a typically relaxed pose, but minus his trademark cigarette. The cartoon first appeared in editions of the Daily Mirror in 1957. The £20,000 monument now has pride of place outside the Harbour of Refuge pub, in Croft Terrace. Mrs Smythe, who still lives in the town, said: "I am very pleased that it has happened. "I would have thought that Reg would have really liked it, well I am hoping he would have done.

"The people of Hartlepool have shown a real dedication in insisting this project would go ahead and they got there in the end and I would like to thank them for it." Reg Smythe; Drew Andy Capp Comic Strip - latimes Reg Smythe; Drew Andy Capp Comic Strip June 14, 1998 |From Reuters LONDON — Reg Smythe, who created the world's most politically incorrect comic strip character, Andy Capp, and drew him for more than 40 years, died Saturday at age 81. Smythe died of cancer at his home in northeastern England, according to Mirror Group Newspapers in London, which began publishing the Andy Capp strip in 1957. The exploits of Andy and his long-suffering wife, Flo, were syndicated in 1,700 newspapers in 48 countries and even turned into a musical and a TV series. In French newspapers he became Andre Chapeau, in Germany Willi Wakker, in Italy Angelo Capello and so on around the world. He was particularly popular in the United States, the country whose cartoonists Smythe admired the most.

"Reg was so prolific, there is at least a year's supply of cartoons left. Last year we celebrated 40 years of Andy, and Reg thoroughly enjoyed himself," said Mirror cartoon editor Ken Layson. Smythe lived in the town of Hartlepool and faxed his work to the Mirror, where it appeared seven days a week. Idle, wasteful, sexist and often drunk, Andy Capp lived in a world that rarely went beyond the narrow horizon between the local pub where he drank and the sofa in his front room where he slept off the after-effects. British men identified strongly with a layabout who preferred football, snooker, racing and chatting up the barmaid to doing an honest day's work. Women liked him because they knew he would always come off second-best to Flo, a no-nonsense character who specialized in spousal abuse with a rolling pin. Smythe, a desperately shy man, shunned personal publicity and preferred the company of his wife, Vera, to that of celebrities. The Mirror quoted friends as saying he was devastated when she died last year. Born in 1917, Smythe served in the British army and later worked as a clerk when he began sketching cartoons part time.

"I was never a very good artist," he admitted, saying he preferred sketching people from the rear. Andy and Flo changed little in 40 years, though when Smythe gave up smoking in 1983 he removed the cigarette that dangled precariously from Andy's lower lip. "I couldn't carry on when Andy had stopped," he said. Otherwise, the couple lived on in an unchanged working-class world where men wore cloth caps and mufflers, and women kept their hair in curlers under a knotted head scarf. "He's a horrible little devil but I'm grateful to him," Smythe once said. "I was very lucky to have thought of him." MORE: Toonhound - Andy Capp (1957 -) Andy Capp has been with us since 1957 and in that time he's become an outspoken icon for the british working class. Put simply, he's a flat-cap wearing layabout, chauvinistic, unemployable pub-dweller from Hartlepool who spends most of his days perched precariously on or between the local watering hole and his living room sofa as Number 37 Durham Street. Andy has a point of view on everyone and everything, it seems.

And his wife Flo has had to put up with his philosophizing for nigh-on 50 years. Mind you, she's just as likely to give as good as she gets, because Flo is no pushover... Amongst others on the receiving end of Andy's eulogozing and general tattle are Chalkie and Ruby White, Percy Ritson the rent Man, the local Vicar, Flo's Mum, barman Jackie, Andy's nephew Jason, and his niece, and Andy's own Mother. Andy was created by the legendary cartoonist Reg Smythe, and he proved to be an instant hit with readers of "The Daily Mirror", in which the strip first appeared. Incidentally, Hartlepool just so happened to be Reg Smythe's home town too, which suggests something of Reg came through in the character. In 1960, Smythe became a founding member of the Cartoonists Club of Great Britain, and flat-capped Andy helped him to win the club's annual prize for five consecutive years - an extraordinary feat. The character proved an inspiration to comic artists everywhere, and in 1961, Andy gave his flat capped persona to the title star of Fleetway's "Buster" comic.

Buster was originally billed as being the son of Andy Capp. Of course he didn't frequent pubs, or smoke, or womanise, but he was an honest working clas lad living with his Mum - who was presumably a rendition of Flo' from the Smythe originals. Buster dropped his 'son of' billing quite soon after the launch of the comic, but he held on to that faithful flat cap right the way through to the comic's demise in January 2000. Andy's ongoing success reached far beyond British shores to America, where he's been in syndication since 1963. Up until 1983, Andy was rarely seen without a cigarette protruding from under his cap. But the anti-smoking lobby had by then persuaded Reg Smythe to drop the habit. Mr Smythe himself died from cancer in 1998, aged 81, but his ever-popular creation still lives on in "The Mirror" to this day. In 1988 ITV produced a live-action sitcom series based on the character. Former "Likely Lad" James Bolam took on the title role, with Paula Tilbrook playing Flo. The producer-director was John Howard Davies.

It wasn't a hit, though, and only six episodes were ever produced. The Mirror Group have published enough Andy Capp books to fill a skip. Amongst them have been annual numbered anthologies, and a series of "World of Andy Capp" anthology specials. In and around these have been umpteen one-offs and additions, including "Andy Capp's Spring Tonic", which was shaped like a spirit bottle!...

Question: Which English town is the home of te comic-strip character, Andy Capp?
Answer: HARTLEPOOL