Profile - Telephone Pole Man

I have assigned this character the name Telephone Pole Man, as he was never named in any of the 16 issues of Cheeky Weekly in which he appeared.  This was because Cheeky was unaware of the existence of his telephonic tormentor, perched among the telecommunications paraphernalia above the streets of Krazy Town.

In the first issue of Cheeky Weekly, our toothy hero is reluctantly wending his way to babysit Burpo, when the phone rings in a public call box.  Cheeky picks up the receiver and a mysterious voice poses him a 'what's the difference between…' riddle.  Cheeky naturally responds with the appropriate punchline, but afterwards puzzles at how the mystery caller knows to phone every time he's passing the phone box.  Unknown to Cheeky, but observed by us readers, Telephone Pole Man can be seen working on the phone wires above.

This scenario became the template for all subsequent Telephone Pole Man appearances until his final phone call to Cheeky in the issue dated 24 June 1978.

First appearance

The initials GPO on Telephone Pole Man's toolbag stand for General Post Office, the body who were responsible for the UK telecoms network (up until 1969 according to Wikipedia), after which Post Office Telephones became the custodians of the country's telephone system.  However, seeing Telephone Pole Man's bag with POT written on it could have raised a few eyebrows.

Telephone Pole Man, who hadn't appeared in Cheeky's strip in Krazy comic, never made it into the exalted band of Cheeky's pals who featured across a whole Cheeky's Week, nor did he ever appear on the cover.  The longest gap between appearances was the 14 weeks that elapsed between 14 January 1978 and 22 April 1978.

On occasion, Buzby, the star of a series of animated TV ads promoting telephone usage, is seen on the telephone wires.  Buzby caught the public's imagination and eventually had his own strip in Polystyle's TV Comic.  You can see the cover to the Buzby Holiday Special 1979 about half way down the page here.  Wonder if Buzby was appearing in TV comic at the time he was being depicted in Cheeky Weekly.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Telephone Pole Man	16	22-Oct-1977	24-Jun-1978

Telephone Pole Man - Number of appearances by Element

Element	Number of Appearances
Friday	6
Thursday	3
Wednesday	3
Sunday evening	2
Tuesday	2

Telephone Pole Man - Number of appearances by Page

Page	Number of Appearances
21	4
19	3
4	2
12	2
18	2
15	1
20	1
23	1

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Telephone Pole Man	Frank McDiarmid	7
Telephone Pole Man	Frank McDiarmid pencils	5
Telephone Pole Man	Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	1
Telephone Pole Man	Jim Watson	1
Telephone Pole Man	Barrie Appleby	1
Telephone Pole Man	Dick Millington	1