Cheeky's Week title panel and What did YOU do today?

As of the 30 September 1978 revamp issue, a title panel began appearing on the introductory page for each day of Cheeky's adventures (apart from Sunday, which sported a title banner - see below). Whereas previously a caption naming the day of the week had appeared above the introductory page on each day of Cheeky's doings, this new title panel was located on the first row of panels and depicted an entry from Cheeky's diary for the day in question, underneath the title Cheeky's Week. The introduction of a more conventional title panel may have been initiated to make the strips more easily used as reprints (although readers of a more cynical nature may have suspected that the changes were made in order to reduce the amount of artwork needed to fill the Cheeky pages).

Thus, from the 30 September 1978 comic, all the Cheeky strips in each issue became titled Cheeky's Week…[name of day]. The front cover gag strip (previously called 'What a Cheek') had considerably more full stops between 'Cheeky's Week' and 'Sunday', but that's because this strip occupied the full width of the front page and the title of the strip was printed as a banner above the strip, spanning the panels.

With one exception, from the 30 September 1978 issue up to and including that dated 30 June 1979, the following pages would commence with the Cheeky's Week title panel;

• Monday (the continuation of Cheeky's Sunday shenanigans on page 2 would not feature a title panel, as the title banner for Sunday had appeared on the front cover).
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday (in the 19 May 1979 comic, Thursday spanned one and a half pages. Thursday's Cheeky's Week title panel appeared on the first Thursday page in that issue. The half-page continuation contained a teaser strip for Skateboard Squad's return in the Speed Squad feature which would commence the following week. ).
• Friday
• Saturday (but only the first Saturday page. Interval, being a continuation of Saturday, wouldn't get its own title, nor would the continuations of Saturday)

The exception came in the 31 March 1979 issue, which carried a Cheeky's Week title panel on the Sunday strip on page 2, because the whole of the front cover was given over to promoting the knitting pattern for Cheeky's jersey which appeared inside.

The new title panel wasn't the only element introduced into Cheeky's pages in the 30 September 1978 issue. Also making its debut was the What did YOU do today? diary section, designed for readers to record their daily doings, at the foot of certain pages.

In a typical issue, WDYDT would appear on the following pages;

• Sunday's continuation from the cover on page 2 (unlike the Cheeky's Week……..Sunday title panel, Sunday's WDYDT didn't appear on the front page).
• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday (in the 19 May 1979 comic, 'WDYDT appeared on the first Thursday page in that issue, rather than the half-page continuation mentioned above)
• Friday
• Saturday - from 30 September 1978 to 02 December 1978 inclusive, WDYDT appeared on the first Saturday page each issue (except in the 14 October 1978 issue when the 'Published every Monday by IPC Magazines Ltd...' small print section was unusually located at the bottom of the first Saturday page, thereby shunting WDYDT to Interval for that sole occasion). From 09 December 1978 to 30 June 1979 inclusive (the June 1979 date being the final appearance of the readers' diary section), WDYDT appeared on the second Saturday page each issue.

Wednesday and Thursday pages were absent from the issue dated 02 December 1978 (the first of 2 consecutive issues to be reduced from 32 to 28 pages), so no WDYDTs for those days were present in that issue. These reduced-page-count issues presaged a complete absence of Cheeky weekly in the final weeks of December 1978. When the comic returned (cover dated 06 January 1979), a banner appeared at the top of the internal Sunday page, reading "Sorry we've been away..." so there was no room for a Sunday WDYDT in that issue.

Both the Cheeky's Week title panel and WDYDT came to an end in the 30 June 1979 issue, as the comic underwent another revamp (styled the 'New Look') the following week.

A typical Cheeky's Week page showing the title panel and WDYDT can be seen here.

When I started this blog I adopted the term Cheeky's Week as a shorthand way of referring to the aforementioned strips depicting Cheeky's daily activities. Just to clarify, a list of the features which I consider to constitute Cheeky's Week can be seen here. Please note that only the strips based on days of the week carried the Cheeky's Week title panel and WDYDT diary.

Despite the introduction of the Cheeky's Week title to the element names in the comic, I continue to record each element as just the day of the week in my data (so Monday is still called Monday even when the intro panel says Cheeky's Week…Monday), to avoid unnecessary complication (for me!).