The Cheeky Detectives

I have something of a backlog of recordings of nostalgia-focused Talking Pictures TV's The Footage Detective programmes, so I have only now discovered that there was some Cheeky content in the episode first broadcast on 09 March 2025.

The programme, hosted by TPTV founder Noel Cronin BEM and Mike Read, is a mixture of obscure vintage film clips and viewers' reminiscences. Contributors to the Something from Our Post Bag segment of the programme often send in items of various descriptions (comics and annuals are frequently among the donations), with an accompanying letter of the 'does anyone remember these?' variety.

One such submission was the plastic bag of badges 'from the 70s and 80s' provided by Sandra Palmer of Hemel Hempstead and examined by our hosts on the aforementioned 09 March 2025 edition. Included among the contents shown on screen was a Friend of Cheeky badge.

 

Noel (right) hands Mike Sandra's bag of badges

These Cheeky badges were the free gift in issue number 3 of Cheeky Weekly, and were subsequently awarded as prizes to readers whose letters were published in the comic. It would seem that following Cheeky Weekly's merge with Whoopee!, the editor was keen to shift the remaining Cheeky badges, as they were distributed to readers in return for a stamped, addressed envelope.

 The Cheeky badge wasn't mentioned by the presenters.

 

Friend of Cheeky badge

The free gifts in the first two issues of Cheeky Weekly were cardboard, self-assembly affairs secreted within the pages of the comic, requiring that the purchaser verified the presence of the expected freebie before handing over the cover price and vacating the shop.

However, the third issue had its gift sellotaped blatantly on the cover - the Friend of Cheeky badge.  The cover-borne gift had the advantage over two-dimensional inserts in that it was immediately apparent if the gift was missing, but a pile of comics with cover-mounted freebies meant the stack of issues on the newsagent's counter was unstable.  The consequent risk of scrunched-up covers necessitated a search for a copy with as near pristine a front page as was possible.  After a number of such searches by excited readers, scrunchment was almost inevitable, so an early trip to the shops was advisable on cover-mounted gift days.

There then followed the dilemma of how to release the badge/spud gun/space spinner from captivity without damage to the comic.  By cutting the tape on either side, the gift could be removed, leaving two strips of sticky tape adhering to the cover.  After about twenty years, the tape fell off, leaving a slightly dark and semi-transparent patch on the paper.

There's not really much to say about this gift.  It was a metal badge with a proper pin on the back.  Nice.

The same badges were awarded to readers whose letters were printed on the Friends of Cheeky Chit-Chat pages, which began in Cheeky Weekly dated 09 December 1978. After Cheeky Weekly ceased publication, the first combined issue of Whoopee! and Cheeky offered readers a free Friend of Cheeky badge in return for a stamped addressed envelope - the editor obviously had a few boxes of badges cluttering up the office, as apparently 2000 were on offer.