Welcome to the Cheeky Weekly blog!


Welcome to the Cheeky Weekly blog!
Cheeky Weekly ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT ©  REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED was a British children's comic with cover dates spanning 22 October 1977 to 02 February 1980.

Quick links...
Basic Stats
Cheeky Weekly Index - Cheeky Annuals and Specials Index
Cheeky Weekly Artist Index
Features by Number of Appearances
Cheeky Weekly Timeline
Major Characters from the Cheeky pages
Features Ordered by Date of Commencement

*** ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT ©  REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Used with permission. ***
*** CHEEKY WEEKLY, KRAZY, WHOOPEE!, WHOOPEE, WOW!, WHIZZER AND CHIPS and BUSTER ARE ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT ©  REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ***
Thanks for reading the blog.

Friday 14 June 2013

Profile - Constable Chuckle

In keeping with his name, Krazy Town's risible rozzer Constable Chuckle could always be relied upon to provide arresting law enforcement laughs.

The funny flatfoot made his first Cheeky Weekly appearance in the 'Easter to April Fool's Day' issue dated 01 April 1978. In fact he appeared in two elements that week - on Sunday Evening and again on Easter Monday.

Chuckle's debut
Art: Frank McDiarmid

Chuckle's badge number was depicted for the first time in the 09 September 1978 issue, where it was shown as 99. The next occasion on which the badge was seen to contain a number was 20 January 1979, but this time it had changed to 321 (a reference to the popular TV game show of the same name which had started in July 1978), and it remained 321 in all subsequent issues in which a badge number was present. Frank McDiarmid was the only artist to show the badge number (although not every time he drew the character), with the exception of the 22 September 1979 comic in which Chuckle was drawn, with badge number 321, by an artist who I'm unable to identify.

Chuckle evidently felt it wasn't a crime to recycle jokes
Art: Frank McDiarmid

Our perky patrolman pal (who of course lived at 999 Letsby Avenue) provided Cheeky with a copy of the Mystery Comic (from within a police box of the type favoured by a certain TV time-traveller - although in reality these boxes had almost entirely disappeared from British streets by the late 1970s) in the 15 April 1978 comic.

15 July 1978 - Mike Lacey  includes Chuckle's address

Chuckle was honoured with a front page slot on only his fifth appearance (13 May 1978) and was further privileged to appear in the same issue's SkateboardSquad tale (in which he appeared non-chuckling in one panel due to near miss by Skipper's speeding board), as well as on Wednesday.

Art: Frank McDiarmid/Frank McDiarmid pencils

The convivial copper made a return visit to Cheeky Weekly's cover on 22 July 1978, where he shared a What A Cheek gag with the toothy funster.

14 July 1979 - Mike Lacey gives a different spelling of the address gag  


A bewhiskered Cheeky encountered Chief Inspector Chuckle when the toothy funster was given a glimpse ahead to his life in 2038 in the 19 August 1978 comic. Assuming Chuckle was around 40 in 1978, he would have been 100 years old when Cheeky's older self met him!

Art: Frank McDiarmid

The laughing lawman (in full uniform) was the first guest to arrive at Cheeky's New Year party in 13 January 1979's slightly-late-new-year issue.

Cheeky's Dad was the subject of 20 January 1979's Burpo Special, wherein our punning plod pal made a cameo appearance, but in the 10 March 1979 comic Chuckle himself was the subject of Burpo's interview. The comical constable's third and final Burpo Special appearance was in the 07 April 1979 episode, in which Spiv (whom Chuckle had arrested for trading without a licence in the 20 May 1978 comic) was the infant interrogator's subject.

Art: Barrie Appleby

The Skateboard Squad strip in the 03 March 1979 comic was the second to feature a guest appearance by Chuckle, and 2 weeks later our chortling chum made his third and final Skateboard Squad appearance in the 17 March 1979 issue. 

The potty policeman was seen on the cover of the comic dated 25 August 1979, among the residents of Krazy Town caught unaware by one of Yikky-Boo's ultra-loud unintelligible utterances. The same issue included the most appearances by the perky patrolman, who featured in 5 Cheeky's Week elements, although there was no narrative connection between them. The convivial copper's fourth and final front page appearance occurred in the issue dated 22 December 1979.

Art: Frank McDiarmid


Constable Chuckle appeared on page 30 of the final Cheeky Weekly, where he was seen in the background of one of the panels as Cheeky met future Whoopee! colleague Super Mum.

Chuckle was featured on a Pin-Up Pal poster only 4 weeks after his debut. In the poster, printed in the 22 April 1978 comic, the humorous helmet-wearer is seen enjoying a good laugh, entirely unaware that a jewel robbery is taking place behind him. Since this poster was printed before Chuckle's badge number first appeared, artist Frank McDiarmid leaves his shoulder badge blank, but does include the letter K on each of Chuckle's lapels (presumably standing for Krazy Town Police).

The snappily-titled Cheeky's Cut-Out Catalogue of Constable Chuckle Jokes (try saying that five times fast) was included in the 22 December 1979 issue.

Chuckle never appeared in the 'Ello, It's Cheeky strip in Krazy.


Character Total Issues First Appearance Final Appearance
Constable Chuckle8301-Apr-197802-Feb-1980


Constable Chuckle - Number of appearances by Element
Element Number of Appearances
Sunday26
Wednesday18
Thursday16
Tuesday10
Friday8
Monday8
Saturday4
Cover Feature3
The Burpo Special3
Easter Monday1
Sunday evening1
What a Cheek1

Count of elements by artist







Character Artist Total Elements
Constable ChuckleFrank McDiarmid58
Constable ChuckleMike Lacey16
Constable ChuckleFrank McDiarmid pencils15
Constable ChuckleBarrie Appleby5
Constable ChuckleDick Millington2
Constable ChuckleUnknown Cheeky Artist 11
Constable ChuckleJim Watson1
Constable ChuckleNot known1

2 comments:

  1. Of course based on the song the laughing policeman...ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho he he he he he he etc..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I originally intended to include a link to the record in the above post, but I found the song so annoying that I couldn't bring myself to include it! I probably should have mentioned it though, so thanks for reminding us about it.

      Delete