Was Rupert Bear the best children’s story ever?

In a world which has become dominated by the latest commercial venture aimed at children, one figure in particular stands for a world which would be recognised by our grandparents, because it offers a vision of a safe and stable society where things are  recognisably British and that is Rupert Bear. Compare that with the Teenage Ninja Turtles of the 80s and 90s (and now), or the Teletubbies, with their inarticulate noises.

Now, I admit that there are other characters in the field of children’s stories that live in a similar world and Postman Pat is one. By comparison, the likes of Thunderbirds are from a different planet. This is, perhaps, where these characters differ from each other. They inhabit different places. The one is quiet little bear (for which read “boy”), who isn’t a trouble-maker and who has a variety of chums from widely-varied backgrounds. The others are characters with American accents who are a cross between Mission Impossible, Air Sea Rescue and the Osmonds, which is a difficult act to keep together.

While the Thunderbirds team are blasting off into space, or finding their wires getting crossed (literally), Rupert may be visiting a medieval castle, getting lost in a tangled wood, of finding a strange world under the flagstones in a  path somewhere in the Chiltern Hills. The world that Rupert inhabits is the one from which the amazing talents of the likes of the Beatles and the Stones emerged in the post-war years.

Is it pushing things too far to suggest that the world inhabited by Rupert is actually more important for young children to experience? You may think that I am taking things too far, but I would argue that I have history on my side. You see, Rupert Bear is a little chap who is all-embracing. His chums are a badger (Bill Badger); an elephant (Edward Trunk), Pong Ping, who is a Pekingese and a plethora of others of different species. Moreover, Rupert first appeared in the 1920s when there was still a very definite attitude amongst the British that they were a chosen race and superior to all others. Yet, Rupert has friends who are Chinese, as in the case of Tiger Lily and her father.

The very imagination that was shown in the story lines, showed a tendency to use the imagination in a freer-ranging way than was possible with the more “real world” settings of the likes of Thunderbirds, or even Postman Pat. Thus, I would argue, children were more stimulated by some of the Rupert stories than they would have been by the other children’s tales on offer.

Mary Tourtel started the illustration of Rupert books and she was succeeded by Alfred Bestall from 1935. I strongly recommend looking at the wonderful world created by these two artists. The pictures in the Rupert books, I would argue, influenced the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, whose imagination helped create the likes of the Magical Mystery Tour in the 1960s. What greater tribute could the world of Rupert Bear have than that it influenced one of the Beatles to produce some of their most imaginative ideas, imagery and lyrics?