Beryl the Peril 1967

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Beryl disappeared for a while after the October 2004 Dandy relaunch. Apart from one appearance in December that year, she returned from issue 3302, dated 12 March 2005. Baxter again: “I think we expected a certain level of ASB. I think at the moment we're seeing higher levels of antisocial behaviour and vandalism around holidays and we've got this little period now, we've got a few bank holidays that are all happening. So, we're going to see a little bit of an uplift there, I think. But we're waiting to get a full year of operation under our belts to really make those comparisons and start looking at it in more detail.” In addition, we have been experiencing increasingly high demand for our bikes, with usage around three times higher than expected, and following the opening of thirty new stations in the last month in Trafford and Manchester city centre we are also seeing a change in how they are being used. Reason: The founders were: ‘Very, very unhappy [and] frustrated’ with the number of women on stage and the roles for women and…the initial impetus was to redress the balance and to put [their] stories on stage.’

Beryl the Peril first appeared in the first issue of The Topper in 1953. She was created to be a female equivalent to The Beano’s Dennis the Menace. Davey Law, her artist and creator, drew inspiration from his daughter, who would often pull faces during her tantrums. The strips were similar in concept to the Dennis the Menace ones in that she would cause chaos through menacing her neighbours, parents and school teachers. In 1958, Beryl was chosen as one of the few of D.C. Thomson’s characters to earn an annual all to herself, consisting solely from reprints in past years.The gran, who works as a part-time cook, added: "I would climb up walls and trees and my father would go frantic in case I fell. Although Beryl is often perceived as a troublemaker similar to Dennis the Menace and Minnie the Minx, her personality changed several times. In the David Law strips, she is quite mischievous but also fun-loving and rather clumsy, whereas she became a more malicious character after John Dallas took over. However, after Robert Nixon took over, she became a much less menacing character, while the stories in the Karl Dixon era largely focused on the relationship between Beryl and her Dad. In the Karl Dixon stories, she shows little respect to her father, often referring to him as ‘Beak-Boy’ due to his abnormally large nose. Other questions are beginning to need answers. Have repair and recovery systems been adequately resourced? Was the contract tight enough with Beryl? Or are TfGM really trying to hint the scheme has been a victin of its own success? Additionally, Beryl Reid was a British actress known for her roles in film, television, and theater. She was often referred to as “the grande dame of British comedy” for her sharp wit and comedic timing.

Unlike most other comics at the time, which were half tabloid size, the Topper was for many years full tabloid. It changed to A4 in 1980, one year before The Beezer. I interviewed Phil Ellis, CEO of Beryl bikes and Ian Baxter, the Scheme Manager for Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), in May. We discussedgeneral principles of the Beryl bike scheme rather than the recent disappearances but we touched on relevant subjects. The Beezer and Topper was cancelled in August 1993, and Beryl joined The Dandy comic. Notably, she was the only Beezer and Topper character to transfer to The Dandy as soon as the former comic folded. (The following refugee, Potsworth & Co., did not make the transition until about a month later when The Dandy went full colour, and later strips to make the transition were often retooled in the case of Blinky.) TfGM owns and manages the scheme, which is operated by Beryl, and we are working together to restore the availability of bikes as soon as possible. The Topper was a UK comic published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd that ran from 7 February 1953 to 15 September 1990, when it merged with The Beezer.We would appeal to the small minority of people are misusing the bikes to please respect them and help us ensure our bikes remain available for other people to use.

If you ever had doubts – this is the show to see to regain your strength. The energy and imagination that this company show can only be applauded.’ ( Spare Rib) To make your home practise session as engaging for your child as possible, our literacy test comes complete with lovely illustrations accompanying each of the fun texts. This means that our test will provide a more enjoyable way for your child to practise and test their literacy skills. That May interview had ended on a positive note with Baxter saying: “At the moment we're operating with between 800 and 1000 bikes for 2000 stands. And by the end of the month we will have our full capacity of stands to go, in theory, to the 1,500 bikes that we're targeting.”In many of our schemes we own the system,” he said, “Beryl own the system and deliver the service on behalf of the local authority. In Greater Manchester that's not the case. TfGM owns the system. TfGM delivers the journeys. Everybody who is a customer of the bikes is a customer of TfGM. We're really there to deliver that and lend our experience and build the system and the products and the technology that we've had from elsewhere, but we're doing it on behalf of TfGM. From a commercial point of view, that's a pretty common approach to the big mayoral cities. So that contractual approach is how London works, it's how the West Midlands works, it's how Greater Manchester works.”

My dad used to discuss the script and I don't remember him ever saying, 'Oh, that's anti social. I don't like her doing that'.

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When creator David Law left the strip, it was taken over by Bob McGrath and later John Dallas, then Robert Nixon. In 1999 she was heavily revamped by Karl Dixon, but in 2006 artist Steve Bright restored her original appearance. This resource contains a number of different reading texts. Each text is split up into short sections to make them more manageable for younger readers. Alongside each section of the text, there are a series of accompanying questions that are appropriate for year 1 children. To complete the literacy test, kids must carefully read the passages and answer the questions appropriately. What’s clear is that, as with the Mobike scheme, there are problems with Beryl bikes. We want this scheme to succeed, the city region probably needs it to succeed in terms of reputation and carrying forward its Bee Network plans. It would have been great for the system to be working fully in time for the start of Manchester International Festival on 29 June. That doesn't look remotely likely. In September 1990, it was decided to merge the Topper with another of D. C. Thomson's long-running comics, The Beezer and the two comics combined as Beezer and Topper. This continued in publication until 1993; it subsequently closed, with a small amount of content from the combined comic subsequently relocating into other D. C. Thomson publications The Beano and The Dandy.