BBC’s Comedy Map Of Britain – Newcastle

By John Freeman on 11 May 2008

The BBC2 programme The Comedy Map of Britain turned its attention to the North East of England for the third programme of the second series.

Having previously been to the impressive century old headquarters of D C Thomson in Dundee to cover the Beano, this time they went to a terraced house in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne’s Jesmond district.

Not just any terraced house of course but the one owned by the parents of Simon and Chris Donald – parents who were blissfully unaware of their off-spring creating Viz in their front bedroom. There, the brothers reveal that the way they avoided showing their parents a copy of the comic was to keep telling them that it had sold out.

Selected clips are available on the programme’s website. To view the clip from Jesmond, select the Newcastle To Leeds programme and The Viz Boys Return To Jesmond clip.

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.