Beryl the Peril 1967

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Unfinished Histories would like to thank them for their generous time in helping us draw together the above material. The third was illustrated by Nik Holmes and consisted of Beryl contacting old friends through Facebook and featured cameos of past Dandy and Topper characters such as Tricky Dicky, Mickey the Monkey and Smasher.

Like Dennis, she had black and red apparel, and devilishly tormented her parents and other members of her community. Although Beryl is often perceived as a troublemaker similar to Dennis the Menace and Minnie the Minx, her personality changed several times. Notably, she was the only Beezer and Topper character to transfer to The Dandy as soon as the former comic folded. This causes a chain effect in which other famous characters from The Dandy – including Korky the Cat, Desperate Dan and Bananaman – also unfriend her father, much to his dismay. The final strip was drawn by Nigel Auchterlounie and finished with Beryl deciding to un-Like her father on Facebook.The original incarnation of The Perils ‘imploded’ in 1986 following an argument between the cast during the get-in at The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, where they were booked to perform Dead or Alive. 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.

This formula had previously been used on another Dandy character, Dinah Mo, who had been dropped from the comic after the death of her last artist, Pete Moonie. In this strip, she is enjoying the Dandy swimming pool alongside other famous past Dandy characters. She reverted to her black and red clothes and her hairstyle became much more like that of Dennis the Menace - but her pigtails remained. When creator David Law left the strip, it was taken over by Bob McGrath and later John Dallas, then Robert Nixon.This formation resulted in controversy when Denise and Reb both became pregnant and [would have had difficulty in participating in a planned European tour] were reluctantly asked to leave].

Beryl also attended Dennis the Menace's 50th birthday party, although she was a latecomer so she didn't actually participate in any of the party games or fights prior. 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. The original company went onto to create Nuts a show about women and mental health and the sexual inequality of treatment within the mental health services.

It was fabulous fun and touring in your own bus and being given the privilege of expressing yourself and being paid for, who could ask for anything better? The first was drawn by Steve Beckett and saw Beryl informing her father that her adventures would now continue via Facebook in which she, very much in character, smashed her father's face with a book. After a break the original Perils, Claudia, Christine and Didi reformed to create Dead or Alive, which included material about Greenham Common and Chernobyl and the environment. In a segment entitled "What's in Cheryl's hair," a menacing-looking girl with pigtails is seen peeking out. Her costume changed at some point in the mid-1980s from her red top underneath a black dress to a blue and white striped jumper underneath a red dress.

Each performer brought self generated material to rehearsals and this was then composed into a song and/or devised into a sketch.As revealed in The Dandy dated 3 March 2006, Steve Bright had taken over Beryl as artist and she had now reverted to how she was drawn by David Law, and had gone through another costume change - a baggy green and red T-shirt with baggy black jeans and trainers. It was around this time where the scripts began to take more of a domestic approach, and started to revolve more around Beryl's relationship with her dad. And that was what was so extraordinary, there was a kind of a crest of a wave and we were on it and we didn’t ask to be put there, but we were just there and we represented our women’s thoughts and stories and feelings by using what was personal to us. 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. Acknowledgements: This webpage was constructed by Lucie Regan from an interview with Didi Hopkins (Founder and Company Member 1978 – 1986) and Claudia Boulton (Founder and Company Member 1978 – 1986).