Jinty and Penny 1 November 1980

Cover artist: Mario Capaldi

Contents in this issue:

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Girl the World Forgot (artist and writer Veronica Weir)
• Tears of a Clown (artist Phil Gascoine) – final episode
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
• Behind the Screen: Robin’s Nest
• The Secret of Covent House (artist Peter Wilkes) – Gypsy Rose story
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Sue’s Daily Dozen (artist José Casanovas)
• Winning Ways #31: The Lob (writer Benita Brown)
• Child of the Rain (artist Phil Townsend)

“Winning Ways” is running a lot of tennis tips. This must be because of Jinty’s tennis story, “Child of the Rain”. Next week a netball story, “Life’s a Ball for Nadine” starts, so it will not be surprising if we start seeing some netball tips in “Winning Ways”.

Nadine will replace “Tears of a Clown”, which ends this week. Last week Jinty promised an emotional ending, which she delivers with Kathy coming home from her time on the run and allowed to keep her new dog. She is astonished to find all the new-improved attitudes from the girls who bullied her and her parents and teachers who failed her. From then on, Kathy progresses so well at school, including becoming the star of the school cross country team with her running talent, that her parents let her throw her first-ever party and treat her to a trendy makeover. At the party Kathy celebrates her new look by ripping up a photo of the old gawky one.

One reader wrote in to say that the ending had her in tears; she thought “Tears of a Clown” was one of Jinty’s best ever and hoped all her future serials would be just as good. Indeed, this story would still stand up today because the bullying issues it commented on still prevail. (How about a reprint, Rebellion?)

Tansy of Jubilee Street and Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost deal with this being Jinty’s Guy Fawkes issue. Spoilsport Dad won’t let Tansy have fireworks or a bonfire; he can be a bit mean at times. Then Tansy finds the school could be the answer. They are willing to provide the bonfire, but the class has to raise the money for the fireworks because the school can’t. So it’s the penny-for-the-guy routine, and with Jubilee Street you can only expect hijinks along the way. The story has been uploaded onto the Ken Houghton page in the panel gallery. Meanwhile, Gaye’s father is willing to have the bonfire, but he can’t afford the fireworks either. So Gaye is using Sir Roger for the penny-for-the-guy routine to raise the money, which he finds a bit undignified. Of course this also leads to hijinks.

It’s Shona’s birthday, which she is trying to celebrate as best she can while marooned on the island. But given her circumstances, it can’t be anything but bittersweet. Meanwhile, Shona’s parents honour her birthday, even though they think she’s dead. If only they knew.

For once, the Gypsy Rose story is an original instead of a recycled Strange Story. New owners move into Covent House, next door to Mary Jones, but there is something strange about them. And they are reacting very oddly to Mary’s cat, Rye. Then Rye mysteriously disappears, yet Mary gets an odd calling from him to come…where she finds him in the centre of some…witches’ coven?

Witchcraft features on a more savoury basis in “Sue’s Daily Dozen”, though Sue is still not convinced of that. And the Daily Dozen does look a bit angry with her for doubting it.

Jemma is banned from the tennis club when a jealous rival frames her for stealing. She needs to find another way to train, and luckily, she finds a disused tennis court next door. But who can she use for a training partner?

The Pond Hill French camping trip is not doing too well, and then it takes a mysterious turn when a strange boy steals Fred’s shirt. We get the feeling the boy is a runaway, and whatever trouble he’s in will drag the Pond Hill campers down with him – but to what?

Jinty and Penny 18 October 1980

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Girl the World Forgot (artist and writer Veronica Weir)
• Tears of a Clown (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
• Snoopa (artist Joe Collins)
• Behind the Screen: It’s a Knockout (feature)
• The House of Hate and Happiness (artist Giorgio Giorgetti) – Gypsy Rose story
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Sue’s Daily Dozen (artist José Casanovas)
• Winning Ways #29: The Forehand Volley (writer Benita Brown)
• Child of the Rain (artist Phil Townsend)

This week we’ve got a very nice go-kart cover from Mario Capaldi. Jinty sure didn’t hesitate from showing girls in sports and activities that are considered venturesome and daring, which is a nice touch of feminism.

Pam of Pond Hill and nine other classmates are gearing up for the school trip to France. But Diana’s younger sister Alison is so jealous that she’s throwing tantrums and pulling dirty tricks to stop them getting there. It looks like she might actually succeed when she locks one of the chaperones in a storeroom and throws the key down the drain. What a horrible kid, but it’s the parents’ fault for spoiling her and being overprotective of her instead of disciplinary.

Shona risks life and limb to rescue her dog Scuffer when he gets bowled over a cliff and lands on a ledge. Next, she and Scuffer sail off on a makeshift raft to hopefully get rescued and see if her parents did survive, which she does not know one way or other.

Kathy the clown is on the run after the relentless bullying drove her away. If only she could see the effects it’s having on her tormentors. It has shocked them all into guilt and shame, and they’ve turned against Sandra, the ringleader of all it all. Sandra, once she’s had a taste of being the class outcast herself, is also remorseful and her redeeming qualities are coming out after being nothing but spiteful.

Meanwhile, Kathy has made a friend, a mutt she has named Mutt. Then Sandra spots them from the train and will set out in search of them next week. But how will that work out? After all, Sandra cruelly tricked Kathy once before with a false show of friendship and remorse.

“Child of the Rain” tries to run away too, in order to get to a place in Britain where rain is forecast. Luckily for her, the drought breaks at home and she’s got rain again.

Tansy tries out a conjuring book. Unfortunately she ends up doing a disappearing trick (not one from the book) after one of her tricks backfires, and she doesn’t have a trick to make her wrathful father disappear.

In “Sue’s Daily Dozen”, real magic creates a house cleaner that makes every speck of dirt fall off in one big black curtain that goes right down the walls and disappear. Now that can be called a disappearing trick!

The Gypsy Rose story is another recycled Strange Story, drawn by Giorgio Giorgetti. Ruth Newton moves into a new house, but there seems to be some sort of weird time travel thing going on when she finds a boy who keeps crying because his parents are always squabbling over painting: Dad wants to pursue art while Mum nags at him that it won’t pay the bills, so go out and get a real job. It turns out the boy is none other than the real estate agent who sold them the house, but now he’s a grown man!

Gaye needs help with improving her gymnastics because of an upcoming school display. Sir Roger helps out, but he thinks that what Gaye really needs is confidence. It looks like he’s right there, but then things go a bit wrong…

Jinty and Penny 20 September 1980

Cover artist: Mario Capaldi

Contents in this issue:

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Girl the World Forgot (artist and writer Veronica Weir)
• Tears of a Clown (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
• Behind the Screen: Charlie’s Angels
• Wheels of Fate (artist John Armstrong) Gypsy Rose story
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• A Spell of Trouble (artist Trini Tinturé) – final episode
• Child of the Rain (artist Phil Townsend)

Looks like Betty, the sports mistress from the future serial “Life’s a Ball for Nadine”, is supervising the javelin on the cover. Well, it does look rather like Betty.

The trouble in “A Spell of Trouble” solves itself in a four-page finale, which looks like it has bumped “Winning Ways” this week. The witches, who have been pressing Angela to become a witch, find out – the hard way – that making Angela White a witch is only a recipe for disaster because she’s such a bungling menace. So they restore the Blacks’ powers, but please, please, keep Angela as a non-witch from now on! And now that’s all been sorted out, Angela and Carrie can become friends. In two weeks’ time Jinty will start another witchcraft story, “Sue’s Daily Dozen”, which will be the last witch serial she will ever run.

Everyone in Pam’s class is vying for the ten places on the French trip. Even the class larrikins Fred and Terry are, but only once they find out it will mean missing the last week of term. Those two will do anything to get out of some lessons – even swotting up French and crawling to the French teacher. But then Pam notices that something seems to be bothering her friend Tracy…

Shona finds out she is now the girl the world forgot: a radio broadcast announces that she has been presumed dead and the search for her has been called off. Tantalisingly, it does not inform her whether her parents survived or not. At least Shona finds the island is kitted out for survival, with a source of fresh water and an abandoned croft, and she’s got other company on the island – a talking crow.

In “Tears of a Clown”, Kathy’s respite from the bullying is over. The bullying is back now, and it’s worse than ever. Then the upcoming sports day gives Kathy new hope to prove her running talent. But considering her luck in proving it so far, she might be wise not to set her hopes too high. And what about spiteful Sandra, the bully who keeps thwarting Kathy’s efforts to prove her talent?

Tansy and the gang from Jubilee Street go off to apprehend some smugglers – only to find they were just actors for a television show. Fortunately their interference makes the scene even better, so it will be retained and they will see themselves on television next week.

Jemma’s strange problem with rain gets her withdrawn from the school tennis team. And now it’s about to land her in big trouble with her teacher!

Sir Roger’s bragging about how brave he is, but just how brave is he really? He apprehends some burglars, but it’s due more to hijinks and dumb luck than courage.

The Gypsy Rose story is yet another recycled John Armstrong Strange Story from Tammy. Gail Hawkins goes on holiday with her uncle and aunt. She is plagued by a constantly passing lorry, but no lorry has been allowed on that road since one caused a fatal accident some years back. And it is a French lorry, just like the one that caused the accident…but there can’t be such things as ghost lorries, surely?

Jinty and Penny 13 September 1980

Cover artist: Mario Capaldi

Contents in this issue:

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Girl the World Forgot (artist and writer Veronica Weir)
• Tears of a Clown (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
• Back to School! (craft feature)
• Phantom of the Fells (artist John Armstrong) Gypsy Rose story
• Behind the Screen: Grange Hill
• A Spell of Trouble (artist Trini Tinturé)
• Winning Ways #25: Tennis – the Grip (writer Benita Brown)
• Child of the Rain (artist Phil Townsend)

Jinty commemorates it being “back to school” after the summer holidays with a “back to school” craft page and doing a feature on Grange Hill for “Behind the Screen”.

At Pond Hill, school’s much happier because a school camping trip to France is planned. Pam’s so enthused that she’s boning up on her French, much to Miss Peeble’s surprise. But there’s one problem: the school can only take ten pupils because that’s all the room there is in their vehicle. So there is no guarantee Pam will even go.

In “Child of the Rain”, Jemma’s odd reaction to rain is causing a real nuisance at school and she’s running the risk of letting the school tennis team down because of it.

School is now looking up for Kathy the class clown because her classmates decide Sandra has gone too far and start protecting her from Sandra’s bullying. But Kathy loses that protection when her clumsiness turns a classmate’s party into custard and a stereo system is wrecked! Now it’s back to square one for her, and we are warned that the bullying will grow even worse next week.

“A Spell of Trouble” is on its penultimate episode. The witches find out Angela is still not a witch and carry out their threat to strip the Blacks of their powers because of it. But when Angela sees how hard this is on her Black relatives because they’ve never gotten by any other way except witchcraft, she decides to become a witch after all, for their sakes. She doesn’t think it’s going to be that easy, though, and we have a feeling she’s right.

Shona becomes the “Girl the World Forgot” once the searchers find her empty life raft and draw the apparent conclusion that she is dead. Nobody knows that Shona and her dog Scuffer are in fact washed up on a deserted island and waiting for rescue.

Aunt Agnes comes to stay at Stoney Hall, and she’s so house-proud she insists on cleaning everything in sight, while Sir Roger likes it dusty and cobwebby.

Tansy’s holiday gets even weirder when she and June find their way out of the cave they got lost in and find a gang of smugglers – in pirate costumes(?). She runs to the other Jubilee Street residents to get help in rounding them up.

This week’s Gypsy Rose is another recycled John Armstrong Strange Story, which is reprinted from Tammy. An arrogant mountaineer learns that the fells should not be underestimated, even if they are “flea bites” compared to the mountains she’s climbed, and they can be dangerous for those who do not know them. She learns that dogs should not be underestimated either. But we wonder what her opinion on ghosts will be after this episode?

Jinty and Penny 30 August 1980

Cover artist: Mario Capaldi

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Tears of a Clown (artist Phil Gascoine)
• A Spell of Trouble (artist Trini Tinturé)
• Black Rory’s Curse (artist John Armstrong) – Gypsy Rose story
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
• Behind the Screen: Happy Days (feature)
• Minnow (artist Peter Wilkes) – final episode
• Winning Ways #24: A Squat Vault (writer Benita Brown)
• Blind Faith (artist Phil Townsend) – final episode
• Alley Cat (artist Rob Lee)

On the cover we see Betty, the sports mistress from the future serial “Life’s a Ball for Nadine”, supervising the high jump. Oh, just kidding! But the sports mistress does bear a striking resemblance to Betty.

In the letter column there is a letter from one reader saying she cuts out the “Winning Ways” and gives them to her P.E. teacher, who pins them on the gymnasium wall. Benita Brown must have been so chuffed.

Both “Blind Faith” and “Minnow” finish this issue. Clare has to forfeit her win because she entered under false pretences, but she has made her point about Cromwell being able to jump despite his blindness, so he’s safe now. Minna has to do a life-or-death swim to shore to get away from her kidnappers, which is a real test for a girl who’s only recently learned to swim. Her escape can be viewed on the Peter Wilkes page in the panel gallery.

Their replacements next week are “Girl the World Forgot” and a new Phil Townsend sports story, “Child of the Rain”, which, come to think of it, was Jinty’s one and only tennis story. “Girl the World Forgot” is a castaway story, something that Jinty has not used since her earliest days with “Desert Island Daisy“, but it clearly takes the theme seriously, while Daisy used it for laughs.

Spiteful Sandra is at her worst this week to make sure Kathy stays “the clown”, and it makes this episode a really cruel one. Under cover of pretend kindness, she tricks Kathy into eating too much food to stop her demonstrating her running talent at the sports centre. And just look at the monstrous amounts of food she’s coercing poor Kathy to eat. Talk about gavage!

Pam guesses who has taken her witch ball and resorts to some sneakiness to get it back – while tricking the thief into making a fool of herself and cheer up her depressed gran into the bargain.

This week Tansy discovers just how superstitious the residents of Jubilee Street are. Although she herself remains a sceptic, she eventually decides to bone up on superstitions for luck: “better safe than sorry!”

Sir Roger thinks modern people don’t know how to make others suffer through torture these days. But after a trip to the funfair and trying out its rides, he changes his mind.

This week’s Gypsy Rose story is another recycled Strange Story, which originally appeared in June. It treats Jinty readers to some John Armstrong artwork. The old maxim “you can’t take it with you” is put to the test with Black Rory, a robber baron who was so greedy that not even death would make him part with his ill-gotten loot; he had himself buried in full armour in a stone room with all his riches. It looks like being beyond the grave is not stopping his greed either, because his spirit is taking possession of generous Carly and making her insatiably greedy. And then he disappears from the stone room altogether…to spread even more greed…?

Angela’s off to a boarding school, and Carrie goes along to ensure her bungling cousin stays there. But it all backfires in the end and they’re still stuck with Angela.

Jinty and Penny 4 October 1980

Cover artist: Mario Capaldi

Stories in this issue:

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Girl the World Forgot (artist and writer Veronica Weir)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Tears of a Clown (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
• ‘A Call for Help’ – Gypsy Rose story (artist Terry Aspin)
• Behind the Screen: Return of the Saint
• Sue’s Daily Dozen (artist José Casanovas) – first episode
• Winning Ways 27: Tennis – the Forehand Drive (writer Benita Brown)
• Child of the Rain (artist Phil Townsend)

Pam’s friend Tracie is all of a tizzy – she’s terrified of her mum walking out on the family. The obvious question is, why would she do that to them? It’s a serious worry: her mum is increasingly fed up with her home life and actively threatens to leave them. Of course it’s causing Tracie no end of worries on a daily basis but it also means there is no way she wants to come on the class trip to France. Pam’s cheerful mother thinks it’ll never come to that point, but when Tracie gets home after school one day and finds that her mother has packed a bag and got on the 3 o’clock bus it seems like quite a different matter!

Shona is the “Girl the World Forgot”, trying to survive on a deserted Scottish island. Some seals give her a pleasant surprise and she forgets her worries in swimming with them. But when the night comes and she is alone in the croft she has found, she seems not to be alone after all…

Kathy is trying hard to prove herself as a runner to her classmates and her teachers, but bad luck and the bullying nature of the horrible Sandra Simkins mean everything is against her. Even the obstacle race is a shameful experience for her – so bad that she vows to run away. At least her speed in running will help here there!

The Gypsy Rose story is clearly drawn specially for Jinty as it’s by Terry Aspin throughout in a matching style. Kay’s little sister Jenny has an imaginary friend called Mary who rings her on the toy phone – but one night the toy phone really does ring and Mary pleads for help because the hospital she is in is burning down! It turns out to be a hospital for toys, very fittingly. Gypsy Rose introduces the story and rounds it off at the end, rather than being one of the characters in the story itself as she sometimes is – but her appearance outside the burned toy factory in the last two panels makes it clear that she inhabits the same world as the stories she tells, that is, they are really real as far as she is concerned.

In the first episode of “Sue’s Daily Dozen” Sue Baker is feeling left-out as the only newcomer to the village. In the house that her dad is busy doing up, she finds a mysterious set of items that help her to integrate into village life – an old cooking pot, a ‘Daily Dozen’ book, and a spoon. Suspiciously witchy-sounding? But the first recipe, of some little cakes, turn out smashingly – but they do seem to be causing people who eat them to act a little… oddly.

Jemma West learns yoga from her serendipitous guest but when the rain comes down again she still can’t control herself enough, and she loses a big chance.

Jinty and Penny 6 September 1980

Stories in this issue:

(Cover artist: Mario Capaldi)

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Girl the World Forgot (artist and Veronica Weir) – first episode
• Tears of a Clown (artist Phil Gascoine)
• The Swim For Life: A Jinty and Penny Special Story (artist John Armstrong)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
• Unscheduled Stop – Gypsy Rose story (artist John Armstrong)
• Mork ‘n’ Mindy: Behind The Screen (Feature)
• A Spell Of Trouble (artist Trini Tinturé)
• Child of the Rain (artist Phil Townsend) – first episode

Many thanks to Derek Marsden for the copy of this issue, which he kindly sent on to me.

Pam is on a roll – her ‘witch ball’ brings her luck or so she thinks, and indeed it seems to be the case. By returning it to its rightful owner, her school benefits from help to go on a school trip to France (which leads us on to a whole other set of stories).

“Girl The World Forgot” starts this issue. Initially it looks like an adventure story with a castaway plot, but later on it turns spooky. It is beautifully drawn by Veronica Weir, and through a comment on this blog we found out that it was also written by her too – one of only a very few cases where we know the artist and writer were the same person.

Kathy Clowne is bullied by Sandra Simkins, as so often in her time at school. This time Sandra paints Kathy’s face in greasepaint to make her up in clownface. Not realizing that this has happened, Kathy snaps when a teacher comments ‘What have you done to your face?’ and of course a punishment now looms – even though really it is all Sandra’s fault.

“The Swim For Life” is referred to as a ‘special story’ – it’s a complete two-page story that is presumably reprinted from an earlier title, but unusually it doesn’t fit into the mold of a Strange Story which was normally changed into a Gypsy Rose one. This one is a straightforward adventure story with a brave dog saving the brother and sister who went out in a speedboat and got into difficulties. There are no supernatural elements though, unlike in the Gypsy Rose story “The Unscheduled Stop” – which is likewise by John Armstrong. In this latter story, Jenny Shaw’s parents are arguing non-stop, until an unscheduled train stop shows her the reason in their earlier history for their bitterness, and a way to fix their future.

The letters page this week includes a letter from Sophie Jackson, a science fiction fan, who loved “Land of No Tears” and asked for more SF like that story and “The Human Zoo”. She also specifically said how much she liked the artist who drew both stories and also others such as “Black Sheep of the Bartons” and “Pandora’s Box”, and wanted more by that artist. Perhaps this was part of the reason why the Jinty editors commissioned “Worlds Apart”, also drawn by Guy Peeters?

(I also take this opportunity to comment on the fact that the form that you were supposed to send in with your letters, saying which your favourite stories were, has an issue number printed on it which is otherwise not shown elsewhere. This issue is number 320.)

Finally, it’s also the first episode of spooky-mysterious tennis story, “Child of the Rain”. Drawn by Phil Townsend, this story is flavoured with elements of the South American rainforest, which lends it particular interest in my eyes as I was living in South America at precisely this time. Despite this attraction, I have to admit it’s not the strongest story ever. Jemma West is a keen tennis player and hates the rain because it stops her playing – that is, until an accident in the rain forest, after which she starts to love the rain and to find it gives her extra strength and energy. It shares some similarities with “Spirit of the Lake” (mystery / supernatural elements, and sporting details) which we think is likely to have been written by Benita Brown – I wonder therefore if this story also might have been penned by the same writer.

Jinty and Penny 25 October 1980

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Girl the World Forgot (artist and writer Veronica Weir)
• Tears of a Clown (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
• Behind the Screen – Dallas
• Dawn of a New Era – Gypsy Rose Story (artist Ken Houghton)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Sue’s Daily Dozen (artist José Casanovas)
• Winning Ways 30 (writer Benita Brown)
• Child of the Rain (artist Phil Townsend)
• Bake a Sunshine Cake! (feature)

This is another of my favourite covers from Mario Capaldi. What does it for me is the use of the reds, oranges and yellows serving as complementary colours to the blues and greens.

Pam starts out on her trip to France, and things are not exactly going without a hitch. Diana’s jealous sister Alison nearly wrecks their departure by locking Miss Larks in a storeroom and throwing the key down the drain. While crossing the Channel, the class larrikins Fred and Terry heave over the side of the ferry because they made pigs of themselves (and we later learn they were never allowed to forget it!). And now a strange boy is shadowing their camping trip in France. And that’s just their first episode of their trip to France.

The girl the world forgot tries to escape, but killer whales drive her back to the island. Once back at the croft, she gets the impression someone is trying to drive her out – all her gear has been thrown out, the croft rearranged to how it originally was, but there is nobody else to be seen.

It’s the penultimate episode of “Tears of a Clown”. Kathy’s time on the run comes to an end, and she thinks she is going back to the misery and bullying that drove her to run off. She does not yet know how much attitudes have changed in her absence.

In “Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost”, Sir Roger feigns amnesia to sort out bossy-boots Gaye. Once Gaye finds out, it’s hijinks as she starts playing Sir Roger at his own game. And there are more hijinks in Jubilee Street when Tansy tries overhauling an old bike to raise the money to overhaul her own one – only to find the overhauls on the old bike eating up her profit.

Sue still isn’t convinced the Daily Dozen isn’t evil, and now it looks like the Daily Dozen is about to teach Sue a lesson for doubting it.

“Child of the Rain” now has a new problem – a jealous rival named Sharon. And Sharon is out to spoil things for her next week.

Jinty and Penny 11 October 1980

Cover artist: Mario Capaldi

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over
• Girl the World Forgot (artist and writer Veronica Weir)
• Tears of a Clown (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
• Only Time will Tell – Gypsy Rose story (artist Diane Gabbot)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Sue’s Daily Dozen (artist José Casanovas)
• Child of the Rain (artist Phil Townsend)
• Snoopa (artist Joe Collins)

In Pam of Pond Hill, the reason why Tracy is so worried about her mother is resolved in a very dramatic manner – she goes into hysterics because she thinks her mother has run off! Pam says this is one moment in her strip that she does not want to be reminded of. But at least the episode ends on a happy note for Pam because her name is among the ten selected for the French trip. However, the blurb for next week warns us that the departure will not be smooth sailing.

Meanwhile, in “Tears of a Clown”, bullied Kathy finally cracks and runs away for real. The story has now reached its climax. The stage is also set for the resolution, because Kathy’s flight has had some consequences she did not expect. She finally proved her running talent after the sports teacher saw her run away, and her parents and headmistress realise how badly they have failed her. But what about the bullies who picked on Kathy? Some of them look worried when they see Kathy run off and wonder if she has been pushed too far. But not the ringleader, Sandra, who has always been the most spiteful of the pack.

Shona, the “Girl the World Forgot”, is getting concerned about the spooky goings-on she is experiencing on the island she is stranded on. And now her dog’s been knocked over a cliff! Gemma, the “Child of the Rain” is trying to keep herself from wilting during a drought and none of the rain that gives her a strange energy. She ends up making do with a lawn sprinkler, much to her dad’s chagrin. “Sue’s Daily Dozen” has the headmistress and a former teacher acting like little girls after tasting the totties treats from the Daily Dozen. Next, Sue is making a cleaning solution out of the Daily Dozen.

Sir Roger gets a new haunting post, but is finding it too tough. He gets the sack by pretending to be scared of humans – but when he gets back to Gaye’s he finds he really is scared of them. Tansy is getting remarks that she’s ugly. She takes it too personally and tries to beautify herself, but her efforts are getting her into more scrapes.

Jinty & Penny 22 November 1980

(Cover artist: Mario Capaldi)

• Pam of Pond Hill (writer Jay Over, artist Bob Harvey)
• Girl the World Forgot (artist and writer Veronica Weir)
• Sue’s Daily Dozen (artist José Casanovas)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
• Behind the Screen: Tiswas (feature)
• Wheels of Fortune – Gypsy Rose story (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Life’s a Ball for Nadine (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Winning Ways 34: Netball – catching
• Child of the Rain – final episode (artist Phil Townsend)
• Up, Up and Away! (feature)

It’s the final episode of “Child of the Rain”. It is finally revealed that what gave Gemma such incredible strength when it rains is now threatening her very life because it infected her leg. When conventional medicine fails, all hopes are pinned on Dad’s medicine man friend in the Amazon.

The tension intensifies in “Girl the World Forgot” when it looks like the unfriendly presence on the island has now become so unfriendly that attempts are now being made on Shona’s life. And to make it worse, Shona blows her chance of rescue and escape by lighting her beacon for Guy Fawkes – only to have a ship pass by next day and no beacon with which to signal for its help! But the growing menace gives you the impression that the story is now building towards its climax.

Phil Gascoine rarely illustrated a Gypsy Rose story, but he does so here with “Wheels of Fortune”, about a car and a mascot who bring good fortune to their family. But, as Dad discovers (though he does not admit it), bad fortune comes if the family abandons them. Gascoine was between serials at this point, so perhaps that was why he was commissioned to draw this story.

In “Pam of Pond Hill”, Mr Glover the French teacher finds himself being arrested by the gendarmes because they think he kidnapped the mystery boy who has been hanging around the French school trip! The blurb for next week says the gang are going to have a day to remember. Let’s hope that’s not because they are all going to end up in the Bastille or something.

Nadine now counts herself in on the netball team and she’s Goal Attack! But she’s still thinking more of disco. And the Daily Dozen provides Sue with a witch’s outfit to go with her cauldron and potion making. When the villagers see, they applaud the old witch Gran Hayden and her Daily Dozen. Now that makes a delightful change from superstitious villagers hating and persecuting girls they believe to be witches, as they do in “Wenna the Witch” and “Mark of the Witch!“.