Tammy 28 February 1976

Cover artist John Richardson

Sarah in the Shadows – (artist Mario Capaldi)

Sit It Out, Sheri – (artist John Armstrong)

The Spanish Knight (artist Manuel Benet) – The Strange Story

Pancake Recipes – feature 

Claire’s Airs and Graces – artist Hugh Thornton-Jones

Bessie Bunter

Molly Mills and the Aviator – artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon

Wee Sue – artist John Armstrong

The Fairground of Fear – artist Diane Gabbot(t)

A Lead Through Twilight – (artist Douglas Perry)

Pancake Fun Time

In honour of Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Day, we bring you a Tammy that commemorated it. The Cover Girls start things off. Oh dear, talk about a burnt offering. Inside, Tammy provides recipes for pancakes. Let us hope that anyone who tried the recipes had better luck than little sis on the cover. Tammy finishes off Pancake Tuesday with a page of pancake jokes on the back cover. They are probably reprinted from some other Pancake Tuesday issue. 

Over the previous three issues, Tammy had progressively started five new stories in honour of her fifth birthday issue. But that’s over now, and all five stories are up and running.

The first to open was “Sarah in the Shadows”. Sarah is trying to raise the money to get her uncle out of debtor’s prison, but she is fast learning that greedy types, particularly the debt prison governor, are making as much money as they can out of her and any money she tries to raise. This is giving her no chance at all to clear the debt. We get the feeling that even if Sarah does clear the debt, her uncle will never be free with that prison governor around.

Starting in the same issue was “A Lead Through Twilight”. Carol is trying to conceal that her sight is failing because she is terrified her sourpuss Uncle Matt will pack her off as useless. Really, how long can you hide a thing like that? And how long can Carol hide the stray dog, Twilight, who she is using as a guide dog, from Uncle Matt, who hates dogs? Not long. People have already detected both secrets, and we’re only four episodes in. 

The next issue started the next two stories, “Sit it Out, Sheri” and “The Fairground of Fear”.

In the former, Sheri’s having problems with her see-sawing confidence from the strange chair she has acquired. It’s swinging from one end of the pendulum to the other, from arrogance to her old wallflower self who couldn’t say boo to a goose. And now her horrible stepmother is trying to sell the chair off. Sheri managed to stall the buyer this time, but he’ll be back. 

In the latter, the snobbish Sir Whitland is out to get rid of the fair after Julie has an accident there, and he sends in a magistrate to do the job. But the Fairground of Fear won’t be closed down so easily with that creepy clown around, who traps the magistrate in a terrifying hall of mirrors! 

“Claire’s Airs and Graces” was the last of the five, starting in the previous issue. It was the only serial Hugh Thornton-Jones drew for Tammy. His artwork for Tammy was seen more often in Wee Sue later on, along with some Strange stories and one complete story (the only Hugh Thornton-Jones story to receive a credit during Tammy’s credits run, which is how we know his name). Claire is pretending at her new school that she comes from a posh background when in fact her parents have suddenly gone down in the world. But close calls, complications and prices to pay for the sham are already starting. 

A snooty type, Sylvia Hill, is causing trouble in Wee Sue when the class is on holiday at Craigmore Sports Centre. As with Claire, it turns out Sylvia is living a lie and fooling the other girls into thinking she’s a posh girl. Sue figures Sylvia out but graciously helps her to put things right. Incidentally, the episode gives Wee Sue’s height as four feet, assuming it’s not a figure of speech. 

In Bessie Bunter, Cook is having problems with a new soup tureen and all food’s on hold until she works out what. The girls have to cook their own, and Bessie is demonstrating that she is brilliant at eating food but terrible at cooking it! Nobody realises it’s due to a faulty gardening syringe, which accidentally squirted plant food into the tureen. 

In the Strange Story, a strange Spanish knight helps Maria Fernandez and her family out of financial trouble and gruelling jobs by leading her to a find of Spanish coins. But who was the knight, once Maria establishes it’s not her brother playing Don Quixote again?

Lord Stanton’s niece Serena is an aviatrix who is brilliant at landing – in trouble. This time she’s got Molly and herself locked up by a nasty bloke called Arnold Wharton, who is very interested in her plane. Charlie manages to get Molly out, but they run into more trouble while getting away. Meanwhile, Wharton still has Serena. There is also something very odd about him, and it’s increasingly suspicious.  

Tammy 24 April 1976

Cover artist: John Richardson

• Sarah in the Shadows (artist Mario Capaldi) – final episode
• Sit It out, Sheri (artist John Armstrong) – final episode
• Luck of the Draw (artist Juliana Buch) – Strange Story
• Claire’s Airs and Graces (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Bessie Bunter
• Molly Mills and the Secret Offer (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
• Wee Sue (artist John Richardson)
• The Fairground of Fear (artist Diane Gabbot) – final episode
• A Lead through Twilight (artist Douglas Perry) – final episode

 

This is Tammy’s Easter issue from 1976. You might feel sorry for the younger Cover Girl, who gets a much smaller egg than her big sister. But on many covers she is the one who is the bane of her older sister. Inside, Tammy commemorates Easter with an Easter competition, “Easter Fun Parade” (Easter-themed jokes on the back cover), and Bessie Bunter. Cliff House revives old Easter customs: pie scrambling and orange rolling. Bessie wants to get in on the action, but of course it’s for eating rather than participating. Bessie’s classmates roll her lemons to teach her a lesson, and she cops a mouthful of lemon before she realises what they are. However, Miss Stackpole takes pity on Bessie’s miserable lemon face and rolls her a huge Easter egg to give her a happy ending.

In the Strange Story, Joanne Lyons is taught a lesson about greed, but not for Easter eggs. After Joanne takes a horseshoe (she mistakenly thought it was stealing), she finds herself oddly haunted by horseshoes, especially when she tries to cheat or gets greedy.

In Tammy’s 5^th birthday issue she started a lineup of five new stories over three issues as “birthday gifts”. In this issue four of them end, which opens up a lineup of four new stories in the next issue. Not surprisingly, Bella Barlow is in the lineup.

Throughout “Sarah in the Shadows”, Sarah Cole has been using her talent for paper cut-outs to get out of all sorts of scrapes. In the final episode this week it includes saving the life of music hall star Tilly Travers and bringing down Tilly’s evil partner, Mr Ford, who is in cahoots with the corrupt debtors’ prison governor. For reasons that are not satisfactorily explained, they are both determined to destroy Sarah and keep her unfortunate uncle in debtors’ prison. But now they are exposed, Tilly says she will make sure they never work again, and gives Sarah and her uncle jobs.

John Armstrong’s current story, “Sit it out Sheri”, makes extremely liberal use of the myth of Marie Antoinette as a haughty, hard-hearted woman who single-handedly started the French Revolution with the way she treated the lower orders. A soothsayer bewitched Antoinette’s chair in the vain hope it would help her see the light before it was too late. Centuries later the same chair helps Sheri Soames overcome her shyness, but at the cost of giving her all the arrogance of Marie Antoinette, and this has gotten Sheri into terrible trouble. For a moment, Sheri even looks decapitated when she relives the moment where Antoinette is guillotined! Fortunately, enough people become convinced about the chair for Sheri to get out of trouble. Sheri retains her confidence, and the soothsayer is pleased he had more success with her than Antoinette.

Alan Barker uses all the powers of “The Fairground of Fear” to get Sir Whitland to confess that he framed Barker on the charge that sent him to prison, just because he regarded Barker as too low to marry into his family. But Barker finds out the hard way that nothing he does will get the hard-hearted Whitland to do that. Barker settles for a surprise reunion with his daughter, whose death Whitland had faked to prevent him from claiming her.

In the final episode of “A Lead through Twilight”, farmers are after Twilight because they think he’s a sheep worrier. Fortunately they all see Twilight tackle the real sheep worrier, and Twilight is cleared. The scientific research used on Twilight is used to give Carol her sight back.

“Claire’s Airs and Graces” is the only ‘birthday gift’ story that is still running. Claire Weston-Jones has her classmates thinking she has a more privileged home life than she actually does because she fears the derision of her more snobby classmates if they discover the truth. As expected, living the lie causes all sorts of complications, and this week Claire’s parents could have been really hurt for it. They make the effort to provide a spread for Claire’s classmates, but nobody turns up because Claire doesn’t want them to see her house is not the palace they have been led to believe.

This week’s Wee Sue story also has a moral about living a lie. Sue’s classmate Ann spun a big yarn to her French penfriend Louis about her interests, and even sent a picture of Sue, saying it was herself, because Louis is a small person. Now Louis is visiting, so Ann wants Sue to help keep up the pretence. But the pretence unravels when it turns out Louis is much taller than Ann thought (got metrics and imperials mixed up).

Molly Mills has received an offer for a change of employment. Spiteful Kitty and Betty try to sabotage it by planting Lady Stanton’s hat on a snowman and looking like Molly did it, so it looks like it’s the end of that chance. But everyone is taken by surprise when Lord Stanton’s response is promote Molly to head chambermaid!

Tammy’s 5th Birthday Issue 7 February 1976

Cover artist: John Richardson

• Sarah in the Shadows – first episode (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Return of the Silver Mare – Strange Story (artist Veronica Weir)
• Lights Out for Lucinda – last episode (artist Ken Houghton)
• Bessie Bunter
• Molly Mills and the Aviator – first episode (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
• A Monumental Detective – Strange Story (artist Tony Higham)
• Wee Sue (artist John Richardson)
• A Lead Through Twilight – first episode (artist Douglas Perry)

It is now 46 years since Tammy was first launched, on 6 February 1971. The first Tammy and Tammy’s 10^th birthday issue have already been covered on this blog, so we will commemorate the anniversary with Tammy’s 5^th birthday issue.

The Cover Girls are the first to honour the occasion, in their usual humorous style. Let’s hope they managed to sort out that little glitch with the birthday cake. Or maybe the Tammy team saw the funny side, just as the readers did.

As soon as we open the cover we see the first of Tammy’s “birthday gifts” to us, which is the first episode of “Sarah in the Shadows”. Tammy is celebrating her 5^th with five new stories, two of which start this week, two next week, and the fifth the week after that. In Victorian times Sarah is thrown out into the street after her unfortunate uncle is thrown into debtor’s prison. All she has to survive on is her gift for paper cutouts and shadow play. The other birthday gift story, “A Lead Through Twilight”, is the last story in the issue (talk about bookends!). Carol Trent is losing her sight but won’t speak up about it or seek treatment because she is terrified her sourpuss uncle will send her away. But can she seriously expect to get away with hiding the fact that she’s going blind? And if the uncle finds out, will he do what Carol fears? Carol befriends a dog, Twilight, who could be her guide dog, but there is a definite mystery about him.

The birthday gift stories starting in the next issue are “The Fairground of Fear” (Diane Gabbot’s first serial for Tammy) and “Sit It Out, Sheri” (which will give John Armstrong a change from Bella). To make way for them, “Lights Out for Lucinda” is being finished off with a double episode. Lucinda has discovered the reason for the bizarre town of Blackmarket where everyone is being drugged into thinking it is still World War II and being forced to live that way. This peculiar ruse is all so the commander can provide a cheap workforce that are being paid 1940s rates instead of modern ones – to none other than Lucinda’s father! Fortunately for Lucinda it turns out he was a dupe and then a victim of blackmail before he finally manages to help put things right.

The last “birthday gift” story, starting 21 February, is a Hugh Thornton-Jones story, “Claire’s Airs and Graces”. Claire pretends to come from a posh background because of the snobby girls at her new school. This was the only Thornton-Jones serial in Tammy; his artwork was otherwise confined to Wee Sue episodes and Strange Stories.

It looks like the Storyteller is celebrating too, because he is presenting two Strange Stories this week. Molly apparently is celebrating with a new story, but the title really should say “aviatrix”, not “aviator”. Although Bessie’s caption says “Bessie celebrates our birthday in her own special way”, her story has no bearing whatsoever on the celebrations or even on birthdays. She’s trying to help catch bank robbers but has forgotten the licence plate number of their vehicle. The police are trying to jog her memory but of course she is more interested in eating. Wee Sue’s story also has nothing to do with the celebrations. It’s all hijinks when Miss Bigger gets herself locked in a ball-and-chain because she disregarded a “do not touch” sign: “I’m a teacher. It doesn’t apply to teachers.” Silly woman!

Of course there is a competition to mark the occasion too, but this won’t be until next week.