William “Tim” Timym In The Blue Peter Books
Compiled by Jeremy Briggs
William 'Tim' Timym's Bleep and Booster characters featured in the first fourteen Blue Peter books in 4 page illustrated text stories, one per book. While Bleep and Booster may be Timym's best remembered characters the annual Blue Peter Books, published to tie in with the BBC children's television series, featured more of his work than just the pair of space boys.
The other main Tim character published in the Blue Peter books was Bengo the boxer pup. Bengo dates from the 1950s and in the early Blue Peter books he featured in colour nursery comic style adventures finally ending with several years of single pages of silent newspaper style short comic. Bengo also appeared in the TV21 nursery comic Candy during the same period as he was appearing in the Blue Peter books.
Unusually Timym also created a single page colour by numbers style Mystery Picture for many of the books. These were page size grids with squares to be coloured in based on each number being assigned a colour. These were normally based around animal subjects but the Mystery Picture in the ninth book featured Bleep and Booster. The first of these Mystery Pictures appeared in the second book and was not credited however they are also in the Sixth to Fifteenth Books in which they are all credited to Tim and therefore the details of the first one are also included..
What follows is a listing of all the Tim features appearing in the Blue Peter Books. More details of the first 30 Blue Peter books can be found on The Triangular Shelf website.
Please note that none of the Bleep and Booster stories in the Blue Peter books were given individual titles and those titles listed below in brackets were only created to help differentiate the stories for this article.
Bleep & Booster (and The Mischievous Frigs) (4 pages - 2 colour/2 B&W with red)
Bengo and the Bulldog (4 pages B&W with red & blue)
Bleep & Booster (and The Princess of Neptune) (4 pages - 2 colour/1 B&W with orange/1 B&W with blue)
Bengo (and the Tiger) (4 pages - 2 colour/2 B&W with blue)
Mystery Picture (1 page, cat in front of a fireplace - not credited)
Bleep & Booster (on the Planet of the Dinosaurs) (4 pages - 2 colour/2 B&W with orange)
Bengo (and Chee Chee) (4 pages - 2 colour/2 B&W with blue)
Bleep & Booster (and the Observation Platform Prototype) (4 pages colour)
Bengo (and the Now Cat) (4 pages - 2 colour/2 B&W with green)
Space Rescue (Bleep & Booster dice game, 2 pages colour)
Bleep & Booster (and the Green Snow) (4 pages colour)
Bengo (and the Seal) (4 pages colour)
Bleep and Booster (on Gelatinus-X) (4 pages colour)
Bengo (and the Lighthouse) (4 pages - 2 colour/2 B&W with red)
Mystery Picture (1 page, parrot in a tree)
Bleep and Booster (at Lake Stellarus) (4 pages colour)
Bengo – Three Stories Without Words (3 x two line comic strips, 1 page colour)
Mystery Picture (1 page)
Bleep and Booster (Bleep’s Birthday Treat) (4 pages colour)
Bengo – Three Stories Without Words (3 x two line comic strips, 1 page colour)
Mystery Picture (1 page)
Bleep and Booster (and the Duolaser) (4 pages colour)
Bengo – Three Stories Without Words (3 x two line comic strips, 1 page colour)
Mystery Picture (1 page, Bleep and Booster)
Bleep and Booster (and the Romanoids) (4 pages colour)
Bengo – Three Stories Without Words (3 x two line comic strips, 1 page colour)
Mystery Picture (1 page, Bengo and a horse)
Bleep and Booster (and the Space Commando Cubs) (4 pages colour)
Mystery Picture (1 page, circus elephant)
Bleep and Booster (Attack of the Devastoids) (4 pages colour)
Mystery Picture (1 page, monkey and a parrot)
Bleep & Booster (and the Grimaloid Miners) (4 pages colour)
Bengo – Three Stories Without Words (3 x two line comic strips, 1 page B&W with blue)
Mystery Picture (1 page, two pandas)
Bleep & Booster – A Stellarific Adventure In Outer Space (4 pages colour)
Mystery Picture (1 page – Crown Jewels)
Mystery Picture (1 page)
Good-bye Petra (4 page B&W feature on the creation of the Petra statue)
(* Artwork © Cooper Features/the estate of William Timym; Blue Peter © British Broadcasting Corporation.)
Really nostalgic stuff. I wonder if the name Bengo derived from Bingo ("the clever pup") who was a regular chum of Rupert Bear?
ReplyDeleteWow again!
ReplyDeleteNostalgia, eh?
Have you seen this?
http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/children/other/bengo.htm
I've got all those annuals - must dig 'em out and take another look. I bought the big book on Blue Peter a couple of years ago. With regard to your earlier post, I was slightly disappointed that Bleep and Booster only got one passing mention without even an illustration to accompany it. To kids of the '60s, Bleep and Booster was/were an integral part of the programme.
ReplyDeletehi all i have a copy of bengo visits the circus and was wondering if anyone could tell me anything about it is it rare at all?? email me at sixkiller@hotmail.co.uk
ReplyDelete