Who’d Kill
Cockney Robin? was a suspense thriller that I found
a real pain to read because I could hardly believe how embarrassingly poor and
unconvincing the script was. It started off in a promising way with this 4-page
introduction that took up the last two pages of SHIVER before SHAKE section and
another two after:
The plot is
simple and effective: the mystery wannabe murderer unleashes a series of
unsuccessful attempts on young Cockney Robin’s life in the enclosed and
claustrophobic setting of the old mansion. In the end of each weekly
instalment the clumsy villain drops a random personal item as he flees the
scene of another failed murder attempt, leaving a clue to his identity. The growing
number of clues eventually leads to the uncovering of the shady plotter by Cockney
Robin.
The way in
which the writer develops the story and characters, however, is lame and
unconvincing, a clear case of overdoing things for dramatic effect. The sweets
baron looks like a real skinflint, a very unlikely candidate to bequeath his
multi-billion business to a tea boy whom he’s come “to admire and respect”. Then
the crowd of grim and frustrated co-workers suddenly find themselves trapped
inside an old mansion like a herd of submissive sheep in a barn. It looks as if
they are resigned to spend the rest of their lives there, wandering pointlessly
around like a pack of zombies and squabbling over trifles. Their efforts to contact the
outside world for help are half-hearted and ineffective. So are the would-be
murderer’s attempts on Robin’s life that are often so “sophisticated” that they
border on absurdity:
The story
unfolds against a backdrop of continuous bullying and name-calling of the young
Robin by begrudging adult co-workers who are unable to accept that the ex-tea-boy
is their new boss:
However, the
herd of sheep that they are, they obediently line up and hold their palms up
for examination at Robin’s command:
The final
episode comes across as completely schizophrenic: impressed by Cockney Robin’s
detective skills and appalled at Silas Scrogg's evil plots, the employees
kneel down to pledge their eternal loyalty to the new boss…
I am not a
fan of adventure serials in IPC children’s humour comics of the 70s but this
one stands out as particularly over-the-top IMHO. Of course, the story was written
for the young reader of the day and I should know better than to scrutinize the
script and rant over its alleged faults. In all likelihood many readers were
thrilled by the yarn and enthusiastically recorded the weekly clues :)
On a positive note, the
story had a well-conceived structure: nine clues were dropped over the
period of nine weeks and by that time Cockney Robin already knew who the would-be
killer was. Readers should have known too, if they had collected all the
correct clues. 50 one-pound prizes were up for grabs but not for naming Robin's attacker. Readers were asked to list all the nine clues instead:
The story
reached its climax next week in issue 10 and the correct clues as well as the murderous
conspirator’s identity were finally revealed in the final episode in issue 11
(see the complete episode above). Names of the 50 lucky prize winners were
announced 5 weeks later in issue 16:
Illustrated
by Tom Kerr, the story ran for eleven weeks in SHIVER section (issues 1 to 11).
The first episode was 4 pages long and all the subsequent ones were
three-pagers.
