Introduction

Andy Capp is a well-known cartoon character from the Daily Mirror, famed for his smoking, laziness, drunkenness, and rocky relationship with his wife, Flo. He's a Geordie. From Hartlepool, to be specific (I await correction that people from Hartlepool aren't Geordies, but 'Monkey-Hangers').

Claire Ross's family have had an Andy Capp shaped talcum powder for 30+ years, which has lain around the house doing, well, as much as Andy Capp would be expected to. There's still plenty of talc in the old boy though, and rather than give him to a charity shop, we took him with us on a trip from Newcastle to his native Hartlepool (last stop should be at the Andy Capp statue (a tribute to creator Reg Smythe) therein), via one or two other places.