Talk:The Broons

Praise
Fantastic appraisal of The Broons - in many ways they could have been a role model for The Simpsons.

10 Glebe Street is in the fictional town of Auchentoogle or Auchenshoogle not Dundee. I think the town is supossed to be a suburb of Glasgow or Dundee.Penrithguy 20:28, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
 * There's a Glebe Street in Renfrew, just outside of Glasgow. Given the timing of the early strips, I think it's more likely the street took it's name from the strip. Stx 19:38, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I remember in a Broons annual back in the 1980s one of the 1st I read that not only was the tenement block numbered 10 Glebe Street but the Broon's flat was number 10 in the block itself though I have never seen this in subsequent editions. Also I know this is nitpicking/over analizing/being sad or whatever you want to call it but the Broon's flat has been on various floors of the tenement block and seems to face both the back and front of the building though to house that many people comfortably it must be quite large.  Also has anyone noticed that if Granpaw is not in the story there is quite often a photograph of him on the wall of the Broons home showing him in various expressions usually relevant to the story Penrithguy 20:10, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Nice article - maybe someone who is a better editor than me can add a picture to show the style of drawing and and sample of dialogue? The reference to "Glesgow" is correct - this is how posh people from Morningside (Edinburgh) say "Glasgow".  Coincidentally I was recently researching my family tree and discovered that my greatgrandfather was one of 7 children, aged 1-17, living with their 2 parents in a 2-room tenement in Glebe Street in Glasgow (1891).  Sadly they lived at no.44 not no.10.  Notepicker 01:29, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Coming from Edinburgh, and knowing nothing of Dundee, I always thought the Broons lived in Glasgow, but was puzzled as to why they had a "bairn" rather than a "wean" - maybe there was a deliberate attempt to embrace both sides of the country. NRPanikker 02:35, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
 * The location of the Broons home town is, no doubt intentionally, vague. There are, however, a few clues. The first is, as noted above, the language - which is markedly more East Coast than Glaswegian. Wherever it is located, there's one thing we can be sure of - it's the same town as Wullie lives in. A couple of times Wullie has suffered some mishap and ended up in Auchtermuchty - which is plausible if he started in Dundee but less plausible if he started in Glasgow. There was also one episode where Wullie helps out a delivery driver for the day and suprises his Maw and Paw be sending them a postcard from both Edinburgh and Glasgow in the same day - which he obviously wouldn't bother to do if he lived in either of them.212.20.233.2 (talk) 11:12, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

The Broons is not set in the fictional town of Auchtentogle, but it is nearby, only 4 miles from the but 'n' ben. The story in the Sunday Post dated 3 jan 1954, shows paw Broon at home in the first panel with Ma mentioning that he is catching the 4:10 train to Auchentogle, meaning they can not possibly be living in the fictional town. Furthermore, the story from the Sunday Post dated 5 June 1955, shows the Broons being thrown off the bus following the Auchentogle carnival, presumably still in the town, and then havign to walk to the but 'n' ben, which Joe states is "fower miles". 86.139.226.234 (talk) 14:54, 15 October 2009 (UTC)RRR Basingstoke

-- Regarding Fintry being in Dundee: There is also a Fintry to the NW of Glasgow in the range of hills called the Campsie Fells... Quite a small picturesque place if memory serves correctly (was last there ~15yrs ago), certainly the sort of place for the Broons to go on an outing.... & would certainly fit with the sort of countryside they keep visiting at the But'n'ben... As for the rest of the dundee vs glasgow bit, coming from Clydebank, probably about 15odd miles from Fintry, I say "wean"... not "bairn"... Maybe the use of "fintry" was as a bit of a dig at there being more than one, to further confuse the issue? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.133.7.38 (talk) 13:59, 7 October 2007 (UTC)


 * They could be from Dundee - I don't have any copies to hand, but I'm certain that the men follow a fitba team called "United". Granted that could equally be Ayr United, but I doubt it.  (Duncan Sneddon)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.74.84.66 (talk) 15:53, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Seems that in more recent times they've settled on the Glasgow area as the location of Auchenshoogle. In a recent Oor Wullie annual him and his pals cycle to Loch Lomond, passing Finnieston on the way (bumping into PC Murdoch) and then remarking that they've cycled 26 miles once they reach their destination. Plus I think there's a reference to a car showroom called "Clydeside Motors" in the new Broons book, which would be an odd name if the town was around Dundee. 90.218.166.254 (talk) 16:06, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

I'd like to add that one place that Auchenshoogle definitely can't be is Edinburgh - they've often gone there on big days out and don't seem familiar with the place at all. 90.218.166.254 (talk) 16:13, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

In the 1981 Broons annual one of the stories has Hen and Maggie winning a big box of prunes (hope that's not too much of a spoiler!), with the address "10 Glebe Street (partially obscured) NDEE" on the side. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.209.6.40 (talk) 12:35, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Why is Kintore being said to be the location of the Broons, and since when has the but’n’ben been in the Cairngorms? Is this vandalism? There is absolutely no doubt that R.D. Low intended the setting to be west coast, but slipped up in the use of “bairn” instead of “wean”; it also didn’t help that Dudley D. Watkins, not being Scottish, did not realize that the reference pictures he was given had come from Dundee - so whilst the tenements and streets look fairly accurate, being more or less the same whatever coast you were on, he sometimes inadvertently included things like a Dundee bus or tram destination, which only added to the mystery of the location. Jock123 (talk) 17:59, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

Joe
Removed reference to Joe Broon being a Celtic supporter. (!!) In fact he, Hen and Paw all supported the fictional "Rovers" (See, for example, 20th story in 2001 edition - ISBN 0-85116-784-5) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)

-- Joe and Hen did support Celtic and Rangers respectively in some early strips, but by the early 40's they would all support Rovers (or sometimes United). 90.200.198.200 (talk) 14:11, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Eck Twin
Citation definitely needed!! Adambisset 10:05, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

I can verify this - it's in the second collection of Broons and Oor Wullie stories, which covers WW2. In one of the stories, the entire family are arguing about various things. The Twins and Horace have an argument which results in one of the Twin's punching Horace, the other Twin encourages him by saying: "Hit him Eck!!"

I can't remember what page or what date the story is from, but it's definately true. I'll look out my copy and check it.

(Oh, and it's interesting to note that Hen and Joe are arguing about football, as Joe supports Celtic and Hen supports Rangers).

--Gaz C 12:46, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

There is a Glebe Street in Glasgow, it's in the Townhead district, I lived there when I was a wean- there were no bairns, just weans, which proves that it was not based in Glasgow, as does the rich doric language - definitely not Glasgow!

Almost every town in Scotland has a Glebe Street, no doubt that's why the name was chose. The Glebe was the area of land belonging to the church, on which the minister could grow crops or graze some animals to supplement his stipend.80.195.59.72 (talk) 14:26, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Images/Storyline
I am an avid Broons & Oor Wullie reader, and have, countless annuals and newspaper cuttings. 1. Can I upload any scanned images of comics for demonstration purposes and would this violate the, eh, rules?

2. Although I can't edit it personally right now, the 'storyline' section of the article is confusing as it is obviously suppost to present a general overview of Broons comics storylines, however it includes lavish descriptions of ONE storyline (the polish Maggie thing) and doesn't have any real structure.

Thanks Eps0n 12:34, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Re:1, a low resolution - only a few hundred pixels wide, which probably means too small to read the writing - image of a whole comic or one or two cells would probably be okay to demonstrate artistic style, but don't go daft. See Fair use (particularly the 'policy' section) for all the details, and have a look at the articles on other comics (e.g. Lobey Dosser) to see what they've done. --Scott Wilson 22:06, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Maw Broon's Cookbook
I'm going to add a small section about this to the article when time permits. I don't think it merits an article of its own. It did cause a wee bit of controversy re the unhealthy recipes. Interestingly, it clearly refers to Maw Broon as having the first name "Maggie" in a letter from Paw Broon's mother to her new daughter-in-law. Grievous Angel (talk) 13:20, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

The Broonites
Might be worth mentioning that the satirical fortnightly magazine Private Eye runs a parody strip The Broonites depicting the UK's Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Cabinet in the manner of The Broons. (This type of parody is a trope of the magazine, it also caricatures the Conservative Shadow Cabinet in the style of Lord Snooty and his Pals from The Beano comic.) As I don't buy Private Eye (merely flick through it on the supermarket shelves), I'll leave the hard work to a more au fait editor :-). 87.81.230.195 (talk) 08:34, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Dave Mackay
I think I was the one who mentioned Dave, or else edited and added the citation (it's also been edited since then). Unfortunately the citation is now out of date, but I will dig up my old Broons books and verify it that way. AndyB (talk) 08:00, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

But'n'Ben
The But'n'Ben is noted in the article as being 'owned' - however it was first introduced in the strip on 26th May 1940 (reproduced in Broons/Oor Wullie book ISBN 9781845354244). Paw states "Here's the hoose among the heather that I've rented for ye! We've aye wanted a but an' ben in the country". Gran'paw adds, "It's oors for as long as we like." So I'm inclined to change the article to say it's rented... Capnb (talk) 23:25, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Dave MacKay (again)
The 70s collection recently released reveals that the annual pages were altered to remove all mention of Maggie's engagement and upcoming wedding (any wedding themed strips were changed so that the "Meenister's daughter" was the one to be wed). Several strips where Maggie's wedding (and new house) was the focal point were simply left unprinted in the annuals. There's also something interesting regarding Dave's parents in one of these unprinted stories - his father is an old school friend of Paw (and refers to him as "Pud Broon" - One of two stories from this era where Paw is referred to by this name) and so him and Paw really get along better than Paw does with Dave's mother (another old school mate, who Paw wasn't fond of).

As for Dave himself, it seems as if he was nothing more than a throwaway character in his first appearance, later retconned in a story where the family meet him for the first time. By the time Peter Davidson had taken over in 1979, Dave was gone without explanation (although the special tries to explain this in a new strip).

Of course this being Wikipedia, it'll all need cited! :) 90.214.244.88 (talk) 13:53, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

The Greens
Viz Comics did a short lived strip (at least 26 pages) called "The Greens" based on The Broons (Browns). Using characters based on the Broons and their way of speaking, it treated them unkindly but in a very funny way. It was funnier than The Broons which in too many stories just relied on a misunderstanding.(84.236.152.71 (talk) 18:25, 1 July 2014 (UTC))


 * "The Greens" was in the publication Electric Soup (and drawn by none other than Frank Quitely). Viz did parody the Broons once as the "McBroons" - a story revolved around the Bairn telling everyone to come to Granpaw's as he's "gonnae have a fight".  Of course, when they get to his house, he's sitting on the toilet..... 94.4.229.249 (talk) 13:33, 13 August 2016 (UTC)