Talk:Winker Watson

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Boarding schools were commonplace amongst Dandy readers in 1961, but by the 1980s had suffered a large drop in popularity (but are now enjoying a considerable revival as people seek to educate their children in supposedly more enlightened surroundings)

Er, really? Unless anyone can cite statistics showing that the comic was predominantly read by toffs and aristocrats, I would object to the notion that "boarding schools were commonplace amongst Dandy readers in 1961" :-) Just because a fictional Dandy character lived in that world, doesn't mean it was reality for the majority of Dandy readers. (The obvious modern example would of course be Harry Potter.) 217.155.20.163 00:40, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes, The Dandy was aimed at, and most popular with, the lower middle and working classes. Winker was a public schoolboy, but used to talk the same way as all the other Dandy characters. In the 1969 annual, for example, his lines included "Thanks, lady" to a woman giving his carol-singing group money and "Thanks for the grub, cookie" to the school cook. Public schoolboys in other comics and children's novels of the time spoke in a much more affected manner. "I say, chaps!"... that sort of thing. RossyG 15:53, 10 December 2006 (UTC) Who says Winker has to be posh anyway? He might have a scholarship after all. Digifiend

To say that Winker was "posh" would be to overlook quite a long-running saga that emerged in certain editions of "The Dandy" (I think it must have been in the early to mid-1970s). This was when Boodle, a son of a millionaire, arrives at the school. In the very first story about Winker and Boodle, it is clear that Boodle is trying to use money to curry favour with creep (for example, he is allowed to sit at the head table for meals) and in later stories, Boodle is constantly trying to use his vast wealth to buy his way forward - for example, using money to "cheat" at student quizzes or football matches, or buying umpteen pairs of shoes when Creep wants shoes to be kept clean. Winker first notices, in the first story of Boodle, the surprising favour he gets from Creep, and, having a good memory for faces, looks at the newspaper and realizes how his dad is a millionaire (there had been a report in a newspaper about a millionaire's son arriving at the school). Since the Boodle episodes of the Watson stories were quite an integral part of the Winker Watson stories, perhaps there could be a new article here on Boodle, or at least a sub-heading in this article on Winker Watson and Boodle. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 23:05, 11 August 2009 (UTC) Here is an example of what could go in a section of this article entitled "Winker Watson and Boodle". There was one edition where Creep mentions how boys have a chance to be on a television quiz called "Brainy Boys" (a quiz that may have been inspired by University Challenge or Top of the Form). Boodle cheats to get on the team, leaving Winker as reserve. However, Winker has a plan where he gets on (Trott, incidentally, is also on the team) and it works - I am pretty sure that is where we are told that a head full of brains is better than a wallet full of money. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 21:28, 5 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Winker's record and Status as 'uncaned'::

In some of the earlier strips it was pointed out that Winker was the only boy in the school who had never been caned. Did he actually keep this record? (79.190.69.142 (talk) 10:32, 1 March 2010 (UTC))

“Probably” modeled on the Greyfriars stories and on Harry Wharton…?
The inclusion of the “probably” makes that assertion seem awfully like original research; I would have thought that it was equally likely that Winker and Tim were based on Jennings and Darbishire, for example, but I’d not be able to back that up, so would avoid it unless there was evidence. As for the comparison with “Just William”: most school boy fiction maintains the age of the protagonists - Billy Bunter doesn’t age, and Jennings and Cº have multiple cycles of terms through the seasons, but age not nor are ever advanced to the next form. Furthermore William’s adventures, although he is school age, don’t take place in school (as far as I recall), and Winker doesn’t have a gang of identifiable characters, a family setting, or much - if any - life out of school, so that further makes a comparison of the characters seem like a bit of a blind alley. Jock123 (talk) 19:01, 25 July 2016 (UTC)