I said before that there were only two of David McKee’s Mr Benn stories published as books. Well, we were at the Tate modern and we saw that this is not true: there were five: Mr Benn – Red Knight, Big Game Benn, 123456789 Benn, Big Top Benn and Mr Benn – Gladiator. The Tate is republishing them. Last year was the 40th anniversary of the creation of Mr Benn.
Though the video versions are fantastic, I love the alternate full colour and black and white illustrations of the books. There’s such detail in the black and white pages.
In Big Top Benn, Mr Benn makes his way to the special costume shop as usual.
He sees a clown costume and puts it on.
And off he goes in his clown car.
He meets a travelling circus. They come to a canyon that they can’t cross. Each of the circus acts wants to get across in their own way.
Mr Benn suggests they work together. They do, they cross the gulf and the circus comes to town.
Here it is on YouTube:
(The DVD is still amazingly cheap.)
The Mr Benn phenomenon seems to be growing, snowballing. Theatre group Tall Stories are performing a theatrical Mr Benn:
Mr Benn Red Knight was the first book.
Here it is on YouTube:
These two books are available:
- but I can’t find Big Game Benn.
Have a look at this short audio slideshow of David McKee talking about Mr Benn and his other creations.
