If you buy a comic these days for a grandchild, child or yourself if you’re still thinking you’ll get a decent idea of dress sense from a copy of Bunty, there are always free gifts attached.

If you were brought up in the ‘60s, as I was, then a free gift with a comic was a rarity. You were more likely to see a Penny Black, unicorn or hen’s tooth attached to your Dandy than a set of stickers, pencils, or transfers.

And so, when one of my Beanos arrived sometime in the mid-sixties, and had a “Red Rackety” attached, I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, pooh (I’ve cleaned that up as this is a family blog) or have breakfast, as my old nan would have said, such was my excitement.

However, it was my poor, old nan who got the wrong end of this DC Thompson act of goodwill.

The “Red Rackety” was something you whirled, like some Dervish, above your head; it then created a strange noise. The secondary (unscripted) noise was the smashing of my nan’s ceiling lampshade. This was not in the instructions.

Another week there was a “Whoopee cushion” – a trick to play on old relatives. As you become an old relative yourself, you realise that there is no need for any form artificial stimulus like a “Whoopee Cushion” 😊.