She mistrusted both, as she did all pompous Mr Men. Nor did she trust Mr Nice, his feeble rival, who didn’t trust Mr Bluff and wanted to challenge him but didn’t know how. Little Miss Trust, always a busy Lizzie, had little trust in her boss, Mr Bluff, who claimed he could do everything but actually did very little. Foreign ones like Liptauer or Chhurpi were difficult to spell and she didn’t trust overseas cheese makers. She loved toasted cheese for breakfast but only British cheese. Little Miss Trust was very fond of her name, mainly because she mistrusted everyone except herself. They agreed that Mr Pandemic was even worse than Mr Brexiteer and Mr Remainer, who couldn’t be left together in the same room. Janine Beacham ‘Oh dear,’ everyone sighed, and went to the shops to panic buy. ‘We will simply have to learn to live with Mr Pandemic,’ declared Little Miss Government. But some people didn’t like Mr Vaccine either. Or, ‘I’m Mr Omicron!’ Mr Vaccine had to visit people up to three times, to help them feel less sick. ‘You need to stop this,’ said Mr Vaccine firmly. Whenever he visited, someone got sick! There were coughs and sneezes everywhere. Everyone groaned when they saw him coming. Mr Pandemic was the most unwelcome guest in Planetville. Then he looked closer and closer, until - POP! He disappeared up his own fundament! And there he remains to this day! Frank Upton Back home, Mr Prickly wondered whether he really was a pain in the bottom, so he bent over and looked. And, of course, he was absolutely BURSTINGLY offended when Mr Tickle tickled him! Then he was EVEN MORE offended when Mr Rude told him he was a right pain in the bottom. He was even offended when Mr Hargreaves coloured him purple, because he self-identified as lime green. He was offended when Mr Silly told him a joke, because it was a joke. He was offended when Little Miss Manners called him ‘Sir’, because he might have been transitioning.

He was offended when Little Miss Sunny wished him ‘Good morning!’, because ‘good’ and ‘bad’ were too binary. Honourable mentions go to Simon Machin, Kay Bagon and Brian Allgar. Despite the fuss and bother, Roger Hargreaves’s books (written and illustrated by his son Adam since his death) continue to be hugely popular, as was this challenge, which pulled in the punters and saw you on top form. Mr Clever, meanwhile, has been denounced as a ‘smug, sexist mansplainer’. Fifty years on, Mr T.’s overly tactile behaviour has raised an eyebrow or two, earning him comparisons with Harvey Weinstein. The first character to make an appearance, in 1971, was orange Mr Tickle with his long, wiggly arms. 3233, you were invited to invent a new character for the Mr Men/ Little Miss series by Roger Hargreaves and submit an extract from his or her story.

Mr tickle 1971