P.C.49

Real Name: Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby

Identity/Class: Normal human

Occupation: Police constable

Affiliations: Boy's Club (Pat, Mick, Toby, Snorky, Giglamps), Detective Sgt. Wright, Joan Carr, Detective Inspector Wilson, Q Division of the Metropolitan Police, Dick Barton, Steve Temple

Enemies: Criminals of any sort

Known Relatives: Joan Carr (wife), unidentified son

Aliases: Fortynine

Base of Operations: London

First Appearance: (radio) "The Case of the Drunken Sailor", The Light Programme (BBC Radio, 9:30pm, 27th October 1947); (movies) The Adventures of P.C.49: Investigating the Case of the Guardian Angel (Hammer, October 1949); (prose) "The Case of the Christmas Copper", Radio Times Christmas Edition  (3rd December 1949); (comics) Eagle Vol.1 #1 (Hulton Press, 14th April 1950)

Powers/Abilities: Good observational skills and deductive reasining. Able to handle himself in a fight.

History: P.C. 49, Police Constable Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby, a member of the Metropolitan Police's Q Division, was a standard honest British bobby (policeman). Aspiring to be promoted to the plain clothes division, he often got involved in solving cases, succeeding as much through hard work and persistence as intelligence. He spent much of his off-duty time with his "Boys Club", youths who he had become a mentor to, and for whom he tried to set a good example so they would stay on the straight and narrow. His fiance, and later wife, Joan Carr, sometimes assisted him on adventures.

Comments: Created by Alan Stranks, P.C. 49 began as a radio series character. The Adventures of P.C. 49 first aired as part of the Light Programme on 27th October 1947, with Brian Reece playing the title role. The character's popularity grew rapidly, and he was adapted for film by Stranks and Vernon Harris. Made by Hammer in its pre-horror days, the movie starred Hugh Latimer as 49. Back on radio, in a 1949 Christmas special, The Night of the Twenty Seventh (broadcast December 27th, unsurprisingly), he teamed up with other radio crime solvers, including Dick Barton and Steve Temple. P.C. 49's comics debut was in the first issue of Eagle, April 1950, in a tale written by his creator Stranks. Initially Strom Gould illustrated the tales, but in August 1951 artist John Worsley replaced Gould, and continued to draw the strip until its demise. Hammer also released the second and last P.C.49 movie, A Case For P.C.49, in 1950, this time with Reece reprising his radio role. In 1951, Juvenile Productions Ltd released the first prose P.C.49 book as part of their Cavalcade Library; titled simply P.C.49, it contained three text tales. It was followed in 1952 and 1953 by two more books in identical format, On Duty With P.C.49 and On the Beat With P.C.49 respectively. The radio series finished in May 1953, after eleven seasons, by which time 40 had married his sweetheart Joan, and had a son with her. He made one more radio appearance, and encountered Dick Barton again in the Thursday 4th June 1953 special "Light It Up", one of many specials prepared and broadcast in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. He also appeared in two collections reprinting old Eagle strips, P.C.49 Eagle Strip Cartoon Book 1 and 2, published in 1953 and 1954 respectively, and a P.C.49 Annual in 1955 featuring new strips adapted from the radio show's scripts. Additionally, he had strips in the first seven Eagle Annuals. His Eagle strip finally ended in March 1957, and that was it for decades. In 1990 Hawk Books published a collection, The Adventures of P.C.40,  to celebrate Eagle's 40th anniversary, and in recent years Eagle Times, the quarterly fanzine of the Eagle Fan Club have been including new P.C.49 strips adapted from his old radio show.

CLARIFICATIONS: None.

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