Fred Basset Totally Explained

Everything about Fred Basset totally explained

Fred Basset is a comic strip about an eponymous male basset hound. The cartoon was created by Scottish cartoonist Alex Graham and first appeared in the Daily Mail on July 8 1963. It has since been syndicated around the world. Alex Graham, the creator and cartoonist based Fred on his own dog Frieda and drew over 9000 comic strips. Alex Graham died on 3 December 1991. Fred's cartoon strips are renamed as Wurzel in Germany, Lorang in Norway, Laban in Sweden and Pitko or Koiraskoira in Finland.

The comic strip

Fred's owners are a husband and wife who are not given names in the strip. The husband is a white collar worker in the City; he enjoys socialising at his local pubs, The Swan and The Chequers. He is shown often as being short of temper and spends much free time reading the newspaper and playing golf. The wife runs the house and the family, and has a busy life socialising with friends. She is shown several times as being a poor driver with many accidents in the family car. Known relations to the family are "her rich eccentric" Uncle Albert, and her sisters, one in UK and one overseas. A new relation introduced in the mid 1990s was mentioned as "her Aunt Flo." There are no children in Fred's family.
   The names and areas pictured are made from places and people Alex Graham knew, areas are said to resemble Scotland. Family friends' names would be used, as was Tinker's Wood, taken from a house Graham lived in.
Topical references are kept to a minimum; one mention to The Beatles and the family's continually redecorated lounge suite are the few giveaways of its age. There are mentions to New Year in 1970 and 1971 and 1 January 1973 when the UK entered the common market. The Michael Martin era strips have more topical references and mention of modern appliances, such as mobile phones and a microwave oven.
   The strips don't generally feature follow-on storylines; a rare storyline with Fred staying at Jock's house or Uncle Albert staying a few days are the only times the story extends beyond the one strip format. A variant on this are basic themed strips for Christmas or their Summer Holiday with no continuation. Again, later Michael Martin strips do follow on for a few days, as with a Birthday Party mentioned in the 1997 book.
   The first copyright dates (then for Associated Newspapers) were added to the cartoon strips in 1969.

The nature of Fred

Fred Basset himself seems to have been born in 1959 from comments in the cartoons, and in true cartoon style, appears not to age. Fred's observations can be wry and a certain amount of surrealism enters his life, with one early strip having his owners mention they thought the Fred Basset strip in the day's paper was "quite amusing" (cartoon 553 in book number 4). Later strips mention both Fred, his owners and passers-by being aware of the Fred Basset strip and commenting as such.
Fred sees himself as a patron of the arts, appreciating the finer points in life, and has a certain amount of snobbishness. He is equally at home misbehaving, being selfish, chasing other dogs and being a coward when more aggressive dogs are around. A small black Scottie (Scottish terrier) dog, Jock, is a regular companion, as well as Yorky (a Yorkshire terrier) in later years. A Doggy-Girlfriend, Fifi the poodle appears too. An unnamed alsatian dog is his adversary. The Tucker Twins and Amanda are regular young human companions. Fred likes chasing cats but freely admits he wouldn't know what to do with one if he caught it (echoing similar in Warner Bros. Roadrunner television cartoons).

Story repetition

The Alex Graham strips into the 1980s display much repetition of previous strips with hardly any differences. The colour Mail On Sunday strips were mostly earlier ideas redrawn. Certain much-repeated stories, such as Yorky's back flip, the wife crashing the car, Fred being chased by the same dog, the endless Fred's Master vs The Vicar chess games, Fred stealing food and others marked a dip in quality. The last few years by Graham into the 1990s, however, had some new ideas.
Some strips are merely a glimpse of a moment of life from a dog's point of view. As a cartoon strip, they break the rule of sometimes not having a traditional ending, a punchline or even a distinct purpose, making them different from a Garfield or Peanuts strip.

After Alex Graham

Once the stockpiled 18 months' worth of Alex Graham cartoons had been published, they were continued in Graham's style with artwork by Michael Martin and Graham's daughter, Arran Graham, continuing the family link. They are new cartoons being published, not merely re-runs of earlier ones.
The Michael Martin drawings started out following the general style and humour of the original Graham Freds, but after around 2000 strips, a more casual style of drawing is apparent. These are sometimes lacking the subtlety of style & the knowing well-drawn expression of Fred, which was the strip's appeal for nearly 40 years. They occasionally have stories which are rather unlikely, such as Fred's Master taking Fred in their car into the Car Wash and leaving the car window open (in the 1994 book). Another anomaly was Fred's Master attempting to take the car to work (also in the 1994 book) whereas he previously always caught the train.

Fred Basset books

Fred Basset features in many books worldwide, in the UK a long-running series of books reprints most of the newspaper strips. These are books number 1 (1963) to book 45 (1993). Later books dated by year, 1994 onwards, include the Michael Martin drawn cartoons, as well as Graham's colour ones until they ran out by the 1996 book.
   In 1977, a large hardback book entitled "Fred Basset and the Spaghetti" was published by The Daily Mail. It featured a children's story, not the usual comic strips, written by Alex Graham's son, Neilson, together with illustrations by Alex.
   In 1989, a compilation book entitled "Fred Basset Bumper Book No 2" was issued. The title has since caused confusion, as there's no Bumper Book No 1 as such. A book published in 1988, "Fred Basset 25 Years", a similar compilation, is considered its forerunner.
   Colour strips as used in The Mail On Sunday were added from book 36 in 1984. This backlogged the black and white strips, and by book 41 in 1989 they were still using 1984 strips. The next book 42 jumped from book 41 ending with strip 6483 to strip 8159 dated 1990. The missing cartoons remain unpublished since the original newspaper strips.
   The distinctive "Fred" handwriting font was supplied by Les Hulme until the early 2000s.
   One Fred Basset book appeared in USA in 1969, "Meet Fred Basset" published as a 'Fawcett Gold Medal Book'. Several books appeared in Australia from 1979-1985 and one published in Germany.

Fred in other media

Despite his many years featured in newspapers around the world, his profile isn't as high as other cartoon characters. There were few toys and novelty items made, as well as a yearly Calendar. Fred is one of the few characters not yet to have a full-length film made featuring them, as with Garfield, Felix the Cat etc. Fred Basset is currently syndicated using the Michael Martin strips and is available by email subscription from gocomics.com and others.
Syn FM (Student Youth Network) radio show Mornings Without Kerrianne also ran a segment each week in which they read out Fred Basset on air, with host Ben Lewis playing Fred, Chris Tremonti narrating and Lauren Smith filling in any other required parts.
Fred Bassett is regularly read out on air by Hamish Blake through all of Australia on the Today Network's Hamish and Andy Show at the end of the Friday afternoon show. Hamish loves it and plays it at every opportunity, much to the dismay of his co-host, Andy. They both also own a Greyhound which is called "Fred Basset" and is raced throughout Victoria.

Fred Basset television cartoon series

In mid 1976 a short-lived 5 minute television cartoon of Fred Basset was shown on the BBC, made by Bill Melendez Productions, voiced by actor Lionel Jeffries that's available on VHS. The cartoons are oddly rather downbeat and depressing in tone, rather unlike the cheery strips, perhaps explaining their short television life. The character voices are not well suited, as is typical with television versions of book characters.

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