Mary Tourtel was created in 1920, at a time when the "Express" was in competition with "The Daily Mail" and its then popular comic strip "Teddy Tail", as well as the strip "Pip, Squeak and Wilfred" in "The Daily Mirror". The then news editor of the "Express", Herbert Tourtel, was approached with the task of producing a new comic strip to rival those of the "Mail" and "Mirror" and immediately thought of his wife Mary, already an established author and artist. Rupert Bear was the result and was first published as a nameless character in a strip titled "Little Lost Bear" on
Rupert Bear and cable channel Tiny Pop. As of 2009 the show also airs daily on Qubo channel, although only the latter 26 episodes are currently being shown. In South America, the series was broadcast in Brazil by the TV Cultura channel between 1998 and 2008. According to the BBC News portal, in 2000 the Canadian producer Nelvana made plans to produce a feature film about Rupert at Hollywood studios, but the project was not implemented. In 2006 a new Rupert Bear stop-motion-animated television series was produced, skewing almost entirely towards small children. Notable changes to the characters are that Rupert wears