Toby Twirl Tourtel, an assistant editor of the "Daily Express". Tourtel devised Rupert Bear shortly after the end of World War I, in 1920, when the "Daily Express" was in competition with "The Daily Mail" and its then popular comic strip “Teddy Tail” (featuring a mouse called “Teddy Tail”), as well as with the comic strip “Pip, Squeak and Wilfred” (respectively, these are the names of a dog, penguin, and rabbit) in the "Daily Mirror". Each panel of Tourtel's comic strip story was accompanied by a narrative in rhymed verse. These are the very first ("Daily Express", 8 November 1920): The title
Rupert Bear new friends including a sprite called Willy Wisp. One of the most memorable elements of the series was the catchy theme song, written by Len Beadle (also known as Frank Weston) and Ron Roker, sung by Jackie Lee, which reached number 14 in the UK charts in 1971. The song included the erroneous lyric "Rupert "the" Bear", even though Rupert has never had the definite article in his name. A short film directed by Geoff Dunbar based on ideas/music/songs by Paul McCartney was made in 1985, titled "Rupert and the Frog Song". It follows Rupert as he explores the country