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 the series The Two Ronnies (Season 7: 1978-1979) showed a parody sketch of Rupert Bear. It was titled "Rupert Baird" with Ronnie Corbett playing the part of Rupert and Ronnie Barker playing the role of a journalist/newsreporter. The whole of the dialogue in the sketch was composed of the rhyming prose that appears in the stories. The sketch also included the "Tell 'em about the honey Mummy" monster which at the time was a television advert. Rupert Bear Rupert Bear is a children's comic strip character created by the English artist Mary Tourtel and first appearing in the "Daily Express"