The Curious Tale of Dennis The Menace | BBC America

But having done a bit of research, it turns out there’s more to be said on the topic of Dennis the Menace than I had originally intended, not the least of which is the remarkable coincidence around the title of the cartoon.

So, here’s the story from the American perspective first: In March 1951, a cartoon called Dennis The Menace began, syndicated across 16 newspapers at first, about a little boy in Wichita, Kansas.

Dennis Mitchell, the hero, is five and a half.

He came from the fertile mind of Hank Ketcham, who had a four-year-old son called Dennis, whose over energetic antics, complete with accidental catastrophe, and a reluctance to go to sleep, proved to be hugely inspirational.

Hank Ketcham became Henry Mitchell, Hank’s wife Alice – who started the whole thing off after a traumatic bedtime with the real Dennis, by wandering into Hank’s studio and breathlessly exclaiming “YOUR SON…IS A MENACE!” – is Dennis’s mum Alice.

Also in March, and also in 1951, the Beano comic, a staple of British childhoods since 1938, began their new cartoon series, called Dennis the Menace.

However, the fact is that the UK Dennis and the US Dennis occupy similar places in the hearts of their respective nations, despite being entirely different characters.

It’s arguable that the UK Dennis is more of an actual menace than Dennis Mitchell – put into musical terms, the US Dennis is the Monkees, and the UK Dennis is the Sex Pistols – however, it bears repeating that both cartoons began in the same month of the same year, totally independently of one another, and went on to take over the world.