W riter Dennis Spooner’s stage directions described the Monk as 60 or so: “His face is mischievous, sly, and cunning. A sense of humour mingless [sic] with a ‘Naughty Boy’ look…” The actor chosen as the incarnation of Spooner’s overgrown schoolboy prankster, supposedly at producer Verity Lambert’s suggestion, was 50-yearold Peter Butterworth – a Saturday teatime favourite as far back as 1951-53, when he’d introduced (among others) rising star Sooty during his stint as co-presenter of the children’s variety programme Saturday Special/The S.S. Saturday Special, alongside the puppet parrot Porterhouse (lines squawked by Dalek voice artiste Peter Hawkins). More recently, on Saturday nights throughout May 1965 he’d featured in The Roy Castle Show – a vehicle for the multi-talented entertainer soon to premiere as the co-star to Peter Cushing in the film Dr. Who and the Daleks.