Alex has been shot, kidnapped, run over, abducted by aliens and marooned in the Amazon rainforest. He’s endured two weeks as a homeless person on the streets of new York (a team-building exercise), been called to the priesthood by God (he declined) and he’s had vivid nightmares about being a pupil at Hogwarts, of going down with the Titanic and of being employed, ignominiously, as a milkman. For the most part none of these experiences have dented his blinkered complacency or wholly mercenary attitude to life.

Several ‘real’ people have made appearances in the strip: Tony Blair, Prince Charles, Prince William, Nicola Horlic, Martha Lane-Fox, Robbie Williams, and Bill Clinton.

In 2002, creators Charles and Russell were awarded MBEs for services to the newspaper industry.

Check here for the latest comments of Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor on Radio 4.