[Scarlett.]

Dennis the Menace goes PC

DENNIS the Menace is returning to TV after a decade — with a politically-correct image.

No longer will the schoolboy tearaway, who first appeared in the Beano comic in 1951, be given a whack with a slipper by his dad.

Instead Dennis, in the CBBC cartoon with dog Gnasher, appears on a Jeremy Kyle-style daytime show with his mum asking: “Help, I can’t control my son.”

He is packed off to a brat camp, but this fails to cure his naughtiness.

Benjamin Gray, from Beano publisher DC Thomson, said: “The storylines are very much influenced by what is going on in the UK now.

“Children grow up in a world of reality TV, downloads and iPods. We have to reflect this, but the unique Dennis charm will still be there.”

The new series is expected to be on screens by autumn 2009.

...WTF?