First broadcast in 1972, only 13 episodes of Mr. Benn were ever made. Each weekend Mr. Benn, a London based businessman complete with suit and bowler hat, would visit the curious costume shop he had discovered. 'As if by magic' the magic shopkeeper would appear and aid him in his choice of costume. Ushered into the changing room Mr. Benn would try on the costume and go through another door, to find himself in a different world, befitting the costume. There he would perform good deeds - helping mermaids, dragons, hunters and even a genie. Finally the magic shopkeeper would appear once more and summon him back.
Mr. Benn would hand the costume over, having had quite enough excitement, and return home to number 52 Festive Road. And somehow he always found a souvenir in his suit pocket to help him remember his adventures.
Adult Meaning

Based around the businessman, rather than, say, a child, and set in a contemporary world one can read Mr. Benn as having a social critique in its narratives and structure. Mr. Benn is quite alone, unable it seems to interact with his neighbours who he watches from a distance. He lives alone and wears his suit at the weekends, openly having no other interests outside of his work.
It is this boredom and solitude which always brings him to the special costume shop. The adventures he has act as escapism for Mr.Benn, and in them he finds a purpose and exercises his values which remain unseen in his everyday life. Whilst in the 'real' world he does not so much as speak to his neighbours, despite taking a keen interest in their activities, in costume he is able to talk and actively engage with others, whether they be a young boy or a king. In his adventures Mr. Benn is able to become the active hero, interacting with others and pursuing his ideals.
This narrative can be seen as a rejection of the commerce environment which keeps Mr. Benn from entering into the rest of society. In line with this there is a re-assertion of small-scale community values which is manifest in other elements of the series. In the first episode Mr. Benn searches for a fancy dress costume in the large stores but fails to find anything useful. It is only when he is forced by necessity to leave the commercial city and look amongst the unfamiliar backstreets and small shops that he discovers what he has been searching for. There is also a clear traditionalism which warns against advances of technology and change. When a match-maker puts a dragon out of business (he used to light people's fires) it is only through treachery and arson. The match-maker is punished and the dragon re-instated due to the intervention of Mr. Benn. In another episode the world of King Neptune is disturbed by the presence of two submarines. Mr. Benn tricks them into leaving and peace and quiet is restored. Mr. Benn asserts community values whilst rejecting the world of commerce and mechanisation he obviously comes from.
The suit symbolises his isolated, character-less existance and seperates him from the residents of his street. In exchanging the suit for his various costumes Mr. Benn experiences a diverse freedom, and finds different elements of his character as inspired by his adventures each episode. Mr. Benn criticises the commercial world, allowing Mr. Benn to live out his fantasies of a simpler life in which community is all important. And though he returns home to the isolation created by his commercial world, he retains the hope and knowledge that within him is the humanity he seemed to have lacked.


Icons

The Magic Shopkeeper is a character who has been printed on t-shirts more than most other Seventies animated television characters. The reason for this is perhaps that he suits the needs of the merchandisers so well. As an icon he works perfectly. The shopkeeper hardly spoke, and did even less. He was merely there, as a symbol even in the programme. He was the character who allowed Mr. Benn the freedom to have his adventures, making the costumes available to him in each episode. It may be the ambivalence and even the wizardry which the shopkeeper clearly had, all of which was understated in the extreme, which finds an appeal in the Nineties. The very nature of the shopkeeper, as a simple, virtually static, animated image, allows all of this information to be expressed to those who knew the programme; making it ideal as an iconic reference to a complex set of values.
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