Mr Benn

  There is a tendency to wilfully and superficially  misunderstand Mr Benn. The series clearly has a core message of empathy: to walk in another's shoes, to see things from a quite alien perspective, even a marine cryptid. Not only that, but to empathise with whole classes or societies, to seek out commonalities between ancient and modern, and resolve conflicts based on ignorance and fear of the other.

Mr Benn is no tourist of others' woes, he is a man of principle, feeling and action. He learns, he sympathises, he collaborates and helps others in distress. His actions in the other worlds resonate back to his own time carrying their improvements in a ripple effect, reminding us to act local and think global.

He requires no thanks, only a small reminder of each of his experiences to help preserve the lessons along his moral journey.

Why, if he was still on his adventures, he'd be appearing in bombed cities, tackling the effects of global warming and saving endangered species with such polite determination as would shame us all.

Mr benn was a BBC cartoon tv series in the early 1970's