The Oldie Podcast

Stan ‘Mac’ McMurtry – Oldie Lead in his Pencil Award. By Quentin Letts Cartoonist Stan ‘Mac’ McMurtry says that, during his decades on Fleet Street, his duty has been to make news pages brighter ‘by putting in a laugh’. Ever-modest Mac, 88, undersells his genius. His drawings in the Daily Sketch, Daily Mail and, to this day, the Mail on Sunday have always done more than that. Since the 1960s they have humanised the news, reminding us that after every thermonuclear disaster there will be some office cleaner surveying the mess, leaning on a broom with wry detachment and a half-smoked fag. The fashion for newspaper cartoons has drifted towards party-political indignation and starkness of nib. Mac’s art is softer. His work is in the tradition of the Bystander’s Bruce Bairnsfather, the Daily Express’s Carl Giles and the Evening Standard’s Jak. The shading is gentle and the visual effect more rounded than sharp-edged. Mac’s cartoons include domestic fixtures such as telephones, wastepaper bins, steaming teacups