Andy and Flo Capp live at 37 Durham Street, Hartlepool. Andy is a layabout, a drunkard, a bully, a liar and a gambler. The only reason he's not a skiver into the bargain is because he hasn't got a job to skive off in the first place. His put-upon wife Flo is kept working overtime to pay the bills.

Andy's an everyday northern bloke who can, and does, philosophise on just about anything. Andy and Flo have stuck it out together all these years, and he is still drinking (but not smoking since 1983), still playing football, rugby and snooker and still unemployed.

Andy's long-suffering wife Flo, also known as "Pet" or "t'other woman", is always by his side to pick him up (sometimes literally!) and quick to show him the error of his ways. With the exception of an equally wicked temper, she's everything that Andy is not... loyal, hardworking and self-sufficient.

Even Andy Capp was not immune to the onslaught of political correctness. For three decades of comic-strip dailies, he sported a 'tab' (cigarette) in his mouth, but this was quietly deleted in 1983.