Tom Thumbscrew
    

    Tom must surely be Fleetway's most sinister star. He
    was supposed to be the torturer's apprentice for a bossy
    king. But instead of scorching the eyeballs out of his
    captives to make them talk, this reluctant fellow would
    employ a light-hearted tickling, and various forms of
    tomfoolery to make their time in the dungeon a tad
    more bearable...
     
     

    Tom was a strange one to pin down. Although he was
    most decidedly non-violent he did display a mean spirit
    which would come to the fore when e'er a prisoner gave
    him too much grief (like that Jester fellow, below).

    On top of that, of course, one could pile a multitude of
    S&M references and innuendoes. Butone must remember,
    this strip was being printed in a more naive time, way before
    Graham Norton, satelitie porn et al. Kids were more likely
    to confuse the term with Mum's favourite High Street store
    than with anything more suggestive...

    

    What is perhaps more surprising is that the authorities did
    not appear to pick up on the content of this weekly strip.
    Here were a collection of characters depicted in a captive
    environment, frequently manacled, or being threatened with
    the Rack or worse. Amnesty International would be
    horrified!