In the early days of the strip, Pilkington played a pivotal role in the Buying Department. A clerk, working alongside Bristow, Hewitt and Jones, he nevertheless incurred Bristow's suspicions, rivalry and hostility. Here is Bristow pondering on his fellow-worker (and betraying an amazing capacity for violence)

It’s all right for Pilkington... smug, self-satisfied, complacent
He sits there all day with that stupid grin on his face, thinking secret thoughts
I hate that stupid grin of his. I'd like to smash a chair over his head
I bet he'd love to know what I'm thinking
strip 5, March 1962

Pilkington provokes more dislike by apparently accepting a pay rise and smiling a deeply smug smile, snooping around Bristow's desk (in the hope of discovering how much Bristow earns) and smoking a vile pipe. Even when Bristow threatens to expose him to Fudge and the pipe is removed, Pilkington finds another way to irritate with the old boiled sweet routine

From strip 102, June 1962

It becomes clear during October 1962 that Pilkington has been promoted to an intermediate position between the management (Fudge, together with Barker as assistant chief buyer in January 1963) and the three clerks (Bristow, Jones and Hewitt). The nature of the new regime is brought quickly to light

1. So Pilkington has been promoted. So What??
2. It won’t make any difference to our personal relatonship
3. Nothing has changed
Pilkington enters
4. As far as I am concerned he is still the same old ‘Pilkie’
5. Pilkington “Get on with your work Bristow” Bristow Certainly Mr.Pilkington”

This is pretty much the same wording that the manager Mr. Wilkington uses. Hmm - Pilkington / Wilkington. Well, why waste a good idea?

There is one strip (677) where Barker announces that in Pilkington's absence Bristow will be "taking over". This does not not last and one may wonder at it happening at all, but the point is that Pilkington is a sort of senior clerk, receiving general instructions and passing them on to the other clerks. This of course only increases Bristow's resentment and jealousy. He gains some small satisfaction by stealing Pilkington's ink and anything else that Pilkington is foolish enough to leave in his desk, locked or not.(Yes, in the 1960s clerks apparently had to provide their own ink).

The strips between 1966 and 1971 will shed much more light on the relationship between Bristow and Pilkington and these will be researched as soon as convenient.

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