Grimbledon Down

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Grimbledon Down was a comic strip by British cartoonist Bill Tidy, which ran in New Scientist magazine from March 26 1970 until March 26 1994.

The strip was set in an ostensibly fictitious U.K. government research lab, which was in fact a thinly veiled reference to the controversial Porton Down bio-chemical research facility. Grimbledon Down's scientists engaged in all sorts of questionable research — such as the production of antipornography, grossly disgusting pornographic films which were intended to turn off the audience's sexual drive and thus save the World's civilisation from catastrophic overpopulation. Another frequent feature was attempts to create or distribute NU-Food, an artificial foodstuff. Often the main obstacle was human behavior - one strip featured a group of turbanned clerics complaining they couldn't decide which hand to use when eating it.

Very little of Grimbledon Down's internal organisation was ever revealed, but the person in charge was evidently a recurring character named Treem (no first name given), a moustached dark-haired man in a business suit. Treem was apparently not a scientist, as the scientists tended to wear white lab coats, but he was clearly scientifically literate, and often got into detailed technical discussions with the boffins on his staff.