Brian Cox, the Hollywood actor and Dundee’s most famous son, has called on the city to honour Beryl the Peril, the cartoon character.

Cox, the star of the X-Men films and the Bourne trilogy, said that a memorial to the female tearaway, who has wrought mayhem in the pages of The Topper and The Dandy for half a century, is long overdue.

However, his appeal has failed to find favour with the city’s politicians, who said Beryl the Peril is a bad role model and that honouring her would send out the wrong message to youngsters.

Shona Robison, the public health minister and MSP for Dundee East, said if the character was a real person she would more likely be awarded an Asbo than a plaque.

The pre-adolescent rebel, with her trademark ponytail and black-and-red clothing, has been cocking a snook at authority since 1953.

Beryl was to have been honoured with a bronze plaque as part of a new Women’s Trail in the city, but was dropped because she is a fictional character. She was replaced by Victoria Drummond, a marine engineer who was Queen Victoria’s god-daughter.

Cox, the son of a Dundee jute mill spinner, urged those behind the idea to think again.

“Beryl the Peril is the quintessential daughter of Dundee, in the tradition of the powerfully independent female — bruiser extraordinaire, part anarchist, part budding matriarch,” he said.

“She is a spiritual descendant of the founding mothers of Dundee, those pioneering mill workers who set the standard by which the feminists and bra burners of the 1960s prised open the coffin of women’s liberation.

“Beryl is the prototype of the no-nonsense, stubborn, equal rights smokin’-sister of the present day — a reflection of the matriarchal society that is Dundee. A plaque is long overdue.”

However, politicians in the city famous for its jam, jute and journalism said Beryl didn’t deserve to be officially recognised along with inspirational real-life figures.

“The Dundee Women’s Trail is a magnificent idea. Women have played a great part in Dundee’s history and the city if often known as the ‘Women’s Toon’,” said Robison.

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