Harold Clifton lives in Puddington, near London, supported by housekeeper Miss Partridge, who makes a prize-winning goulash.

In Passé Composé it was established that Clifton served in the RAF as a group captain during World War II before joining the Secret Service.

Spruce is the sort of man who would be perfectly capable of handling the missions himself if not for a leg injury which has left him partly disabled.

It was originally Raymond Macherot who created the Colonel Clifton character, and the first story was published in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin on 16 December 1959.

In 2003, after a long inactive period, Rodrigue collaborated with Bob de Groot who returned to write Clifton scripts, and seven volumes have been published since.

Beside French and Dutch, the stories have been translated into Finnish, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, English and German (where in most publications Clifton is named Percy Pickwick).