Dan and Nick: The Wildebeest Years

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Dan and Nick: The Wildebeest Years was a BBC Radio 4 comedy series originally broadcast in seven episodes in 1998. The Dan and Nick of the title are Dan Freedman and Nick Romero, who often appeared on Loose Ends.

[edit] Themes

The shows premise centered around short sketches and songs performed in a cabaret style. Dan and Nick had a supporting band, 'The Gents' who would accompany them on musical sections. Typical sketches included lampooning films, music, and other popular culture. The "Britishness" of the show was reflected in the interest in subjects such as the royal family, and Radio 4, the station on which it was broadcast, with a fascination for characters such as Brian Perkins. and the program itself owes much to forerunners of the radio comedy genre, such as Round the Horne, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, and The Navy Lark. Other shows since, such as Dead Ringers could also be said to have been influenced by it. Some recurring jokes were:

Incy Wincy Quincy, a spider pathologist,
Tossed in Space, a satire of Lost in Space about trapped salad items in space,
Censorship gags, for example, reading football scores while bleeping out any innocuous sounding words, including from the middle of words, and
The Annals of History and The Century's Passage, a humorous and satirical look back through historic events.
Robin Would, a gay and camp version of Robin Hood who's catchphrase was "what would you have me do, live a lie".