Best Bitz From Back Den is an Irish television special and DVD released in November 2008. It was broadcast on RTÉ One on 27 October 2008 at 18:30. The title is a play on the Irish children's television favourite The Den. It was compiled to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the birth of Zig and Zag, [1] an identical set of alien twins who were once popular attractions amongst students and children on television in Ireland before featuring on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast and on MTV Europe. Zig and Zag preceded what became a wave of puppets that have featured in RTÉ children's schedules, such as Dustin the Turkey, best known outside Ireland for being that country's entry into the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, and Podge and Rodge who have achieved solo success with popular night-time shows, A Scare at Bedtime and The Podge and Rodge Show.
Current Today FM presenters Ian Dempsey and Ray D'Arcy, who both worked in children's television at different times in the early parts of their respective careers, feature heavily in the special which looks back at Zig and Zag's origins on Dempsey's Den. Highlights include attacks by Ted, a malicious panda, on the presenters, Christmas specials of The Den and footage is also shown of characters such as Captain Joke, Captain Pillowcase and Cousin Nigel and the Irish Film and Television awards of 1989 where Zig and Zag "accidentally" mistook then taoiseach Albert Reynolds with actor Burt Reynolds and addressed him as "your majesty".[2]
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