One of the successes of Irish children's television programme, The Den has been its ability to continually produce an array of successful characters, many of whom have gone on to achieve fame in other fields both nationally and internationally. The main characters are summarised below.
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The Generation I characters include extraterrestrials Zig and Zag and their dog Zuppy, all of whom were present during the original Dempsey's Den. Zig and Zag left in 1994 but Zuppy remained to become one of the longest serving members of The Den team alongside Don Conroy.
The first, and possibly the most famous, of the puppets were the original Zig and Zag, two ten year-old alien twins from the planet Zog. These were a very successful franchise on their own, spawning parody tapes, comic books and car toys. A popular toy throughout the late 1980s were zogabongs, the unusual antennae on both Zig's and Zag's heads.
Zig and Zag arrived from the Planet Zog hoping to collect jokes. They were adopted by the young television presenter, Ian Dempsey, and became regular features on Dempsey's Den whilst living at Number Ten Celebrity Square (it has since been demolished and now has a Lidl on it). At first they would appear separately on designated days of the week and once a week together, then their appearances became more frequent. Zag was responsible for introducing Dustin to celebrity acclaim when he won him in a golf game, however both he and Zig had a difficult relationship with the turkey. An offer arrived from Channel 4 and the two extraterrestrials left The Den in 1994.
Zig and Zag received a presenting job on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast, whereas Zuppy, Soky and Dustin remained. Zig and Zag returned to Ireland in the late 1990s to host 2Phat, a music-quiz show along with their father, Ray D'Arcy, in which students had the chance to win a limited edition scooter. The show ran for two seasons and was well received. Other popular characters on the show were Velcro Girl, DJ Lee, Zag's alter ego Reverend Groove and Zag's alter ego Captain Pillowcase. After a period of disappearance, they returned to launch a multi-layered assault on the media in October/November 2008, first featuring on their own television special, Best Bitz From Back Den and later appearing on the prime-time chat show, Twiggery Tonight,[1][2] and their old father's radio show, The Ray D'Arcy Show, to promote its release as a DVD.
Zig and Zag have a dog called Zuppy, who rarely appeared but was more used in comic books. Zuppy is blue with pink zogabongs and tends to make rather high-pitched yelping barking noises akin to dogs of Earthly origin. He used to maul Zag for no apparent reason. Zag was repeatedly left smarting from these encounters, during which Zuppy would growl. The other members of the Den saw this as friendly play between the two, and Zag often seemed unsure of Zuppy's attitude towards him. Zuppy got his name from Johnathan Balfe after responding to a competition. In return he got a year's supply of lollipops from Chupa Chups. Zuppy occasionally still feature in programming, alongside Socky in the early morning shows.
The Generation II characters began to be introduced just before Zig and Zag's departure, most notably Dustin the Turkey, who was won by Zag in a game of golf. Characters such as Soky, Ted, Podge and Snotser were present throughout the D'Arcy era and, with the exception of Podge (who moved to late night television show A Scare at Bedtime with brother Rodge after both were thwarted in their evil attempts to ruin Christmas), into the McCaul era.
Another regular on the programme, and another of the most famous, from December 1989 right up until now has been Dustin the Turkey. Dustin was originally introduced when Zag won him for coming last in a golf tournament against Ronan Collins. Originally intended to be cooked, Dustin remained unaware of his impending fate as Christmas approached. However, the cast were emotionally moved by this and could not bring themslelves to kill and stuff him. There is also a school of thought that Dustin was originally conceived as a turkey vulture, which would be consistent with his rather large and most un-turkeylike beak. However, as he became increasingly involved with Christmas pantomime shows in Dublin, and releasing CDs aimed at the Christmas market, he seems to have mutated into a turkey (the usual bird for Christmas dinner in Ireland) and most of those who remember his origins are now adults. He is portrayed as a builder from the Dublin Northside. Dustin was spun off to his own programme, DDN (Dustin's Daily News), in the September 2005 re-launch (see above), and later received another show, The Once a Week Show. The turkey went on to represent Ireland in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, where he did not qualify from the semi-final. On Today FM's The Ray D'Arcy Show on 14 November 2008, Dustin was co-erced into "doing the flap-flaps" for a live audience at Vicar Street [3] - The Den team would regularly co-erce Dustin, through use of flattering comparisons, into doing the "flap-flaps" (a unique and humorous dance with his wings), the result of which was that everyone was supposed to collapse into convulsions of laughter.
Merely an offstage voice for many years, Snotser Galligan was an extremely high-voiced member of Dustin's construction crew. Being left to the imagination of viewers for the longest time, he was finally seen in the closing seconds of the first episode of the "treehouse season" during Den TV. The rest of the cast (and the audience) had been awaiting his arrival for the entire episode, but D'Arcy Dustin and Socky submissively exited for home, leaving the audience to think that Snotser would remain an unseen, offstage character. However, as the episode was just about to end, Snotser entered the now deserted studio apologising for being late. He was revealed to be a large, pink pig. Snotser was a fairly popular character and appeared on several tracks of Dustin's parody album Faith of Our Feathers. Possessing a deeply high-pitched voice he was known for his catchphrase: "Ah yeah, top man!" He is on hiatus.
Socky (sometimes spelt "Soky") the sock monster was introduced just after the departure of Zig and Zag, and is targeted towards the younger viewers. He was presented as a pre-school character, whose naivety increased his affection values. He is not ever-present, although in recent years he is more commonly there during the early morning shows. Socky is a Sock Monster, who has old, used socks for hair. Young viewers were invited to send their smelly socks to The Den as presents which would be gifted to Soky. His prized possession was his blue bucket. He has a cat, called Charly and often mentions his best friend Thomas from playschool. He is nowadays the only puppet who frequently appears.
Charlie is Soky's pet cat. He is known for his jokes and sense of humor. He had a deathmatch with Zuppy. Charlie lasts to the show with the Big 3—Dustin, Soky and Zuppy.
Not really a puppet, but a soft plush, Ted was a running in-joke between Dempsey/D'Arcy and Zig and Zag. He has appeared since, but rarely. Ted was a possessed stuffed panda who rarely appeared, but every few shows a photo of him either in a famous location or launching an attack on a famous person or a viewer would be shown. He would regularly appear in the studio, but only when the presenter was missing from the shot. Later, a running joke where Ray D'Arcy wrestled with him was introduced, which involved the (quite large) stuffed toy being hurled at D'Arcy (whether he was expecting it or not), who then had to wrestle with it and hurl it offscreen again. It usually seemed to be quite tiring for him - especially when the crew would wickedly throw Ted right back at him after he tossed him offscreen.
One running gag involving Ted had Zig and Zag tell him to "Keep it down Ted!" Of course, Ted never actually made a sound.
D'Arcy himself admitted on his radio show that Ted only tended to attack on days when he was hungover or not feeling the best. This always happened when Dustin was absent, and afterwards he wouldn't believe D'Arcy that Ted had attacked him. Ted left after FBJ's departure, and later appeared in the opening credits of iD. He was last heard of breaking through security at Vicar Street to attack D'Arcy when he presented his morning radio show from the venue. This was about half an hour after the Today FM newsreader, Sinead Spain, ominously aired a newsflash that a UFO had been spotted flying over Drogheda with no sign of life on board. D'Arcy was heard to wrestle the bear to the ground; later comparisons seemed to indicate that this particular Ted was at least one foot taller than D'Arcy.[3]
Podge was an evil boy-like puppet, who in all his appearances caused mischief and instigated conspiracies. He would usually appear when only Zag was around, and fool him into some badness. Podge convinced Zag to listen to his instructions, often citing "All I want is a friend and a cuddle". Zag set up his own 5 minute segment named the Podge and Zag Show and play around with the puppet only to be interrupted by a mocking Zig. In later years, Podge terrorised the whole cast. One year he took over the whole show and fired them all, renaming the show "Bun's Bungalow" and promising wall-to-wall Echo Island all day, every day. At the end of the programme it was all shown to have been a horrible dream... or was it? Another year, at the end of Dustin's spoof presidential campaign, he fooled the cast into believing that Dustin had won the election. Podge was joined by his brother Rodge from this point onwards.
Podge's television career did not end when he left The Den. He later reappeared co-hosting his own show A Scare at Bedtime alongside Rodge. When that proved popular, the two were given their own chat show The Podge and Rodge Show set in their country home, Ballydung Manor, which further enhanced their popularity.
The Generation III characters were introduced in the post-McCaul era, in particular through the use of spin-off shows. Martin Duck was a feature of the mock news episodes, Dustin's Daily News.
The second most recent addition to the line of 'evil' puppets after Martin Duck, Simon Trowel (an obvious pun on Simon Cowell) is a miserable "twin" of Dustin, though he insists he is a troll rather than a turkey. Most recently, before Halloween 2005, he kidnapped Dustin and tried to take his place, so he could steal the prizes available in the special Halloween pumpkin game. He made Francis and Socky drink a special brew that made them think he was Dustin. When they went off set, the TV screen at the back would show Dustin locked away, begging the viewers to help him get out and tell Francis and Socky that Simon Trowel's out there instead of him. On some occasions Simon was there when this happened, and he sneered at Dustin, declaring to the viewers that they would never get him out. Dustin eventually escaped however and it was actually reported on RTÉ News that he has been spotted running down the M50 the day he escaped.
However, Simon's 'character' now appears to have been rewritten, as on 2 October 2005 he appeared alongside Dustin in a sketch on Dustin's Daily News, in which they tried to get a rock music contract, and he was introduced to the record producer as being Dustin's cousin. Simon Trowel's brother, Stephen, never appeared. Presumably of his shy, sneaky nature.
It's been suggested a picture of Simon Trowel be inserted
A more recent "evil" puppet, Martin Duck is a mysterious duck who began "hacking" into transmissions of the mock-news epic, Dustin's Daily News, from a makeshift studio in a garden shed in January 2006. He seems to have some sort of grudge against Dustin, who declared him a "wanted duck" and began distributing wanted posters to viewers who wrote, texted or e-mailed in to DDN. Eventually, Duck was tracked down to a shed in Blackpool, County Cork, on property believed to be owned by a P. Carleton. Duck then went on the run to elude capture. He soon resumed his pirate broadcasts from a "secret" location, giving viewers cryptic clues as to where that location was. A huge prize package was offered to the person who finally captured Martin, as he stepped up his campaign against Dustin by hijacking certain elements of his show, such as taking over one of the regional RTÉ studios to "play" the "Dustin's Masterbrain" game, and kidnapping Dustin's co-presenter, Sinéad and taking her place on one show. In the final show of the season, on 29 April 2006, Duck was located and forcibly removed from his underground hiding place in Limerick. Later he said he is now dustins biggest fan. He has not been seen since.
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