The Legend of Dick and Dom

The Legend of Dick and Dom is a sitcom that stars Dick and Dom as two budding young princes who are on a quest to find the antidote to a terrible plague that consumed Fyredor because Dick dropped the cure. The all star cast also includes Mannitol (Steve Furst), a wizard who is really bad at doing magic, and Lutin (Chloe Bale), a thief who was released from prison. During the quest, they have to find various items e.g. a magnofish. They then put it in a special bottle to complete their potion. The programme is narrated by former Monty Python member Terry Jones. After the season three finale on 24 March 2011, the show was cancelled.

Main characters

Princes Dick and Dom

Prince Dick and Prince Dom (Richard McCourt and Dominic Wood respectively) are the sons of the King of Fyredor, a kingdom in Bottom World. They appear to be in their early twenties. They are both accident-prone and often naive. When a terrible plague ravaged the city, the king's mightiest warrior, a wizard, set out to find the cure. After successfully obtaining the ingredients, Dick and Dom were the first ones to be cured, but then, in their celebration, accidentally smashed the bottle and thus lost the cure. So, they set out on a quest with their trusty mage, Mannitol, and their servant, Lutin, to find the ingredients again. At the end of the first series they discovered that they had collected all the ingredients, but they had all the wrong ingredients and had created a potion to cure athlete's foot. In series 2 the plague evolved & the people of Fyredor start to transform into animals; Dick & Dom must therefore collect all the right ingredients as fast as they can.

Mannitol

Mannitol Chur-Railways (Steve Furst) is a mage who embarks on the quest with Dick, Dom and Lutin. Although he appears to be an experienced wizard, he is appallingly bad at magic, and most of his spells turn out disastrously wrong. His mishaps have included, among other things, turning Dick into a cowpat. Unlike the other characters, he wears a full length, itchy-looking brown robe. He is bald, but (unusually) has long red hair around the sides and a long beard. In the episode Dick's Brain, whenever gruesome things are mentioned (e.g. removing Dick's brain), Mannitol throws up. In an episode called The King of Kong's Conker, Dick and Dom are turned to stone, and can only be restored by the King of Kong's magic touch and Mannitol and Lutin must marry the King's daughters. Mannitol was due to marry Princess Minnie, and, when worrying with Lutin over the effects of their last names, revealed his surname to be Chur-Railways (Manni Chur-Railways being a pun on 'miniature railways'). but Mannitol knows the knowledge of the Items about like the tears of furry and there was a story about it. In 'Land of the Luvies' everyone thought he had been infected by 'luviness' due to his nice optimistic comments about his stay in their village; Therefore they had tied him up to a chair in 'Normans' Lab and left there when Dom revealed himself to be a 'Luvie'.

Lutin

Lutin Mum (Chloe Bale) is the servant of the princes. A very grumpy and querulous person, she was originally a thief. She dislikes the heavy labour she must do, such as carrying the supplies. When the characters get covered in mess (quite frequently) Lutin often complains about it messing up her hair or make-up, even though her hair appears messy and she obviously wears no make-up at all. She proves her toughness, though, in her handling of the princes and Mannitol, as she is rough with them. She is an outspoken critic of Mannitol, calling him an old fool and never listens to him. Lutin showed her courage, too, in The King of Kong's Conker, when she easily defeated a man-eating beast, but later owed this to the fact that she is a woman, not a man. In the same episode, Lutin had to pretend to be Prince Dom (who had been turned to stone), and had to marry a princess called Maxine. She argued with Mannitol over who should marry who; Lutin claimed she could not marry the other princess, Minnie, due to the fact that her surname was Mum, which would make Minnie's name "Minnie Mum". And Dom kissed Lutin on the cheek in one of the series. In the episode, "Tears of Fury" she had had a crush on a man called Jasper that lived within the walls (this led her to turning against the boys when they "killed" the Furies). They end up being girlfriend and boyfriend and actually kiss.This shows her soft side. In 'Land of the Luvies' she used her singing talent to trick the luvies that she had been infected and possessed to escape.

Beastmaster

The Beastmaster (Dave Chapman) is a secret enemy who follows Dick & Dom through Bottom World in the second season. He is the main antagonist of series 2 and 3. He is a tall cloaked man who wears a bull shaped mask. All the villains of series 2 work for him, but when they fail to stop the heroes the Beastmaster turns his minions into animals, e.g. Hans becomes a goat, the Hag becomes a slug, the Sirens become sheep, and the bank manager becomes a toad. When his evil animals fail him he cooks and eats them, e.g. Jackal the duck, Evil prince dick the rabbit, evil prince dom the dog, evil Lutin the cat and evil Mannitol the guinea pig. He is responsible for the plague. In Haunted he caught the heroes at last. At the end of the series, he falls into a vastly deep drill hole that leads to the water caverns under Fyredor and apparently dies.

Episode guide

Series 1 (2009)

Series 2 (2010)

Series 3 (2011)

Guest stars

Several well-known faces from CBBC have played guest parts in The Legend of Dick and Dom. These include Kate Edmondson (Hider in the House), Ted Robbins (The Slammer), Phil Cornwell (who has appeared in various shows such as MI High and Dani's House), Dave Chapman (Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow) and Ian Kirkby (Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow and Harry Batt). Kirkby and Chapman have semi-regular roles throughout the series (see below). Fenella Fielding also started in the episode called Land of the Luvvies. There have also been guest appearances by veteran entertainers, including Alan Ford (The Armando Iannucci Shows) Ian Lavender (Dad's Army) and Stephen K. Amos (The Stephen K. Amos Show)

Cultural references

Throughout the series there are a number of allusions to popular films and television programmes. While most of these are recognisable to a younger audience, there are also a number of references exclusively for mature viewers.

• In "Hairwolf", Dick responds to the children fleeing at the sight of the gang by saying to Dom, "I thought we were still popular with kids." This is a reference to Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow.
• "Back to School" features several references to the Harry Potter series, most notably when Dick questions the originality of sending Mannitol to a wizards' academy and asks Dom if it "seems familiar".
• Upon smashing one of the vials in "The Mists of Time", the gang find themselves falling through a time portal where the Doctor's TARDIS can be seen.
• In the same episode, Mannitol uses the power of suggestion on two security guards (Ian Kirkby and Dave Chapman, reprising their Harry Batt characters) to allow him and the princes access to Pinewood Studios. The scene is an exact recreation of Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker's entry into Mos Eisley Spaceport in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
• In the episode of "The Neehi Tribe" it seems to be copying the film Braveheart.^[1] When prince Dom waits for the mash to be fired its seems exactly the same as the scene from Braveheart.
• The pub in "The Tears of Fury" is called The Woolpack after the bar in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale.
• The eponymous 'beasts' in "The Tears of Fury" are based on the Tribbles from Star Trek.
• In "Vampire Baby", the POV shot of Baby Alan (Carter Lewis Claret) closing in on the gang as they sleep in the open woodland is modelled after The Evil Dead, while the vampire baby's projectile vomiting onslaught is inspired by The Exorcist.
• In his closing narration for "Dr Cheese", Terry Jones complains of mistreatment by the programme makers and boasts that he was "in a very popular comedy series a few years ago." The earlier episode "The Mists of Time" also featured Eric Idle's "Money Song".
• Ian Kirkby and Dave Chapman's guest spots often involve them playing roles in the style of famous comedians or comedy characters. In "Dr Cheese", for example, Kirkby models his eponymous doctor on Eric Morecambe while his clumsy assistant (Chapman) is styled after Frank Spencer.
• In "Escape" many parts of the episode refer to The Great Escape, including the tunnel being dug behind a stove and one of the workers giving parts to the four prisoners

External links

• The Legend of Dick and Dom at BBC Programmes
• The Legend of Dick and Dom at the Internet Movie Database

References