Today is Michael Caine's birthday & so here is my favourite Zig & Zag impression from the Big Breakfast (I can find no clip, so you'll need to read it in Caine's voice).

The puppets were discussing Caine's films & recalled he'd been in Zulu (in which he speaks with a cut-glass scent) - however Zig & Zag thought it would have been better in his normal London accent:

'Don't throw... those blooming spears... at me!'

#MichaelCaine #TV #ZigAndZag

All this talk about #ZigandZag today has sent me off in search of their old videos. I found this on YouTube.
I've only watched five minutes of it, but man, they were ridiculous!

https://youtu.be/8XoEEqE0spM

#mastodaoine

Hey folks, hope you all had a good day yesterday wither you were celebrating Christmas or not. Hope you had a great day. and I hope you’re having a great day reading this today on whatever day it is when you read it. Were now in that part of Christmas between Christmas and new years.

It’s less of an issue now a days because I’ve rarely had that much time off. But when I was a kid the week off between then when it wasn’t a week day it was not Christmas day or new years.

You were in a kind of middle timeless zone. It’s an odd time because the tv isn’t regular tv there’s films on and things. Maybe the regular presenters are still not back.

Actually speaking of telly to go on a tangent, was there ever another kids show like The Den? Here in Ireland where the presenters would find themselves on Christmas eve helping Santa Clause or going on some big festive adventure. Zig and Zag, Dustin and Socky have saved Christmas I don’t know how many times.

Not to say we took it for granted or anything these felt epic. I should say for people a bit younger or folks out of the republic of Ireland. The Den was a show where presenter Ian Dempsey followed by lots of others during the years would be joined by very colourful characters originally Zig and Zag two aliens from the planet Zog who had made earth and Dublin city their home. And on Christmas eve they would somehow end up at the north poll where if you can belive it the once apparently a puppet (although they were faking being a puppet) Podge tired to stop Christmas from happening. Zig and Zag, later Dustin and Socky and the presenter would then save the day.

But here’s the thing about the den. the den wasn’t a adventure series. The Den was actually more of a programing block. in the evenings they would show kids tv shows. and The Den was a kind of a wrap around where they would tell you what was coming up, what you’d just seen. But in that it was a kind of univserse in itself.

There was Ted a teddy bear that would fly in and attack Ray Darcey (one of the presenters of the Den) There was Podge and later Rodge two villain characters (podge and rodge would go on to have two late night series of their own both very un kid friendly but completely hilarious) there was also Zuppy a puppy from Zog there was Socky a sock monster and of course Dustin the turkey who had many hit songs as well as a eurovison entry.

I’ll be honest folks when I started writing today I thought I’d write about that point in time in between Christmas and new years but here we are talking about this utterly iconic tv show. The people behind all of this I are geniuses. I don’t say that lightly they truly are. I mean there’s a reason Zig and Zag are equally iconic in the UK where they had other tv shows.

All this to say, Thank you Zig, Zag, Dustin and Socky and all the brilliant presenters for saving Christmas.

Well, eh. is it still a tangent if you never get back to the original thing?

anyway hope you’re all having a great day and see ya next time where who knows what I’ll talk about.

https://michaelmuto.com/2023/12/26/post-christmas-and-then-a-big-long-section-where-i-talk-about-how-brilliant-the-tv-show-the-den-was/

#Christmas #IrishTV #NewYears #TheDen #TVShows #UKTv #ZigAndZag

This is from the 2000th Big Breakfast Show (2000). Hadn't seen this before.

Lot of math to unpack there, but even we forgot the total that #ZigAndZag clocked up! 🧐 #BigBreakfast