Dead Ringers (comedy)

Dead Ringers is a UK radio and television comedy impressions show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC2. The programme was devised by Bill Dare, and stars Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Phil Cornwell, Kevin Connelly and Mark Perry. The principal writers are Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain. The other writers are John Finnemore, David Mitchell, Simon Blackwell, Richard Ward, Colin Birch, Jon Culshaw and Jan Ravens.

Content

The programme is well known for its portrayal of fellow BBC employees, such as Radio 4 news reader Brian Perkins as a gangster ("Who's the daddy?") and then-Director General of the BBC Greg Dyke as a Michael Caine-like character (mi naim is Greg Dyke. Ai am Director General of the Bee bee Sea.). Newsreader Kirsty Wark (of Newsnight) regularly opens bulletins on the programme with a line from a popular song ("He was a skater boy, she said see you later boy, he wasn't good enough for her. More on that story later", "I've got something to put in you, I've got something to put in you, at the gay bar, gay bar. More on that story later."), while Fiona Bruce and Charlotte Green (of Radio 4) are portrayed as flirtatious ("I'm Fiona Bruce, and I'm sat on the luckiest chair in Britain", "I'm Fiona Bruce. I'm the one who makes that frog go crazy", "BBC Radio 4, I'm Charlotte Green, and yes from now on I'll be reading the news Calendar Girls style", "BBC Radio 4, I'm Charlotte Green, and yes I am shaking my Tic-Tacs at you"). Broadcasts reportedly from Downing Street parody previous BBC political editor Andrew Marr, showing his supposed eccentric manner, interminable sentences, and jerky movements - he is shown with giant artificial hands operated by puppet rods and speaks in simile "Well Fiona, might I say my goose has well and truely had it's chips". Sir Patrick Moore is revealed not to be an astronomer but actually a peeping-tom and psychic around the London Eye. Famous movie quotes are often twisted and added to everyday things. (Russell Crowe (as Maximus Decimus Meridius): "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife... and that's when I called Claims Direct!")

Related Topics:
BBC - Brian Perkins - Greg Dyke - Michael Caine - Kirsty Wark - Newsnight - Fiona Bruce - Charlotte Green - Calendar Girls - Downing Street - Andrew Marr - Patrick Moore - London Eye

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One recurring gag includes celebrities being the offsprings of a famous person, character or even an object from everyday entertainment or culture ("Natasha Kaplinsky: Hello, I'm Natasha Kaplinsky - Half televison presenter, half prize-winning cat!", "Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall: Welcome back to another special edition with me, the secret love child of Alan Davis and Dougal from the Magic Roundabout..."Sandi Toksvig: Hello, I'm Sandi Toksvig. Love child of Bilbo Baggins and an Ewok"...Sandi Tosvik: Hello, I'm Sandi Toksvig, the original hobbit..." "Mark Lawson: You're watching Newsnight with me, Mark Lawson, Britain's brainest potato..." "George Lucas: Hi, I'm George Lucas, Hollywood's most powerful Ewok." "Phil Spencer: And I'm Phil Spencer, Half man......")

Related Topics:
Natasha Kaplinsky - Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall - Alan Davis - The Magic Roundabout - Sandi Toksvig - Bilbo Baggins - Ewok - Mark Lawson - George Lucas - Phil Spencer

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Culshaw regularly performs prank telephone calls, impersonating (among many others) Tom Baker's incarnation of The Doctor, Alec Guinness's version of Obi-Wan Kenobi, art critic Brian Sewell and talk show presenter Michael Parkinson. In the show's television incarnation he goes about in public (e.g. shopping) as such characters, vexing shop assistants and used-car salesmen alike ("I seek passage to Aldershot").

Related Topics:
Tom Baker - The Doctor - Alec Guinness - Obi-Wan Kenobi - Brian Sewell - Michael Parkinson - Aldershot

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Politicians

Prime Minister Tony Blair announces his hand gesture style while speaking ("People of Britain, starey eyes, sweaty palms, receding hairline, yesterday I announced...", "People of Britain, oh how I hate to be beside the seaside grimace, hate Gordon Brown hand gesture, looking over his shoulder underpants...", "People of Britain, this is your Emperor..."), while Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott speaks nonsensical, incomprehensible and, above all, long sentences ("The listeners understand, John, and Gordon Brown agrees with this and you've had your say, that in so far as this policy is implemented if I can get a word in edgeways and the whole Cabinet is behind this...", "I never said I was the queen. This was twisted by the media back into the order in which I said it.") and on one occasion catches fire when two of his incomprehensible sentences rub together, along with being the subject of the Prescott Widening Scheme to go along with the Road Widening Scheme. Dr John Reid is portrayed as a Victor Meldrew like character, always complaining and throwing abuse at TV presenters. Robin Cook is even less comprehensible, and it has been suggested that the famous Doctor Who theme music was created by combining a recording of Cook explaining his views on the European Union with, for the higher-pitched sounds, his reaction to being told that all young female BBC employees were turned on by ugly ginger men with beards.

Related Topics:
Prime Minister - Tony Blair - Gordon Brown - Deputy Prime Minister - John Prescott - John Reid - Victor Meldrew - Robin Cook - Doctor Who - Female

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George W. Bush

Dead Ringers tends to concentrate on British public figures, although one notable exception is President George W. Bush, whose public pronouncements are parodied as tending to mangle the English language with invented words such as ignorify, astonisherate and climactification ("As a result, the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il announcified that he would be resumerating their nuclear program") and supposedly inclining to malapropism ("My fellow amoeboids...", "My fellow watermelons...", "My fellow pelicans...", "My fellow umbrellastands...", "My fellow sea-beavers...", "My fellow Bulgarians...", {refering to the end of the Iraq War} "I give my word to the Iraqi people, that American construction firms have arrived on the ground and will commence reincarnation immediately...", "You must remember that Al-Qaeda therapists despise the American way of life, and everything you and I hold to be queer..." ), while his actions are often caricatured as childlike and lacking in understanding of the consequences (for example, taping over intelligence videos with episodes of Sesame Street.) *http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/deadringers/clips/clip13.shtml One of the most famous and favourite skits of the President involves him telling the captured Saddam Hussein that it's now his turn to start hiding in a new game of international hide-and-seek.

Related Topics:
George W. Bush - North Korea - Kim Jong-il - Malapropism - Sesame Street - Saddam Hussein

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International

Consequently, when the series has been shown outside the UK, on BBC Prime in Europe and Africa, BBC America in the United States, and ABC in Australia, it has had to be re-edited considerably; despite the fact that most of the impressions are funny in their own right without the need for contextual knowledge.

Related Topics:
BBC Prime - Europe - Africa - BBC America - United States - ABC - Australia

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