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Dead Ringers (series)

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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 developed with Jon Holmes, Andy Hurst and Simon Blackwell. It 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.

History

File:Dead Ringers.jpg
Crimewatch on Dead Ringers

The programme was first aired in 2000. The cast of the first series was different from that of the other instalments. Of the now-established team, only Culshaw and Ravens appeared, as did Kate Robbins, Simon Lipson and, most notably, Alistair McGowan. On radio there have been ten series plus a number of specials, including one devoted entirely to the BBC radio soap The Archers and one to Queen Elizabeth II's golden jubilee. The television incarnation of the show aired its fifth season in 2005, including a special devoted to the United Kingdom General Election on May 5 to start the six-part series, and a Christmas programme on December 23. A 6th series started on the 8th of May, 2006.

Content

The series is well known for its portrayal of fellow BBC employees, such as Radio 4 news reader Brian Perkins as a gangsta ("Who's the daddy?") and former Director General of the BBC Greg Dyke as a character with an accent similar to that of Michael Caine. Greg Dyke is portrayed under varying circumstances - one of the most amusing being after the BBC Christmas Party - Dyke has proclaimed he hopes he hasn't done anything horribly stupid, then reveals he has commissioned another series of Fame Academy - following this up with "I am never going to drink again!". Dyke is also portrayed as harbouring personal hatred against the Daleks - "Bring back Doctor Who? OK - but there's going to be no Daleks in it. They've crossed me too many times!"

Newsreader Kirsty Wark (of Newsnight) regularly opens bulletins on the programme with a line from a popular song, read flatly:

Fiona Bruce and Charlotte Green (of Radio 4) are portrayed as seductive and saucy:

  • "I'm Fiona Bruce, and I'm sat on the luckiest chair in Britain."
  • "I'm Fiona Bruce. Breaking news, breaking hearts."
  • "I'm Fiona Bruce. I'm the one who made the frog crazy."
  • "I'm Fiona Bruce. There's never a hosepipe ban when I'm around."
  • "I'm Fiona Bruce. Forget The Da Vinci Code, I'm the one who'll bring the Catholic Church down to its knees."
  • "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".
  • "BBC Radio 4, I'm Charlotte Green. Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just pleased to hear me?"

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 metaphor: "Well Fiona, might I say my goose has well and truly had its 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. For example, Russell Crowe in Gladiator: "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife... and that's when I called Claims Direct!")

One recurring gag includes celebrities being the offspring of a famous person, character or even an object from everyday entertainment or culture:

Culshaw regularly performs prank telephone calls, impersonating (among many others) Tom Baker's incarnation of The Doctor, Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, art critic Brian Sewell and talk show presenter Michael Parkinson. In the TV version, he roams in public as such characters, vexing shop assistants and used-car salesmen alike, with such pronouncements as, "I seek passage to Aldershot". As Parkinson he proceeded to interview a bus stop full of people.

Politicians

A former running gag, dating back to the earliest radio series of Dead Ringers, has Prime Minister, Tony Blair, stating to his physical characteristics 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..."

Recently, however, this is often replaced by Blair addressing the nation in an insulting, oppressive or vaguely aggressive:

  • "People of Britain, this is your Supreme Overlord..."
  • "People of Britain, who hate me..."
  • "You miserable gits, this is your Prime Minister..."
  • "People of Britain, this is your Emperor..."

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, speaks in 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."

On one occasion he catches fire when two of his incomprehensible sentences rub together, along with being the subject of the "Prescott-Widening Scheme" to go with a similar one for Britain's roads. When he announces this scheme would reduce the amount of incomprehensible sentences uttered, Kirsty Wark comments that this could be the most popular thing he's ever done. Also, Dr John Reid is portrayed as a Victor Meldrew-like character, always complaining and throwing abuse at TV presenters.

The late Robin Cook is even less coherent, 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. Clare Short is meanwhile portrayed as an angry woman hated by government with an almost fixed grimace: "I was so flabberghasted when the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, announced that we were going to war that my jaw dropped by almost half a millimetre!", while Alistair Darling's contrasting black eyebrows and white hair make him more badger than human. Charles Kennedy, former leader of the Liberal Democrats appears as a bit of a drunk, while Michael Howard, the former head of the Conservative Party, was shown as a vampire (a reference to the "something of the night about him" comment by Conservative MP Anne Widdecombe).

The Queen is also ridiculed, portrayed as someone who constantly makes announcements. She is first seen making an apology for her involvement in the Paul Burrell affair — and is mocked by the media as being someone "who holds all the answers to all the unsolved cases without even realising it". The Queen also appears for fictional newspaper The Bung, as "an old lady who met Diana once or twice in a big house". She comments briefly on the Princess and states, "Can one have one's money now?" The Queen has also fought Darth Vader, who turned out to be Prince Philip behind the mask. The Queen also hosts QVC Shopping Channel with Prince Philip, who is selling a diamond tiara for nothing to any member of the Royal household. He advises them that they can take it round the "society jewellers and flog it for more money than Harry spends on hashish".

George W. Bush

Unlike Spitting Image, which satirised many international public figures, Dead Ringers tends to concentrate on British ones. One notable exception is U.S. President George W. Bush, whose own Bushisms are ridiculed even further with invented words such as:

His use of malapropisms is also lampooned ruthlessly:

  • "My fellow amoeboids..."
  • "My fellow watermelons..."
  • "My fellow pelicans..."
  • "My fellow umbrellastands..."[4]
  • "My fellow sea-beavers..."
  • "My fellow Bulgarians..."
  • "My fellow Abi Titmuses..."
  • (Referring 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..."
  • "Today the Iraqi people will be voting — whether they are Sonnies or Chers."
  • "Former President, Bill Clitoris..."
  • "My fellow cabinet members, Donald Rumsfeld and Basmati Rice..."

Sometimes, his actions are caricatured as childlike and lacking in understanding of the consequences (for example, taping over intelligence videos with episodes of Sesame Street.)[5]. One of the most famous 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.

International

Despite its emphasis on British personalities who may not be well known in other countries, Dead Ringers has been shown outside the UK on BBC Prime in Europe and Africa, BBC America in the United States, ABC in Australia, BBC Canada and UK.TV in New Zealand, but has had to be re-edited considerably — although much of the show can be watched without contextual knowledge.

The performers

The actors behind some impressions include:

See also

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