Dick and Dom in da Bungalow
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Image:Dick and dom article pic.jpg Template:Infobox television Dick and Dom in da Bungalow was a CBBC children's television series presented by Richard McCourt ("Dick") and Dominic Wood ("Dom"). In the final series, Series 5, five children and one celebrity guest (known as Bungalow Heads) came to "stay the weekend" in their "bungalow". Throughout the two shows (on Saturday, 9am-11am and Sunday, 9am to 10am), the Bungalow Heads attempted to win bungalow points, by playing various oddly-named and weirdly themed games, which converted to prizes at the end of the episode. The show also featured the talents of the other cast members: Lee Barnett, Dave Chapman, Ian Kirkby and Melvin Odoom as random other characters as required. The show was produced by Steve Ryde and directed by Simon Hepworth. The last episode was aired on Saturday 11 March, 2006.
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Series Overview
Series 1 + 2
The first two series were broadcast on the CBBC Channel in 2002/3, with each programme lasting 3 hours (9am to 12pm).
Series 3
Image:DD Basement.jpg Recommissioned for 2003/4, the show was cut to two hours on both days. Series 3 gained a much bigger audience when it became BBC One's flagship Saturday children's show, replacing The Saturday Show for six months of the year. However the Sunday show remained only on the CBBC Channel.
The new series saw many new characters being introduced, some of which became regulars to the show. At the start of the series they tried a number of ways of bringing in the prizes before using the Prize Idiot. A number of other short-term characters, used mainly for just one game were played by both Dick and Dom. The basement set was used as an alternative place for some of the games, as well as containing a celebrity 'locked up' in the cage.
Series 4
Series 4, broadcast 2004/2005, retained the same format as the previous series. Notable additions to this series was the addition of an attic to the bungalow, which was mainly used for the 'Drop Your Guts' game (see games section). During this series the Sunday edition became pre-recorded, where previously it was broadcast live. Prior to Sunday's editions being recorded one notable event was a fire alarm which went off during a cartoon, resulting in an extra cartoon having to be played out by CBBC before they could return to the bungalow to finish the show.
Comic Relief In Da Bungalow
BBC ONE - BBC TWO - CBBC CHANNEL / 7-11 March 2005 During the week leading up to Comic Relief Night Dick and Dom allowed six celebrities each day into their bungalow to raise money for Comic Relief.
The programme was broadcast live from Monday to Thursday at 4:30pm on BBC ONE and at 6:00pm on BBC TWO. On Friday there was a highlights show, only broadcast on the digital CBBC Channel.
Series 5
Image:DD Garden.jpg Series 5 started broadcasting on 10 September 2005, and saw many noticeable changes. The Saturday edition remained 2 hours long on both BBC One and the CBBC Channel, however, the Sunday edition was cut to 1 hour on the CBBC Channel. Most of the games were changed, and some features were removed.
Other significant changes to this series saw the bungalow getting a garden, which replaced the basement set. Additionally, Series 5 saw the replacement of the sixth child Bungalow Head with an adult replacement. On Saturday the final Bungalow Head was a celebrity, and on Sunday it tended to be someone who the other Bungalow Heads know (eg. relative, teacher, etc).Image:DD EndGroup.jpg
From the beginning of 2006, the Saturday show was moved to BBC Two while the BBC experimented with their Saturday morning lineup. BBC Two shows were moved to BBC One in return. The last episode appeared on BBC2 on Saturday 11 March, 2006. From the end of the previous Sunday and throughout the final episode they built up to the big finale, involving creamy muck muck.
Highlights shows of Dick and Dom were shown the next day and on the following weekend.
Show Format
For Series 5 the programme was adjusted slightly. Whereas in Series 1-4, the points total at the end of Saturday - with an extra prize for the winner on Saturday - was carried over to the Sunday show, and prizes were awarded at the end of that show, they now awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes on the basis of Saturday's scores only.
The first and second prizes were usually desirable things such as a TV or games console, but the third prize is always a 'booby prize' like a hubcap, a cake made of carpet, a hairy cheese or bottled water from the River Hull. At the very end the Bungalow Head who got the least points throughout the games was gunged, sitting on the toilet - though for the last series this practice was dropped, possibly because the contestants were already covered in "creamy muck muck" from the grand finale.
Points were earned through success in Bungalow games, although points could be awarded or taken away at any time by Dick or Dom. Although they threatened to do this, for example, when a particular child was being troublesome, this was never carried out. Occasionally, at the end of the show, a random phone call was taken from The Almighty Kid. The Almighty Kid's identity was unknown, but changed each time he/she called. The Almighty Kid could award or take away points from one Bungalow Head for no reason at all.
The show's games were broken up by random features, and cartoons.
The Picture Frame
Each week Dick and Dom had a famous celebrity's picture on a picture frame with a moving mouth. One week for example they had Tony Blair. Usually the person in the frame said something silly, for example when Noel Edmonds was in the frame and started singing "I'm Roly, I'm Poly..."
Season 5 saw the picture frame being used less than previous seasons and in addition, there were attempts to implement numourous tricks with the picture frame, including firing gunge and pushing out small objects like bouquets of flowers. e.g. when Huw Edwards was in the picture frame he said "News just in, this just out" before the person operating the mouth hosed gunge out of his mouth.
Bungalow games
In accordance with UK children's television tradition many games involved the participants being gunged. This was particularly true of the final game of every show, Creamy Muck Muck.
Creamy Muck Muck
Creamy Muck Muck was always played just before the end of every Saturday show. Throughout the series the precise theme varied. The games were sometimes presented by the other members of the crew, Dave, Ian and Melvin. If not, then they were featured somewhere in the background, often chucking "creamy muck muck" (custard) at whoever was currently answering a question. Bungalow Heads were also equipped with their own buckets of muck muck, which they could flick at each other.
Towards the end the words "Go! Go! Go!" were shouted and a gunge-fest began, accompanied by the song Ace of Spades by Motörhead. There followed a minute's frenetic creamy muck muck throwing, as a lead in to the end of the show. By the end of the process, it was extremely rare to see anything or anyone on the set not completely covered in "muck muck".
During Series 1 to 4 there was no precise nature or specific theme to Creamy Muck Muck, except for its ending. It has seen simple pie throwing in earlier series, various sport based themes, a murder mystery, and many where they have pretended that they were not going to be throwing muck muck. For the end of Series 3 there was a surprise 'This Is Your Muck Muck' a spoof of This Is Your Life, which involved many of Dick and Dom's family and friends, as well as featuring Pat Sharp.
For Series 5 the theme was normally a parody of a traditional gameshow. In whatever format the game took, the current 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed Bungalow Heads - The Prize Winners - competed against the 4th, 5th and 6th placed Bungalow Heads - The Prize Losers. If the Prize Winners won, then they would keep their current positions, and win the three prizes on offer. If the Prize Losers won, then they became the new 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and take the prizes off the previous Prize Winners. Past spoofs have included Name That Tune, The Crystal Maze and Call My Bluff.
Forfeit Auction
Image:TomDicknHarry.jpg The Forfeit Auction only ever featured on the Sunday editions of Dick and Dom in da Bungalow. Dick and Dom had "traditional" culinary objects to throw at the Bungalow Heads. Dick dressed up as 'Tomdickunharry', a Cockney geezer and auctioned forfeits "for hard earned bungalow points, to stitch up your bungalow mates". His catchphrase was "all right me darlins".
Usually these forfeits included a Bungalow Head being covered in different foods, known as 'the usual', including Creamy Muck-Muck and 'Dirty Norris' (originally a marmite-like substance, now chocolate custard), chopped tomatoes and mushy peas.
The forfeits had two types. The first that was auctioned was usually a task for a Bungalow Head that lasted the whole show, for example 'The Clockwork Kid', or 'The Caveman Kid'.
The second included a Bungalow Head dressing up and being covered in the items explained above. For example, in one instance where a Bungalow Head was transported back to Victorian London, he had to ask for more from characters like "Jack The Let One Ripper", "Florence Nightingale", "Victorian Barry Manilow" and "Queen Victoria" (who made him king).
For series 5 due to the reduction in broadcast time the forfeit auction was changed. Only one auction remained, which unsurprisingly was the messy one. Also 'blind bidding' was introduced where the Bungalow Heads would write their bids down, this was done to help save time. At the end of the final Sunday episode (5 March 2006) Tomdickunharry revealed himself to have been Dick all along on-screen.
Baby Race
The Baby Race started in series 3 and continued through to series 5. In the game, several babies and their parents were brought in. Each parent sat at one end of a mat and the first baby to get from one parent to the other was the winner. Usually the parent on the far side held an object or toy that the baby liked, or found interesting. The race was treated much like a horse race (to get points the Bungalow Heads had to bet on which baby they thought would win) up to and including the humorous commentary where other 'race tracks' are referred to as if baby racing was a popular sport. In one episode in the fifth series a baby stopped crawling and took their first steps live on TV. 'It was a touching moment' said Dom afterwards.
Dick and Dom's Top Ten All Time Favourite Games
On the final ten Saturday shows Dick and Dom replayed their favourite games on the bungalow ever. These were
- Make Dick Sick
- Musical Splatues
- Do Not Laugh Or You Will Lose
- Heads Shoulders Knees and Toast
- Don't Go Daddy
- Fairly Hairy Fizzogs
- The Mucky Puddle Power Shower Game
- Sweet Face
- The Bungalow Small Change Hunt
- What A Sweaty Flap
List of Other Games
Some other games featured include:
- Balloon Bang-a-Bang
- Bangers and Dash
- Barkly Cluckinson's Alfresco Pie Challenge
- Blind Man's Buff Man
- Brum Brum Ding Ding Sing Sing
- Bungalow Battle Bots (including many variations of this game)
- Bungalow Boffin (where they played a game invented by a viewer)
- Bungalow Bingo
- Bungalow Head Bungalow Heads
- Bungalow Head Household Appliances
- Bungalow Rodeo
- Cat Mad Do
- Celebrity Two Word Tango - which later appeared as a feature on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio 1
- Cereal Race
- DC Harry Batt's Interrogation Game
- Do I Know You Or Snot?
- Do Not Laugh or You Will Lose
- Don't Drop Your Guts / Don't Drop The Sausage
- Don't Go Daddy
- Euugghhhh... Yum Yum
- Fat On Your Back
- Get Out Of That!
- Grasping Rasping Wrinklies
- Harry Batt's Interrogation Game
- Make Dick Sick
- Melvin O'Doom's Gurn Baby Gurn
- Mince Pie Mouthfuls
- Musical Splatues
- My Gang
- Nae Body Move
- Pop My Saggy Bags
- Pumpy Rumpy
- Push Plop Protein
- Raymond Farmer's Farmyard Races
- Repetition Competition
- Run Prize Idiot Run
- Shave and Vac
- Short Change Hunt
- Snot Danglies
- Splat and Scatter
- That's the Stuff
- The All Electric Granny Snog Quiz
- The Big Bad Blooming Bungalow Bonus Bonanza Banging Booty Break
- The Crying Game
- The Dubbing Game
- The Mucky Puddle Power Shower Game
- There's a Face in My Bucket
- There's a Famous Face in My Bucket (with the end face tending to represent Rachel Stevens )
- Toddler Tug of War
- Translation Game
- Tricky Training
- Two Word Tango
- Wappy Feet (Variations include hoppy and sloppy feet)
- What a Sweaty Flap
- What's In The Box
- Watch Out, Yeti's about
- Yes I Have Trifle* Trousers (* or mini-meringue, or pies etc.)
- You'll Never Do That With a Carcass On Your Hands
- Yum Yum Yack
Bungalow (regular) features
Bungalow Features normally took place outside the Bungalow, and were shown in short film segments during the show. They were mostly for entertainment purposes and had no bearing on the points totals of the Bungalow Heads.
Bogies
The most infamous part of Dick and Dom in da Bungalow was a game called Bogies. In this game, a variant of the penis game, Dick and Dom situated themselves in a quiet public place such as a museum or restaurant and took turns to shout "Bogies" at ever-increasing volumes, until one of them didn't shout as loud as the other (judged by the Bogeyometer, or Snotometer, which appears on screen to rank the bogey), or quit due to embarrassment. Variants of this game, such as Pro-Celebrity Bogies - involving a challenge from a minor celebrity to Dick or Dom - were seen in Series 5. Series 4 also included Premier League Bogies, which involved playing the game in extremely intense circumstances, such as a during a performance of a play in a theatre, and during a session of yoga. Euro Bogies saw the game being played in prominent places throughout Europe, often resulting in Dick and Dom being ejected from the premises involved. In this feature we discovered that bogies in French is "crotte de nez", and in Italian "moccio".
The memorable commentary for bogies was done by the show's producer, Steve Ryde.
Diddy Dick and Diddy Dom
Image:DD-and-Diddies.jpg Inside the Bungalow was a large purple cupboard, and once or twice during each show we went "inside" it, to see the adventures of Diddy Dick and Diddy Dom. A short sketch of no more than one minute then followed, with Dick and Dom donning black clothes and attaching a small puppet's body around their necks. Both Diddy Dick and Diddy Dom spoke with very squeaky voices, edited in post production.
The sketches involving Diddy Dick and Diddy Dom tended to be either slapstick humour, puns or, more often than not, toilet humour. Eamonn Holmes was a guest inside the cupboard on two occasions, both times appearing as a head inside Diddy Dick and Dom's TV. According to the final episode of series 5 Diddy Dick and Dom left the cupboard to go to Hollywood.
Eeny Meeny Macka Racka...
The full name of this game was Eeny Meeny Macka Racka Rari Dominacka Shickapappa Dickiwoppa Rom Pom Stick (not included in the title since it makes the table of contents look awkward).
This oddly named game took place in the streets of a town. It involved Dick and Dom placing stickers of their own faces of increasing size on the backs, or other places, of unsuspecting members of the public. The game was over when a member of the public discovered that they had been a victim, and the loser was the one who placed that sticker. Classic strategies of ensuring a "lay" (a sticker placement) involved asking members of the public for the time, and as they turned giving them a tap on the small of their back, thus delivering the sticker. Hoods of coats were also a common target for obvious reasons.
Commentary was provided by Ian Kirkby in a very convincing Northern Ireland accent, who often became excited about any attempts at a "lay-on-lay" - where Dick or Dom placed a sticker on top of an existing sticker placed by their opponent.
The game returned for Series 5 (with the name misspelled as Eeny Meeny Macka Racka Rari Dominacka Shickapappa Dickiwoppa Om Pom Stick)and it saw some remarkable "lays", including a very large sticker on a pregnant woman's stomach, and a large sticker on a businessman's tie.
Cat's Britain
Image:DD Cat.jpg Until Series 5 of 'Da Bungalow', each week a short five minute feature would be shown of the travels of an apparently stray cat, who would visit the Bungalow to recount the tales of his adventures. The Cat has never been named. It was puppeteered and voiced by Dave Chapman, with a gruff West Yorkshire accent.
The film was normally a short segment about a town, full of irreverent comments about the people and the monuments that the Cat came across. Such towns included Uckfield, Ely, Goring, Sandwich, Wetwang and Stoke-on-Trent, a song about which was one of the highlights of the third series.
Cat's Britain was also referred to as 'The Pussycat's Travels' in the fourth series of the show. This feature was repeated on Sundays in the fifth series, with the Cat claiming he visited the same places again, met the same people and made exactly the same films.
Prize Idiot On The Job
Image:DD PrizeIdiot.jpg In this feature we followed Dick and Dom's neighbour, The Prize Idiot, to see how he got on getting a job. He tried being a farmer, a librarian, a baker, ... without much success and got 'the sack' at the end of the day. Lee Barnett plays the Prize Idiot.
This feature was first broadcast on Saturdays during the fifth series but moved to Sunday's show a few weeks later, replacing the Looney Tunes cartoon. The feature was relatively short lived as later in series 5 it was discontinued.
"The Pants Dance"
Towards the end of the programme, the Bungalow Head with the fewest bungalow points had to do "The Pants Dance", in which he or she danced with a pair of underpants on the head, singing:
I've got my head in my pants
(I wouldn't believe it 'less I'd seen it)
I'm in a groovy disco trance
(Are you sure that's hygienic?)
They were clean on just last week
(Grief they're gonna reek!)
Yeah, yeah baby, look at me
You gotta dance in your pants
Just like they do in France
You gotta take a chance
And do the knickers on your noodle prance
And dance in your pants!
(Lines in parentheses are only sung in the accompanying music track, and not by the bungalowheads.)
Although the second line is "I'm in a groovy disco trance", Dick & Dom sing the line "I've got a groovy disco trance". This has previously been brought up on the show.
List of other features
- Bungalow World Record Attempt
- Dirty Day
- Public Transport
- Strangely talented
Regular characters
Either as part of the games or features, peripheral characters played by the other members of the cast often appeared on a regular basis. One of them was The Prize Idiot, played by Lee Barnett, who was the next door neighbour of Dick and Dom's bungalow. As the name implied, the character often came out with strings of logical errors and tautologies.
Another was Raymond Duck / Raymond Farmer / Raymond Newsreader. This character often provided links between cartoons that had been split in two. Raymond Farmer, played by Ian Kirkby, was also involved in several games in earlier series.
Some other characters included:
- Mr Choosy, a character with a balloon for a head (usually played by Melvin Odoom).
- DC Harry Batt (sometimes DI or DCI Harry Batt), a cop (played by Ian Kirkby).
- Melvin Odoom, a breakdancer and a regular extra.
Controversy
The show was the subject of a reprimand by media watchdog Ofcom after viewers complained that Dom's T-shirt with the slogan "Morning Wood" referred to a state of male sexual excitement (rather than (good) Morning (Dominic) Wood). See page 7 of OFCOM Programme Complaints Bulletin, 20 September 2004.
On 17 January 2005 the show was debated in parliament when Peter Luff (Conservative MP for Mid Worcestershire) attacked it for its "lavatorial" content.
Referring to the show's web site, he invited the Culture Secretary to "join me in playing How Low Can You Bungalow, a test to see your response to grossly embarrassing personal situations, largely of a lavatorial nature; Pants Dancers in the Hall of Fame, photos of children with underwear on their heads; Make Dick Sick, a game which I think speaks for itself; and finally Bunged Up, in which you play a character in a sewage system avoiding turtles' poos coming from various lavatories". He added, "Is that really the stuff of public service broadcasting?"
Also, 40 people complained about the last episode of series 4 where Richard McCourt was seen to give birth to a countless number of babies, even if they were just dolls covered in "muck muck".
The show also frequently used euphemisms and double entendres, which, of course, were lost on the children watching the show, but were one of the reasons why the show gained a cult status among students.
No Celebrities Allowed?
The main rule of 'da Bungalow' was that there were no celebrities allowed, except for Comic Relief. Celebrity Bungalow Heads included: Fearne Cotton, Chris Parker and Timmy Mallett.
The lack of celebrity was symbolised in earlier series by the presence of a minor, and often somewhat cult, celebrity, locked up in a cage in the dungeon of the Bungalow. In later series, the celebrity would sit in the attic. In both cases they would say nothing and often do nothing. Some people who have been in the cage or the attic include: Vince Earl, Sarah Green, John Kettley, Hugo Myatt (as Treguard from Knightmare), Su Pollard, and Peter Simon.
For the fifth and last series, however, they changed that rule, and five Bungalow Heads were joined by a Celebrity Bungalow Head.
The first celebrity to enter the Bungalow was Rachel Stevens. It seems, however, that she did not know what she was letting herself in for; she later stormed out when it was time for the finale of the show, Creamy Muck Muck: Muckversity Challenge. Melvin Odoom had to take her place in the sketch, given that she obviously did not want to be covered in creamy muck muck. Reports suggest that Dick & Dom have banned Rachel Stevens from any live broadcast they do in the future.
Merchandise
- Dick & Dom In Da Bungalow: Da Book 2006 (book)
- Dick & Dom's Joke Book (book)
- Dick & Dom's Guide to Life (book)
- Dick and Dom's Mucktivity Book (book)
- Dick & Dom's Doodle Book (book)
- Dick & Dom's Stinky Sleepover Kit (book)
- Dick and Dom Funfax (funfax)
- Dick & Dom In Da Bungalow: Muck-azine (magazine released by DeAgostini)
- Dick & Dom Birthday Cards (6 different cards)
- Da Board Game (Bungalow board game)
- Dick & Dom in da Bungalow Music CD (Audio CD - 2 Discs)
DVD Releases
On 18 October, 2004, a DVD was released under the title 'Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow - The Dirty Norris Files'. This contains several 'best of' clips from the third series of the show.