Children's TV is dire now. Just awful. Have you seen it? God, it's terrible. And this isn't an older person looking down on what kids enjoy watching these days. It's nasty, tacky, and mostly imported (pretty much like most of our consumer goods these days...). It was amazing but naff all at the same time back when my parents were young- Basil Brush, Tiswas, all those bloody scary dramas they used to put on. It used to be pretty good when I was a child as well- Bodger and Badger, Mr. Blobby (well I liked him anyway!), Otis The Aardvark and the last days of Blue Peter being quality children's television. Nowadays it's preachy, politically correct and lame. Horrible Histories is not good, read the book instead! The hosts were always a bit cheesy, but they've plucked them from nursey now, and range from excrucuiatingly 'wacky' to having no personality whatsoever- and what's worse is that they speak down to kids. Every claymation character from Pingu and Postman Pat to Noddy and Fireman Sam has been transformed into CGI because it's cheaper. So after recently catching 'Diddy Movies' on CBBC, a series featuring two short movie spoofs from miniature versions of Dick and Dom, I remembered just how funny, puerile, surreal and inventive 'Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow' was- and I why I believe it needs to return in order to bring back some quality to children's television. But perhaps you need me to tell you who Dick and Dom are, and why a show about them in a Bungalow was so good. 'Dick & Dom in Da Bungalow' was a saturday morning show that ran on British children's television from 2002-2006 featuring Dominic Wood (who I found out the other day used to go to the same school as I did) and Richard McCourt, with a
very loose game show format over the course of the weekend with a group of 'bungalowheads'. Yes, it involved tons of mess (creamy muck muck!), wacky characters from a tight troupe of regulars including DJ Melvin Odoom, bizarre diversions and endless stupid and pointless games. It spawned an album (!), a compilation DVD, a live tour, a board game, several annuals... in short, it was very popular at the time. So much so that its immature and scatalogical humour was raised as an issue of concern in the house of commons by some irrelevant backbencher. How many kids' shows can claim that?
It represented everything great about british children's television- it was bizarre, anarchic, messy, didn't make sense, and you got the feeling everyone involved- hosts, crew, participants, guests and the audience- was having an incredibly good time. In fact, Dick and Dom spent most of their time corpsing. It all felt kind of slapdash and on-the-spot, and because ti was live it made sense that it was so. They instilled a unique sense of humour to it, bringing in obscure cult stars that the young audience wouldn't recognise. And like all the best children's television, adults love it too! Both my parents always laugh whenever they see it, because it's all just so fun, and pure, silly entertainment. The jokes are about bums and toilets, but it's actually got some smart comedy that would go over children's heads. So it appealed to everyone! Hell, they even let me on it at one stage- I still remember when I was a phone-in participant on 'Make Dick Sick', and by saying I preferred Dom, invented 'Make Dom Vom'. Live on national television. I still have the T-Shirt, but I lost the fake vomit. Now, Dick & Dom are not 'where are they now?' washouts- in fact they are still young and very successful with about 4 shows currently running on the CBBC channel. The demand for The Bungalow hasn't gone away- auntie beeb commissioned an entire series looking back on the show with all-new material, and their new series Diddy Movies focuses on characters from the show (previously their appearances on the show were edited together as an entirely separate series long after 'Da Bungalow' ended). So the double-act are still known, still fresh and still lively enough to bring it back. I doubt it will return as CBBC has (eurgh) 'rebranded' to be cool, hip and 'with it', rather than appreciating it was always a bit naff, a bit stupid, and all the more fun for it! But one can always hope they'll see the error of their ways and stop being safe and every show being imported or aimed at very, very young children (that's what cbeebies is for!). Perhaps if I ever have kids they can have a show like I did that actually makes the weekend that bit more exciting. I don't want them making friend and playing outside in the fresh air.
If you want to learn more, I suggest you try here, here or here. A-thankyouverymuch!