Dick and Dom in da Bungalow

Show format

Much of the programme revolved around a loose game show format involving six studio contestants (or Bungalow Heads). These were all children in Series 1-4, whilst in Series 5, five children and one celebrity were the contestants. Points were earned through success in various games throughout the show, although points could be awarded or taken away at any time by the hosts. Although they threatened to do this, for example, when a particular child was being troublesome, this was mostly never carried out.

Occasionally, at the end of the show, a phone call was taken from The Almighty Kid. The Almighty Kid's identity was unknown, but changed each time they called. The Almighty Kid could award or take away points from one Bungalow Head for no reason at all. He could also decide to cover them in "creamy muck muck".

The first and second prizes were usually desirable items such as a TV or games console, but the third prize was always a 'booby prize' like a hubcap, a cake made of carpet, a hairy cheese, bottled water from the River Hull or a chocolate tea pot. At the very end, the Bungalow Head with the least points was gunged, sitting on the toilet - though for the last series this practice was largely dropped, possibly because the contestants were already covered in "creamy muck muck" during the finale round.

The show's games were interspersed with random features and cartoons.

During Series 1 to 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.

Opening Titles

The logo starts the titles. During the animated titles, Dick and Dom are in bed and the hands from the logo wake them up, get out of bed, brush Dick and Dom's teeth, get their hair done, get them to the toilet and get them in the lift. At the beginning of every episode, after the titles had aired, a prerecorded segment was played in which the presenters emerged from the lift in the studio in a costume (e.g. Aeroplanes) whilst a song relating to the costume was played. Dick and Dom then walked back into the lift. The doors closed and the show then switched to live broadcast, with Dick and Dom reemerging from the lift in casual clothes and quickly starting the show.

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, the picture in the frame was of 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...", or Michael Parkinson said 'Wiggity wiggity wah!'.

Series 5 saw the picture frame being used less than in previous series and in addition, there were attempts to implement numerous 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

Several games were played live in the Bungalow in each episode. These were mostly contested by the Bungalow Heads for points, although there were some exceptions. In accordance with UK children's television tradition, many of the games involved the participants being gunged. This was particularly true of the final game of every show, called 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 cast - Dave Chapman, Ian Kirby and Melvin Odoom. 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 (usually by Dick) 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 into the end of the show. The end credits were shown at the bottom of the screen as this was going on. 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 (2002–2005), 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 also many episodes where the presenters 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 sketch (a spoof of This Is Your Life), which involved many of Dick and Dom's family and friends, In Series 4 a Creamy Muck Muck bingo game was hosted by Dancing Brian (Ian Kirkby).

For Series 5 (2005–2006), the theme was normally a parody of a traditional game show, most of which aired many years earlier, long enough for the contestants not to be old enough to know them. 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. Featured gameshow parodies included Catchphrase, Blockbusters, Telly Addicts, Name That Tune, The Crystal Maze, Call My Bluff, Countdown and Deal or No Deal.

Forfeit Auction

The Forfeit Auction was featured on the Sunday editions of Dick and Dom in da Bungalow. In the game, 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 "Alright me darlin's?"

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, later replaced by chocolate custard), chopped tomatoes and mushy peas.

The forfeits were of 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 involved a Bungalow Head dressing up and being covered in the items explained above.

For series 5, due to the reduction in broadcast time, only the messy forfeit remained. Also 'blind bidding' was introduced where the Bungalow Heads would write their bids down, which 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 4 and continued through to series 5. In the game, six babies and their parents were brought into the studio. 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.

During one of the races in the fifth series, a baby stopped crawling and took their first steps live on the show.

Yum Yum Yak

This game was played regularly between one of the presenters and one of the Bungalow Heads, in the Bungalow's attic. The game involved a spinning wheel (akin to a roulette wheel) with twelve different chocolates placed on it, each one shaped like the show's logo. Eleven of these chocolates were milk chocolate (therefore "Yum Yum") and the other one was flavoured with strong chili powder (therefore "Yak"). However, the chocolates all looked identical, and therefore neither the presenter nor the Bungalow Head knew which one of the chocolates was flavoured with chili. The presenter and Bungalow Head would take turns spinning the wheel and eating the chocolate which the wheel landed on. If this was one of the milk chocolates, the person eating it would say "Yum Yum" to denote this and the game would continue. If however, someone consumed the chili chocolate, it would become immediately evident that they had done so as they would often cry out in pain, go red in the face and have to have a drink to cool down. The person who consumed the chili chocolate was deemed the loser.

Don't Go Daddy

This game was a regular feature and was played by all contestants. In the game, the contestants would work in pairs. Each pair was assigned a "Daddy" who was dressed in a suit for work (the "Daddies" were played by Dave Chapman, Ian Kirkby and Melvin Odoom). The pair of contestants would each have to grab hold of the ankles of their "Daddy" and stop them from moving, whilst the "Daddies" attempted to get through the curtain on the other side of the Bungalow. The winning pair was the contestants who successfully impeded their "Daddy" from reaching the curtain for the longest. In later series, variants of this game were played, including "Don't Go Mummy", "Daddy Don't Turn Off The Telly", "Daddy Don't Neck That Turkey" (for the Christmas special) and "Daddy Don't Give The Milkman A Right Old Donkey Scrubbing".

DCI Harry Batt's Interrogation Game

This game was played each week between one of the Bungalow Heads and DCI Harry Batt, portrayed by Ian Kirkby. In the game, the Bungalow Head was led into DCI Harry Batt's Interrogation Room (one of the rooms in the Bungalow), accompanied by either Dick or Dom. The Bungalow Head was then given a "secret word" by Dick or Dom, such as "windows". DCI Harry Batt would then enter. A 90-second clock would start and the Bungalow Head would have to tell an elaborate story about why they had supposedly been arrested by DCI Harry Batt, saying their secret word as many times as possible in the story. Each mention of the secret word during the story was worth 20 Bungalow Points, and a running count of how many points the Bungalow Head had scored was shown on screen. However, at the end of the 90 seconds, DCI Harry Batt would then be given the opportunity to guess the Bungalow Head's secret word from the story they had told. If DCI Harry Batt correctly guessed the secret word, as happened on the majority of times the game was played, the Bungalow Head would score no points at all. If DCI Harry Batt was incorrect however, the Bungalow Head would keep all the points they had scored in the game.

On one occasion, DCI Harry Batt burst into the Bungalow, ready to arrest a Bungalow Head to play the Interrogation Game, but he was then apprehended by DCI Barry Fatt, who "took him down the station for a bit of interrogation". Batt then played the game as the contestant whilst DCI Barry Fatt tried to guess the secret word.

What's In The Box?

This was perhaps the most bizarre game played during the series. In the game, a large box was revealed, and without any clues or hints whatsoever, Bungalow Heads had to draw what they thought was in the box. The box was then opened to reveal something completely random and almost impossible to guess.

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'm in a groovy disco trance
They were clean on just last week
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!

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.

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, in ascending order. These were:

1) Make Dick Sick (or Make Dom Vom) 2) Musical Splatues 3) Do Not Laugh Or You Will Lose 4) Heads Shoulders Knees and Toast 5) Don't Go Daddy 6) Fairly Hairy Fizzogs 7) The Mucky Puddle Power Shower Game 8) Sweet Face 9) The Bungalow Small Change Hunt 10) What A Sweaty Flap

List of other games

Some other games featured include:

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 pre-recorded game called Bogies. In this game, Dick and Dom situated themselves in a quiet public place such as a museum or restaurant and took turns to shout "bogies" at gradually increasing volumes, until one of them did not 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 continental Europe, often resulting in Dick and Dom being ejected from the premises involved. The term used for "bogies" in French was "crotte de nez" (literally "nose droppings"), and in Italian "moccio" (Italian for "snot").

The feature attracted some controversy outside of its target audience, mainly due to the public nature of the game and concerns over imitation by the show's young audience.

The commentary for Bogies was provided by the show's producer, Steve Ryde.

Diddy Dick and Diddy Dom

Inside the Bungalow was a large purple cupboard, and once or twice during each show, away from the attention of Dick, Dom and the Bungalow Heads, the cupboard doors would open to show the adventures of Diddy Dick and Dom. These were short pre-recorded sketches, no more than a minute in length, 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, Diddy Dick and Dom left the cupboard to go to Hollywood. It was not until the final episode that Dick and Dom discovered their Diddy counterparts, and reacted in exaggerated terror.

Eeny Meeny Macka Racka...

"Eeny Meeny Macka Racka Rare Are Dominacka Shickeypoppa Dickywhoppa Om Pom Stick" took place in the streets of a random 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 successful "lay" (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.

Commentary was provided by "Alan Sanchez" (Ian Kirkby) in a very convincing Northern Irish 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 Dickapoppo 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

Until Series 5 of 'Da Bungalow', each week a short, five-minute feature would be shown of the travels of 'next door's 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-on-Thames, Sandwich, Wetwang, Letchworth, Pangbourne 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

This short lived feature during series 5 followed Dick and Dom's neighbour, The Prize Idiot (played by Lee Barnett), in his attempts to get a job. He tried several professions—including being a farmer, a librarian, a baker and an airline steward for Jet2.com— all without much success and invariably being let go at the end of the day.

Bungalow World Record Attempt

This feature involved Dick, Dom or both of the presenters attempting to break a world record live on air. The record varied from week to week, and each week's attempt was presided over by a Guinness World Records adjudicator.

Dick and Dom's Dirty Day

In this segment, Dick and Dom would go to a town wearing entirely white clothes. Their task was to get as dirty as possible during the day. This was achieved in many different ways, such as by rolling in mud or by asking members of the public to throw messy food at them. The presenter who was the dirtiest at the end of the day would be declared the winner.

Public Transport

Dick and Dom dressed up as people who worked on transport, such as sailors or train drivers, and went to a high street in a town. A start line and a finish line were laid. Both presenters would have to start at the start line and race to get to the finish line at the other end of the high street. The only rule was that they were not allowed to walk there, and so had to rely on favours from members of the public to "transport" them there. This included piggy backs, being carried, or hitching a lift on mobility scooters and bicycles. The winner was the first presenter who successfully reached the finish line.

Strangely Talented

A peculiar or unusual talent was showcased on the show.

Dance crazes

Regular characters

The show also featured a wide variety of characters. While some were one off characters, appearing as part of the games or features, others made regular appearances. These multitude of characters were usually played Da Bungalow's resident actors; Dave Chapman, Ian Kirkby, Melvin Odoom and Lee Barnett, along with Dick and Dom themselves. In a somewhat Monty Python style, the six actors would portray majority of the outrageous characters appearing in the show, including the females (dressed in drag). Occasionally other actors appeared in minors roles, whilst Steve Ryde (the series producer) provided several voice-overs for the show, though he never appeared on screen.

Some recurring characters included:

Series 1 & 2

The first two series were broadcast on the CBBC Channel in 2002/3, with each programme lasting three hours (9am-12pm, and repeated later the same day from 1-4pm).

Series 3

Recommissioned for 2003/4, the show was cut to two hours on both days. Series 3, beginning on 20 September 2003, saw the Saturday edition moved to BBC One, replacing The Saturday Show for six months of the year. However, the Sunday edition 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 switched from live to pre-recorded production.

Comic Relief in da Bungalow

During the week leading up to Red Nose Day 2005, a short spin-off series was produced allowed six celebrities each day into their bungalow to raise money for Comic Relief.

The programme was broadcast live from Monday 7 March to Thursday 10 March 2005 at 4:30pm on BBC One and at 6:00pm on BBC Two. A highlights compilation was aired on Friday 11 March 2005 on the CBBC Channel.

Series 5

Series 5 started broadcasting on 10 September 2005, and saw many noticeable changes. The Saturday edition remained two hours long on both BBC One and the CBBC Channel; however, the Sunday edition was cut to one 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 knew (e.g. relative, teacher, etc.). This drew some controversy as Dick and Dom previously mentioned that one of the main "rules of The Bungalow" was that no celebrities were allowed in. This rule was seemingly forgotten after Series 4.

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 final episode was broadcast live on BBC Two on Saturday 11 March 2006. From the end of the previous Sunday and throughout the final episode they built up to the big finale, which involved all the cast members singing a song and getting covered in "creamy muck muck". Then, for the first time ever, viewers were shown the outside of the bungalow, which subsequently collapsed under creamy muck muck before being kicked over by a giant foot. A final post-credits scene shows that the whole show was actually just a dream that the "Big BBC Boss" (Alan Yentob) was having, à la Newhart. The episode ends with him waking up in bed and saying to the camera, "Oh, what a terrible dream!" Dick and Dom then sit up either side of him and end the show with a theatrical cackle.

Highlights shows of Dick and Dom were shown the next day and on the following weekend. Further highlights compilations are broadcast the next day and over the following weekend.

Controversy and criticism

In 2004 the programme was the subject of a reprimand by media watchdog Ofcom after a viewer 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").

The show was further investigated for a second time in the same year by Ofcom, after a parent (whose son appeared as one of the show's 'Bungalowheads') complained that his son was "ridiculed" by the presenters and unfairly gunged after he lost a game. However, the complaint was rejected on the grounds that the boy's parents were already aware about the programme's format and had willingly given their consent for the boy to participate.

On 17 January 2005 the programme 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?"

Additionally, 40 people complained about the last episode of series 4. During the finale, Richard McCourt was seen to give birth to a countless number of babies, though they were dolls covered in "muck muck".

No celebrities allowed

The main rule of "da Bungalow" for most of its run was that there were no celebrities allowed, except for Comic Relief and the final series.

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 included Vince Earl, Sarah Greene, John Kettley, Hugo Myatt (as Treguard from Knightmare), Su Pollard, Bodger and Badger, and Peter Simon.

For the final series, however, this rule was changed, and five Bungalow Heads were joined by a Celebrity Bungalow Head.

The first celebrity to enter the Bungalow was Rachel Stevens, who refused to take part in the show's Creamy Muck Muck finale, Muckversity Challenge. Reports at the time suggested that the presenters have banned Stevens from any live broadcast they do in the future.

List of celebrities

Comic Relief in Da Bungalow

Merchandise

DVD and Video releases

On 18 October 2004, a DVD and Video 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.

In Da Bloomsbury!

On 30 April 2006 Dick and Dom did a show for the charity Myeloma UK, [2], in the Bloomsbury Theatre, London There were two shows (one at 2pm and another at 5pm), which consisted of games from the show including the Outboard Motor Gob Game, Sloppy Ploppy Choosy Pops and the Cereal Race. The 5pm show was filmed and is available on DVD.

Diddy Dick and Dom on CBBC

Short five-minute compilations of the Diddy Dick and Dom sketches were aired as filler programmes on BBC Two and the CBBC Channel after the programme's demise.

Da Dick and Dom Dairies

A new series of compilations began airing during weekday mornings on BBC2 from Monday 26 January to Friday 20 February 2009 featuring newly recorded material from the original cast and the creamy muck muck finale towards the end of each episode. Regular segments included:

Notice the deliberate spelling mistake in the title (Dairies-Diaries), which is pointed out in the final episode of Da Dick and Dom Dairies.

Diddy Movies

In 2012, a new series was aired featuring the Diddy characters making short films. It ended in 2014 and had 15 episodes.

Diddy TV

In 2016, another new series aired on CBBC which was a sketch show featuring parodies of various other programmes. So far, it has had two series and 20 episodes.

Revival

Producer Steve Ryde has stated that there may be a one-off special in the future.