Tiny and Mr Duk are two puppet characters created for UK children's TV show, ''
The Saturday Show'' by
Dave Chapman and Damian Farrell.
Story
Tiny is a giant
hamster
Hamsters are rodents (order Rodentia) belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae, which contains 19 species classified in seven genera.Fox, Sue. 2006. ''Hamsters''. T.F.H. Publications Inc. They have become established as popular small pets. The b ...
, created in an accident in a laboratory. Mr Duk is a
duck
Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...
who acts as Tiny's agent, although this setup was referred to less and less as the characters evolved.
This
backstory
A backstory, background story, back-story, or background is a set of events invented for a plot, presented as preceding and leading up to that plot. It is a literary device of a narrative history all chronologically earlier than the narrative of p ...
was covered in a short video clip shown at the start of their segments on ''The Saturday Show'' during their first few months, but was dropped when they became established characters in their own right.
Humour
Most of the humour on the Tiny and Mr Duk segments was very
surreal
Surreal may refer to:
*Anything related to or characteristic of Surrealism, a movement in philosophy and art
* "Surreal" (song), a 2000 song by Ayumi Hamasaki
* ''Surreal'' (album), an album by Man Raze
*Surreal humour, a common aspect of humor
...
. For example, Tiny at one stage took to making short films with a pack of
chorizo
Chorizo (, from Spanish ; similar to but distinct from Portuguese ) is a type of pork cured meat originating from the Iberian Peninsula.
In Europe, chorizo is a fermented, cured, smoked meat, which may be sliced and eaten without cooking, or ...
s on peasticks, called "The Sausage Family", which would invariably end with one or more members of the family being eaten by a dog. They also regularly featured a video clip of a character named "
Cherry Bakewell
A Bakewell tart is an English confection consisting of a shortcrust pastry shell beneath layers of jam, frangipane, and a topping of flaked almonds. It is a variant of the Bakewell pudding, closely associated with the town of Bakewell in Derby ...
" – a man (played by Chapman) in a red velvet jacket, tight black trousers and ridiculously long pointy shoes who had a giant cherry bakewell tart in place of a head. He would be egged on by the studio to unleash mayhem in public. During their time on ''The Saturday Show'', the characters also took part in some of the games, such as "Pot Shots" where they dressed as stereotypical Mexican bandits with
velcro
Velcro, officially known as Velcro IP Holdings LLC and trading as Velcro Companies, is a British privately held company, founded by Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral in the 1950s. It is the original manufacturer of hook-and-loop fasten ...
patches, and tried to dodge felt balls being fired at them by
.
Spin off
In 2003, a pilot was filmed for what eventually became ''
Tiny and Mr Duk's Huge Show
Tiny may refer to: Kane
Places
* Tiny, Ontario, a township in Canada
* Tiny, Virginia, an unincorporated community in the US
* Tiny Glacier, Wyoming, US
Computing
* Tiny BASIC, a dialect of the computer programming language BASIC
* Tiny Encryp ...
''.
The pilot featured a different set of guests in two halves of the show, including
Reggie Yates
Reginald (Reggie) Yates (born 31 May 1983) is a British writer and director with a career spanning three decades on screen as an actor, television presenter and radio DJ. Yates played Leo Jones in ''Doctor Who'' and has worked at the BBC in ra ...
,
Joe Pasquale
Joseph Ellis Pasquale (born 20 August 1961) is an English comedian, actor and television presenter.
He won the fourth series of '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!'' in 2004 and participated in the eighth series of ''Dancing on Ice'' ...
,
Kirsten O'Brien
Kirsten Lindsey O'Brien (born 23 February 1972) is an English television presenter and actress. She is perhaps best known for her work presenting for the BBC, including the popular CBBC art programme ''SMart'' from 1999 to 2009, and CBeebies pr ...
and
Jade Goody
Jade Cerisa Lorraine Goody (5 June 1981 – 22 March 2009) was an English television personality. She came to public prominence in 2002 when she appeared on the third series of the Channel 4 reality show '' Big Brother''. She went on to s ...
.
References
Children's television characters
British television shows featuring puppetry
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