Hamish and Dougal
Encyclopedia
Hamish and Dougal are two characters from the long-running BBC Radio 4
"antidote to panel games", I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
played by Barry Cryer
and Graeme Garden
, who later went on to have their own Radio 4 series, You'll Have Had Your Tea: The Doings of Hamish and Dougal.
, where a title of a book or film has to be conveyed from one team to the other by means of a story. The result of the story is usually a pun on the title in question. Cryer and Garden often tell their story as two elderly Scottish
gentlemen, Hamish and Dougal (one of the characters was originally called Angus). It is in essence a minute-long improvised sketch where each performer knows the other well enough to be able to set up joint jokes seamlessly. The duo continued with the characters, according to Garden "mainly because (fellow panellist) Tim Brooke-Taylor
hated them".
A prototype Hamish & Dougal first appeared in a 1979 Christmas Special of 'Clue', doing 'Wee Freak Ings Of Orient Are', with John Junkin standing in for Barry Cryer. However, the characters didn't appear fully formed until the 1995 Christmas Special, when the duo gave the clue for 'The Queen's Peach'.
Each sketch starts with the line "You'll have had your tea then, Hamish". (Un)welcome visitors who have a habit of dropping in at dinnertime are reputed to be greeted in Edinburgh
with this idiom. (In the north of the United Kingdom
, the evening meal, typically called dinner in the south, is usually called tea
; this can sometimes lead to confusion.) This is done either to deter scroungers or because the speaker is quite tight-fisted himself. The stereotype of Scottish people being careful with their money is regularly played on.
In 2002, between 24 December and 27 December, daily episodes of a sitcom starring the two character were broadcast on BBC Radio 4. The official title, read out at the beginning of each show, was You'll Have Had Your Tea: The Doings of Hamish and Dougal. However, the series is generally known as just Hamish and Dougal, and this is the title on the packaging of the official CD releases.
Episodes were 15 minutes long and were extensions of the one minute sketches. The main differences were the presence of a script, written by Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden, and of two other actors, regular Clue panelist Jeremy Hardy
, and Alison Steadman
. Steadman played Mrs Naughtie the housekeeper, while Hardy played the local laird
. The music for the series was arranged by John Garden, son of Graeme (and live performer with the Scissor Sisters
), and performed by a four-piece ceilidh
band. The programmes were produced by Jon Naismith
.
In addition, the 2004 Hogmanay special featured guest appearances from Clue chairman Humphrey Lyttelton
(as the Laird's butler Lyttelton), Today programme
presenter Jim Naughtie
(as Mrs Naughtie's long-lost son), Sandi Toksvig
(as Sandi Wedge, a very tall golf champion) and Tim Brooke-Taylor
and Colin Sell
(as themselves).
The scripts were written very carefully, with barely a single line devoid of a joke. Often the fact that it was broadcast on radio
was taken advantage of, with sound effects deliberately giving the audience the wrong impression. An example of this is the Laird asking Dougal whether he wanted a drink followed by a long drawn out sound of running water, then the laird saying "Ah that's better, now what would you like to drink?"
Sexual innuendo was also heavily relied upon, as it is in I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. An example of this was the repeated buzzing of the pie grater the Laird bought for Mrs Naughtie. When someone comes to the door, you hear his strangulated cry as he finds a place about his person to hide it. (The joke is on the similarity between the phrase "pie grater" and the word "vibrator".)
Several episodes concluded with the laird singing a song, to the delight of the audience. This was a continuation of a running joke from Clue, in which Hardy was forced to sing, despite being a truly dreadful singer. The audience and remaining cast would usually join in the song, deliberately out of tune.
The third series started transmission in August 2006, with a special half-hour episode on Burns Night
.
Fictitious place names used within the series include Ben Kingsley, Loch Krankie, and Glen Close.
A book of the complete scripts from all three series plus the Hogmanay and Burns Night specials was published in hardback by Preface Publishing on 28 August 2008 entitled The Doings of Hamish and Dougal: You'll Have Had Your Tea?. The book also includes comedy cooking recipes created by Garden and poems.
, as "Reality- based comedy at its finest" by The Times
, and as "basically The Beano with added smut" by The Independent
. Gavin Docherty of the Daily Express
said, after reading the book of scripts, "I laughed so hard my head nearly fell off". Cryer described the series as "an affectionate laugh at all things Scottish. Graeme is half Scottish. I am borderline having been born in Cumbria". Garden stated that in the series they were sending up the stereotypes of Scots rather than Scots themselves.The Scotsman
was less enthusiastic, with Robert McNeil failing to see the funny side and describing the series as one in which Cryer and Garden "put on ridiculous Scottish voices and enact quasi-racist routines, knowing they'll get away with it because the main difference between music hall and radio is you can't leap on stage and punch the protagonists very hard in the face, or even throw tomatoes".
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
"antidote to panel games", I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...
played by Barry Cryer
Barry Cryer
Barry Charles Cryer OBE is a British writer and comedian. Cryer has written for many noted performers, including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie...
and Graeme Garden
Graeme Garden
David Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:...
, who later went on to have their own Radio 4 series, You'll Have Had Your Tea: The Doings of Hamish and Dougal.
History
One of the rounds in I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is Sound CharadesSound Charades
Sound Charades is a variant of charades played on BBC Radio 4's "antidote to panel games", I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. As with some other ISIHAC games, such as Celebrity What's My Line?, the game has been created by taking an existing one and removing the central concept...
, where a title of a book or film has to be conveyed from one team to the other by means of a story. The result of the story is usually a pun on the title in question. Cryer and Garden often tell their story as two elderly Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
gentlemen, Hamish and Dougal (one of the characters was originally called Angus). It is in essence a minute-long improvised sketch where each performer knows the other well enough to be able to set up joint jokes seamlessly. The duo continued with the characters, according to Garden "mainly because (fellow panellist) Tim Brooke-Taylor
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE is an English comic actor. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at Cambridge University, and became President of the Footlights club, touring internationally with the Footlights revue in 1964...
hated them".
A prototype Hamish & Dougal first appeared in a 1979 Christmas Special of 'Clue', doing 'Wee Freak Ings Of Orient Are', with John Junkin standing in for Barry Cryer. However, the characters didn't appear fully formed until the 1995 Christmas Special, when the duo gave the clue for 'The Queen's Peach'.
Each sketch starts with the line "You'll have had your tea then, Hamish". (Un)welcome visitors who have a habit of dropping in at dinnertime are reputed to be greeted in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
with this idiom. (In the north of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the evening meal, typically called dinner in the south, is usually called tea
Tea (meal)
Tea can refer to any of several different meals or mealtimes, depending on a country's customs and its history of drinking tea. However, in those countries where the term's use is common, the influences are generally those of the former British Empire...
; this can sometimes lead to confusion.) This is done either to deter scroungers or because the speaker is quite tight-fisted himself. The stereotype of Scottish people being careful with their money is regularly played on.
Episodes were 15 minutes long and were extensions of the one minute sketches. The main differences were the presence of a script, written by Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden, and of two other actors, regular Clue panelist Jeremy Hardy
Jeremy Hardy
Jeremy James Hardy is a British alternative comedian who is also known for his socialist politics.-Career:Hardy was born in Farnborough, Hampshire. He attended Farnham College and studied Modern History and Politics at the University of Southampton...
, and Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman OBE is an English actress. She established her career with roles such as Beverley in Abigail's Party and Candice Marie in Nuts in May for the director Mike Leigh, to whom she was once married. In addition to her stage and radio work, she has had lead roles in The Singing Detective,...
. Steadman played Mrs Naughtie the housekeeper, while Hardy played the local laird
Laird
A Laird is a member of the gentry and is a heritable title in Scotland. In the non-peerage table of precedence, a Laird ranks below a Baron and above an Esquire.-Etymology:...
. The music for the series was arranged by John Garden, son of Graeme (and live performer with the Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters are an American band "spawned by the scuzzy, gay nightlife scene of New York" who took their name from a sexual position between two women also known as tribadism...
), and performed by a four-piece ceilidh
Céilidh
In modern usage, a céilidh or ceilidh is a traditional Gaelic social gathering, which usually involves playing Gaelic folk music and dancing. It originated in Ireland, but is now common throughout the Irish and Scottish diasporas...
band. The programmes were produced by Jon Naismith
Jon Naismith
Jon Naismith is a producer of a large number of BBC radio shows, primarily comedy, including You'll Have Had Your Tea, The Unbelievable Truth and About a Dog....
.
In addition, the 2004 Hogmanay special featured guest appearances from Clue chairman Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...
(as the Laird's butler Lyttelton), Today programme
Today programme
Today is BBC Radio 4's long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, now broadcast from 6.00 am to 9.00 am Monday to Friday, and 7.00 am to 9.00 am on Saturdays. It is also the most popular programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks...
presenter Jim Naughtie
James Naughtie
James Naughtie is a British radio presenter and radio news presenter for the BBC. Since 1994 he has been one of the main presenters of Radio 4's Today programme.- Biography :...
(as Mrs Naughtie's long-lost son), Sandi Toksvig
Sandi Toksvig
Sandra Brigitte “Sandi” Toksvig is a Danish comedian, author and presenter on British radio and television.-Career:...
(as Sandi Wedge, a very tall golf champion) and Tim Brooke-Taylor
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE is an English comic actor. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at Cambridge University, and became President of the Footlights club, touring internationally with the Footlights revue in 1964...
and Colin Sell
Colin Sell
Colin Sell is a British pianist who has appeared on the radio panel games Whose Line Is It Anyway? and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. He has become famous mostly for his long service on the latter show, where he is frequently the butt of the host's jokes. He is the Head of Music at East 15 Acting...
(as themselves).
The scripts were written very carefully, with barely a single line devoid of a joke. Often the fact that it was broadcast on radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
was taken advantage of, with sound effects deliberately giving the audience the wrong impression. An example of this is the Laird asking Dougal whether he wanted a drink followed by a long drawn out sound of running water, then the laird saying "Ah that's better, now what would you like to drink?"
Sexual innuendo was also heavily relied upon, as it is in I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. An example of this was the repeated buzzing of the pie grater the Laird bought for Mrs Naughtie. When someone comes to the door, you hear his strangulated cry as he finds a place about his person to hide it. (The joke is on the similarity between the phrase "pie grater" and the word "vibrator".)
Several episodes concluded with the laird singing a song, to the delight of the audience. This was a continuation of a running joke from Clue, in which Hardy was forced to sing, despite being a truly dreadful singer. The audience and remaining cast would usually join in the song, deliberately out of tune.
The third series started transmission in August 2006, with a special half-hour episode on Burns Night
Burns supper
A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of many Scots poems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, sometimes also known as Robert Burns Day or Burns Night , although they may in principle be held at any time of the...
.
Fictitious place names used within the series include Ben Kingsley, Loch Krankie, and Glen Close.
A book of the complete scripts from all three series plus the Hogmanay and Burns Night specials was published in hardback by Preface Publishing on 28 August 2008 entitled The Doings of Hamish and Dougal: You'll Have Had Your Tea?. The book also includes comedy cooking recipes created by Garden and poems.
Critical reception
The series has been described as "comedy genius" by the Daily MailDaily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, as "Reality- based comedy at its finest" by The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, and as "basically The Beano with added smut" by The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
. Gavin Docherty of the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
said, after reading the book of scripts, "I laughed so hard my head nearly fell off". Cryer described the series as "an affectionate laugh at all things Scottish. Graeme is half Scottish. I am borderline having been born in Cumbria". Garden stated that in the series they were sending up the stereotypes of Scots rather than Scots themselves.The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
was less enthusiastic, with Robert McNeil failing to see the funny side and describing the series as one in which Cryer and Garden "put on ridiculous Scottish voices and enact quasi-racist routines, knowing they'll get away with it because the main difference between music hall and radio is you can't leap on stage and punch the protagonists very hard in the face, or even throw tomatoes".
Episode list
| Series | Episode | Title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | The Musical Evening | 24 December 2002 |
| 2 | The Murder Mystery | 25 December 2002 | |
| 3 | Romance in the Glen | 26 December 2002 | |
| 4 | The Shooting Party | 27 December 2002 | |
| 2 | 1 | The Vampire of the Glen | 25 February 2004 |
| 2 | Fame Idol | 3 March 2004 | |
| 3 | The Fitness Club | 10 March 2004 | |
| 4 | The Poison Pen Letters | 17 March 2004 | |
| 5 | The Monster in the Loch | 24 March 2004 | |
| 6 | Trapped! | 31 March 2004 | |
| Special | 1 | Hogmanay Hogmanay Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner... special |
31 December 2004 |
| 3 | 1 | Gambling Fever | 24 August 2006 |
| 2 | There's Something about Mrs Naughtie | 31 August 2006 | |
| 3 | The Subsidence Adventure | 7 September 2006 | |
| 4 | Inverurie Jones and the Thimble of Doom | 14 September 2006 | |
| 5 | Look Who's Stalking | 21 September 2006 | |
| 6 | Porridge Votes | 28 September 2006 | |
| Special | 2 | Burns Night special | 25 January 2007 |