The Den is the children's television strand on RTÉ Two in Ireland. The strand airs from 6am to 5:30pm each weekday, with the brand also being used on weekend mornings.
The Den received a complete makeover, with a change in format and a brand new visual identity on Saturday 17 September 2005. Much of the information in this article relates to the "old" Den. For information on the "new" Den, see the section "Current format".
As well as airing on RTÉ Two, the Den has its own electronic programme guide placement on NTL Ireland - channel 601 - though this is simply a duplicate of the RTÉ Two feed rather than a separate channel.
Current format
RTÉ completely relaunched the Den on 17 September 2005 - although as this was a Saturday, the new weekday programme formats proper began airing on 19 September. The new Den is divided into three main strands:
- Wakey Wakey, airing from 7:15-9:00am, presented by Kathryn McKiernan.
- Den Tots, airing from 9:00am-2:35pm, presented by Emma O'Driscoll and Soky (see puppets, below). This is aimed at pre-schoolers.
- The Club, airing from 2:35pm-5pm, presented again by Kathryn McKiernan.
Following the Club, DDN - Dustin's Daily News - airs, presented by Dustin the Turkey and Snotser. This is followed at 5:20pm by RTÉ's news bulletin aimed at children - News2day.
On Saturday mornings, Sattitude airs, with ClubDisney - produced in association with The Walt Disney Company - airing on Sunday mornings.
With this relaunch, the main section of the Den has its first female presenter. Also the puppets have been largely removed from this section, with the launch of their own programme DDN. It also sees a re-focusing of the breakfast slot away from pre-schoolers and towards older children, hence the fact that it is now presented by the same presenter as the afternoon programmes.
History
The Den began in the 1980s as Dempsey's Den, it was fronted by Ian Dempsey for many years, and ran from 3 PM to 6 PM every weekday. It contained almost all of RTÉ's children's programming output for many years, with the exception of Bosco (shown immediately before The Den) and a half-hour of teenage oriented programming shown immediately after The Den.
In the early 1990s, Ian Dempsey was replaced by Ray D'Arcy, although he remained for a number of years afterwards in the regular pop music section of the show, "Pop Goes The Den". D'Arcy presented the show until 1999, when he was replaced by Damien McCaul. Francis Boylan Jnr. took over the reins in 2004. Over time, the programme dropped the leading "Dempsey's", and alternated between the names The Den and Den TV. Following the rebrand of Network 2 to N2 in 1997, Den TV became "Den 2" but this reverted to "The Den" in 2002.
In 2004, the Den introduced a daily news programme for children, News2day, somewhat similar to the BBC's Newsround.
Classic format
The format of the show changed very little during Dempsey and D'Arcy's years - it would start at 3PM after Bosco, show a "kiddie" cartoon and then do the "Birthday Slot". This would be a scroller of photos of children whose parents had sent in photos to be shown, followed by a music video. There would then be another cartoon or two, then an original RTÉ programme, followed by another cartoon and a music video, after which the programme ended. On certain days of the week, a quiz would be inserted in place of one of the cartoons.
The show is to this day presented from a studio - which has been a treehouse, chipvan and newsroom among other variations - with the presenter behind a desk (or counter, in the chipvan), and a collection of puppets either permanently or temporarily in front of the desk.
The show goes out live, as was demonstrated all too well in 1990 when the adbreak ended early, with the shot coming back to Zig and Zag punting a Bosco puppet around and the puppeteers shouting "Bosco is a bollox". However, Ray D'Arcy claims this never happened. On another occasion, a particularly dim-witted child was doing a phone quiz and could not answer a question despite being directly told the answer after several hints. Zag finally shouted "Ah, for fuck's sake!" On another occasion, an adbreak cut in when Ray was halfway through talking about an item. When the adbreak ended, it would be safe to say he wasn't best pleased.
After Ray D'Arcy' left the programme, the format changed significantly. The Christmas show was dropped, an hour in the morning before school time was added, presented by a different presenter, with only Socky from the puppets.
1997 relaunch
The 1997 relaunch saw the Den - renamed Den 2 at this point - become much more like a TV station of its own, with its own trailers and presentation. It now aired from 6am through to 5pm, and from 2001 was followed by a youth strand, iD (renamed iD Two in late 2004, and becoming TTV in September 2005). Den 2 ran from 7:35 AM until 5 PM and iD Two ran from 5 PM until 7 PM.
Much of the time during the day, there were no continuity links. However during this period there were two sections of the programme which do have presentation - "Den AM" (aka "Socky's Big Little Morning Show") in the mornings, which was presented by Geri Maye (for a time engaged to former presenter Ray D'Arcy) until early 2005, and the traditional afternoon slot, which was presented by Francis Boylan Jr until June 2005. The strand readopted the name "The Den" in 2002.
While the programme has changed, much of its original spirit still remained - there were still quizzes, the Birthday scroller still exists, and there were still puppets.
Original Programming
Some of the original programming shown during The Den has managed to stand up on its own as a separate programme, or has otherwise been memorable
A "Children's Magazine" show, along the lines of Blue Peter, Echo Island ran three days a week for many years in both English and Irish language versions. This was later known as "Echo".
Jo Maxi
Not really part of The Den, Jo Maxi (later called JMTV) was a mainly music based show aimed at adolescents. It was shown directly after The Den had ended, but was integrated into the show by the delayed displaying of The Den's copyright notice until after it had ended.
Puppets
One of the most successful parts of the programme has been its puppets. They are listed below in order of importance, but only Dustin, Snotser, Socky and Zuppy are still with the show.
Zig, Zag and Zuppy
The most famous of the puppets were the original Zig and Zag, two ten year old aliens from the Planet Zog. These were a very successful franchise on their own, spawning parody tapes, comic books and car toys. A popular toy throughout the late 1980s were Zogabongs, the unusual antennae on Zig and Zag's hair.
They had a dog called Zuppy, who rarely appeared in the programme, but was used more in the comic books.
Zig and Zag left for a presenting job on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast, whereas Zuppy and Dustin remained, and were joined by a sock-monster called Socky. After a failed children's show on ITV, they returned to Ireland to host 2Phat, a music-quiz show along with Ray D'Arcy. Two running gags in this show were the two puppets' infatuation with regular character Velcro Girl, and Zig's inability to stop saying "Darcy's Arse!".
Dustin and Snotser
Another regular on the programme, from the start right up until now has been Dustin the Turkey. He is portrayed as a builder, and his "Builders Mate", a pig called Snotser occasionally appears. They are both meant to be from the Northside Dublin. Dustin and Snotser were both spun off to their own programme, DDN, in the September 2005 relaunch (see above).
Socky
Socky the sock monster was introduced after the departure of Zig and Zag, and is targeted towards the younger viewer. Unlike the other puppets, he is not ever present, although he is more commonly there during the early morning shows. He is a Sock Monster, who has old, used socks instead of hair. Viewers send him in socks as presents. His prized possession was his blue bucket.
Ted
Ted was a running in-joke between Dempsey/D'Arcy and Zig and Zag. He has appeared since, but rarely. Ted was a possessed stuffed panda who rarely appeared, but every few shows a photo of him either in a famous ___location or attacking a famous person or a viewer would be shown. He would regularly appear in the studio, but only when the presenter was missing from the shot. Later, a running joke where Ray D'Arcy wrestled with him was introduced, which involved the (genuinely quite large) stuffed toy being hurled at D'Arcy (whether he was expecting it or not), who then had to wrestle with it and hurl it offscreen again. It usually seemed to genuinely be quite tiring for him - especially when the crew would wickedly throw Ted right back at him after he tossed him offscreen. This always happened when Dustin was absent, and afterwards he wouldn't believe Ray that Ted had attacked him.
Podge
Podge was an evil boy-like puppet, who in all his appearances caused mischief and instigated conspiracies. He would usually appear when only Zig was around, and fool him into some badness. Podge convinced Zig to listen to his instructions, often citing "I only want a cuddle and a friend". In later years, Podge terrorised the whole cast. One year he took over the whole show and fired them all, renaming the show "Bun's Bungalow" and promising wall-to-wall Echo Island all day, every day. At the end of the programme it was all shown to have been a horrible dream... or was it? Another year, at the end of Dustin's spoof presidential campaign, he fooled the cast into believing that Dustin had won the election.
Podge later reappeared co-hosting his own show "A Scare at Bedtime" with a similar puppet named Rodge. For all the Dastardly Duo's details, see: Podge and Rodge.
Simon Trowel
The most recent addition to the line of 'evil' puppets, Simon Trowel (an obvious pun on Simon Cowell) is a miserable 'twin' of Dustin, though he insists he is a troll rather than a turkey. Most recently before Halloween 2004, he kidnapped Dustin and tried to take his place, so he could steal the prizes available in the special Halloween pumpkin game. He made Francis and Socky drink a special brew that made them think he was Dustin. When they went off set, the TV screen at the back would show Dustin locked away, begging the viewers to help him get out and tell Francis and Socky that Simon Trowel's out there instead of him. On some occasions Simon was there when this happened, and he sneered at Dustin, declaring to the viewers that they'll never get him out.
However, Simon's 'character' now appears to have been rewritten, as on November 2, 2005, he appeared alongside Dustin in a sketch on Dustin's Daily News, in which they tried to get a rock music contract, and he was introduced to the record producer as being Dustin's cousin.
Regular Sections
A number of regular (as in frequent but erratically timed) segments were dropped into the show a couple of times a week
Draw with Don
Weekly, the legendary Don Conroy comes into the studio to draw a picture (usually of wildlife) or read from one of his children's books. This has occurred virtually every week since the show started, and continues as part of The Club today, only now it is called The Art of Don.
Astronomy Ireland
Once a month, and at times of interesting astronomical events, a representative of Astronomy Ireland would come in and talk about the state of the stars, or the event occurring, and how to view it. This got moved over to iD, as it was decided it appealed to an older audience.
The Yes-No Game Show
Once a week a child would take part in this, in which he/she had to answer various questions about themselves without using the words "Yes" or "No". If they lasted long enough, they won several prizes, plus a Yes-No Game Show winners' mug. If they said "Yes" or "No" they got all the prizes anyway, except for the mug. It ran from roughly 1995-1998. It has now been revived as part of Dustin's Daily News.
Quizzes
There were various quizzes on The Den over the years, including:
- The Fluffy Green Telly Quiz
- The Fluffy Blue Telly Quiz
- The Big Bus Quiz
- Quiz Stream
When the Fluffy Green Telly Quiz 'stopped', there was a running gag that Dustin was working on a new quiz which promised to be bigger and better. The new quiz was kept under wraps and hidden under a blanket at the back of the studio. Finally, after much anticipation, Dustin proudly unveiled the new game... the Fluffy Blue Telly Quiz.
Except for Quiz Stream, these quizzes were very easy and non-competitive, and the host would usually give hints. In Quiz Stream, the competition currently running, two teams of three boys or three girls face each other. The first to answer 6 questions correctly (spelling out S-T-R-E-A-M in lights) wins.
Holidays
The shows format would be changed only 4 times a year during the Dempsey/D'Arcy years, although it might be minorly altered (moved to RTE1 and shortened slightly) during major sporting events. It has become more irregular since.
St. Patrick's Day
Every few years, either the presenter, Zig and Zag, Dustin, or all of them would go somewhere else for the St. Patricks Day Parade, usually New York. This would mean the show was off-air a few days either side of the day, to give the cast a holiday
Summer
The Den would go off-air for two weeks in the middle of Summer, after which it would return with the cast in some exotic ___location. If a major event was occurring at the time, they would be at it - for example Italia 90 and the 1996 Olympics.
However, another running joke was that they would go to Leitrim, a county which Dustin despised completely, and which he held harsh opinions about. He would never believe they were there, even with County Councillors assuring him they were.
Nowadays, The Den remains on air during the summer, however there are often either replacement presenters and/or weeks when there is no live presentation.
Halloween
On Halloween night the programme would continue till 9.15 PM, usually showing repeats of Are You Afraid of the Dark? and a light-hearted 'scary' movie. The 3pm-6pm show was usually filmed on ___location, for example, at an ancient castle.
Christmas
On Christmas day the show would start at around 6 AM and continue until 1 PM. The puppets would talk about the toys they got, and Christmas-themed cartoons would be shown.
During December, the show would go off air for a few days, during which the Christmas show would be filmed. This almost always involved a trip to Lapland and an improbably but fun plot in which the puppets had to save Christmas somehow, usually having to rescue Santa.
Often, children with serious illnesses would be brought along with the cast, as an extension of their Make a Wish programme.
Occasionally there would be random days of no programming, if the presenter or the puppeteers wanted a day off, but children's movies would be brought out, and The Den's DOG Tag would remain. It is the only T.V. programme (besides the news) to be broadcast live around Ireland on Christmas Day