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'It was absolutely live' - Ian Dempsey reminisces on Christmas morning in the Den

“We’d be the nation’s babysitter in the corner of the room”.

First published Christmas Day 2014

CHRISTMAS MORNINGS IN Ireland in the late eighties and through the nineties were exciting for not one, but two reasons.

Not only had Santa visited overnight and left wonderful presents and magic, but there was the added joy of spending the morning with Ian Dempsey (and later Ray D’Arcy), Zig and Zag.

Christmas morning in Dempsey’s Den was a festive tradition for so many Irish children, so DailyEdge.ie caught up with Ian to reminisce about…

Being in the Den live on Christmas morning

It was always absolutely ‘live’ – what we did usually wasrecord the opening link the day before which would go out on air at about 7.30am and end that with the introduction to a Christmas themed film – then at about 9am we would all be in the studio live until about 1 in the afternoon.

https://vine.co/v/OXQX0X6lxiq

It was a lovely time to be on. The children were on the phone chatting away and we’d generally be the nation’s babysitter in the corner of the sitting room while the grown ups sorted out the less important elements of Christmas – like dinner!
I used to leave the studio every year on a complete high because we really felt like we had connected with the kids on a very special day for them. I would usually debut a new festive woolly jumper on the day and Zig would normally do a double rinse on his BEIGE, sorry, FAWN hair the night before. Zag would bring in his delicious cucumber sandwiches with cranberry sauce to add a little festive touch.

den50-2-630x351 RTÉ / TV50 RTÉ / TV50 / TV50

The excited kids on the phone

My days in The Den were all pre-text message, pre-internet, pre-Twitter ….. pre-historic really! So, the children that came on the phone to us on Christmas Day were incredibly excited to be able to let it all out.
https://vine.co/v/OXdjDqnFbPe
It was mainly a series of calls where the little girl tried to describe her present from Santa Claus but lost her train of thought in the excitement of it all, or the boy whose Mammy said he was ‘a great little talker altogether’ only to have him say practically nothing when he went live to the nation! You could still hear the absolute magic in all of their voices. Wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow hold on to that?

On the Christmas specials

We did Lapland in a day over and back. I’ve never been so tired in all my life. Myself and Zig & Zag went to meet Santa Claus with some Irish prizewinners from the show. The traditional Saint Nicholas greeted us and I remember being devastated by the fact that he was wearing blue and not red. “But this is the true tradition” said the local guide. “Get your act together, Buster” was Zag’s friendly but assertive reply.

doublezwynne / YouTube

We had Santa in red in a log cabin by the afternoon. The one strange abiding memory for me was that the best before date on the biscuits we were served in The Grotto Cafe was about two years back but I didn’t mention it at the time to the aliens! The Z Brothers also put on an impromptu show on the flight back home again pretending to be piloting the plane. The actual pilot played along and did a few neat moves on demand.

On improvising in the Den

Dempsey’s Den began with just me in a studio and then a little mayhem was added after the first season. When the lads arrived we just sort of looked at each other and tried to work out what we were supposed to be doing.

Shane OB / YouTube

Somehow it all worked out but it was completely improvised in that we knew how each bit would start and end but the words and actions in between were up for grabs every time. This can sometimes end in disaster for a TV show but thankfully we made it seem like we actually had it all scripted. This was either telepathy or good luck.

On his favourite memories of Dempsey’s Den

So many great moments like Zig mistaking the sound of a big ship’s horn in Los Angeles as one of his ‘rudies’ or Zag doing the half time analysis at an Irish soccer game by talking about the players’ hair styles and what they were wearing rather than the game itself. I loved when they dressed me as Elvis for a laugh and when we April Fooled everyone into thinking that the Z’s were leaving The Den.

doublezwynne / YouTube

My favourite Christmas Den memory was a half hour ‘live’ show we did at about 6.30 in the evening one Christmas Eve. It was the quietest show we ever did and it was all about getting our young viewers to go to bed. So, Zig and Zag were going to bed too. They were excited about Santa Claus coming and we tried to mirror what was going on in thousands of houses all over Ireland. Leaving milk and biscuits for Santa, a carrot for Rudolph, one little light on to lead the way.
Then I finally got them to go to bed – all is quiet for about 30 seconds – and then the inevitable fart breaks the silence. TV Gold!
Credits roll. Happy days.

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What are your Christmas morning telly memories? Share them with us in the comment section. And Happy Christmas from all at DailyEdge.ie

Written by Emer McLysaght and posted on DailyEdge.ie

[image alt="" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2015/12/img2-thejournal-183.png" width="600" height="115" credit-url="" credit-source="" credit-via="" credit-via-url="" wp-id="wp-image-2519436" class="alignnone" /end]

Read: Happy Birthday Ian Dempsey… This is your (Dempsey’s Den) life>

6 amazing and emotional Zig and Zag memories

The Den Christmas Crisis: Ray, Zig and Zag save the day> 

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    Mute Crocodylus Pontifex
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:31 PM

    Come on students of UCD, don’t tell us you have forgotten what a full scale student protest is

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:37 PM

    @Crocodylus Pontifex: normally you can’t prevent them marching- not one to the Chinese embassy in last two years Spend some time with us at Orwell Road too

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:36 PM

    Good man Ben- proud of you.

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    Mute Bopper Bops Holland
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:55 PM

    @Jonathan O’Riordan: he resigned from one position

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    Mute Bopper Bops Holland
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:57 PM

    @Bopper Bops Holland: and a part time one at that

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 5:23 PM

    @Bopper Bops Holland: so he is still making a point, more than most

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    Mute Alan Leahy
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    Mar 1st 2022, 4:04 PM

    Does his resignation come with a pay cut or is it the same pay package, now with less responsibility?

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Mar 1st 2022, 4:36 PM

    @Alan Leahy: Might it be a mealy mouthed resignation?

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    Mute diarmuid
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    Mar 1st 2022, 5:45 PM

    You might mention that he’s a director of the Irish Defence and Security Association, a lobby group for the arms industry in Ireland.

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 8:30 PM

    @diarmuid: don’t see the relevance, but glad to hear that Ireland is making €38m off software and technology as an industry. If not us then it would be someone else

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    Mute Fergus Quinlan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 5:56 PM

    The western media have won the day….war has come in one door as truth and reason fled out the other..NATO…who have worked hard for this moment …wine and dine with the arms salesmen…

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    Mute Jim Monaghan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 4:55 PM

    Russia treats Ukraine in the same way the USA treats Cuba. It is the equivalent of Ireland to Russia. The invasion has to be opposed. Putin’s war of aggression has damaged us all. Aside for economic consequences, it could lead to a world war.

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    Mute Roger Bond
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    Mar 1st 2022, 6:35 PM

    @Jim Monaghan: Do you remember the Cuba crisis where America threatened Nuclear war if Russia didn’t get out of Cuba.
    Russia now doesn’t want NATO, US with bases in Ukraine.

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    Mute Disco Inferno
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    Mar 1st 2022, 6:39 PM

    @Roger Bond: that’s because the USSR had placed and threatened to place, nuclear arms facilities on thr Island of cuba, so its not the same, not by a long shot

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    Mute Ivan Connolly
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    Mar 1st 2022, 8:45 PM

    @Disco Inferno: the USSR was placing nuclear weapons in Cuba because the US had placed them in Turkey. So it was tit for tat only the US weren’t going to have any tat and instead threatened all out war. Russia’s anxiety regarding Ukraines potential membership of NATO is that the US will place missile systems, which they have already placed in other NATO countries, which are capable of neutralising Russia’s nuclear deterrent and therefore unbalancing the MAD status quo. Their reasoning is sound but their actions are appalling. But the world has a history of powerful countries acting appallingly simply because they can. There are other countries with whom we are closely aligned who have acted in the exact same manner but do not receive our condemnation. The wests hypocrisy is also appalling

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    Mute Colm O'Leary
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    Mar 2nd 2022, 6:44 AM

    @Roger Bond: do you? Remember the Cuban missile crisis or is it something you’ve just read about in your schoolbooks so you “know” about it! History is different if you’ve lived through it to what shows up in books 40 or 50 years later when the hindsight is 20/20 and everyone has died….

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    Mar 1st 2022, 4:59 PM

    Delores Cahill!?

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