List of The Den programmes
[1][2] Each week Don Conroy would arrive at the studio to draw a picture (often of his beloved owls) or read from one of his children's books.
Comedian Dara Ó Briain, who has since become recognisable abroad, spent most of his RTÉ career on Echo Island from 1995 onwards.
[5][7][10][11] Simon Young, a former disc jockey with RTÉ 2fm, would present a weekly popular music news chat with Dempsey and D'Arcy.
If they lasted a desirable length, many prizes would be bestowed upon them, including the coveted Yes-No Game Show winners' mug.
Viewers would telephone in and pick from a selection of the eponymous challenges, laid out and numbered on the desk in front of Damo, to reveal a prize.
This almost always involved a trip to Lapland and an improbable but amusing plot in which the cast had to somehow save Christmas, often having to rescue Santa Claus from some perilous event.
By Christmas Day, as The Den was being shown, the Soviet Union had just conveniently collapsed into chaos, with its remaining contingent states declaring independence.
On another occasion the evil Podge (now a reformed individual with a background as a highly successful talk show co-host) tried to thwart Santa and jeopardise Christmas by locking him inside a large wooden cabinet in his own house.
Ray D'Arcy and others from the cast very conveniently happened upon the scene just as time was running out and Santa availed of their presence to scuttle off to his workshops to save Christmas.
On another occasion the problem was a depressed Rudolph, whose nose had lost its legendary shine, thus giving Santa the difficulty of having no method of finding his way through the night sky.
[65] After persistently demanding that Socky be granted this gift and searching through the internet, overcoming Derek Davis's diet tips and Pat Kenny's guide on how to be "an insufferable bore" along the way, Dustin discovered that 100 Mr. Micro Blue Bucket action figures would be delivered to F.A.O.
The naive but kind-hearted Socky was exuberant, as Dustin pointed out Laa-Laa the Teletubby, and wanted to find presents for his Mammy (Geri Maye), his best friend (Thomas), and "all the boys and girls in playschool".
Christmas-themed cartoons would be shown and the cast would talk about the toys they had received from Santa, whom they would have usually only just have saved from some terrible danger on the previous day.
Other guests included Stephen Gately, Simon Young, a boy called Patrick Egdop, The Saw Doctors (described by D'Arcy as the band to have appeared most often on The Den) and Don Conroy.
The broadcast concluded with the cast and guests singing "Happy birthday" to The Den, balloons cascading into the studio from the ceiling and children running on to play.
Broadcast on RTÉ One on 27 October 2008 at 18:30, it was compiled to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the birth of Zig and Zag and later released as a DVD in November 2008.
Presenters D'Arcy and Dempsey featured heavily in the special; other highlights included assaults perpetrated by Ted—a malicious panda—on the presenters, Christmas specials of The Den, footage of characters like Captain Joke, Captain Pillowcase and Cousin Nigel and Ireland's 1989 Irish Film and Television awards at which Zig and Zag "accidentally" mistook then taoiseach Albert Reynolds as actor Burt Reynolds and addressed him as "your majesty".
