List of The Den characters

Generation I include extraterrestrials Zig and Zag and their dog Zuppy, all of whom were present from the second season of Dempsey's Den.

Zig and Zag left in 1993 but Zuppy remained to become one of the longest serving members of The Den team (alongside Don Conroy, a human).

Zag was responsible for introducing Dustin to celebrity acclaim when he won him in a golf game, however both he and Zig had a difficult relationship with the turkey.

Zig and Zag received a presenting job on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast, whereas Zuppy, Soky and Dustin remained.

Zig and Zag returned to Ireland in the late 1990s to host 2Phat, a music-quiz show along with their father, Ray D'Arcy, in which students had the chance to win a limited edition scooter.

Characters such as Soky, Ted, Podge and Snotser were present throughout the D'Arcy era and, with the exception of Podge (who moved to late night television show A Scare at Bedtime with brother Rodge after both were thwarted in their evil attempts to ruin Christmas), into the McCaul era.

Dustin was originally introduced in December 1989 when Zag secured him as a prize for finishing last in a golf tournament against Ronan Collins.

There is also a school of thought that Dustin was originally conceived as a turkey vulture, which would be consistent with his rather large and most un-turkeylike beak.

On Today FM's The Ray D'Arcy Show on 14 November 2008, Dustin was co-erced into "doing the flap-flaps" for a live audience at Vicar Street [5] - The Den team would regularly co-erce Dustin, through use of flattering comparisons, into doing the "flap-flaps" (a unique and humorous dance with his wings), the result of which was the collapse of all into convulsions of laughter.

Initially left to the imagination of viewers as he was merely an offstage voice for many years, Snotser was finally seen in the closing seconds of the first episode of the "treehouse season" during Den TV.

However, as that day's edition of The Den was about to conclude, Snotser entered the empty studio, accompanied by apologies for his late arrival.

Snotser was a fairly popular character and appeared on several tracks of Dustin's parody album Faith of Our Feathers.

These eyes turned out to belong to Soky the sock monster, who then joined the gang, believing D'Arcy to be his mother and calling him "Mammy Ray".

Possessing hair of old, smelly socks, viewers were invited to send their own samples to The Den as presents for Soky.

[8] After persistently demanding that Soky 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"), Dustin discovered that 100 Mr Micro Blue Bucket action figures would be delivered to F.A.O.

Schwarz, the largest toy store in the world located in Manhattan, New York, on Christmas Eve (the following morning).

The naive but kind-hearted Soky 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".

D'Arcy himself admitted on his radio show that Ted only tended to attack on days when he was hungover or not feeling the best.

He was last heard of breaking through security at Vicar Street to assault D'Arcy during a morning radio broadcast from the venue, about half an hour after the Today FM newsreader, Sinead Spain, ominously aired a newsflash that a UFO had been spotted flying over Drogheda with no sign of life on board.

He later reappeared on RTÉ Television co-hosting his own show called A Scare at Bedtime alongside Rodge.

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 Soky that Simon Trowel's out there instead of him.

Eventually, Duck was tracked down to a shed in Blackpool, County Cork, on property believed to be owned by a P. Carleton.

In the final show of the season, on 29 April 2006, Duck was located and forcibly removed from his underground hiding place in Limerick.

Generation IV saw Soky, Zuppy, Dustin and Magic Bunny leave without explanation, and new characters were introduced.