Hamish and Dougal
Hamish and Dougal were two characters from the long-running BBC Radio 4 'antidote to panel games' I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. One of the rounds in this show was Sound Charades, where a title of a book or film had to be conveyed from one team to the other by means of a story. The result of the story was usually a pun on the title in question.Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden usually told their story as two elderly Scottish gentlemen, Hamish and Dougal. It was in essence a minute long improvised sketch where each performer knew the other well enough to be able to set up joint jokes seamlessly.
Each sketch was started with the line "You'll have had your tea", which is reputably the greeting used by the meaner Scottish people (stereotypically people from Edinburgh) as a way of avoiding making a cup of tea for visitors.
Between the 24th and 27th of December 2002, a daily episode of a show "You'll Have Had Your Tea" were broadcast on BBC Radio 4. These were 15 minutes long and were extensions of the minute long sketches. The main differences were the presence of a script, written by Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden, and of two other actors, Alison Steadman and Jeremy Hardy. Alison Steadman played Mrs Naughtie (pronounced Nochty) the housekeeper, while Jeremy Hardy played the local laird. They were produced by Jon Naismith.
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 audiences wrong impressions. 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. A wonderful example of this was the eternal buzzing of the pie grater Dougal 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.
(If you're still thinking about this, try saying "pie grater" in a Scottish accent and think how it could be misheard.)
Despite the often risquÃÂé nature of a lot of the jokes (such as the dance of the seven voles: "Och, where's that little rascal got to"), it is a very gentle comedy, with the usual joyous disregard for storylines that often characterizes this type of comedy. As a nice random touch, two episodes finish with Jeremy Hardy singing out of tune versions of Atomic Kitten hits.