Dead Ringers is a UK radio and television comedy impressions show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC2. The programme was devised by Bill Dare, and stars Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Phil Cornwell , Kevin Connelly and Mark Perry . The principal writers are Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain .

The programme was first aired in 2000. On radio there have been ten series plus a number of special episodes including one devoted entirely to the BBC radio soap The Archers and one to Queen Elizabeth II's golden jubilee. On television there have been two series and a pilot episode.

The programme is well known for its portrayal of fellow BBC employees, such as Radio 4 news reader Brian Perkins as a gangster ("Who's the daddy?") and then-Director General of the BBC Greg Dyke as a Michael Caine-like character. Newsreaders Kirsty Wark (of Newsnight) and Charlotte Green (of Radio 4) regularly open bulletins on the programme with a line from a popular song ("He was a skater boy, she said see you later boy, he wasn't good enough for her. More on that story later"). Broadcasts reportedly from Downing Street parody BBC political editor Andrew Marr, showing his supposed eccentric manner, interminable sentences, and jerky movements.

Culshaw regularly performs telephone prank calls impersonating Tom Baker's incarnation of The Doctor or Alec Guinness's version of Obi-Wan Kenobi. In the show's television incarnation he goes shopping as both characters, vexing shop assistants and used-car salesmen alike ("I seek passage to Aldershot").

Prime Minister Tony Blair announces his hand gesture style while speaking, while Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott catches fire when two of his incomprehensible sentences rub together, along with being the subject of the Prescott Widening Scheme to go along with the Road Widening Scheme.

Dead Ringers tends to concentrate on British public figures, although one notable exception is President George W. Bush, who mangles the English language with his invented words such as ignorify, astonisherate and climactification in sentences such as: "As a result, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il announcified that he would be resumerating their nuclear program", and tapes over intelligence videos with episodes of Sesame Street. Another common theme in Bush sketches is the parody of the president's public announcements ("My fellow amaeboids...", "My fellow umbrellastands...", "God bless pancakes!").

Consequently, when the series has been shown outside the UK, on BBC Prime in Europe and Africa, BBC America in the United States, and ABC in Australia, it has had to be re-edited considerably.

The actors behind some impressions include:

• Jon Culshaw – George W. Bush, Ozzy Osbourne, Brian Sewell, Brian Perkins, Tony Blair, David Beckham, Chris Tarrant, Obi-Wan Kenobi, William Hague, Simon Schama, Russell Crowe, Ricky Gervais, Mariella Frostrup, Tom Baker

• Jan Ravens – Delia Smith, Patricia Routledge, Margaret Thatcher, Charlotte Green, Clarrie Grundy (from The Archers), Germaine Greer, Clare Short, Ann Widdecombe, Ellen MacArthur, Queen Elizabeth II, Aggie McKenzie , Anne Robinson

• Kevin Connelly – David Dimbleby, Iain Duncan Smith, Mark Lawson, David Starkey, Des Lynam

• Mark Perry – David Dickinson, Patrick Stewart, John Prescott, Robin Cook, Gandalf, Kim Woodburn

• Phil Cornwell – Greg Dyke, The Duke of Edinburgh, Saruman, Derren Brown

See also

• UK topics

External links

• BBC Radio 4 – Dead Ringers
• Jon Culshaw's Dr. Who Impressions