John Blackman, star of Hey Hey It's Saturday, dies aged 76

He was best known for his puppet characters including Dickie Knee, The Angel, and Doctor Ben Dover.

Transcript

00:00 What do you call a man with no arms and no legs sitting on your doorstep?

00:05 Matt. Matt. Matt.

00:07 Just as well we're not on air, eh?

00:09 Yeah.

00:11 Dickie, we are on air.

00:13 Do you like my new flaps?

00:15 Your new flaps are really looking up.

00:17 Look at that, my brand new flappers.

00:19 They look great too.

00:21 The guy that operated Dickie was Crystal, originally, our floor manager,

00:25 and then Mark McGann, and they spent most of the show lying prostrate in front of Darryl,

00:31 which is how a lot of us got into the business.

00:33 [laughter]

00:36 Darryl knows I do that joke, but basically he would have a little speaker on the floor

00:42 and as soon as he heard my voice he'd get Dickie up and waggle him about,

00:46 and it was only like a fraction of a second, but it seemed like it was instantaneous.

00:50 [silence]