ZIG AND ZAGFROM 'BIG BREAKFAST' TO 'BIG BROTHER', ZANY TILL THE DAY THEY DIE
FEW AMONG intergalactic visitors to this planet have brought as much joy to Irish children as brothers Zigmund Ambrose Zogly and Zagnatius Hillery Zogly, or Zig and Zag, did in the early 1990s.
Recently the former stars of RTÉ'S The Denhave taken up residence in the prop room of Channel 4's Big Brother, occasionally interviewing former housemates for its sister programme Big Brother's Little Brother. As the house's taskmasters on Day 19, they forced housemates to speak through puppet versions of themselves for the day. "What people don't know is that we came up with most of the Big Brother tasks over the last 10 years," says Zag.
Zag (the purple one) is the more intelligent older brother, a lecher who enjoys performing ragga songs in his guise of "Ragga Zagga". Zig is a weak-willed childish simpleton with obsessions for oddities such as The Hunt for Red October, and his rash.
The pair, of the planet Zog, first appeared on our screens in 1987 with Ian Dempsey on RTÉ's Dempsey's Den. They continued on the show after Dempsey's departure and were adopted by his replacement, Ray D'Arcy.
The lure of morning TV became too much and by the mid-1990s Zig and Zag had moved to ITV's The Big Breakfast. For the rest of the decade, the duo featured in an array of programmes such as ITV's The Zig and Zag Showand RTÉ's music quiz 2Phat.
Zig and Zag are now planning to put together a Big Breakfastreunion show. "We've interviewed everyone from Take That to Robin Williams, Ozzy Osbourne to Will Smith," says Zig.
The brothers struggle to identify a career highlight. “What about David Bowie throwing water over us at the Berlin MTV Awards?” says Zig. “Oh yeah, or going on tour with Aerosmith in Texas!”
They agree their Top of the Popsouting in 1994, plugging their single Them Girls, Them Girls, was the most fun they've had. "We even got to meet Boyzone, who were on the same show singing their first ever single dressed in five white Aran jumpers."