"The Godfather of Radio 4"
Since 2000, radio and television comedy impressions show Dead Ringers has a running joke depicting Brian Perkins as the "Godfather of Radio 4", played on the show by impressionist Jon Culshaw. His imitation often refers to himself as "Big Daddy Perkins" and frequently badmouths BBC colleagues, hinting that he's given out various punishment beatings to those who had earned his ire. In one sketch, the Dead Ringers Brian telephoned the real Brian, accusing him of not being hard enough. The real Brian riposted with a claim that he'd put Peter Donaldson's feet in concrete and thrown him into a canal. In the 2007 Ten Years of Blair special of Dead Ringers, Perkins was portrayed as not only the Godfather of the BBC, but of the entire nation, acting as the British head of state. Brian and Jon later appeared together on the BBC Radio 4 panel game Wireless Wise. Taking it one step further humourist Danny Wallace refers to Perkins as a God in his 2006 travelogue Yes Man.
Read more about this topic: Brian Perkins
Famous quotes containing the words radio 4, godfather and/or radio:
“A liberal is a socialist with a wife and two children.”
—Anonymous. BBC Radio 4 (April 8, 1990)
“His white head hung out like a carpet bag
and his crotch turned blue as a blood blister,
and Godfather death, as it is written,
put a finger on his back
for the big blackout,
the big no.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The radio ... goes on early in the morning and is listened to at all hours of the day, until nine, ten and often eleven o’clock in the evening. This is certainly a sign that the grown-ups have infinite patience, but it also means that the power of absorption of their brains is pretty limited, with exceptions, of course—I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. One or two news bulletins would be ample per day! But the old geese, well—I’ve said my piece!”
—Anne Frank (1929–1945)