Taking The Mickey

The erudition of my readers allows me to point to a much earlier talking dog - Mickey. He belonged to (Albert) Saveen. Saveen's vent act with doll Daisy May became the basis of a Light Programme radio series after the war, beating Peter Brough and Archie Andrews to the artistic breakthrough by a couple of weeks.

Saveen paired Mickey with a dummy dog, and was sparing with Mickey's comments. The dummy would bait Mickey, and Mickey would end the spot saying "Why don't you shut that ruddy dog up ?" before jumping down from the podium (though that wouldn't have happened on Crackerjack - see below). Another put dog put-down catch-phrase was "Drop dead" - teddy-boy slang of the 50s, but uttered in a posh voice.