At Last we Meet

I spent 4 months on a kibbutz back in the Eighties. While I was there, I became good friends with a cop from New Zealand. He told me about Fred Dagg, a character created by Kiwi comedian John Clarke. A dagg is a clod of manure in a sheep’s wool. Fred is a sheep farmer with lots of strong but uninformed opinions.

When I got home from abroad, my friend sent me a videotape full of Fred Dagg’s antics. But I was never able to play it, because it was recorded on an NTSC VCR. Or because it was recorded on a PAL VCR. The one we don’t have here, whatever that is. I never got to see Fred Dagg.

Recently, I did a radio interview to promote my book, and today I got an email from the hosts, linking to this Youtube video. If you look in the comments below the screen, you can see someone pointing out that the bald guy in the video is Fred Dagg! Actually, it’s John Clarke, doing a different role, but you can find Dagg videos on Youtube. Naturally, I had to search for more them. If I can find a DVD, I’m going to buy it.

What a wild coincidence.

You might enjoy this bit of Clarke’s work, taken from a movie which no one saw because it was filmed in New Zealand. If you want to watch Dagg videos, it’s important to remember that most men in New Zealand are named Trevor.

Here is Clarke AS Dagg: