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The Best...screen dog

Paul O'Grady with dog Buster
  • Posted at 10:13am
  • 05 January 2007
  • by DavidWhitehouse-RT
  • 8 comments

The humble TV hound is such a mainstay of popular culture that it should have its own category at Crufts.

Some become equally as famous as their human co-stars - proof positive that a willingness to lick their own crotch and drag their backside across the lawn on camera is no hindrance to a successful TV career.

Those who wish, as we are here, to impose some level of hierarchy on the TV dog are spoilt for choice when it comes to contenders for "The Best?" crown. There's Duke, Boycie's Great Dane in Only Fools and Horses. There's Coronation Street's own hairy ball of comic relief, Schmeichel. There are Sharon Osbourne's funny-looking assortment of mutts, whose tendency to crap all over every possible surface has proved no obstacle to winning the public's affection.

But there is one pooch who has now, surely, transcended them all, and his name is Buster.

Buster is the creature you may have mistaken for a fat, fluffy paperweight adorning the desk of The Paul O'Grady Show. He looks like he was invented by a work experience boy in Jim Henson's Creature Workshop and has the face of an old man that's been coated in Pritt Stick and rolled around the floor of a barber's shop. Despite this, and the fact that he does little else but sit there seemingly chewing his way through a brick-sized lump of toffee, he is TV's best dog.

Why, you ask? Well, I've a theory that Buster's silence is actually a façade. Behind that stupid pug face, I think Buster is developing a cult of personality.

His picture already litters the show's set. One part of the show revolves around an eight-foot-tall Buster being taken on a tour of British towns. A report suggested recently that his name has been trademarked in preparation for the release of a load of Buster merchandise. And it is easy to imagine him plastered all over propaganda flags and wall murals, like North Korea's nuclear midget Kim Jong-Il, to whom Buster happens to bear a very weird similarity.

If in five years' time the Church of Buster has ten million purple-rinsed followers, I for one will be feigning my surprise. Perhaps, like any great leader, his popularity is a result of his perceived wisdom. Look at his face. He looks like he knows something, doesn't he? The clever little b****r.

But what, you ask, could a dog bearing more than a passing resemblance to a novelty toilet roll cover, possibly know that we don't? To which I'll say only this. Consider his counsel.

How many people do you know who night after night are witness to the conversations had between Paul O'Grady, Cilla Black and Dale Winton? Can you imagine what their chats are like? Blimey. If only that dog could talk.

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Post a comment | 8 comments

Comments

  • Posted on 19 September 2009
  • at 11:40am
  • by Cathy

I just adore Olga. No harm to Buster but Olga reminds me so much of my own Cairn terrier and how she acts. I always smile when I see her coming on with Paul. I'm her number one fan.

  • Posted on 15 April 2009
  • at 5:14pm
  • by joe90

who own dog buster?

  • Posted on 20 March 2007
  • at 5:28pm
  • by Lyn

If I wanted to own a dog I would love one just like Buster he is so well behaved with an adorable face. He is a true star.

  • Posted on 05 February 2007
  • at 12:56pm
  • by poshy

wot if a tv dog dos a poo

  • Posted on 05 February 2007
  • at 12:41pm
  • by ANGELA

I THINK YOU ARE GREAT PAUL AND I WISH YOU WELL AND OLGA AND BUSTER ARE THE BEST THEY ARE A CREDIT TO YOU LOVE ANGELA XXX

  • Posted on 24 January 2007
  • at 7:33pm
  • by SW

I agree with JB, Top Gear dog is a definite must for Top TV dog. After all, there's only one word difference in their names already…

  • Posted on 20 January 2007
  • at 4:57pm
  • by JB

I am disappointed in the non mention of Top Gear Dog. As much as my affection for Buster is important (not Olga, she's just Buster's understudy), the laughs you get from the TG boys and their TGD can keep anyone going.

  • Posted on 05 January 2007
  • at 3:39pm
  • by Happy Cow

The best ever screen dog was Moose and/or Enzo, the father-and-son Jack Russell terrier duo that shared the role of "Eddie" in Frasier.

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