Biscuit and her hand puppet Bongo (a broad send-up of 70s Aussie children's TV star Patsy Biscoe who famously appeared with Nicholas on the show in 1990), and oafish policeman Sergeant F*kn Smith. Co-writing Nicholas's material was the young Shaun Micallef. Comedians Matt Parkinson and Matthew Quartermaine, aka The Empty Pockets also played the Lager Boys. The Lager Boys featured in a popular series of anarchic blackout sketches, promoting fictitious products and/or TV programs, and which were noted for including brief intercuts taken from pornographic videos. Viewers often taped The Big Gig on their VCRs in order to replay the Lager Boys segments in slow motion. After successful guest appearances on the first series Sydney comedian Anthony Ackroyd became a regular cast member. He provided stand up spots as well as the characters Addam (a parody of a coked up advertising guru), the Bard (a Shakespearean style poet) and Constable Constable (partner of Glynn Nicholas's Sergeant Smith). Angela Moore, later a cast member of the children's programme Play School, played another popular semi-regular character, the batty, screechy-voiced housewife Shirley Purvis, with fellow Play School alumnus Glenn Butcher playing her hopeless son Darren. Shirley and Darren were characters they had originated while members of popular comedy troupe The Castanet Club. Other regular cast members included Denise Scott, Tracy Harvey, Lynda Gibson, Phillip Scott and Paul Livingston (as Flacco). The most popular featured act was the irreverent musical comedy trio the Doug Anthony All Stars, also known as DAAS, whose trademark pseudo-military uniforms and shameless attacks on sacred cows quickly garnered a reputation. The Dougs, as they became known, would often be on at the end of the program and were regulars up until 1991, when they left to produce their own show, DAAS Kapital (also shown on ABC TV). In 2008, all the DAAS appearances from the first two seasons, plus a performance of "Warsong" from 1992 to promote DAAS Kapital, were released on DVD. Broadcast details Series 1: 28 February 1989 to 6 June 1989 (15 episodes) Series 2: 29 August 1989 to 21 November 1989 (13 episodes) Series 3: 6 March 1990 to 22 May 1990 (12 episodes) Series 4: 28 August 1990 to 13 November 1990 (12 episodes) Series 5: 30 April 1991 to 16 July 1991 (not 2 July) (11 episodes) Specials: 31 March 1992, 19 May 1992 and 14 July 1992 Repeats of The Big Gig