DS Icon: Sweep

Wikipedia describes Sweep as "a grey, glove puppet dog" with a "penchant for bones and sausages". Never has someone so great been so undersold. Sweep was so much more than a mere "glove puppet dog" - at least for those who watched any incarnation of The Sooty Show during the last 50-odd years. He represented and stood up for the ignored, downtrodden and forgotten members of society.

While Harry and Matthew Corbett wasted their hours with the mute, attention-seeking, faux-magician Sooty and nagging, irritating, fussbag panda bear Soo, Sweep was left to fend and squeak for himself. He would most often end up as the butt of slapstick gags or cast as the greedy villain, but Sweep never deserved the bad boy reputation he was landed with. While Sooty could get away with rudely not speaking to anyone but his owners and firing his water pistol at innocent passersby, Sweep was cruelly given a backstage role just for the fact he was a bit simple.

DS salutes the valiant career of squeaking expert and loveable rogue Sweep.