By LOUISA CLEAVE
How bloody gorgeous — the Topp Twins are back.
The country's foremost entertainers are bringing their unique brand of Kiwiana back to our screens next week.
And as if playing Ken and Ken, Camp Mother and Camp Leader, Raelene and Brenda, and Prue and Dilly was not enough work for the Topps, they are adding new characters to their fresh-look series. Camp Mother and Camp Leader's yellow Bambina is heading in a new direction with Mavis and Lorna, the Bowling Ladies, and some distant relatives of existing characters appearing on the scene.
"We decided that this is our third series and we should be conscious our public would be watching and it would be exciting to have new characters," says Lynda.
"We try to slowly introduce new characters and the public decide whether they like those characters or not.
"That's what happened with Ken and Ken and Prue and Dilly. They were slowly introduced, then Ken Moller and Ken Smythe took off and now we have to do them live wherever we go.
"The bowling ladies, Mavis and Lorna, were so easy to do — they just happened. There's such a huge population of bowlers in this country, they're going to take those girls on board." Mavis and Lorna could, say their creators, become the new national icons among the bowling set.
It would come as no surprise if they did. The Kens and Camp Mother and Camp Leader, after appearing on our screens just 12 times, have joined Fred Dagg among the cultural icons that television has branded on the nation's psyche.
The next seven episodes of the Topp Twins take a new turn with a story-based approach to the series. "This time round we've tried to do a funny story rather than a comedy of errors at events, so we're slightly a little more in control of it, but also with that whole idea of spontaneity coming through," says Lynda.
Some events had to be created for the show, including a celebrity golf tournament in the first episode which features former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick as an extra. The Highland Games in Tauranga lent themselves well to an episode where Ken Moller's Scottish cousin Kenneth flies in for a visit.
Jools and Lynda say they wanted to explore their characters further in the new series. Does that mean Ken Moller finally wins the hand of the Lady in Pink?
There are some close moments, but Jools points out that Moonlighting "turned to custard" the moment Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd got together.
"[Ken's] forever trying to get to his woman," says the Lady in Pink herself, Lynda.
The Westie girls, Raelene and Brenda, return and look set to add another Topp Twins' phrase to the Kiwi vocabulary. Their hitchhiking line, "Car coming, Raelene," has already been picked up by the son of a friend in an indication of things to come.
Jools: "Without knowing it, we've created something that is in everyone's psyche and I think that's what the beauty of the show is. It's not just some characters, it's characters that people feel like they know. The characters make people feel at ease."
And appeal to all ages — Topp Twins' fans range in age from toddlers to pensioners. That rare, finger-on-the-pulse of Kiwi culture has won the hearts of television viewers in both the cities and rural backblocks.
Once asked by a British newspaper what they do if, halfway through a live show, they are losing their audience, Jools gave him this analogy: "Well, back home in New Zealand if the cow's stuck in the mud, you roll your bloody sleeves up and you don't bloody go home until the cow's out."
Of course, the cow in the mud story is a true one. "I think it's things like that that have got us through the entertainment world ... it's okay to get muddy," says Jools."I think that's what people like, we're accessible to them and you roll your sleeves up and do your bit."
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