BBC Radio 4 Extra

Sidekick

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

25/05/2010

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Sidekick

Culture's sidekicks step out of the hero's shadow to take their bow.

Holy History! From Batman and Robin to Holmes and Watson, Frank Cottrell Boyce examines the role of hero's sidekicks. From 2010.

The sidekick is not, by definition, the focus of our attention. They are destined to be overshadowed by their better half, the hero who will save Gotham, solve the uncrackable case or rescue the girl from the bad guys...

But without the sidekick these heroes would often remain too distant, too powerful or just too brilliant for us to ever really love them. So in steps the earthy, flawed and loyal sidekick to provide the audience with someone to connect to, a character who knows how the world really works to help the hero off tilting at windmills. 

Whether it's in countless children's films - think Eddie Murphy's Donkey to Mike Myers's Shrek - or a hundred comic books and cartoons - or high literature from Cervantes to Sterne and Shakespeare to Verne - the sidekick provides the laughs, the pratfall and the focus of our empathy. 

Frank Cottrell Boyce talks with those who've created sidekicks, those who've played the parts and those who've studied just how essential these characters really are to making the fiction seem believable and offer a human face to the often inhuman character supposedly at the centre of the show.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Sidekick

Genres

Formats

BBC Radio 4 Extra

About BBC Radio 4 Extra