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"What's five minus three?"
"Can I use a calculator?
"
Matthew testing Sweep
Character Profile
Sweep2011
Name Sweep
Type of animal Dog
Birthday April 1st
Hobbies Digging for bones, Singing

Sweep is a British dog and TV character popular in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and other countries.

History with the series

Sweep is a grey dog with long black ears and a red nose who joined The Sooty Show in 1957, as a friend to teddy bear,Sooty. His general dim witted behaviour and penchant for bones and sausages has made him an endearing, entertaining character that children still love to this day.

Probably his most unusual characteristic is his method of communication. It consists of a loud high pitched squeak that gains its inflection from normal speech and its rhythm from the syllables in each word. The rest of the cast could understand Sweep perfectly, and would indirectly translate for the viewer.

It is known that Sweep wore wellingtons as several of the more slapstick routines involved his getting upended, leaving his wellies flailing helplessly in the air.

Puppeteers

Matthew Corbett also operated and voiced him on numerous occasions throughout the Sooty Show, Learn With Sooty and Sooty & Co.

Trivia

  • On Tuesday April 9th, 2013, Sweep along with Sooty and Soo appeared as the judging panel in one episode of "The Matt Lucas Awards" Season 2. It was on this show that Sweep gave us his excruciating impression of Pavarotti, which he had previously dreamed of doing in the Sooty & Co. episode "Stars in Their Eyes" on the 1990's talent show with the same name.
  • According to the Sooty & Co. episode Sooty's Magic Solutions, Sweep suffers from nyctophobia, the fear of the dark.
  • In the early years of Sooty, Sweep also used to whisper in Harry Corbett's ear too and only squeaked as though he was barking. This later developed into Sweep squeaking full sentences for all to hear, which would immediately then be repeated by Harry Corbett in human language. Harry Corbett's brother, Leslie was Sweep's original puppeteer. Being a clarinet player, he achieved the sound of Sweep's voice using the reed of said instrument, until one day it disintegrated during one of the shows. After this, Leslie Corbett designed a new reed similar to what "Punch and Judy" puppeteers call a swazzle, which would enable the performer to change pitch of the voice, thus giving Sweep a whole vocal range.
  • On 18th December 1998, Sweep made a special appearance on the Channel 4 programme The Harry Hill Show.
  • In 2009, Sweep along with Sooty and Soo appeared in Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band music video on "Children in Need".
  • In 2017, Sweep appeared in three Bought By Many adverts for pet insurance.
  • Sweep is said to be aged 4.
  • Not only does Sweep like bones, in The Sooty Show he also likes chocolate buttons.
  • He has three brothers called Swoop, Swipe and Swap.
  • In Sooty's Amazing Adventures, he talks in a human voice instead of squeaking.

Gallery

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