History Radio / DickieDickDickens

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: In the first series, Dickie's main police antagonist is the self-glorifying but not particularly competent Commissioner Hillbilly. In the second series, he transfers out of Chicago and is replaced by Inspector Mackenzie, who is both a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute and a {{Foil}} to Hillbilly. He takes on roughly the same role as Hillbilly, but is actually a good deal smarter and more competent -- he's just too lazy to really put in much effort unless there are some sort of personal stakes for him involved.

'''Dickie Dick Dickens''' is a series of audio dramas and books by the German married couple Rolf and Alexandra Becker. The series, a spoof on American quasi-documentary crime series like Franchise/{{Dragnet}}, tells the story of Richard "Dickie Dick" Dickens, a gentleman gangster in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} in TheRoaringTwenties as he goes from humble pickpocket to feared and revered gangster boss with the title "the most dangerous man in America," simply by being just a little smarter than just the police and his rival gangsters. He leads a small, but effective gang consisting of himself, his beautiful fiancée Effie Marconi, his elderly but enthisiastic friend Oliver "Opa" Crackle, and his small, superstitious henchman Bonco.

Both books and audio dramas were translated to several languages, and were hugely popular in both UsefulNotes/{{Norway}} and UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}}. The Norwegian version was even so beloved that Norwegian radio listeners voted it "the best radio crime series ever," and (with the blessings of Rolf and Alexandra Becker) Paul Skoe, who had been the producer of the Norwegian adaptations, wrote two more sequel series where Dickie and his gang visit Norway.

* BrainlessBeauty: Effie will occasionally play this role. While she definitely has a brain, and is capable of drawing conclusions, she's got a tendency to [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Comically Miss The Point]], focus on the wrong things, fail to understand obvious hints, and miss obvious connections -- mostly so Dickie can explain his plans and reasoning to her in details.

* DeadpanSnarker: Inspector Mackenzie ''never'' runs out of sarcasms, a fair few of them directed at Sergeant Martin who [[DoesNotUnderstandSarcasm isn't always the best at telling when someone's being sarcastic and when they're being sincere.]]

* JusticeByOtherLegalMeans: Played with. At the end of the first series, Dickie [[FakingTheDeath fakes his death]] and takes on a new identity, having required the papers of a recently-deceased Irish immigrant named Maxim F. Poltingbrook. It's under this identity he marries his fiancée Effie Marconi... and then, a few months later, it turns out the original Maxim F. Poltingbrook was already married, and so Dickie -- still under the name Poltingbrook -- ends up arrested for bigamy.

* FleetingPassionateHobbies: Leonardo da Cinzano from the final series seems to have a history of these, though only of the creative sort. Several times he mentions some great work of art that he once started and never got around to finishing because he got busy with something else.

* AscendedExtra: Bonco has a fairly minor role in the first series; he was a smalltime crook who by chance got roped into Jim Cooper's gang and at the end of the first seriesswas pressured into luring Dickie into an ambush. He couldn't bring himself to do it, partly because he felt bad and partly because he panicked and revealed the entire plan. After that he instead teamed up with Dickie, and from the second series on he's a trusted member of Dickie's gang and one of the main characters.