''Coogan's Run'' is a 1995 UK
TV series featuring
Steve Coogan
Stephen John Coogan (; born 14 October 1965) is an English actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter. He is most known for creating original characters such as Alan Partridge, a socially inept and politically incorrect media personality, which ...
as a series of odd characters living in the fictional town of Ottle.
It was written by various people including Coogan,
Patrick Marber,
David Tyler,
Graham Linehan,
Arthur Mathews,
Geoffrey Perkins and
Henry Normal. The series consists of six self-contained stories, although Coogan's characters from the other episodes in the series make occasional
cameo appearances.
Cast
*
Steve Coogan
Stephen John Coogan (; born 14 October 1965) is an English actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter. He is most known for creating original characters such as Alan Partridge, a socially inept and politically incorrect media personality, which ...
- Paul Calf / Gareth Cheeseman / Ernest Moss / Peter Calf / Mike Crystal / Stewart Crump / Tim Fleck
*
John Thomson - Robin Moss
* Malcolm Raeburn - Inspector Lynch
*
Teresa Banham - Debs
*
Adrian Scarborough
Adrian Philip Scarborough (born 10 May 1968) is an English actor.
He has appeared in films including ''The Madness of King George'' (1994), ''Gosford Park'' (2001), ''Vera Drake'' (2004), ''The History Boys'' (2006), ''The King's Speech'' (2010 ...
- Councillor Hillary Crabbe
*
Philip Martin Brown - PC Ted Cornwall
* Roger Morlidge - Prison Officer
* Derek Howard - Reverend Dowd
*
John Clegg - Alf
Episodes
In order of broadcast:
Get Calf featured the already well known characters
Paul Calf and his sister Pauline (both played by Coogan). Paul gets into trouble with three criminal brothers after witnessing a bank robbery and being forced to identify them in court. He joins a cult and retreats to their residence where he is lured into a porn film.
In Dearth of a Salesman, Coogan plays the insensitive, egotistical computer hardware salesman
Gareth Cheeseman. With similarities to Coogan's most famous creation,
Alan Partridge, Gareth attempts to socialise and make a big sale during a sales conference while constantly checking to see if his car is safe. Despite his faults, Gareth appears destined to land a big contract, but fate intervenes.
A Handyman For All Seasons: Main character Ernest Moss had previously appeared in live shows giving a safety lecture (as seen on the 1994 video release ''Live 'n' Lewd''). Set in 1960 and mostly filmed in
black and white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
. Ernest Moss (Coogan), a general repairman, attempts to stop a large new property development in his home village while making repairs to his fellow villagers' homes. This episode also saw Coogan play the laddish Peter Calf, the father of Paul.
Thursday Night Fever: Mediocre club entertainer Mike Crystal (Coogan) invents an alter-ego, Clint Stallone, when his career begins to falter. The manager of his club, Clement (
Graham Fellows), thinks Clint is real and gets his nephew to photograph him in a compromising position with Mike's girlfriend, Debs.
Natural Born Quizzers, featuring the mad, trivia-obsessive brothers Stewart and Guy Crump (Coogan and
Patrick Marber). When the brothers lost a children's
quiz show
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, sh ...
in 1975, they burned down the studio, killing their parents and one of the sisters from the opposing team. 20 years later, the brothers kidnap their therapist and the surviving sister, Cathy (
Rebecca Front), and make them re-enact the quiz on the roof of a
car park with the now-
transsexual quiz host, Jeremy (Angela) Monkhead. It ends with Stewart and Guy taking the trophy and then detonating a bomb.
The Curator: Tim Fleck (Coogan), the curator of a very dull museum, is disgusted to find that his museum is being taken over to build a steak house upon his mother's death. On opening night, a masked man attacks the diners.
References
External links
*{{IMDb title, id=0111925, title=Coogan's Run
BBC television comedy
1995 British television series debuts
1995 British television series endings