''Cows'' is a British sitcom produced by

Eddie Izzard Suzy Eddie Izzard ( ; born Edward John Izzard, 7 February 1962) is a British stand-up comedian, actor and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomi ...

for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

in 1997, where all actors appeared in cow suits. Only the pilot episode was produced by

and the show never went into series production. It was written by

Nick Whitby Nick may refer to: People and fictional characters * Nick (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Désirée Nick, German actress and writer Places * Nick, Hungary, a village * Nick, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland, a v ...

and Izzard, and starred

Pam Ferris Pamela Ferris (born 11 May 1948) is a British actress. She has starred in numerous British television series, including Connie (TV series), ''Connie'' (1985), ''The Darling Buds of May (TV series), The Darling Buds of May'' (1991–1993), ''W ...

and

James Fleet James Edward Fleet (born 11 March 1952) is an English actor of theatre, radio and screen. He is most famous for his roles as the bumbling and well-meaning Tom in the 1994 British romantic comedy film ''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' and the dim- ...

. It was produced by David Tyler.

Production

No comedy pilot had cost Channel 4 more in recent years than ''Cows''. Filming for the 60-minute pilot episode took place over eight days. Six days were spent on site with an additional two spent in the studio. For 12 hours each day, five performers were suited up in cow outfits. Izzard described the show as "this ''

Planet Of The Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is a science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic world in which humans and intelligent apes c ...

'' type thing but with a '' Simpsons'' feel to it.

Reception

According to the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

'', critics widely criticised the pilot episode of ''Cows''. William Cook of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' called ''Cows'' a "bizarre bovine sitcom" in which performers suited up in cow outfits "chew metaphorical and literal cud in suburban semi". ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' television critic Roland White could have had the crowd rolling with laughter through his "cow-human jokes" in his solo act but "his style has not transferred well to sitcom". Jasper Rees of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' stated, "Somewhere between Wodehouse's '' Blandings'' and Orwell's ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' (originally ''Animal Farm: A Fairy Story'') is a satirical allegorical novella, in the form of a beast fable, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic far ...

'', it spares Andrew Davies the trouble of having to convert either."

References

External links

* {{UK-tv-prog-stub 1997 British television series debuts 1997 British television series endings Channel 4 sitcoms Television pilots not picked up as a series