Chickens | |
---|---|
Genre | Sitcom |
Created by | |
Written by |
|
Directed by | Ben Palmer |
Starring |
|
Opening theme | "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens" |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 6 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers | Kenton Allen Caroline Leddy |
Producer | John Rushton |
Running time | 30 mins (inc. adverts) |
Production company | Big Talk Productions |
Original release | |
Network | Sky 1 |
Release | 22 August – 26 September 2013 |
Chickens is a British sitcom that was first broadcast on Channel 4 as a television pilot on 2 September 2011, as part of the channel's Comedy Showcase season of comedy pilots. It was then followed by a six-episode series that was commissioned on Sky 1 and broadcast between 22 August and 26 September 2013. The show is about three men who don't go off to fight in the First World War and consequently become social outcasts in their village. It was nominated for Best Comedy Programme at the 2014 Broadcast Awards.
The pilot episode was filmed partly on location in the village of Finchingfield in Essex, shooting exterior scenes in the square, the school and the church yard. [1]
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Ratings [2] | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Episode One" | Ben Palmer | Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Jonny Sweet | 642,000 | 22 August 2013 | |
Three chaps who have stayed behind in a sleepy English village during the First World War earn themselves the reputation of being cowards among the local women. George is keen to avoid the conflict, Cecil is unable to fight for medical reasons - and Bert is simply too stupid to understand what's going on. | ||||||
2 | "Episode Two" | Ben Palmer | Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Jonny Sweet | 381,000 | 29 August 2013 | |
News arrives that the first Rittle man has died in battle, so Bert - ever the opportunist - decides to make a move on his widow. Meanwhile, George faces a moral dilemma at work and finds himself engaging in a tense one-on-one with the Headmaster, and Cecil struggles to find a plumber to fix the cottage's brown water problem. | ||||||
3 | "Episode Three" | Ben Palmer | Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Jonny Sweet | Under 397,000 | 5 September 2013 | |
A pretty girl called Penny asks Cecil to be her boyfriend, but the boys suspect she has an ulterior motive. Bert finds himself in need of alternative living arrangements after being thrown out of the cottage by George - but he appears to land on his feet when he settles into an extravagant abode that belongs to a serving soldier. | ||||||
4 | "Episode Four" | Ben Palmer | Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Jonny Sweet | Under 414,000 | 12 September 2013 | |
Cecil confides in Constance about his fallen foot arches, but feels he is being systematically emasculated by a lack of male company, and sets out to assert his manhood. Meanwhile, George goes on strike over the decision to remove German from the school curriculum, so Headmaster decides to replace him with Bert, whose unorthodox style proves a hit with the pupils and Winky. | ||||||
5 | "Episode Five" | Ben Palmer | Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Jonny Sweet | Under 349,000 | 19 September 2013 | |
Cecil is dismayed when George decides to throw a dinner party and invites a local woman rumoured to have leprosy. When she fails to turn up for the occasion he has a change of heart and becomes determined to befriend her. | ||||||
6 | "Episode Six" | Ben Palmer | Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Jonny Sweet | Under 350,000 | 26 September 2013 | |
The trio finally have more men to talk to when the soldiers return to Rittle-on-Sea on leave. Cecil is having trouble reconnecting with his old chums, Bert's sticky-fingered antics come back to bite him and George regrets giving advice to a private who wants to become a conscientious objector |
Blackadder is a series of four period British sitcoms, plus several one-off instalments, which originally aired on BBC1 from 1983 to 1989. All television episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as the antihero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick. Each series was set in a different historical period, with the two protagonists accompanied by different characters, though several reappear in one series or another, e.g., Melchett, Lord Percy Percy / Captain Darling and George.
A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television.
Matthew Keith Hall, known professionally as Harry Hill, is an English comedian, presenter and writer. He pursued a career in stand-up following years working as a medical doctor, developing an offbeat, energetic performance style that fused elements of surrealism, observational comedy, slapstick, satire and music. When performing, he usually wears browline glasses and a dress shirt with a distinctive oversized collar and cuffs.
The Young Ones is a British sitcom written by Rik Mayall, Ben Elton, and Lise Mayer, starring Adrian Edmondson, Mayall, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan, and Alexei Sayle, and broadcast on BBC Two for two series, first shown in 1982 and 1984. The show focused on the lives of four dissimilar students and their landlord's family on different plots that often included anarchic, offbeat, surreal humour. The show often included slapstick gags, visual humour and surreal jokes sometimes acted out by puppets, with each episode also featuring a notable selection of guest stars and musical numbers from various performers.
Black Books is a British sitcom created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan, and written by Moran, Kevin Cecil, Andy Riley, Linehan and Arthur Mathews. It was broadcast on Channel 4, running for three series from 2000 to 2004. Starring Dylan Moran as Bernard Black, Bill Bailey as Manny Bianco, and Tamsin Greig as Fran Katzenjammer, the series is set in the eponymous London bookshop and follows the lives of its owner, his assistant, and their friend. The series was produced by Big Talk Productions, in association with Channel 4.
Peter Szymon Serafinowicz is an English actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. His film roles include the voice of Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), Pete in Shaun of the Dead (2004), Garthan Saal in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), the voice of Big Daddy in Sing (2016) and Sing 2 (2021), and The Sommelier in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017).
Mackenzie Crook is an English actor, director and writer. He played Gareth Keenan in The Office, Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Orell in the HBO series Game of Thrones, and the title role of Worzel Gummidge. He is also the creator and star of BBC Four's Detectorists (2014–2022), for which he won two BAFTA awards. He also plays major roles in TV series Britannia, as the opposite leading druids Veran and Harka.
Comedy Central is a British pay television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated. This channel is specific to audiences within the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is aligned with the original US version of the channel. The channel started as The Paramount Channel in 1995, before rebranding as the Paramount Comedy Channel in 1997 and again as Paramount Comedy 1 in 2004 before finally becoming Comedy Central on 6 April 2009.
Oh, Doctor Beeching! is a BBC television sitcom, written by David Croft and Richard Spendlove, and produced for the BBC. After a pilot for the programme was broadcast in August 1995, full production was green-lighted, with the sitcom running for two series from 8 July 1996 to 28 September 1997. The series focuses on the lives of the staff who run the fictional station of Hatley on a rural branch line who find themselves looking for the means to keep their station open in the wake of news that Dr. Richard Beeching has promoted plans for the closing of many branch lines and their respective stations.
Galaxy was a short-lived British satellite television channel, owned and operated by British Satellite Broadcasting.
The IT Crowd is a British television sitcom originally broadcast by Channel 4, created, written and directed by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla and starring Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, and Matt Berry. Set in the offices of the fictional Reynholm Industries in London, the series revolves around the staff of its IT department: technical genius Maurice Moss (Ayoade); work-shy Roy Trenneman (O'Dowd); and Jen Barber (Parkinson), the department head/relationship manager who knows nothing about IT. The show also focuses on the bosses of Reynholm Industries: Denholm Reynholm and, later, his son Douglas. Goth IT technician Richmond Avenal, who resides in the server room, also appears in several episodes.
Sharon Lorencia Horgan is an Irish actress, writer, director, producer, and comedian. She is best known for creating and starring in the comedy series Pulling (2006–2009), Catastrophe (2015–2019), and Bad Sisters (2022–present). She also created the comedy series Divorce (2016–2019), Motherland (2016–2022), and Shining Vale (2022–2023).
The Inbetweeners is a British coming-of-age television teen sitcom, which originally aired on E4 from 2008 to 2010 and was created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris. The series follows the misadventures of suburban teenager William McKenzie and his friends Simon Cooper, Neil Sutherland and Jay Cartwright at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive. The programme involves situations of school life, uncaring school staff, friendship, male bonding, lad culture and adolescent sexuality. Despite receiving an initially lukewarm reception, it has been described as a classic and amongst the most successful British sitcoms of the 21st century.
Simon Antony Bird is an English comedian, actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Will McKenzie in the multi-award-winning E4 comedy series The Inbetweeners (2008–2010), as well as its two films, and Adam Goodman in the Channel 4 comedy series Friday Night Dinner (2011–2020).
The Kevin Bishop Show is a sketch comedy written by and starring English comedian Kevin Bishop, part of the Star Stories team. The show was commissioned by Channel 4 for a six-part series starting on 25 July 2008 at 10 p.m. A pilot was broadcast on 23 November 2007 as part of Channel 4's Comedy Showcase and the programme soon earned interest for its incredibly fast pace; 42 sketches were shown in 23 minutes. The show was nominated for Best New Comedy at the 2008 British Comedy Awards. The show started its second series on Friday 31 July 2009 at 10 p.m. on Channel 4.
Dad's Army is a British television sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, and originally broadcast on BBC1 from 31 July 1968 to 13 November 1977. It ran for nine series and 80 episodes in total; a feature film released in 1971, a stage show and a radio version based on the television scripts were also produced. The series regularly gained audiences of 18 million viewers and is still shown internationally.
The Village is a BBC television series written by Peter Moffat. The drama is set in a Derbyshire village in the early 20th century. The first series of what Moffat hoped would become a 42-hour televised drama following an extended family through the 20th century, was broadcast in spring 2013 and covered the years 1914 to 1920. A second series was broadcast in autumn 2014, and continued the story into the 1920s. The programme did not return after the second series.
Uncle is a British sitcom written and directed by Oliver Refson and Lilah Vandenburgh. Originally broadcast between 2014 and 2017, it stars Nick Helm, Daisy Haggard, Elliot Speller-Gillott and Sydney Rae White, and features original songs by Helm.
The Optimist is a British television comedy series starring Enn Reitel and produced by Robert Sidaway. Each episode tells a separate comic adventure in the life of an everyday man who, whether it turns out a success or a failure, always remains optimistic. The stories made a feature of fantasy and dream sequences.
Year of the Rabbit is a British television sitcom, created by Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley, that began broadcasting on Channel 4 on 10 June 2019.