The Strangerers is a British television comedy-drama science fiction series written by Rob Grant (best known as co-creator of Red Dwarf) and was broadcast on Sky One between 15 February and 11 April 2000.
A single series was made with a total of nine episodes (the first being one hour in length and the rest 30 minutes each). The show ended on a cliffhanger but despite this it ended up being cancelled and a second series was never produced. It has not been released on DVD, nor repeated since its original run.
Plot
The story centres around two alien agents, Cadet Flynn and Pseudo-Cadet Niven. They are incredibly advanced and evolved vegetables on a fact finding mission to Earth, where they take on human form. Their supervisor is accidentally decapitated shortly after arrival, leaving the cadets to fend for themselves. Through the course of the series the aliens discover the intricacies of basic needs, like the eating ritual, the sleeping ritual and how to purchase things, usually doing so in their own idiosyncratic manner.
Their exact whereabouts on Earth is something of a mystery. The society in which they find themselves bears some resemblance to both Britain and America, and there are hints that a totalitarian government is in charge. There are also street gangs parodying those in A Clockwork Orange. Two agents and their apparently psychopathic commander try to capture the aliens. The aliens repeatedly escape, but not without suffering occasional injuries themselves.
Cast
- Mark Williams as Cadet Flynn
- Jack Docherty as Cadet Niven
- Sarah Alexander as Rina
- Mark Heap as Harry
- Milton Jones as The Supervisor
- Morwenna Banks as The Super-Supervisor
- Paul Darrow as C.D.
- David Walliams as Rats
- John Sparkes as Bilbo
- Doon Mackichan as Galdriel
- Meera Syal as Volunteer
- Kulvinder Ghir as Keith
- Mike Hayley as Irius Mann
Episodes
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Viewers (millions) [1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Space Cadets" | Liddy Oldroyd | Rob Grant | 15 February 2000 | 0.73 |
| 2 | "Vegetables" | Liddy Oldroyd | Rob Grant | 22 February 2000 | N/A (<0.68)[a] |
| 3 | "Crunchy Munchy" | Liddy Oldroyd | Rob Grant | 29 February 2000 | N/A (<0.63)[a] |
| 4 | "Fargle" | Liddy Oldroyd | Rob Grant | 7 March 2000 | N/A (<0.74)[a] |
| 5 | "Zap Type 'Z'" | Nick Wood | Rob Grant | 14 March 2000 | N/A (<0.69)[a] |
| 6 | "Angels" | Nick Wood | Rob Grant | 21 March 2000 | N/A (<0.64)[a] |
| 7 | "The Streets of Laredo" | Nick Wood | Rob Grant | 28 March 2000 | N/A (<0.65)[a] |
| 8 | "Eyepoppers" | Nick Wood | Rob Grant | 4 April 2000 | N/A (<0.63)[a] |
| 9 | "The Getawaying" | Nick Wood | Rob Grant | 11 April 2000 | N/A (<0.68)[a] |
See also
References
- ^ "Weekly top 30 programmes on TV sets (July 1998 – Sept 2018)". BARB. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
External links
- The Strangerers at IMDb
- Episode 1 on YouTube
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