Coogan's Run
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Coogan's Run was a 1995 UK TV series featuring Steve Coogan 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 first episode, Get Calf, featured the already well known characters Paul Calf and his sister Pauline, both played by Coogan. It showed Paul getting into trouble with three criminal brothers after witnessing a bank robbery they perpetrated and being forced to identify them in court. He then joined a cult and retreated to their residence where he was lured into a porn film.
The second episode, Dearth of a Salesman, showed Coogan as the insensitive, egotistical computer chip salesman, Gareth Cheeseman. Gareth was similar to Coogan's most famous creation, Alan Partridge, both in appearance and through being self obsessed and very cocky despite seeming very faulty indeed. It showed Gareth attempting 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 appeared destined to land a big contract but fate intervened.
The third episode was set in 1960 and mostly shot in black and white for realism. It was called A Handyman For All Seasons and showed general repairman Ernest Moss (Coogan) attempt to stop a large new property development in his home village while making repairs to his fellow villagers' homes. The episode aso saw Coogan play the laddish Peter Calf, the father of Paul.
Episode four, Thursday Night Fever, saw Coogan play mediocre club entertainer Mike Crystal. Mike invented an alter-ego, Clint Stallone, when his career began to drop. The manager of his club, Clement (Graham Fellows), thought Clint was real, and got his nephew to photograph him in a compromising position with Mike's girlfriend, Debs. Mike made a mistake and ended up having to try and keep people away from the room he was fighting himself in.
The fifth episode Natural born Quizzers, saw Coogan share the lead role with Patrick Marber as the mad, trivia obsessive Crump brothers, Stewart and Guy. When the brothers lost a children's quiz show in 1975, they burned down the studio, killing their parents and one girl from the opposing team of sisters who emerged victorious. Twenty years later, the brother kidnapped their therapist and the surviving sister, Cathy (Rebecca Front) and made them re-enact the quiz on the roof of a car park with the transsexual quiz host, Jeremy (Angela) Monkhead. It ended with Stewart and Guy taking the trophy and then detonating a bomb.
The sixth and final edition of Coogan's Run The Curator, showed Coogan as Tim Fleck, the curator of a very dull museum. Tim was disgusted to find that his museum was being taken over to build a steak house upon the death of his mother. When his mother died, the work started and Tim became very agitated. Then, on the opening night, Tim acted with incredible violence, massacring diners and people who initiated the steak house plan.
