Alan Partridge creator Steve Coogan brought this short series to the BBC portraying six different people who all live in a (fictional) northern town called Ottle.
Apart from the well-known Manc duo Paul and Pauline Calf, Coogan played insensitive, egotistical computer hardware salesman Gareth Cheeseman (shades of David Brent) in ‘Dearth of a Salesman’, repairman Ernest Moss in ‘A Handyman For All Seasons’ (the stand-out episode, filmed entirely in black and white and set in the 1960s), mediocre club entertainer Mike Crystal (who invents an alter-ego, Clint Stallone, when his career begins to falter) in ‘Thursday Night Fever’, trivia-obsessive Guy Crump in ‘Natural Born Quizzers’, and Tim Fleck – the psychopathic curator of the very dull Little Ottle Museum – in ‘The Curator’.
The cast was augmented by regular Coogan collaborators like John Thomson, Patrick Marber and Rebecca Front, whilst guest characters were played by prominent actors like John Shrapnel, Alison Steadman, George Costigan, Adrian Scarborough, Oliver Ford Davies and John Shuttleworth creator Graham Fellows.
Although Coogan had a hand in writing all the episodes, he cannily surrounded himself with some of the most accomplished comedy writers on offer, with Henry Normal, Patrick Marber, Geoffrey Perkins, Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews all getting a slice of the action.
The Curator
Paul Calf/Pauline Calf/Peter Calf/Gareth Cheeseman/Ernest Moss/Mike Crystal (Clint Stallone)/Tim Fleck
Steve Coogan Robin Moss
John Thomson Inspector Lynch
Malcolm Raeburn Debs
Teresa Banham Councillor Hillary Crabbe
Adrian Scarborough PC Ted Cromwell
Philip Martin Brown Reverend Dowd
Derek Howard Alun Crown
Richard Lumsden Douglas Crown
John Shrapnel Stuart Crump
Patrick Marber Barry Parry
George Costigan Ian Parry
Adam Fogerty Dean Parry
Andrew Livingston Clement Woods
Graham Fellows Dr Phillips
Oliver Ford Davies Francis Burgoyne
Jack Klaff Ruth Cole
Georgia Mitchell Valerie Thorne
Louise Delamere Claire Briggs
Rebecca Front Florence Mullinger
Felicity Montagu Angela Monkhead
Duncan Preston Annette
Alison Steadman Fraser
Jim Carter Warren
Richard Claxton Post Office Barbara
Deddie Davies Gerald the Sumo Magician
Stephen Marcus
Episodes
Get Calf | Dearth of a Salesman | A Handyman For All Seasons |Thursday Night Fever | Natural Born Quizzers | The Curator
