The Strangerers

The Strangerers
Title screen
Genre	Comedy drama Science fiction
Created by	Rob Grant
Written by	Rob Grant
Directed by	Liddy Oldroyd Nick Wood
Starring	Mark Williams Jack Docherty Sarah Alexander Mark Heap Milton Jones Morwenna Banks David Walliams Paul Darrow Doon Mackichan
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	9
Production
Camera setup	Single-camera setup
Running time	60 minutes (Episode 1) 30 minutes (Episodes 2–9)
Production companies	Absolutely Television Taken for Granted Productions Ltd.
Original release
Network	Sky One
Release	15 February (2000-02-15) – 11 April 2000 (2000-04-11)

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	"Space Cadets"	Liddy Oldroyd	Rob Grant	15 February 2000 (2000-02-15)	0.73
2	"Vegetables"	Liddy Oldroyd	Rob Grant	22 February 2000 (2000-02-22)	N/A (<0.68)
3	"Crunchy Munchy"	Liddy Oldroyd	Rob Grant	29 February 2000 (2000-02-29)	N/A (<0.63)
4	"Fargle"	Liddy Oldroyd	Rob Grant	7 March 2000 (2000-03-07)	N/A (<0.74)
5	"Zap Type 'Z'"	Nick Wood	Rob Grant	14 March 2000 (2000-03-14)	N/A (<0.69)
6	"Angels"	Nick Wood	Rob Grant	21 March 2000 (2000-03-21)	N/A (<0.64)
7	"The Streets of Laredo"	Nick Wood	Rob Grant	28 March 2000 (2000-03-28)	N/A (<0.65)
8	"Eyepoppers"	Nick Wood	Rob Grant	4 April 2000 (2000-04-04)	N/A (<0.63)
9	"The Getawaying"	Nick Wood	Rob Grant	11 April 2000 (2000-04-11)	N/A (<0.68)

See also

• 2000 in British television

External links

• The Strangerers at IMDb
• Episode 1 on YouTube