Cows
For some years, TV companies had been trying to persuade Eddie Izzard to do a show on television. For some years Eddie refused until, almost as a dare, he proposed a show where all the characters were cows.
Yep, cows.
We couldn’t resist the chance to make the show, and although the results ended up a little mixed, we had the most fun in the world creating the cow costumes, building them up out of foam and paint and then swathing some of the UK’s top comic actors - Pam Ferris, James Fleet, Kevin Eldon - in layers of identity-hiding latex...
The cow costumes took so long to get on that the actors had to get started at about six in the morning, and weren’t allowed to “leave” until the wrap. Drinks had to be taken through straws, faces had to be cooled by attendants clutching fans and only one change of hooves was allowed a day. To cap it all, we discovered once we were on location that the head mics didn’t work as well as we’d hoped, so we had to redub all the voices afterwards.
Having said that, rehearsing with Eddie and the cast was a joy and the best part of all was that the cow-mobile - a specially painted black & white Citroen - had to be made roadworthy and licensed, so Pozzitive actually got to keep it after the shoot. Eventually, no-one had the guts to drive it around town, so we quietly sold it off.
The show was transmitted on New Year’s Day 1997 and was a co-production with Eddie’s production company, Ella Communications. It was co-written by Eddie and a great writer called Nick Whitby.
Cows
Meet the Johnsons - Boo and Thor, and their children, Rex, Shirley and Toby. A perfectly ordinary happy-go-lucky family, who just happen to be cows. In this special opening episode of Eddie Izzard's sitcom, Rex wants to get married to someone he met in a pub, and a treasured elderly relative explodes ...
Starring | |
Boo Johnson | Pam Ferris |
Thor Johnson | James Fleet |
Great Aunt Grace | Patrick Barlow |
Rex Johnson | Jonathan Cake |
Toby Johnson | Kevin Eldon |
Shirley Johnson | Nicola Walker |
Pinky | Sally Phillips |
Fetch | Iain Mitchell |
Mr Pinky | Geoffrey Leesley |
Mrs Pinky | Caroline Holdaway |
Vicar | Adrian Scarborough |
Cook | Deddie Davies |
Young Politician | Gregor Truter |
Party Chairman | Bernard Gallagher |
Gardener | Richard Turner |
Theatre Director | Neil McCaul |
Theatre Manager | Phil Nice |
The Pantomine Cow | Eddie Izzard |
Written by | Eddie Izzard |
Nick Whitby | |
Casting | |
Directed by | Geoff Posner |
Produced by | David Tyler |
Geoff Posner |
Cows
Here's Eddie's own website. Glorious
and his blurb on his agent's website
and here's a jolly nice article by James Rampton of The Independent...
And here's a link to find out more about Cows co-writer, Nick Whitby