| Snug and Cozi | |
|---|---|
| Starring | Richard Vobes Nigel Cooper Sara Montgomery |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 16 |
| Production company(s) | STV Productions (Scottish Television) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV Network (CITV) |
| Original run | 1996 – 1997 |
Snug and Cozi was a children's ITV slapstick comedy series about 2 aliens who had crash landed on earth by mistake and met a new friend called Emily.
Contents |
Snug and Cozi are two aliens, from the planet Squadge. After an asteroid hits their pink spaceship, they crash on earth and are stranded, they become friends with a girl named Emily who decides to look after them and hide them in her dad's garden shed (Later a summer house in series 2) away from other people. Snug and Cozi do not speak English they speak their own language called Squidge, which is just talking gibberish with the odd one or two English words. Each episode features Snug and Cozi trying to do an everyday task, having an adventure or going outside with Emily and failing hilariously or causing chaos in a slapstick way, such as running a bath, going to the seaside or stopping a burglar from stealing from someones house.
Richard Vobes got the idea for the show on the way to a gig (He used to be a corporate entertainer) after seeing a furniture shops called 'Snug and Cosy.' This gave Richard an idea and he invented the two spacemen.
Richard, Nigel and a few friends independently made the pilot episode in 1994 on the budget of around £4,000, the show was originally called 'Snug and Cosy' but changed to 'Snug and Cozi' for the TV series. The pilot shown them taking off in their pink spaceship and how they crashed landed on earth (after being hit by a large asteroid) into a furniture shop called 'Snug and Cosy' and adopted those names to sound more human and blend in (Not realising how daft those names sound) they then come across an allotment and live inside one of the sheds believing it to be a holiday home. The pilot was filmed on 16mm film and then sent to various television companies, Scottish Television brought the rights to the show and started production in 1996.
The opening titles to the TV series include clips from the original pilot in the opening titles, the full pilot was never broadcast on TV.
The TV series started production in 1996, some changes were made to the show, firstly the title was changed to 'Snug and Cozi'. The opening sequence to the show explained the story of how they came about on earth, the story had been altered slightly from the pilot episode to it explaining they had crash landed on earth from when the asteroid hit their spaceship and were discovered by a 10 year old girl called Emily and she takes them into her care and hides them in her dads garden shed.
The TV series featured the two aliens, going out to places with Emily or trying to do an everyday task and causing trouble and failing in hilarious ways in a slapstick style (Richard imagined Snug and Cozi as like Laurel and Hardy but in spacesuits).
The shows creator Richard Vobes was never entirely happy with the TV series as he was not allowed to direct it, and therefor was not allowed to do a lot of the slapstick stunts wrote in the scripts, a lot of the stunts were faked or never done, Richard said in a recent interview the only stunt they were allowed to do was riding a bed down a hill and into a carwash (In the episode 'A New Home').
Snug Played by Richard Vobes
Snug wears a yellow and silver spacesuit. Snug seems slightly more dim witted than Cozi, often getting things completely wrong and getting shouted at and pushed over by Cozi.
Cozi played by Nigel Cooper
Cozi wears a red and silver spacesuit and he looks very similar to snug except he has a mustache. Cozi seems slightly more brighter than Snug but still occasionally gets things wrong.
Emily Played by Sara Montgomery
Emily is a 10 year old girl who discovers Snug and Cozi after they had crashed on earth, she decided to look after them and keeping them away from other people by hiding them in her father's garden shed (series 1) or their summerhouse (series 2). Emily also takes Snug and Cozi on trips with her, such as the seaside or her schools sports day.
The show was popular at the time having high ratings apparently having a 50% audience share on CITV. It is not widely remembered now but Richard Vobes does upload episodes of Snug and Cozi to Youtube for fans of the show to watch. He also created a Snug and Cozi page on his vobes radio website recently.
The show had 2 series and 16 episodes before being axed by Scottish Television in 1997. A 3rd series was planned but the show got axed before production could begin.
Snug and Cozi made appearances on many other CITV programmes, such as Wow in 1996, Scratchy & Co. in 1997 and Timmy Towers in 1998.
In 1998, Snug and Cozi appeared in a pantomime of Cinderella at the Doncaster Civic Theatre. Their role were Brokers Men. No one in the audience could really the understand Squidge so Snug and Cozi ate dictionary's and suddenly were able to speak English.
Snug and Cozi also did a Pink Caravan tour, where they did shows around Britain in their pink caravan. However, there were not many gigs, and on one of the shows, the Rocket Car they used set on fire, and the fire brigade had to come and put the fire out.
The show has never been released on VHS or DVD. A Snug and Cozi CD was also released called 'Pink Heads' in 1997. To promote the CD Snug and Cozi traveled to london to give the Prime Minister a copy of the CD.
Richard Vobes is currently writing a series of Snug and Cozi children's books. For further information see http://www.vobes.com.
Snug and Cozi was recently included in a book called 'The Legends of Kids TV' (see http://www.legendsofkidstv.co.uk) written by Garry Vaux, where Richard talked about his time on the show.
Unbroadcast pilot (1994)
| # | Title | Original Airdate | # episode |
|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | "Snug and cosy" | N/A | N/A |
| The Two aliens crash land on earth by accident after an asteroid hits their spaceship, they decide to adopt more Earth sounding names from a shop. 'Snug and cozy' (not realising how daft they sound) and taking over a mans potting shed, thinking it's a holiday home. | |||
Series 1 (1996)
| # | Title | Original Airdate | # episode |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The yellow dragon" | 1996 | 1 |
| Snug and Cozi unpack various items from their rocket ship. Snug discovers a remote control unit and manages to control Cozi. Unfortunately, Cozi stumbles into a yellow JCB in the garden next door and the two aliens think it is a horrible monster! | |||
| 2 | "The haunted house" | 1996 | 2 |
| When Snug and Cozi's football is accidentally kicked to an old derelict house they are forced to retrieve it. The house is no ordinary house and contains many ghosts and strange happenings! | |||
| 3 | "Bike Ride" | 1996 | 3 |
| Snug and Cozi run out of breakfast cereal and decide to buy some from the local supermarket. They set off on their bike - a tandem. The local bobby investigates they mischief making! | |||
| 4 | "Helping hand" | 1996 | 4 |
| Snug and Cozi discover a burglar in their friends house and try to stop his stealing. The house becomes an adventure playground and a dreadful mess ensues. | |||
| 5 | "Educated aliens" | 1996 | 5 |
| Snug and Cozi visit Emily's school for the day. They try their hand at maths and make paper airplanes. The sports playing field is another disaster and becomes the battle field for a mud pie fight! | |||
| 6 | "Splash" | 1996 | 6 |
| Emily take Snug and Cozi to the local swimming baths. Exactly which changing rooms do aliens change in? A fire hose, a life guard and a large pool of water are ingredients for fun and mayhem where Snug and Cozi are concerned! | |||
Series 2 (1997)
| # | Title | Original Airdate | # episode |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | "A new home" | 1997 | 1 |
| Snug and Cozi hide in the removal van to Emily's new house. They too discover a garden summer house and move in there. Snug shows Cozi just how much you can pack into a small suitcase. | |||
| 8 | "Feeling parky" | 1997 | 2 |
| Cozi decides to mock illness and paints spots onto his face. Snug realises the only way to get him better is a stroll through the park. The Park Keeper disagrees! | |||
| 9 | "Bath time" | 1997 | 3 |
| Cozi thinks it is high time he had a bath and send Snug out to fetch the water. Snug brings in tap and forcet and manages to fill the room with bubbles. Cozi disappears down the plug hole and Snug wonders how best to rescue him! | |||
| 10 | "Pink letter day" | 1997 | 4 |
| Cozi is writing a letter home to his parents. Snug tells him that they cannot use the normal postal system, instead they need to get the letter high into the air. More chaos! | |||
| 11 | "Magic moments" | 1997 | 5 |
| Snug and Cozi visit a magic show in the local village hall. The magician asks for a volenteer. Guess who goes up on stage to help! | |||
| 12 | "Beside the sea" | 1997 | 6 |
| Emily takes Snug and Cozi to the seaside. It is raining, but they make the best of it, watching a Punch and Judy show and taking over and building the biggest sand castle in the world! | |||
| 13 | "A slight trim" | 1997 | 7 |
| Cozi's mustache grows enormous one day and Snug has to take him to the barber's shop for a trim. The barber is soon put out of action and Snug takes over! | |||
| 14 | "Sports day" | 1997 | 8 |
| Snug and Cozi return to Emily's school for the sports day festivities. They take part in the three legged race and egg and spoon race. The Head Teacher throws them out, but they return for their revenge! | |||
| 15 | "Birthday party" | 1997 | 9 |
| It is Emily's birthday and Snug and Cozi decide to bake her a superb cake. Trouble is, they mistake dynamite sticks for candles and the party explodes into a right mess! | |||
| 16 | "Going home" | 1997 | 10 |
| Cozi pines about his home planet. Snug builds Cozi a one man space rocket. It launches okay, but doesn't hold together very well in the air! Cozi lands earth bound rather hard! | |||