Pets was a British puppet adult sitcom. It was produced by Fit2Fill Productions Limited. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK, the first series being broadcast in 2001, and the second being broadcast in 2002. It was also sold to Fox in Australia and MTV in Italy, as well as being broadcast in the Middle East.

The series was created and written by Andrew Barclay and Brian West, who had previously worked together at the Edinburgh Festival, winning an award for an advert for the Jerry Springer Show, and on the sketch show We Know Where You Live. Brian West (AKA Brian Luff ) now produces a brand new cult puppet show called Fluffy TV which has had over 100,000 downloads on Apple iTunes.

In total there were 26 episodes of Pets, all around 11 minutes long. They were shown in the early hours of the morning, as a result it was fairly unknown, but it did gain a significant cult following. There was a demand on the programme's official website to get the programme out on DVD. Eventually a limited edition DVD was made available, but only via the official website. As well as the two series, the DVD included two unbroadcast programmes, a 'clip show'- The Trials Of Hamish, and a 'behind-the-scenes The Making Of Pets.

Situation

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The programme concerns the everyday lives of four household pets who live in a filthy, rundown house, although it has working electricity and running water. There is never a human owner visible or even evident, which suggests that Pets takes place in an anthropomorphic universe. The animals certainly behave like humans in that they stand up on their hind legs, watch and talk about television (once even entering a TV programme Stars In Their Eyes). They also refer to human historical events and talk of interacting with humans without ever making a reference to the fact that they are human.

Essentially, the situation Pets is similar to many flatmate situation comedys such as Friends, the twist being that all the characters are animals. The episodes are all self-contained, taking place entirely within their house.

The events of the episodes tend to be very bizarre, and follow a theme. There have been a lot of supernatural occurrences in the Pets household, such as appearances by Archangels, poltergeists and aliens.

Pets follows a rather traditional sitcom technique in the "restart button". The Pets have all died at least once only to reappear alive and well the next episode. Events from previous episodes are never referred to, but unseen events from the past are referred to in many episodes.

Characters

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Hamish (Ian Angus Wilkie) is a red setter dog. He is well spoken and something of a pseudointellectual. He seems well-read on a lot of subjects, but doesn't actually know much about them. He is frequently uptight and has a short temper. He often longs to be in more intelligent, cultured company than the pets household. Perhaps because of all this the others often gang up on him to play a prank on him or leave him out of social occasions.

Trevor (Andrew Barclay - actor) is a small, grey bulldog. Trevor has few ambitions and spends most of his time masturbating. He has a large collection of hardcore pornography and is often seen humping items of furniture. He drinks out of the toilet with a curly straw. Trevor actually seems very intelligent, but is prone to doing strange things to fend off boredom. He loves sandwiches. He has no sense of hygine and has had the same tapeworms in his stomach since the late '70s. The worms often reminise about subjects such as ABBA and the Kennedy assassination.

Davina (Sally Elsden) is a persian blue cat. She suffers from clinical depression and is addicted to her medication. She has a large collection of bloodstained plastic binbags which seem to be containing some kind of furry animal. She puts these bags under the floorboards or tries to flush them down the toilet. She has a boyfriend named Vince who sends her messages from a far away part of the world along with excuses as to why he hasn't returned, while she thinks of how she'll get revenge on him when he does return.

JP (Petros Emmanuel) is a parrot. He has no feathers, having lost them all to Trevor in a card game (he bet his entire plumage on a pair of fours). He also can't fly. He has two different coloured eyes. He has a pet himself, a goldfish who has obviously been dead for a long time, although JP doesn't seem to realise this. JP appears to live in a fantasy world of his own and often rambles on about a wide range of subjects. He speaks with an Afrikaans accent. He likes to drink his own urine, a fact which he says in almost every episode.

Episode list

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Series 1

1) Christmas

2) Pregnant

3) Pleasure

4) American Beauty

5) On Hold

6) Consider Yourself

7) The Miracle

8) Conspiracy Theory

9) Constipation

10) Death

11) Halloween

12) Hostage

13) Money

Series 2

1) Drugs

2) Robot Wars

3) Presumed Very Guilty

4) Talent

5) Star Gate

6) Manumission Impossible

7) Possessed

8) Reincarnation

9) World War II In Colour

10) Curse Of The Mummy

11) Mexican

12) Satan

13) Business

External links

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Official site: http://www.petscomedy.com

Fit2Fill Productions Limited: http://www.fit2fill.co.uk

Comedy People Limited: http://www.comedypeople.biz/introduction.htm

British television sitcoms | Channel 4 television programmes