Sooty, also referred to as The Sooty Show, aired through 5th September 2011 and 1st December 2013 on the CITV channel, and 3rd September 2018 - 8th October 2018 on LittleBe. It was filmed largely at Richard Cadell's theme park in Somerset, Fun City in Brean Leisure Park, also the location of the feature-length direct-to-DVD special, The Big Day Out which also acted as a pilot for this series.
Series 1: 2011
The first thirteen episodes started airing on Mini CITV on Monday September 5th, 2011. The first thirteen episodes were then repeated. Episodes fourteen to twenty-six began airing on October 31st, 2011. This is the only season to be owned by Tivoli Media.
Scampi made an appearance in The Wedding.
A variety of celebrity guest stars included former presenter Matthew Corbett, Frank Bruno, Justin Lee Collins, Paul Daniels, Debbie McGee, Keith Chegwin, Ann Widdecombe, Ken Morley, Norman Barrett, Stacey Solomon, Brendan Cole, and Nicola Marie Bloor. Co-writers Wink Taylor and Alex Skerratt, as well as Richard's brother, David Cadell and Soo's voice artist, Brenda Longman, made a few uncredited cameo appearances.
Episodes
- The Wedding
- The Swimming Lesson
- The Great Race
- Squeaky Clean
- The Farm
- Poorly Soo
- The Souvenir Stall
- The Alarm System
- The Sports Day
- Sooty of the Seven Seas
- The Wendy House
- The Magic Show
- A Drive in the Country
- The Great Outdoors
- The Children's Party
- Down the Drain
- Chocco Chimp
- Who's a Clever Bird?
- Beach Patrol
- The New Poster
- Pizza to Go
- The Runaway Bath
- Run Rabbit Run
- The New Ride
- The Marching Band
- The Pop Concert
DVDs
Pizzagate
Magician Paul Daniels made the news when Sooty "supposedly injured him with a pizza" during filming for the episode, Pizza to Go. It was reported that the shot took two takes and, on the second, puppeteer Richard Cadell used too much force in throwing the pizza and some went into the magician's eye, resulting in him being taken to hospital. Paul Daniels recently announced, via Twitter, that the incident was blown out of proportion and that it only stung his eye momentarily and only popped into a countryside hospital on his way home to have some drops administered just to be on the safe side.
Afterwards, Daniels insisted they use the take in which he got injured and a spokesman said he was a "good sport".
John Shuttleworth told Digital Spy that he tried to persuade the production team to use something else such as a burger or hot-dog instead. He also suggested that they didn't cook the pizza so much.
Soo talked about the incident when she, Sooty, Sweep and John Shuttleworth appeared on the ITV daytime programme This Morning in October 2011. According to Soo, he rolled around for a little bit as it was painful and Soo said that he should have had his eyes checked out.
In November 2011, the situation was used in the "odd one out" round on the BBC1 panel show "Have I Got News for You", regarding people that have been injured by food.
The event was briefly mentioned by Richard on the 30 Years of CITV documentary in late 2012. He said that Paul Daniels was knocked out, contrary to what Paul Daniels had previously said about the incident being blown out of proportion. Richard goes on to say that there was a feeling on set that they had all gone too far and it was no longer funny.
Since then, the production crew has had to draw up risk assessments before stunts such as this should be achieved again.
Series 2: 2013
Series 2 started airing from Saturday September 7th, 2013. It consisted of twenty-six episodes. Filming began for the series in May 2013. This was the first season to be owned by Cadells Ltd.
Richard has promised that this series was going to be "bigger and better" than the first. Guest stars included Dave Benson Phillips, The Krankies, Brian Blessed, Shaun Williamson, Caroline Quentin, Stu Francis, Amy Childs, B*Witched, Richard Arnold, Maurice Thorogood (who directed The Big Day Out), Joe Pasquale, John Thomson, Peter Dickson, Christopher Pizzey, Jimmy Carlo, Catherine Marks, Martyn James, Richard Cadell's sister Helen Pearson, Christian Clark, Bobby Clark and Chloe Rudge. Wink Taylor will reprise his role as Dickie Blazer from The Big Day Out as well as playing some minor roles, all uncredited.
This series introduced two new writers, Aaron Price and Richard Gauntlett
Scampi appears once again in Disco Disco, making it Scampi's last appearance to date.
Episodes
- Fitness Funatic
- The New Building
- The Black Hand
- Sooty's Space Rocket
- Five Star Fish
- The Early Night
- The Genie
- Easter Time
- Sooty Takes Off
- The Fancy Dress Party
- April Foolishness
- The Inventions Game
- Balancing Act
- Cow Capers
- Rainy Day
- The Haunted House
- The Dance Competition
- Fireworks
- It's a Dog's Life
- Record Breakers
- Some Holiday
- Wacky Washing
- The Silent Movie
- Disco Disco
- Panto Palaver
- Pranks and Presents
Series 3: 2018
A third series of the show was announced by the official Twitter on 15th April 2018. Filming started in June with the episodes airing later on ITV Be's new three hour children's slot "Little Be" on September 3rd. The episodes are written by Richard Cadell, Alex Skerratt and Richard Gauntlett. Guest stars for this series include Lisa Riley, Faye Tozer, Peter Andre, John Challis, Rich Roberts, Danny Rogers and Bonnie Spencer.
Brian Sandford was unavailable during filming to be Sweep's puppeteer and voice (although he makes a brief return in the third episode) and Martin Rose also stepped down as a puppeteer. They were replaced by veteran puppeteer Ronnie Le Drew and Phil Fletcher. Wink Taylor also did not return to the series, but Mandy Glass returns, credited as a puppeteer on several episodes.
Episodes
Crealy Magic: 2022
To celebrate the opening of Sooty Land at Crealy Theme Park, a special episode was uploaded to Youtube.
Series 4: 2023
According to the Radio Times, a fourth series is due to be released later in 2023. According to an interview with Richard by British Comedy Guide, this season is going to be in a slightly different format. The setting is going to be different as Richard, Sooty, Sweep and Soo are not at Mr Slater's Holiday Park anymore, they're back in the house, like in the Matthew Corbett era from 1981-1992, with a bit of a twist. As of December 2024, this series is yet to be released.
Trivia
- When the production crew film the episodes during the holiday season as there are more holiday makers to appear as extras, they often do not reveal the comedy sequence they are about to act out, so that the extras' reactions are as genuine as possible. Because of this they have to often try and do the whole sequence in one take.
- The first season was owned by Tivoli Media, but from Season 2 onwards, the series is now owned by Cadells Ltd.
Gallery
