The Strangerers

Funnily enough I was only thinking about this series the other day! I think it was one of the funniest I ever saw. What made me laugh was the terminology used. "Sleeping cycle" for one.

As for learning to walk I must admit I nearly wet myself I was laughing so much. "You put one leg in front of the other and twist the body!" Classic humour at it's best. I have searched for it on odd occasions but it has always come up as a blank.

Although having said that, it took them 15 years or so to release Blake's 7 on VHS and it's taken them about another 20 to get it out on DVD!

The series has 9 episodes series 1 is the 1hour pilot the other are half an hour long.

The Strangerers land on Earth on a mission that only their supervisor knows, the supervisor get killed and they do not know their mission so they try to fit in.

Then you have got the DNE (bigger that the government) who want them. Couple of Crooks want their money and the Russian Mafia.

It is all hilarious violent funny over the top

The vehicles weren't all Russian. The big black limo is my 1968/73 Tatra 603-T2, built in Czechoslovakia in 1968 and rebuilt by Tatra in 1973.

Although broadcast in 4:3, the series was shot in wide-screen on Super-16 film stock.

Locations also include D.E.R.A., Byfleet, Surrey and a disused petrol station on the A40.

A piece of trivia:- Paul Darrow (C.D. Mann) and Gareth Thomas (the police captain) played Kerr Avon and Roj Blake respectively in Blake's 7 and no-one in the production team realised the connection until it was pointed out part way through shooting!

The Strangerers is best comedy I've seen in a long time. We saw the first episode and we were hooked. We made sure we were there to see the next episode.

An English production but seems to be set in the US during the 1950's.

The heroes are vegetables in human form who don't even know how to walk.

The program is a comedy / Sci-fi and is very very different and exceptionally well written.

I signed up to be a "cadet" and waited for a long time for the second series to be released. We were very disappointed that they never released them to DVD or made a second series.

My favorite scene is when they rent a sleazy hotel room and when they get in the elevator they think that's their room. Funniest thing I'd seen in forever.

I have FINALLY managed to get hold of this gem (but don't you dare make me tell you how) after not seeing it since it's first screening here on Sky One way back in 2000. I am pretty confident that this has never been repeated and has never been released on video or DVD.

It is a comedy sci-fi story about highly advanced (if apparently a little slow witted) vegetable based extra-terrestrial agents on a secret mission to Earth, written by Rob Grant (one half of Red Dwarf) Although it's British, it seems to be set in some kind of parallel 1950's USA. The actors all have English accents (apart from Docherty) the sets look vintage American and the vehicles are all Russian. Sounds crazy? It is also quite interesting because I think this is the only series other than Blake's 7 that Paul Darrow and Gareth Thomas have starred in. Paul is fantastically sinister as usual!

I would have difficulty comparing this to just about anything else out there, but it's basically a fun story with some fun characters and some good special effects for a TV show made 10 years ago. It has become a 'cult' classic mainly because it has not been on here for nearly 10 years and people have to search hard to find it, but also because of it's association to Red Dwarf. I would recommend anyone to check it out if you can - but to all those who give this bad reviews - it's a fantasy, so don't take it too seriously!