# Chickens (TV series)

Chickens is a British sitcom that was first broadcast on Channel 4 as a television pilot on 2 September 2011, as part of the channel's Comedy Showcase season of comedy pilots. It was then followed by a six-episode series that was commissioned on Sky 1 and broadcast between 22 August and 26 September 2013. The show is about three men who don't go off to fight in the First World War and consequently become social outcasts in their village. It was nominated for Best Comedy Programme at the 2014 Broadcast Awards.

## Cast and characters

* Simon Bird as Cecil: A young man who was rejected from the war due to his flat feet.
* Jonny Sweet as Bert: the dimwitted man of the trio of Chickens. Bert does tend to forget that the war is actually going on.
* Joe Thomas as George: a young man who refuses to participate in the war and in violence altogether.
* Sarah Daykin as Winky: George's fiancée
* Emerald Fennell as Agnes, Cecil's sister
* Louise Ford as Gracie
* Amy Dawson as Dot
* Vicki Pepperdine as Hesta
* Eileen Davies as Gladys
* Emma Fryer as Nellie
* Barry Humphries as Mr. Armstrong, the local headmaster
* Ellie Kendrick as Constance (episode 4)

## Pilot

The pilot episode was filmed partly on location in the village of Finchingfield in Essex, shooting exterior scenes in the square, the school and the church yard.

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Ratings | Original air date |
| 1 | "Episode One" | Ben Palmer | Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Jonny Sweet | 642,000 | 22 August 2013 (2013-08-22) |
| Three chaps who have stayed behind in a sleepy English village during the First World War earn themselves the reputation of being cowards among the local women. George is keen to avoid the conflict, Cecil is unable to fight for medical reasons - and Bert is simply too stupid to understand what's going on. ||||||
| 2 | "Episode Two" | Ben Palmer | Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Jonny Sweet | 381,000 | 29 August 2013 (2013-08-29) |
| News arrives that the first Rittle man has died in battle, so Bert - ever the opportunist - decides to make a move on his widow. Meanwhile, George faces a moral dilemma at work and finds himself engaging in a tense one-on-one with the Headmaster, and Cecil struggles to find a plumber to fix the cottage's brown water problem. ||||||
| 3 | "Episode Three" | Ben Palmer | Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Jonny Sweet | Under 397,000 | 5 September 2013 (2013-09-05) |
| A pretty girl called Penny asks Cecil to be her boyfriend, but the boys suspect she has an ulterior motive. Bert finds himself in need of alternative living arrangements after being thrown out of the cottage by George - but he appears to land on his feet when he settles into an extravagant abode that belongs to a serving soldier. ||||||
| 4 | "Episode Four" | Ben Palmer | Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Jonny Sweet | Under 414,000 | 12 September 2013 (2013-09-12) |
| Cecil confides in Constance about his fallen foot arches, but feels he is being systematically emasculated by a lack of male company, and sets out to assert his manhood. Meanwhile, George goes on strike over the decision to remove German from the school curriculum, so Headmaster decides to replace him with Bert, whose unorthodox style proves a hit with the pupils and Winky. ||||||
| 5 | "Episode Five" | Ben Palmer | Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Jonny Sweet | Under 349,000 | 19 September 2013 (2013-09-19) |
| Cecil is dismayed when George decides to throw a dinner party and invites a local woman rumoured to have leprosy. When she fails to turn up for the occasion he has a change of heart and becomes determined to befriend her. ||||||
| 6 | "Episode Six" | Ben Palmer | Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Jonny Sweet | Under 350,000 | 26 September 2013 (2013-09-26) |
| The trio finally have more men to talk to when the soldiers return to Rittle-on-Sea on leave. Cecil is having trouble reconnecting with his old chums, Bert's sticky-fingered antics come back to bite him and George regrets giving advice to a private who wants to become a conscientious objector ||||||