Cool It (TV series)

Did You Know?

• A final Cool It special aired on 18 December 1990, filmed in front of a live audience in Birmingham.
• Two VHS releases were made: a best-of compilation of Series 1 in 1985, and "Cool It Too" for Series 2.
• Cool later moved to ITV with the shows "Cool Head" (1991) and "Phil Cool" (1992).

Series 1

The first series consisted of three 25-minute episodes broadcast between 30 August and 13 September 1985 on Fridays at 10pm. Cool wrote all the material himself, and the show was produced on a shoestring budget with few props and a basic set. Jasper Carrott served as associate producer. Highlights included impersonating the entire cast of The Young Ones, Prince Charles interviewing Mick Jagger, the Pope ordering fish and chips, and Quasimodo singing "The Bellringer's Blues". The opening titles featured an animated version of Cool's head pulling faces against a light-blue background.

Series 2

The second series of five 30-minute episodes aired between 24 November and 22 December 1986 on Mondays at 9pm. Cool co-wrote this series with Jasper Carrott, and it won the Royal Television Society Award for "Most Original Television Achievement". The set and audience were larger, with more props and pre-recorded video inserts. A comedy album titled "Not Just a Pretty Face" and a single of Cool as Rolf Harris singing "Bridge Over Troubled Water" were released through Virgin Records, along with a tie-in book called "Cool's Out". Highlights included Rolf Harris painting the audience and Terry Wogan portrayed as an intergalactic alien. The opening titles showed five animated versions of Cool jumping to harmonica music, followed by a spinning head that exploded to reveal cogs.

Series 3

The third series of Cool It aired as six half-hour episodes on Thursdays at 9pm from 1 September to 6 October 1988. Keith Donnelly, Paul Alexander, and Barry Faulkner joined Cool as writers. Sketches included impressions of ventriloquist dummies, a Four Tops parody called "The Four Bottom's" singing "Mooning," and a Japanese-language rendition of Elvis Presley's "Are You Lonesome Tonight." The opening sequence showed Cool relaxing in front of a TV when the Series 2 titles unexpectedly appeared. After repeatedly failing to change the channel with his remote, he grew frustrated and made faces. He then pressed a red button on the remote, triggering a large swinging ball that destroyed the TV screen.