Snooze is an episode of the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 television series The Goodies

The Goodies (TV series)

The Goodies is a British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s. The series, which combines surreal sketches and situation comedy, was broadcast by BBC 2 from 1970 until 1980 — and was then broadcast by the ITV company LWT for a year, between 1981 to 1982.The show was...

— a BAFTA

British Academy of Film and Television Arts

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...

-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.

As always, the episode was written by members of The Goodies.

Plot

It is morning, and Graeme's intricate alarm system goes off. Graeme and Tim wake from sleep, but Bill is already awake, having been awake all night. Bill mentions that he never sleeps, commenting that he is afraid to go to sleep because he goes sleepwalking

Sleepwalking

Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, is a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. Sleepwalkers arise from the slow wave sleep stage in a state of low consciousness and perform activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness...

 whenever he sleeps.

Rupert Windcheater arrives and asks the Goodies to help with his company's excellent bedtime drink called "Venom". For some reason, good though it is, it just isn't selling. Graeme vouches for it, saying that "Venom" always gives him a good night's sleep. Tim suggests that the name should be changed. Various names are suggested, but none are accepted until Bill thinks of "Snooze

Sleep

Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, and is more easily reversible than...

". Everyone is delighted with this, including Rupert Windcheater, who feels that the product, with such a name, should now sell.

Graeme decides to upgrade the formula, calling it new improved snooze, with disastrous results. Graeme persuades Bill to have some of the improved Snooze to help him sleep, despite Bill's protests. As a result of Graeme's upgrade of the mixture, Bill sleeps for three weeks, and then goes sleepwalking (unbeknown to Tim and Graeme, who are discussing the terrible consequences of the formula). Tim must chase Bill as he sleepwalks, Graeme then finishes the antidote and plans to test it by drinking some of the new improved snooze but falls asleep before being able to drink the formula. Tim, who is still chasing Bill, catches up with him. However, when Tim gets Bill to go the way he wants, he notices Graeme sleepwalking. Tim manages to get back to the van where he makes Bill and Graeme push the van back to the office. Pushing the door down as they do so, Bill and Graeme enter the office. Tim then gives them the antidote and they wake up, they check the news, but the news reader has fallen asleep on his desk. Graeme says that the effect will be lessened if they add the antidote to every reservoir in the country.

The Goodies take a barrel of Graeme's antidote down to a creek, to put a teaspoon of formula into the creek (with the intention of taking the remainder to all other waterways in Britain). While Graeme is carefully filling his teaspoon with the antidote, the barrel suddenly rolls down the bank into the creek, spilling out all the contents. Tim demands to know what will happen because of the unintentional spillage, and Graeme tells him that the effect would be to speed up metabolism

Metabolism

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories...

, as well as speeding up the people themselves. Tim and Bill ask how much things will speed up, and are horrified when Graeme tells them that people's metabolism could be increased a hundredfold.

Life takes on a surreal effect as the whole of Britain reacts to the effects of the spillage — a cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 Test Match

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

 between England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 takes only minutes to play, instead of days; a Royal car goes by very rapidly, carrying the Queen

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

; and the British Prime Minister

Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

 sounds like a cartoon

Cartoon

A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...

 chipmunk

Chipmunk

Chipmunks are small striped squirrels native to North America and Asia. They are usually classed either as a single genus with three subgenera, or as three genera.-Etymology and taxonomy:...

 as he rushes through his speech in Parliament

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

. The sleeping newsreader wakes up and takes a sip of water — followed by more sips — and, getting faster and faster with his speech, he finally jumps up and pounds his chest with his fists (like King Kong

King Kong

King Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...

), before rushing off.

Rupert Windcheater arrives in a furious mood. His company has been forced to part with the entire quantity of Snooze free-of-charge, to counteract Graeme's antidote. He intends to take out his anger on the Goodies — but, after drinking some of the antidote, they can run faster than he can.

Quotes

Quote 1

• Graeme: "Every night, as soon as I've brushed my toothypegs, put on my piggy-jimjams, I say 'I'm going to sleepy bo-bos', everybody does!"

Quote 2

• Rupert Windcheater: "...and believe me, the Prime Minister at ten times his normal speed is not funny!"
• Bill: "Oh, come on — he must be!"