Cowards

Cowards
Medium	Television, theatre, radio
Nationality	British
Years active	2004-2009
Genres	Sketch comedy
Notable works and roles	Cowards (radio series) Cowards (television series)
Members	Tom Basden Stefan Golaszewski Tim Key Lloyd Woolf
Former members	Rick Edwards Alex Horne Mark Watson

Cowards are a British four-man comedy act, composed of Tim Key, Stefan Golaszewski, Tom Basden and Lloyd Woolf. The group has created eponymous radio and TV series of their sketch comedy.

The Cowards met at Cambridge University's Footlights Dramatic Club where they worked together. Basden, Golaszewski, and Woolf performed in a show directed by Key and Mark Watson. It later emerged that Key was not studying at Cambridge University and that he had misled the society when auditioning. This was discovered when he got into the tour show Far Too Happy but the Footlights agreed to "keep up the charade" until the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In Far Too Happy, Key performed alongside Mark Watson and Sophie Winkleman and they were nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. Key later described the period as "life-changing".

Basden, Golaszewski, Key, and Woolf moved to London and started working together as Cowards. Cowards initially involved Rick Edwards, Alex Horne, and Mark Watson but they agreed that the group would not work as they had different styles. Cowards began working as a four-piece group in October 2004, writing and performing new material each month. In 2005 and 2006, they had sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, performing at the Pleasance.

The group first appeared on radio with a BBC Radio 1 show called The Milk Monitors which incorporated some Cowards material. As a result of working on The Milk Monitors, they were asked to do a one-off special, which led to a Cowards series being commissioned. Their first radio series was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, beginning on 17 April 2007, and a second series was broadcast in autumn 2008. Each series contained five episodes. The show was well received, with the British Comedy Guide describing it as "very funny" - though also stating that it suffered from "some less amusing filler". Both series have since been released as CD Audiobooks by BBC Worldwide.

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