Sooty & Co. Sooty & Co. Sooty & Co. is a British children's television series that was produced for six series by Granada Television, that aired on ITV from 6 September 1993 to 14 December 1998. The series centres on Matthew Corbett, and puppets Sooty, Sweep, Soo and Little Cousin Scampi, as they try to run a bric a brac shop in Manchester. Matthew Corbett runs a shop in Manchester, with puppets Sooty (a yellow bear that can perform magic), Sweep (a squeaking dog), Soo (a female panda), and Little Cousin Scampi (another, if smaller, bear). Sooty and the gang are often getting
Sooty was bought by rival company Hit Entertainment, giving them the rights to Sooty. The property suffered from cutbacks under Hit Entertainment's ownership, with many of the puppeteers and Soo's voice actor Brenda Longman leaving. Sooty was cancelled in 2004 due to this, making 2005 the first year where no new Sooty series was shown. In October 2007, Hit Entertainment put the rights to Sooty up for sale and in June 2008 it was announced that Richard Cadell had bought the rights. Plans for three new TV shows were under way, plus a reworking of one of Matthew Corbett's stage shows.