"Whittaker!"

[meddow]

I've been watching The Catherine Tate Show lately. I've caught series one and two. I'd really only seen bits of it on youtube before now. I figured it needed investigating, 1. since half the comments about Catherine Tate I've read seem to start with the sentence "I can't stand The Catherine Tate Show…" (and either finish with the comment of "and she's going to ruin Doctor Who" if it's July 07 or the comment "but she was one of the best things to ever happen to Doctor Who" if it's July 08)

And 2. I am a huge Catherine Tate fangirl. I've seen every movie she's made now except for Mrs. Ratcliffe's Revolution which I probably will go see in August when it comes out here even with the 4.0 on imdb (Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 80% so it can't be that bad) so it was about time I watched The Catherine Tate Show.

Anyway, I don't understand the hate. It's not the greatest show ever, but then sketch comedies never are, and it is hilarious in places, particularly the Ginger Refuge and Enigmatic Cop, and ever the characters that initially come off as more annoying than funny like Paul and Sam managed to invoke some laughter from me by the end of the second series. Am I the only one who feels really sorry for poor Lauren Cooper? She's just so tragic. (Well, she never gets away with her behaviour and it seems to be rooted in her insecurities.)

In other DW related actor things, I also caught Bright Young Things which has, among others, David Tennant and Fellena Woolgar in it. Watching that I have decided that David Tennant should never ever ever again grow a moustache (just, no) and Fellena Woolgar should be cast in more things. She was the highlight of the movie and just wonderful. Why is she not more famous?

And I found these screencaps forgotten I'd taken. A couple of months ago I rented the first series of Wild West (Dawn French and Catherine Tate are a convenience-more-than-anything-else lesbian couple in an quirky village in Cornwall), and now I give you:







Okay, so it's not the Captain Jack, but it is a Captain Jack, and the original at that. And he is naked:





Of course, this is a one episode romance and things don't end well.

Comments

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

I enjoy Catherine Tate and her show. I would certainly watch it if it was on. Some sketches I find annoying, but on the whole she is very clever. My mum really loves "Gran". I haven't seen a lot of her films though... I did see her in the atrocious Love (And Other Disasters). Its badness wasn't her fault though. And she was great at James McAvoy's mum in Starter for Ten.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

She's only made five, so you've seen a decent percentage of them. I really liked Love (and other Disasters). It certainly wasn't brilliant, but I did love it for trying to subvert the romcom clichés. And she was one of the higlights of Starter for 10 for me (which I watched first time in June last year having no clue she was in it).

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

The only good thing about Love (and other Disasters) for me was the guy from Heroes, and Catherine Tate. But Brittany Murphy makes me want to poke my own eyes out so that didn't help.

Starter For Ten is a great little film. Simple, yet very appealing.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Santiago Cabrera is gorgeous. I wish his character had been given a better storyline on Heroes. I have a surprising tolerance for Britney Murphy. I think it is because she was hilarious in Drop Dead Gorgeous (one of my favourite movies of all time). But I can sympathise. There are some actors and actresses that ruin movies for me by their mere presence.

And I adore Starter for 10. It's one of my favourite romcoms.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

It is not that I am predisposed to hate Brittany Murphy but every time I've seen her in a film, she has been BAD. That might be that I've only seen her in a couple of things that weren't great projects to start with, I don't know. I might try Drop Dead Gorgeous at some stage then.

Yes, Starter for Ten is great, and the cast especially is wonderful: McAvoy, Tate, Dominic Cooper, Cumberbatch, etc. I really like Rebecca Hall too, who was in The Prestige and is coming up in Einstein and Eddington with David Tennant.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize Rebecca Hall was in Einstein and Eddington. Yay! I think she's brilliant

And you have to try Drop Dead Gorgeous at some point. It's just hilarious.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

I believe she is playing Mrs Eddington. She's slowly going through all my men. Bale, McAvoy and now Tennant. AND she is in Frost/Nixon with Matthew Macfadyen. If she wasn't so awesome, I'd hate her.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

The little bits of The Catherine Tate Show I've seen were unappealing, but I was always enthusiastic about Donna after the first fifteen minutes of TRB. We don't have to like everything a person's in.

But, uh, that comment about sketch shows you made...The Flying Circus is in my top shows ever list, so...XP

I so badly want to see Bright Young Things, if only I can find it. Written by Stephen Fry, David with a (horrible, yes) mustache and hilariously but convincingly (and all the funnier for it) priggish accent and that HAIR, and James McAvoy, and I love the title, and etc...

If she was a lesbian, why're all the pictures of her with a booooy?

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Supposedly Dawn French's character and Catherine Tate's character got together because they were the only two single people left in the village. But that episode ends with DF breaking up CT and Captain Jack in order to get CT back.

I can understand about a divergence in taste. I can't stand David Tennant in Goblet of Fire. It's just I don't understand why everything has to come with a disclaimer about hating The Catherine Tate Show. Surely somebody in Britain has to like it since there were three series. And I think some people are protesting just a little too much.

I watched Flying Circus when I was 13 or thereabouts and just didn't find it all that funny. I may have just been too young since I watched the MP movies in my late teens and found them hilarious. Problem with me for sketch shows are that they're just not consistent.

And Bring Young Things is quite good. It unfortunately wasn't as good as it could have been. But do watch it if you can see it. The bit in Downing Street alone makes it worth it.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

The movies work differently in that they have more in the way of plot. But the show has so, so much twisted random esoteric intellectual humor, it kills me. So awesome. XD

[adroidmortox247.livejournal.com]

I do adore Catherine Tate, but just found her show to be very hit and miss (as are most sketch shows) I guess I also hated certain characters (such as Lauren) as they reminded me far too much of some of the charming people I've dealt with in the past.

I've been meaning to watch some more of her films etc. Did you see that TV drama she did, the bad mother's handbook?

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I hated Paul and Sam at the beginning. They managed a laugh out of me by the end when the show eventually got around to subverting the routine. But I can understand that it's not to everyone's tastes, although not the enormous amounts of hate out there for it.

I've seen The Bad Mother's Handbook. It's alright. I really wouldn't have continued to watch it after the first half hour if it wasn't for Catherine Tate.

[adroidmortox247.livejournal.com]

Thanks. PS, is it OK if I use some of these images for macros?

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Go for it :)