The Catherine Tate Show, Series Two

Mr Pinky has been chuckling away a lot of late. The reason is the fabulous Catherine Tate show. Mr Pinky watched the show when it first aired on television, but recently experienced a flashback to the show and decided to grab a copy of whatever series he could get his trotters on.

A quick glance at Catherine Tate's bio at Wikipedia shows that she was born in 1968, May 12, and that her mother, Josephine, was a florist. Interestingly, the character Margaret in the series who sheiks at the slightest noise is apparently based on her mother. (Tate herself suffers panic attacks.) The Wiki entry also says that as a child Tate was an obsessive compulsive.

Tate's partner is stage manager Twig Clark, and she gave birth to her daughter, Erin, in 2003. Unfortunately, the comedienne suffered post natal depression after this, coming out of it during the make of the second series of her show.

What Mr Pinky loves about this show is the way Catherine Tate is such a keen observer of people. She really sticks to providing well drawn characterures of people she's studied, and perhaps even identifies with. With other comedy shows, especially Little Britain, the performers seem to like the weird or the gross, relying on the unusal for laughs. But the Catherine Tate show for me is good because it relies on people and types you can quickly recognise. This is why her comedy is such a release: someone else understands the world you live in.

For example, the office workers Kate and Ellen. Everyone has someone at work who is a monster to get along with. In this show Kate, played by Tate, plays a really annoying co-worker who is always bothering you with stupid questions, and who is also a bitch to boot.

The absolute favourite of course is Derek Faye, an obviously gay middle aged man with a shaved head and big glasses. Whenever anyone suggests he's gay he puts on an expression of high dudgeon and declares, 'How very dare you!'

If you want to have a chuckle at life's difficulties and difficult personalities, then The Catherine Tate show is the one for you. I'm looking forward to getting hold of the third series, which I haven't seen yet.