French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act. The show was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities, and art. French and Saunders continued to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been individually successful starring in other shows.
Dawn Roma French is a British actress, comedian, and writer. She is known for writing and starring on the BBC sketch comedy series French and Saunders (1987–2007) with her best friend and comedy partner Jennifer Saunders, and playing the lead role of Geraldine Granger in the BBC sitcom The Vicar of Dibley (1994–2020). French has been nominated for seven BAFTA TV Awards and won a BAFTA Fellowship with Saunders in 2009.
Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke is an English actress and comedian. She appeared in sketch shows such as French and Saunders (1988–1999), played a recurring role as Magda on the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012), and performed frequent collaborations with fellow comedian Harry Enfield. From 1999 to 2001, she starred as Linda La Hughes on the BBC sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme, for which she received a British Comedy Award and two BAFTA nominations.
The Paul O'Grady Show was a British comedy chat show presented by comedian Paul O'Grady, first shown on 11 October 2004. The programme is a teatime chat show consisting of a mixture of celebrity guests, comic stunts, musical performances, and occasionally viewer competitions.
Catherine Jane Ford, known professionally as Catherine Tate, is a British actress, comedian and writer. She has won numerous awards for her work on the BBC sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show (2004–2007), as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and seven BAFTAs. Tate played Donna Noble in the 2006 Christmas special of Doctor Who, and later reprised her role for the fourth series in 2008, and the 60th anniversary episodes in 2023.
The Catherine Tate Show is a British television comedy sketch programme written by Catherine Tate and Derren Litten featuring a wide range of characters. The Catherine Tate Show aired on BBC Two and was shown worldwide through the BBC. Collectively, the show has been nominated for six BAFTA Awards, two British Comedy Awards and an Emmy Award, and it has won two Royal Television Society Awards, two British Comedy Awards and a National Television Award since its debut in 2004.
Extras is a British sitcom about extras working in television, film, and theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO, and written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom starred in it. It follows the lives of Andy Millman (Gervais), his friend Maggie Jacobs and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb (Merchant) as Millman muddles through life as an anonymous "background performer" who eventually finds success as a B-list sitcom star.
Mathew Frazer Horne is an English actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and narrator. He is best known for appearing on several BBC sketch shows and sitcoms, most notably Gavin & Stacey, The Catherine Tate Show, Horne & Corden, and Bad Education.
Dear John is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC from October 6, 1988 to July 22, 1992. It was originally based on the British sitcom of the same name. It was retitled Dear John USA when it was shown in the United Kingdom. During its four-season run, it was bounced to and from various time periods on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. It moved from its post-Cheers slot on Thursdays to a post-Night Court slot on Wednesdays in 1990.
Not Going Out is a British television sitcom that has aired on BBC One since 2006 and is the second-longest-running British sitcom, behind Last of the Summer Wine. It stars Lee Mack and Sally Bretton with Geoffrey Whitehead, Deborah Grant, Hugh Dennis, and Abigail Cruttenden.
Red Nose Day 2007 was a fund raising event in England organized by Comic Relief, broadcast live on BBC One and BBC Two from the evening of 16 March 2007 to early the following morning. It was part of "The Big One" campaign. Presenters introduced the show in two-halves, one titled 'The funny' and the other titled 'The money'.
Dame Lauren Alicia Mishika Tanisha Felicia Jane Cooper is a fictional character in The Catherine Tate Show. Lauren is one of the show's main characters and is portrayed by Catherine Tate. The character was "killed off" in the 2007 Christmas Special which aired on 25 December.
Donna Noble is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Portrayed by British actress and comedian Catherine Tate, she is a companion of the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors. Originally appearing in the closing scene of the show's 2006 series and as a special guest star in its following Christmas special, "The Runaway Bride", Tate was not expected to reprise her role as Donna; for series 3 (2007), the Doctor travelled alongside medical student Martha Jones. However, Tate expressed interest in returning to the role, and returned as a series regular in series 4 (2008), the subsequent 2009–2010 Christmas and New Year's special, and in the 60th anniversary specials in 2023.
Nan's Christmas Carol is a spin-off of The Catherine Tate Show. The one-off special, based on Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, is about Nan visited by three ghosts on Christmas night in her council flat. It is the first episode in spin-off Catherine Tate's Nan specials.
The Fast Show, known as Brilliant in the US, is a BBC comedy sketch show that ran from 1994 to 1997, with specials in 2000 and 2014. The show's central performers were Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Mark Williams, John Thomson, Arabella Weir and Caroline Aherne. Other significant cast members included Felix Dexter, Paul Shearer, Rhys Thomas, Jeff Harding, Maria McErlane, Eryl Maynard, Colin McFarlane and Donna Ewin.
Catherine Tate's Nan is a BBC One spin-off series of specials which follows the character of Joanie Taylor from the original sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show. When the initial series ended in 2007, a Christmas Special was broadcast in 2009, Nan's Christmas Carol, which is now established as the first episode of the Nan specials, and was followed by three subsequent specials in 2014 and 2015 under the title Nan.
The first series of British television sketch comedy The Catherine Tate Show premiered on BBC Two on 16 February 2004. It consists of six episodes and concluded on 22 March 2004. In the first series audiences are introduced to various characters portrayed by Catherine Tate, including Joannie 'Nan' Taylor, Lauren Cooper and Bernie, the Irish nurse. The series was entirely written by Tate alongside Mathew Horne, Derren Litten, Aschlin Ditta, Arthur Mathews and Bruce Mackinnon.
The second series of the British television sketch comedy premiered on BBC Two on 21 July 2005. This series included six episodes with the concluding episode broadcast on 25 August 2005. A Christmas Special followed the second series and was screened on BBC Two on 20 December 2005.
Do Not Disturb is a 2016 British comedy-drama television film starring Catherine Tate and Miles Jupp as a couple who try to repair their marriage in a hotel room. Set in Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace and burial place of playwright and poet William Shakespeare, the film premiered on Gold on 27 January 2016, coinciding with worldwide celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. It was written by Aschlin Ditta and directed by Nigel Cole.
