Quintessential Comedy | Devoted to British Comedy

Revealing herself finally to be a superbly skilled actress with excellent timing, Catherine Tate’s run in Doctor Who has been honoured with a TV Quick and TV Choice award.

[singlepic=34,320,240,,right]The Geoffrey Perkins-produced Catherine Tate Show won its fair share of awards, but with Tate now moving back towards serious drama and displaying a range that few doubted existed 18 months ago, the first high profile award of the backslapping season - which continues usually through to the BAFTAs in the New Year - don’t be surprised to see her embracing a range of new roles and outside of comedy before we ever see her doing Lauren again.

The comedy actor or actress is a strange beast. Not quite a standup, not quite an actor, they permeate our sitcoms and sketch shows and are widely recognised as funny men or women. The truth is of course that few of them are, and that the laughs come from their unrivalled interpretation of the script.

Take for example Arthur Lowe of Dad’s Army. A character actor, once of Coronation Street, who was fortunate to be perfectly cast as a grumpy, pompous man, a part he was able to play perfectly.

These days, many standup comedians need to be able to act, if only to project a persona on stage. Few get up there and be 100% themselves.

All in all, it’s a hard game, whichever way you look at it. Well done to Catherine for making such a stunning transition to genre drama.