Kate & Koji. Image shows from L to R: Koji (Okorie Chukwu), Kate (Brenda Blethyn)
Kate & Koji

Kate & Koji

  • TV sitcom
  • ITV1
  • 2020 - 2022
  • 12 episodes (2 series)

Sitcom about the owner of a seaside café, and an asylum-seeking African doctor. Stars Brenda Blethyn, Okorie Chukwu, Blake Harrison, Barbara Flynn, Victor McGuire and more.

  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 4,909

Episode menu

Series 1, Episode 1

Kate & Koji. Image shows from L to R: Koji (Jimmy Akingbola), Kate (Brenda Blethyn). Copyright: Hat Trick Productions
When Kate finds out that her new acquaintance is a doctor but he is prohibited from working whilst seeking asylum, she hatches a plan that may be mutually beneficial to both involved.

Broadcast details

Date
Wednesday 18th March 2020
Time
8pm
Channel
ITV1
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Tuesday 24th March 2020 11:40pm ITV1
Sunday 27th September 2020 10:00pm ITV3
Saturday 26th February 2022 11:00pm ITV3
Sunday 13th March 2022 10:45pm ITV1

Cast & crew

Cast
Brenda Blethyn Kate
Blake Harrison 'Medium' Dan
Barbara Flynn Councillor Bone
Victor McGuire Mr Mullholland
Jimmy Akingbola Koji
Gary Lammin Postman
Guest cast
Kris Saddler Nick
Sarah Twomey Young Woman
Diana Payan Elderly Lady
Writing team
Andy Hamilton Writer
Guy Jenkin Writer
Production team
Ben Kellett Studio Director
Andy Hamilton Producer
Guy Jenkin Producer
Debbie Pisani (as Debs Pisani) Producer
Jimmy Mulville Executive Producer
Mark Williams Editor
Jo Sutherland Production Designer
Suzanne Crowley (as Susanne Crowley) Casting Director
Gilly Poole Casting Director
Martin Hawkins Director of Photography
Natalie Rogers (as Natalie Rogers-Wenzel) Costume Designer
Nichola Bellamy Make-up Designer
Philip Pope (as Phillip Pope) Composer
Adam Jenkins 1st Assistant Director
Saskia Schuster Commissioning Editor

Press

What a pedigree Kate & Koji appeared to have. Co-stars in Brenda Blethyn and Jimmy Akingbola, written by Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton (Drop The Dead Donkey, Outnumbered), and a bonkers-but-might-work premise about an asylum-seeking African doctor setting up a temporary surgery in a seaside caff in exchange for square meals from the reactionary biddy of an owner.

My, it's grim, and what were you at all thinking, our sainted Auntie Vera? There are jokes about 70s TV detectives, oat milk, newfangled "podcasts". One running gag is that everyone looks to their phones after the microwave pings. It is amusing precisely once. At one stage Kate (Blethyn) reprimands Koji (Akingbola) for getting pedantic about apostrophes with "all right Doc, no need to go all Rees-Mogg on us!", as if one had to go to Eton (because it's posh, see!) in order to have an outside chance of grasping the basics of the English language: it's that kind of lowest-com-denom writing. Utterly unhelped - in fact, hog-tied at the knees - by a canned laughter track that gives it not just the content but the feel of something that could have surfaced a full 30 years ago. There's even a rival - snobby - interfering councillor in the shape of Barbara Flynn.

It's not unsalvageable. There's a (slight) warmth to be had in Kate's unthawing towards the 21st Century, her refreshing lack of the old prejudices. Some gags show spark, but you don't even get to enjoy the spark, already tensing at the collective awfulness of the wave of laughter that you know is bound to tsunami in.

Euan Ferguson, The Observer, 22nd March 2020

Kate & Koji review

It's not brilliant, but I'd like it to do well. Somehow, though, in post-Brexit Britain I can't see it being a mainstream hit, though I'd love to be proved wrong. Whatever the Guardian might say I think its heart is in the right place.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 19th March 2020

Kate & Koji, review: a poor imitation of Rising Damp

Perhaps it will be a hit. The success of Mrs Brown's Boys shows there is definitely an appetite for big-hearted, broad comedy accompanied by audience laughter. But I'm not sure that sympathy for asylum seekers sits comfortably in that genre.

Anita Singh, The Telegraph, 19th March 2020

Kate & Koji review

Kate & Koji is funny - and funny enough to make me snort with laughter. The script is well-honed by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, who wrote Outnumbered. But what raises this show far above the ordinary are the performances by Brenda Blethyn and Jimmy Akingbola as the title characters.

Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail, 19th March 2020

Kate & Koji revels in outdated prejudice

The makers of Outnumbered have created a distasteful comedy about a cafe owner and an asylum seeker, that even the talent of Brenda Blethyn and Jimmy Akingbola can't save.

Ammar Kalia, The Guardian, 18th March 2020

Kate & Koji review

Whisper it, but ITV could just have created that rarest of creatures - a mainstream sitcom that's constantly funny; deserving of critical praise as well as strong audiences.

Steve Bennett, Chortle, 18th March 2020

Kate & Koji review

Unfunny, uninspired, oppressive propaganda. There's nothing wrong with the basic set-up, nor the talented actors assembled, but this sitcom isn't in any way satirical or thought-provoking.

Sean O'Grady, The Independent, 18th March 2020

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