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The Catherine Tate Show. Catherine Tate
The Catherine Tate Show

The Catherine Tate Show

  • TV sketch show
  • BBC Two
  • 2004 - 2009
  • 21 episodes (3 series)

Popular sketch show starring Catherine Tate as a range of characters, including a rude nan and a talkative teenager. Also features Mathew Horne, Niky Wardley, Ella Kenion, Rebecca Front, Angela McHale and more.

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Nan's Christmas Carol

The Catherine Tate Show. Catherine Tate
This festive special sees Nan's acid-tongued insults catch up with her when the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, along with a dead husband, pay an unexpected visit, in this comic re-telling of Charles Dickens's tale A Christmas Carol. Is it too late for Nan to swap her Scrooge-like misery for some seasonal goodwill?

Preview clips

Broadcast details

Date
Friday 25th December 2009
Time
10:30pm
Channel
BBC One
Length
50 minutes

Cast & crew

Cast
Catherine Tate Various
Mathew Horne Various
Niky Wardley Various
Guest cast
Ben Miller Ghost of the Christmas past
Roger Lloyd Pack Ghost of the Christmas future
David Tennant Ghost of the Christmas present
Richard Lumsden Bob Cratchit
Rosie Cavaliero Julie Cratchit
Dominic Coleman Jake Taylor
Deddie Davies Nellie
Aschlin Ditta Priest
James Martin Self
Production team
Gordon Anderson Director
Geoff Posner Producer

Videos

Nan's Christmas Carol - Lottery Ticket

Nan has a rather cunning way of making a bit of extra cash.

Featuring: Mathew Horne & Catherine Tate.

The Ghost Of Christmas Past

The Ghost of Christmas Past comes to visit Nan, but has a bit of a trouble getting in.

Featuring: Catherine Tate & Ben Miller (Ghost of the Christmas past).

Press

12 Days of Christmas Specials 8: Nan's Christmas Carol

In 2009 Catherine Tate had an idea to make Nan's Christmas Carol. Despite being told that it was far too late to put a special into production for that year (apparently it was already November) the cast and crew managed to pull-off a truly excellent special that deserves to be remembered.

Rhianna Evans, The Comedy Blog, 21st December 2019

Catherine Tate's Nan, a ruthlessly truthful creation, is best taken short. Nan's Christmas Carol (BBC1, Friday), longer than usual and later than usual because of Nan's language, cast her as a combatative Scrooge making three ghosts and her deceased husband sorry they were born. Or died. The most eye-catching ghost was David Tennant, who bore a striking resemblance to Russell Brand.

Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 28th December 2009

The Independent is impressed with Nan's Christmas Carol

I haven't always been a fan of Catherine Tate's Nan either, admiring the character work but finding the essential joke a little repetitive. But Nan's Christmas Carol managed to refresh two overworked franchises simultaneously: Tate's horrible old lady gag and Charles Dickens' snow-dusted morality tale. Nan makes a perfect Scrooge, hideously unseasonal when Uncle Bob Cratchit turned up on a visit from Yorkshire with his queasily cheerful children. She wasn't exactly pleased with the gift they'd given her - a charity donation to the Mobile Library of Sudan. "It's a picture of an Arab man standing next to a donkey with half-a-dozen copies of The Da Vinci Code strapped to its back," she said witheringly on opening the envelope. It's an alternative present, her great-niece explained. "What... alternative to something I wanted?" she snapped back. She demanded ID from the Ghost of Christmas Past and told the Ghost of Christmas Future that his introductory video was rubbish. Offered the chance to change the future after her admonitory vision of a loveless old age and lonely funeral, the first thing she asked was, "Could they bring back Lovejoy... I do love it."

Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent, 28th December 2009

Remember Nan, the terrifyingly two-faced character from The Catherine Tate Show? Warm and cuddly one minute and swearing like a TV chef the next? It always felt like Nan deserved a life beyond the sketch show, and now she gets it, taking the Scrooge role in what we imagine will be the loosest of adaptations of A Christmas Carol. What a bleedin' liberty!

David Butcher, Radio Times, 25th December 2009

Nan's Christmas message

Writing specially for the Telegraph, Catherine Tate's famously candid (i.e. spectacularly foul-mouthed) Nan character passes on her seasonal good wishes...

Catherine Tate, The Telegraph, 22nd December 2009

Instead of the usual Christmas special, Nan's Christmas Carol has turned Nan into Scrooge, visited by ghosts of Christmas past and her deceased husband. It promises to be utterly appalling - in a good way.

David Chater, The Times, 19th December 2009

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