The Other One. Image shows from L to R: Angela (Michele Austin), Tess (Rebecca Front), Cathy (Ellie White), Cat (Lauren Socha), Callum (Christopher Jeffers), Marilyn (Siobhan Finneran)
The Other One

The Other One (2017)

  • TV sitcom
  • BBC One / BBC Two
  • 2017 - 2022
  • 12 episodes (2 series)

Comedy about two sisters who had no idea the other existed until their father drops dead. Stars Ellie White, Lauren Socha, Christopher Jeffers, Rebecca Front, Siobhan Finneran and more.

  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 4,783

Press clippings

The Other One is a tender sitcom about the absurdities of family life

Cathy and Cat are back on BBC One - and one of them has just kissed their secret brother.

Rachael Sigee, i Newspaper, 6th May 2022

The Other One to return for Series 2

Filming is underway on a second series of BBC One sitcom The Other One.

British Comedy Guide, 22nd July 2021

The Other One, Holly Walsh's gleeful twin-family saga ended (if you've been watching in real time) on a real high. It had many terrific lines, mainly - as usual - from Ellie White as Cathy, whom you suspect the writer most identifies with. One clue: she gives her the sharpest lines. After she has been given a particularly gaudy tiara-and-mascara makeover by Cat (Lauren Socha), dowdy safe Cathy declares to the mirror: "Oh My God! I love it... I look like I could have my own show! On ITV3!" Marilyn (Siobhan Finneran) finally makes it out of the house, Rebecca Front's Tess finally forgives cheating Colin (Simon Greenall) and, after a cheeky red herring, the stage is well set for a second series. There have been harder recommissions to predict.

Euan Ferguson, The Observer, 19th July 2020

The Other One heads to America on Acorn TV

Streaming service Acorn TV, part of AMC Networks, has brought the rights to the seven-part series, which it will broadcast in the US, Canada and Mexico next month.

Chortle, 15th July 2020

TV review: The Other One series 1 episode 1

How well you get on with The Other One will depend on your tolerance for cringe factor.

Alex Finch, Comedy To Watch, 12th June 2020

TV review: The Other One

Despite all the jokes about class, Marcus's disastrous 'dick pics' disaster and the essential betrayal at the heart of the Walcott's marriage, there's a real sweetness to the developing relationship between the two Catherines which makes this a joy to watch.

Chris Hallam, Chris Hallam's World View, 12th June 2020

The Other One review

Class-clash comedy puts the fizz up family life.

Lucy Mangan, The Guardian, 12th June 2020

Rebecca Front: 'British politics looks like a clown car

Rebecca Front talks about anxiety, US accents and why The Thick Of It won't return.

James Rampton, i Newspaper, 11th June 2020

In September 2017, I wrote that The Other One was a BBC comedy pilot in search of a commission: it gained that commission and returned this week - albeit with the rerun pilot (boo), but over the next six weeks it will delight and enthral with high humour and low blows from writers Holly Walsh and Pippa Brown. The only true mystery is why the fandoodle it took so long.

It is a glorious slice-of-life comedy, way superior to so much else on these days. OK, the plot is a twitch forced - bigamist dies, leaving two disparate families, in two utterly disparate class zones - but the warmth of all within, the sharpness of the writing, the performances, particularly from Ellie White as the smiling uptight coil of a spring who can't quite leave a middle-class totem untouched and Lauren Socha as the unsprung spring who can't quite leave a working-class totem unsaid... in this will lie a certain dramatic magic.

Euan Ferguson, The Observer, 7th June 2020

The Other One review

While there are some very broad gags to flag up the differences between the two families, there are some subtler observations too: Marilyn isn't just a chain smoker, but she lights up in Cathy's car without asking first and Cathy, while agonised, is too polite to ask her to stop.

Veronica Lee, The Arts Desk, 6th June 2020

Share this page