Who dear? Me dear? Gay dear? No dear.
Watched the last programme from series two of The Catherine Tate Show last night, and as in previous weeks thought that it compared very favourably with the somewhat underwhelming Extras, the main narrative of which never lived up to the brilliant self-mockery of its star guests (Patrick Stewart in the last one - "All her clothes fall off. And I can see everything." - Genius).
Catherine Tate is a sketch show in the classic mould, meaning that each joke is essentially the same every week, and it's only the situation in which it's placed which varies. So it's the familiarity which creates much of the comedy, and the audience being in the know gives the performance a certain amount of short-cut space (the pause before Lauren says "Am I bovvered?" is now as much a part of the gag as the line itself).
The obvious danger in all shows that follow this format is that the joke reaches the point where it's simply not funny any longer, or not capable of being transplanted into any further situations. Dropping some of the thinner concepts between series one and series two helped in this process (so no Aga Saga Woman, no Shocked Woman, and only a couple of showings for Bernie the nurse and Elaine the Internet Romance Woman), and the creation of some new characters was essential, but I don't feel that the balance was exactly right to make the second series as consistently great as the first. In particular I'd say it's time to retire 'Nan', whose one joke stopped being funny quite a while back.
Among series two's creations, the obvious stand out is Derek, grotesque in the way that so many great comedy creations are. His prolonged protestations that he's not gay in the face of all the evidence to the contrary work on a number of levels, not least the one which reflects real people I actually know. Plus, "How very dare you?" is brilliant, though self-consciously 'a catchphrase', which is why I decided against using it as the title of this posting in favour of another Derek line.
Eight out of ten for the series versus nine for series one.