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The Catherine Tate Show

British television sketch comedy

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ2005524 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Catherine Tate Show is a British television comedy sketch programme written by Catherine Tate and Derren Litten featuring a wide range of characters. The Catherine Tate Show aired on BBC Two and was shown worldwide through the BBC. Collectively, the show has been nominated for six BAFTA Awards, two British Comedy Awards and an Emmy Award, and it has won two Royal Television Society Awards, two British Comedy Awards and a National Television Award since its debut in 2004.

Broadcast

The first series of the show, which consisted of six episodes, aired from 16 February to 22 March 2004. A DVD of this series was released in August 2005.

A second series aired from 21 July to 25 August 2005, and a 40-minute Christmas special aired on 20 December 2005. For this series a new theme tune was introduced. A DVD of series two was released in October 2006.

The third series aired from 14 October to 25 November 2006. There had been speculation that this would be the final series; however, Tate explained in an interview on This Morning that she had never said this and would like to at least make specials in the future.

Tate filmed a Christmas special which aired on 25 December 2007.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Catherine Tate Show” as british television sketch comedy. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2004, 2005, 2006, 2007—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Catherine, Tate and Show can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as british television sketch comedy. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2005524. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Catherine Tate Show”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Catherine Tate Show primary sources, The Catherine Tate Show archive and Catherine research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Catherine Tate Show”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Catherine Tate Show” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.