Comic writes a script for her enduring creation

Catherine Tate is planning to make a film based upon her foul-mouthed Nan character.

She confirmed the news to her former Dr Who co-star David Tennant on his podcast, saying: 'I’ve written a Nan film, which is great fun. I do think that’s probably the one [character] that’s got the legs to carry on. It’s probably the most popular character …'

The sweary pensioner, whose name is Joanie Taylor, was created for The Catherine Tate Show, which ran from 2004 to 2009 on BBC One. The character returned for a two episode spin-off series and appeared on Michael McIntyre's Big Show in 2016, as Tate also took her on tour as part of her live show.

Tate has written and is about to star alongside Tennant in the Sky One sitcom Americons, about a couple who move to America.

And she complained to her co-star that the BBC did not promote The Catherine Tate Show before it took off.

'It was a sleeper and they buried it and in the BBC’s wisdom they didn’t really give it much promotion,' she said.

When she asked the BBC why, 'they said no one knows who she is. I mean typical BBC stuff…’

Tate also revealed that she auditioned for drama school four times.

She was a 'painfully shy' child and could not open her mouth at school 'without stuttering or going red. I was just petrified'.

She explained that she developed her sense of humour because she did not want to be seen as ‘the ginger one or the shy one… or the fat one’.

'For a brief time, I was the target of awful teenage girls’ insidious bullying.. and I turned it around, got into a new group of people… I rebranded myself. And at that point on, I think I became known as the funny one.'

Tate's last cinema-released film was Brett Goldstein's 2015 superhero comedy Superbob.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 19 Mar 2019