Catherine Tate

'Wearing rollerblades to my father's funeral. My reggae phase. Going to Butlin's and sucking off that redcoat...' These, in case you were wondering, are among the many regrets of Edith Piaf. They give a good flavour of Psychobitches, this 'Playhouse' closer which imagines the musings of (in)famous female figures on the psychiatrist's couch. Mary Whitehouse is obsessed with Tom of Finland, Mother Theresa smokes, swears and gives of an air of simmering menace and Eva Braun is walking on air after meeting a new fella ('he's really going places'). The targets are soft and many of the gags verge on the obvious. But it's brought gleefully to life by another superb cast which includes Sharon Horgan, Rebecca Front, Sam Spiro and Catherine Tate. Not big or clever, but its unapologetic silliness carries the day.

The performances in Psychobitches are funnier than the one-track script in the latest addition to the Playhouse strand. Directed by Jeremy Dyson (The League of Gentlemen), the comedy sees a succession of famous women apparently revealing their true selves in front of a questioning psychiatrist (Rebecca Front, above). Cue an aggressive Mother Teresa (Sheila Reid), a lovestruck Eva Braun (Catherine Tate), a sex-obsessed Jane Austen (Sharon Horgan) and a deluded Joan of Arc (Katy Brand).

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Catherine Tate may be joining the cast of NBC's The Office as a series regular, it has been reported.

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Simon Pegg, Catherine Tate and Amelia Bullmore were among those in the surreal sketch show.

Catherine Tate returns to the US Office

British treasure Catherine Tate is reprising her role in the US Office, and her character Nellie this time indulges in a smooch with socially awkward Dwight.

Are Lorna Watson and Ingrid Oliver poised to become the next French and Saunders?

They've got the talent and are both immensely likeable, but what they're lacking right now is better material.

There's nothing in the first outing for their new sketch show to dislike, but nothing that really stakes out new comedy ground for female comedians in the way that Smack The Pony or Catherine Tate did. A take-off of Kate and Wills capitalises on Ingrid Oliver's passing resemblance to Kate, but doesn't really know where it's going.

What's most worrying is that they deliberately let their guest star John Barrowman steal all their laughs as well.

Eric and Ernie might have used stage stars to their ­advantage, but Watson and Oliver are a long way from being Morecambe and Wise.

We're not writing them off yet - we're just saying they should write off their writers and get some new ones.

Catherine Tate, Take That's Jason Orange split?

Catherine Tate and Take That star Jason Orange have reportedly separated.

British comedy threw many unusual shapes between 2000 and 2009. Catherine Tate's longform survey of the hits of the decade is hefty enough to stick with. A selection of great clips is punctuated by Tate interviewing - in the loosest possible sense - people like David Walliams, Rob Brydon, Noel Fielding and Alan Carr about what made their shows fly. And Tate's former Doctor Who co-star David Tennant quizzes Tate about her own comic creations.

Catherine Tate tells the story of comedy over the decade she became a household name. It's spiced up with clips and anecdote-packed interviews with the usual suspects (think David Tennant, Alan Carr...), so it might be an exercise in back-slapping. But given that this is the decade that gave us such black-comic masterpieces as The Office (2001), Nighty Night (2004), The Thick of It (2005) and Getting On (2009), maybe it should be christened the new Dark Age of comedy.