Catherine Tate’s Christmas Nostaligia
THE people who watch TV shows they don’t like and then call the BBC to complain say the Catherine Tate Christmas Special was the “most offensive” programme on the box this Christmas.
Anorak loves few things more than watching TV it hates. Each morning is passed to Jeremy Kyle’s soundtrack of “Be a man!”, “Do you love yer kids?” and “We all have your problem, pal!”. Afternoons are spent with Anthea Turner telling us how to live life as a doily. Evenings with the Monarch of the Glenn fans club are a must.
There is much more offensive stuff on the telly than Tate, especially over Christmas when Dickens gets dusted off and Morecambe and Wise dance with sausages (why do they not at least show the Andre Previn sketch?).
Ofcom is looking into allegations of “excessive swearing”, reports the Times. Incredible. Can you swear excessively on the telly? Gordon Ramsay tells us to make steak and chip from a “fucking cow” and some “fucking potatoes”. Even when we ask for the ingredients at the supermarket, no-one blushes.
Congratulations to Tate of discovering that sweating can still shock. (Do you rememberethe first time [insert health warning here] “cunt” was heard on British TV? John Lydon utterd it on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!)
On Tate’s show, it her character Nan’s lot to embark on a swearing competition with her daughter (see clip). What hope Ramsay was watching and will add some invention to his usual outpouring?
TV loves remind us of the first time “fuck” was uttered on the telly. It passes for TV nostalgia, one of those clips that you expect to see at Christmas, sandwiched in between Del Boy’s Filofax and Emu biting Parky.
In time, Tate’s swearing contest may well become a “classic clip”. And we will tune and be taken back to those halcyon days when we first heard the phrase “jizz tonsils”.
“What does that mean, grandpa?” the kids will ask. “Don’t tell him, Pike,” says the BBC, over and over and over again…
Posted: 28th, December 2007 | In: Broadsheets Comments (8) | TrackBack | Permalink
