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Doctor Who: Catherine Tate to Play Panto Baddie at London Palladium

Doctor Who's Catherine Tate is going to tick off one more item on every British actor's bucket list: playing a Christmas Pantomime villain!

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Article Summary

  • Catherine Tate stars as the villain Carabosse in "Sleeping Beauty" at the London Palladium.
  • The pantomime marks its 10th anniversary since its revival at the iconic London venue.
  • Julian Clary returns as King Julian, with the show written by Ed Curtis and Michael Harrison.
  • A British panto mixes loud comedy, fairy tales, and audience participation for festive fun.

Catherine Tate, beloved British comedy queen and possibly the more beloved Donna Noble on Doctor Who, The Office, and her scorching eponymous television show, will top the bill at this year's London Palladium Pantomime, Sleeping Beauty, which is a perennial Christmas Panto. Her casting is a big event for the festive extravaganza to celebrate its 10th anniversary since being revived at the Palladium, which itself is a big event. Tate will play the role of panto baddie Carabosse, the wicked fairy that puts a curse on the princess that if she pricks her finger, she'll die. Palladium panto standout and comedian Julian Clary, also a British institution, will star as King Julian. The show's book is written by Ed Curtis and Michael Harrison, who oversees the enterprise as director and producer.

Doctor Who
Catherine Tate, "Queen of Oz", photo: BBC (for once, we're not using a still from "Doctor Who")

If you're American, you might find the whole Panto tradition in the UK utterly baffling. They're broad and loudly camp comedy stage adaptations of famous fairy tales where male stars often dress in drag as the queen. The characters will often say something completely untrue and encourage the audience, usually kids, to shout back, "OH NO, HE HASN'T!" The adults join in, too. A good time is had by all. Come to think of it, why hasn't Russell T. Davies or Steven Moffat written an episode of Doctor Who involving Panto…?

Tate saw last season's panto Robin Hood starring Clary, Jane McDonald (Cruising with Jane McDonald) and regulars Nigel Havers (Chariots of Fire, Empire of the Sun), ventriloquist Paul Zerdin, musical theatre star Charlie Stemp (Mary Poppins, Half a Sixpence, Broadway's Hello, Dolly!) and comic performer Rob Madge (Last Flight of the Cosmonaut), and soon signed on for this year's comical shenanigans. If you're a Brit, most of these names mean something to you as much as Doctor Who does.

"Catherine met with Julian, and she met with me, and we're all very excited about her joining the cast," says Harrison. Tate told Deadline, "I'm thrilled to be joining the cast for this year's Palladium panto and very much hope to one day rival Nigel Havers' record!" Harrison added, "I think the audiences might be very, very pleased by what they see."

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Adi TantimedhAbout Adi Tantimedh

Adi Tantimedh is a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote radio plays for the BBC Radio, “JLA: Age of Wonder” for DC Comics, “Blackshirt” for Moonstone Books, and “La Muse” for Big Head Press. Most recently, he wrote “Her Nightly Embrace”, “Her Beautiful Monster” and “Her Fugitive Heart”, a trilogy of novels featuring a British-Indian private eye published by Atria Books, a division Simon & Schuster.
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