Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, catherine tate, david tennant, doctor who, hard cell, Queen of Oz, russell t davies

Doctor Who: Celebrating Catherine Tate's Donna Noble: MVP Companion

As the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials loom closer, we celebrate the work of Catherine Tate & her run as Donna Noble, MVP companion.

Doctor Who got another long compilation video this week, and this time it's highlights from Series Four, the one with Catherine Tate as Donna Noble. This was Russell T. Davies and David Tennant's last full season, with both at the height of their creative powers on the show. They would go on to make Tennant's last run in a mini-season without wearing out their welcome, leaving the fans wanting more. But the MVP of Series Four was Catherine Tate.

Donna Noble was probably the most adult companion of modern Doctor Who. She wasn't a slightly naïve young woman like Rose or Martha who fell in love with the Doctor. She was in her thirties, didn't look like a supermodel, had a distinctly bolshy personality, and was not in love with the Doctor. She was one of the companions he didn't treat like a kid or a pet but as an equal, his best buddy, his ride-or-die. She had a complete arc from a bridezilla who only cared about celebrity gossip and landing a husband until she found out the guy was going to sell her out to aliens. She was typically changed by her first encounter with The Doctor and driven to become a better, more open person, only for her time with him to end on a tragic note.

Catherine Tate was already a household name when she was cast in Doctor Who. She wrote and starred in her own sketch comedy show, The Catherine Tate Show, which was a big hit that put her on the map. Her uncompromising comedy work, along with Sharon Horgan's, were precursors that made Fleabag possible. After she left Doctor Who, she became a series regular on the US remake of The Office. She even starred in four spinoff specials as Nan, the grotesque, foul-mouthed grandmother character she created on her own show, as well as a scandalously terrible theatrical spinoff, The Nan Movie, in 2022. She has co-created, co-wrote, starred in, and co-directed the R-rated Netflix mockumentary sitcom Hard Cell, set in a women's prison where she played half the characters in it. Netflix canceled the series after one season and didn't even bother telling her – she only found out from a cast member's agent.

Her most recent series was Queen of Oz, which she also co-wrote and co-directed where she played a horribly privileged member of the British Royal Family who gets exiled to Australia, a character so awful she became a one-woman poster child for getting rid of the monarchy. Ironically, she made this series after she completed work on the three Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials that are coming to Disney+ this November.

Sadly, Queen of Oz, which is a hoot, is not currently streaming in the US. And it looks like the universe is running out of new roles for Catherine Tate to play. She's already played literally everything. And now she's going to say goodbye to Donna Noble.

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