About "Catterick"

Surreal, dark and bizarre are just three words used to describe Catterick.

Arguably Vic and Bob's darkest foray to date, the 2004 BBC situation comedy in six episodes, features the duo's typically off-beat humour in a road movie style.

Written from the pen of Reeves and Mortimer themselves, the pair take the title roles of brothers Chris and Carl Palmer.

Carl (played by Mortimer) is an ex-soldier and has returned home to Catterick from service in Cyprus. His mission is to become reacquainted with his son, Paul, who he abandoned when Paul was just a four-year-old tot.

The series follows his journey, during which he becomes enamoured with Tess (Morwenna Banks), the receptionist at the Mermaid Hotel, where he and his brother go to stay.

Carl's younger brother, Chris (played by Reeves), lives alone in their late mum's house with a pet turkey in a box and a George Clooney poster. It has been one of his ambitions to stay at the Mermaid.

Together, the pair embark on a surreal adventure to find Paul, which begins when they steal the car of a pyschotic robber, Tony (Reece Shearsmith). He robs Neil's Wheels Used Car Dealership and shoots the owner, and puts a briefcase of stolen cash in the boot of his Land Rover, which is eventually stolen by Carl and Chris.

Tony now must kill the pair, but he must placate his dominating mother before going round the bend. It is Tony who is a major player in the twist at the end of the series.

Hot on the heels of the Neil's Wheels killer – and Carl and Chris as a consequence - is DI Fowler (also played by Reeves). He is finally living the dream of working for the NYPD – in other words, the North Yorkshire Police Department – working alongside his partner, Webster (Matt Lucas). But his work ethic is dominated by his confusion over simple things and his mispronounciation of words.

Meanwhile, Carl's love interest, Tess, is the long-suffering receptionist at the Mermaid, and the reluctant girlfriend of bad-tempered hotel manager Roy Oates (Matt Lucas). Roy suffered an accident, prior to which he was the life and soul of the party. But this accident  has made him a changed man.

Tess, who is addicted to the gas from an asthma inhaler, likes Carl but finds it hard to break away from Roy. Roy, meanwhile, is blackmailing the hotel's dogsbody, Mark (Mark Benton), with incriminating photos.

Some find it confusing, others think it's a work of genius. In Vic and Bob's determinable style, you will either love or hate Catterick.