We assume the loudest performer on stage is a giant extrovert offstage. But Catherine Tate, creator of shrieking national catchphrases, describes herself as an incredibly negative person who suffers panic attacks and finds that success brings only fleeting relief before resetting to neutral. That tension is the engine of her entire career.

This deep dive traces her path from an anxious, OCD-driven child in Bloomsbury to a global multi-hyphenate creator, completely reframing how we understand the mechanics of comedy. Her story shatters the myth that prolific creativity requires relentless sunny optimism.

• How childhood OCD and magical thinking around word association became unintentional training for a writer and actor
• Four years of rejection from drama school, driven not by optimism but by compulsion and the lack of a back ...