I didn't go to the gym over the weekend and I actually missed it; can this be the start of Derren Litten the health freak? (As opposed to just 'freak'). I've lost over a stone since I started with my week of juice-only detox and have been going to the gym with Paul my trainer at least 3 times a week; not sure how I'm going to keep this up during my two months in Benidorm but I'll have a go. Was going to investigate the logistics of bringing Paul over to Benidorm to train me while I'm there then I suddenly remembered I'm not Elton John (although I imagine our waist sizes are not too different). Cut to Derren in a ginger wig pushing his matching Louis Vuitton luggage through Alicante airport screaming "rude, vile pigs!".

Have been asked to do a television interview for Yorkshire news programme 'Look North'. I remember years ago as a child I used to watch Look North, I guess the equivalent here down south is 'London Tonight'. I've never done a television interview before, I once did a radio interview and I was terrible; is this a wise thing to be doing I wonder. Being interviewed is a completely different thing to acting, I don't think I've ever been "myself" on TV; I'm much more comfortable being a character but I don't think me saying, "I've been living in London for 16 yrs and they're all dirty, evil, robbing bastards" will go down too well (even though of course we all know they are). Well it's a pre-recorded interview so if I am truly awful they can always decide not to use it or edit me down to something vaguely coherent.

Jindy and I went to see the new Oliver Stone film 'World Trade Center" this evening. It doesn't open until the end of the month in the UK but this was a special BAFTA screening with a question and answer session with Oliver Stone (the director/producer) after it. I'm not a film critic so I'm not going to put a review of the film here but I will say that I thought it was amazing. Even more amazing was that joining Oliver Stone for the Q&A was William Jimeno, one of the NY cops who survived the 220 storey building falling on top of him (astonishing as that sounds) and who is portrayed as one of the leading characters in the film. I was worried that the film was going to be heavily political but it isn't, it's just about two guys (and their families) and how they were affected by the attack on NY on 11th September 2001. Other news just in... Kevin Allen, diretor of my new TV series is in Spain scouting for talent; we (or rather just he at the moment as I am still in the UK) is looking for a female singer/comedian to play the part of the compere/karaoke host in the series. I love the fact that we are going to be using local talent for the show and am really excited about going out there in one weeks time. The fact that it now looks like we are going to be moving house at the end of October doesn't bear thinking about, I'm gonna be in bloody Spain! Oh well, they have these things called areoplanes and "time off", I'm sure it will all work out fine.

I see Ricky Gervais is once again having a go at comedy shows that use catchphrases, this time in The Daily Mail...

Office star Ricky Gervais mocks his Little Britain comedy rivals in his new series of Extras. He has a swipe at Matt Lucas and David Walliam's style of humour in the opening episode, featuring the actor Orlando Bloom. Gervais's character, Andy Millman, sells a sitcom to the BBC but producers force him to drop the script's social observation in favour of catchphrases repeated over and over again. A studio audience wearing T-shirts with the slogans 'I'm a lady' and Catherine Tate's 'Bovvered?' laugh uproariously Gervais said he wanted to have a dig at shows that relied on catchphrases. "People think it's maybe a shortcut - it's chasing ratings, trying to look for a hook," he said. "It's not what we do but we're not angry with people that do use catchphrases." And he has also hinted that he may have to move to Hollywoood to fulfill his acting ambitions because British drama is so bad.

I've never met Mr Gervais and of course he is entitled to his views. I will say that just as he is "not angry with people that do use catchphrases", I have no problem with actors who appear to be 'one trick ponies'; espcially when, as in this case, it happens to be an extremely good trick (and a very funny one too). It's been mostly a pleasure to see the character of David Brent time and time again in The Office, Extras, The Eleven O'Clock Show, Politics and Animals.

For more "hilarious" catch phrases repeated endlessly buy The Catherine Tate Show Scripts Book now from; click below for details. Oooooooooh, get me.

The countdown to Benidorm begins now! Tiger Aspect set up their production office in Benidorm today, Kevin Allen our director flies out on Wednesday and I go in 2 weeks! The scripts are in pretty good shape and our read through is on Monday 25th in Benidorm followed by a weeks rehearsal. I hear there are release dates for The Catherine Tate Show series 2, click on the ad below to pre order from Amazon! Apparently the series is being repeated on BBC3 at the moment; I'll have to check that but two people have told me that so far and I guess they can't both be wrong; seems odd to put it on BBC3 though as the show has never been there before. I drive past Clinton Cards in Muswell Hill every day and it's strange to see Catherine's face starring back at me from the window on a huge "Am I bovvered" poster. Catherine's just returned from Hungry and now goes to West Yorkshire to finish shooting this film she's doing; Budapest to Halifax now that really is going from the sublime to the ridiculous...

Lovely surprise today; got one of those framed dvd things to commemorate sales figures for The Catherine Tate Show today. Unfortunately there is no room on the walls in my office for it at the moment. Well, there is, there's a great space above my photocopier but the wall space above it seems to be made of kryptonite (or something extremely hard) so it will wait until we get into the new house (if we ever get it). I should hang it somewhere where you can't quite read what is says on the disc and I can pretend it's a cd and I'm a pop star like Puff Daddy or Piddley Diddley or whatever his name is this week. I'm going to try and take a pic of it and link it to this entry of the blog but as regular reader of this diary/blog will know, I aint exactly Bill Gates… well, here goes. CLICK HERE!

Oh bugger, it didn't work. Why on earth did I think I'd be able to do that? I practically live in a cave. Will get my mate Alan to do it for me at some point…. If at first you don't succeed, get someone brighter than you to do it.

Very little blog activity here this week (well, none as a matter of fact) but that is down to a rare activity of mine called hard work. It's been a tightly packed week of early morning gym sessions then castings and/or script editing in sunny Soho Square. Then after that it's been straight home, dinner, then three or four hours of writing up the editing in the office at home. Luckily I love early mornings and don't need too much sleep (five hours is enough for me) so this kind of schedule suits me down to the ground; strange boy aren't I? Driving home on this evening I got a great phone call from my producer, we had offered one of the regular characters to a big comedy name (I don't mean "Norris" or "Gaylord", I mean a very famous comedian/comedy actor) and we got him! The show fits into his schedule and he wants to do it! Now… here's the thing; I really have no idea if I can say who this person is right now. I also realise that only about 9 people read this blog so I'm probably making a mountain out of a mole hill but still I don't want to piss anybody off unduly (not like me…). Maybe a tiny clue-ette as to this person's identity…. Well, he - no, I'd better check on Monday to make sure he has actually signed the contract! Come back next week and I'll tell you then. (What's that old joke again, "how do you keep an idiot in suspense?…)