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HIGHLIGHTS THIS TIME WITH ALAN PARTRIDGE BBC Two, Feb (date tbc) Steve Coogan's comic creation returns to the BBC as a last- minute replacement host on This Time (think The One Show) blundering into topics of the day (including #MeToo) accompanied by Sidekick Simon (Tim Key).

DIVORCE SEASON 3 Sky Atlantic, Feb (date tbc) Probably the most serious of the many comedies in Sharon Horgan's bulging sitcom repertoire, following a couple (Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church) through a complicated split.

BITE CLUB Alibi, Feb (date tbc) The reviews from Australia haven't been fantastic but this has the potential for trashy brilliance as a group of shark attack survivors are targeted by a serial killer. THE SIMPSONS SEASON 30 Sky One, Fri 1 Feb, 8pm The yellow family return for their 30th season. Admittedly no longer at its creative peak, but you can always rely on The Simpsons for a few chuckles and some wonderfully inventive sight gags. Double- billed with the return of US sitcom Modern Family which starts its tenth season at 8.30pm.

AFRICA WITH ADE ADEPITAN BBC Two, Sun 3 Feb, 9pm Insightful travelogue exploring modern Africa with journalist and athlete Ade Adepitan.

DAS BOOT Sky Atlantic, Wed 6 Feb, 9pm A sequel to the claustrophobic WWII epic about life onboard a German submarine.

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 9 Fox, Mon 11 Feb, 9pm TWD seems to be back on track after a cruddy season 8 as we time jump several years into the future as season 9 returns. THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY Netflix, Fri 15 Feb Offbeat superhero noir created by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way. See review, page 96.

LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER Sky Atlantic, Mon 18 Feb The funniest, sharpest political commentary on TV.

AMERICAN GODS SEASON 2 Amazon Prime, Mon 11 Mar Garish, violent fantasy about ancient gods living in modern America, from the mind of Neil Gaiman. TURN UP CHARLIE Netflix, Fri 15 Mar The always watchable Idris Elba takes the lead as a hard-living DJ who ends up working as a nanny.

1 Feb–31 Mar 2019 THE LIST 97

DISASTER RELIEF

Channel 4’s brilliantly cringe-inducing comedy is back for a fourth and final series. Brian Donaldson hears from Rob Delaney and

Sharon Horgan about endings, love and neck braces

P reviously on Catastrophe: Rob has driven while over-the-limit and crashed his car. He’s now set to wander about for the best part of six episodes in a neck brace. Meanwhile, Sharon has gained a promotion due to a colleague’s suicide and mourns a parent. But are we really at the end of the road for one of the best-loved Channel 4 comedies of recent times?

For co-creator and co-star Sharon Horgan, it’s a bittersweet moment. ‘I think I’d be sadder if we kept going and ran out of ideas,’ she admits. ‘I’d feel worse seeing them onscreen not being at their tip-top best. But it was emotional filming the last scene, and I found myself getting a bit maudlin. But at the same time, I don’t think it’s going to hit me for half a year and I suddenly realise there’s a really big thing missing from my life that made me happy.' There’s no doubt Horgan (who has penned the successful likes of BBC Three’s Pulling and HBO’s Divorce) will find plenty other writing and acting opportunities before she knows it, while Delaney has a number of irons in fires while keeping the door very much open to working with Horgan again. ‘We have nothing in the hopper at the moment, but I have undying respect for her creativity, and we’ve had an amazing time doing this. I’ll be doing some stand-up and I’ve acted in a bunch of other people’s movies that will be coming out in the next year or so. And I’m going to be doing some more writing too.’ Presumably whatever he writes won’t involve putting himself in a neck brace for any length

of time. 'Oh, I hated that, it was awful!’ he admits. ‘Sometimes I’d be in it for the whole day. And then suddenly you get used to it and start depending on it. By the end of the day, my neck would feel weak. So if you’re going to write your own sitcom, don’t put a neck brace scene in for yourself. Or, at least, don’t put 37 neck brace scenes in for yourself.’ When Horgan says she can’t quite remember who first suggested that Delaney should wear a neck brace in some episodes, it immediately feels like it was her idea. ‘These things come out of conversations, and a lot of it comes out of our weird hive-brain. We wanted to have it on for a few episodes, so there’s a physical reminder of the bad thing he’s done. But also, you could have some fun with it, and it’s hard to take someone seriously when they’re wearing a contraption like that.’

As the show reaches its final act, and the characters try to keep their worst instincts at arms’ length, can they possibly wind up happy at the end of all this Catastrophe? ‘They’ve both been boxed about by life a bit,’ states Horgan. ‘There’s less idealism there from Rob, and more resignation from Sharon. And certainly over the course of this series, shit does happen to them. But I really hope that by the time people get to episode six which is one of the worst ones in terms of what we do to them I really hope that when we see them at the end, people feel that they came through it all and still love each other.’

Catastrophe, Channel 4, Tuesdays, 10pm