And behind door number 22... a guide to some music of the more traditional kind
Catherine Munn and Jacob Martin list their Top 5 programmes to watch over the festive period.
And behind door number nine... some dazzling musical delights
The complete arts guide, for week 9
Some people worship cats, while others despise them. I’m neither of these. For me, cats are just a fact of existence which remains value-neutral, like the BBC, the water board or Take That. Having said that, I do have a grudging respect for those wallflower institutions which continue to exist despite what everybody thinks of them – and cats are definitely in that bracket. No matter how many drivers hit them at night, how many weird old ladies lock them in bins, how prized their insides are by the tennis-racket industry, cats have and will endure. Cats have many lives, so it’s to be expected that at least one of those lives will be spent on the silver-screen. Or, failing that, turning tricks for whatever cheap TV work comes along.
The white Persian cat who masterminded a bid for feline dominance by making all humans allergic to dogs, thus making cats man’s new best friend. Epic stuff.
When Christina Ricci’s pet cat D.C. (Darn Cat) isn’t terrorizing her otherwise sedate neighbourhood at night, it was leading the way to rescuing a kidnap victim. Or it did after a series of wacky and exciting escapades.
The cat that was a constant source of misery for Gaylord Focker; flushing broken toilets, escaping from the house, and almost drowning his parents’ pet Chihuahua.
Not technically a cat, but still worthy of honourable mention as an animated prop in a live action film that was so popular it had its own cartoon series and computer game. (The latter wasn’t very good.)
The crew of felines that taught us why everybody wants to be a cat (because a cat’s the only cat who knows where it’s at – whatever ‘it’ is).
Originally contracted as an ogre assassin, the Antonio Banderas-voiced tabby quickly became part of Shrek’s entourage and upstaged the annoying donkey as the film’s main secondary character.
The cat which lives the life every cat dreams about, his days are typically spent eating, sleeping, eating, and tormenting his hapless owner Jon and his even more hapless best friend, Odie the beagle.
There was once a girl called Emily who owned a shop. This shop didn’t sell anything, and how it avoided going into administration is never explained. However, it was home to Bagpuss, a fat, pink-striped cloth cat, who got into all kinds of adventures.
His close friends call him T.C., but to you and me, he’s just Top Cat, who was the leader of a gang of alley cats getting into all kinds of scrapes and avoiding the local enforcer, Officer Dibble.
The housecat of Sabrina the teenage witch and her aunts Hilda and Zelda. Salem was once a regular warlock, but the Witch’s Council turned him into a cat for attempting to take over the world. Always ready with a pithy insult and a caustic wit, Salem was a curious cat. Thankfully, nobody ever killed him.
As much as I love Garfield and the Pink Panther, I'm glad Salem won - I loved him to bits. He was so witty! Then again, I was 10...
Shame that 'Smelly Cat' from 'Friends' didn't make it (even though it is mostly sung about and briefly appears in the music video, it still counts, right?), but then I don't know which one I'd eliminate from your Top 10...
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