''The Café'' is a

British sitcom A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television. British sitcoms have predominantly been recorded on studio sets, while some include an element of location filming. Live audiences and multi-camera ...

written by and starring

Ralf Little Ralf Alastair John Little (born 8 February 1980) is an English actor, writer, presenter, narrator and former semi-professional Association football, footballer. He has worked mainly in television comedy, including playing Antony Royle in ''The ...

and

Michelle Terry Michelle Terry (born 1979, Nuneaton, Warwickshire) is an Olivier Award–winning English actress and writer, known for her extensive work for Shakespeare's Globe, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, as well as her tel ...

broadcast by

Sky1 Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989 ...

. The series premiered on 23 November 2011.

Premise

The series is set in and around a café in

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...

run by generational trio Mary (June Watson), Carol ( Ellie Haddington) and Sarah (

Cast

* Ellie Haddington as Carol Porter *

as Sarah Porter *June Watson as Mary Ellis *

as Richard Dickens *

Phoebe Waller-Bridge Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge (born 14 July 1985) is an English actress, screenwriter and producer. As the creator, writer, and lead star of the comedy series '' Fleabag'' (2016–2019), she won various accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Aw ...

as Chloe Astill *

Kevin Trainor Kevin Trainor is an Irish actor of stage and screen. Early life From Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland, Trainor attended St Colman's College in Newry, where he was a close contemporary of fellow actor Michael Legge, before attending Emm ...

as Keiran Barker *

David Troughton David Troughton (born 9 June 1950) is an English actor. He is known for his Shakespearean roles on the British stage and for his many roles on British television, including Dr Bob Buzzard in ''A Very Peculiar Practice'' and Ricky Hanson in ''Ne ...

as Stan Astill *

Seeta Indrani Seeta Indrani (born 20 April 1963) is a British dancer and actress from London. Biography Performance After graduation as a dancer from the London Contemporary Dance School, Indrani took the role of Cassandra in the original 1981 West End pr ...

as Brenda Kiely *

Brian Murphy Brian Murphy may refer to: Sportspeople * Brian Murphy (Jamaican cricketer) (born 1973), Jamaican cricketer * Brian Murphy (Zimbabwean cricketer) (born 1976), Zimbabwean cricketer * Brian Murphy (baseball) (born 1980), American head baseball coac ...

as Jack Dobson *

Marcia Warren Marcia Warren (born 26 November 1943) is an English stage, film and television actress. On stage, she appeared in '' Blithe Spirit'' as Madame Arcati and '' The Sea'' (2008) at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. In 2022 and 2023, she starred as Que ...

as Alice Dobson * Carolin Stoltz as Ava Lipinski *

Daniel Ings Daniel Ings (born 30 November 1985) is a British actor. He starred as Luke Curran in the Channel 4/Netflix comedy series '' Lovesick'' (2014–2018). Other credits include '' Psychoville'' (2011), '' The Café'' (2011), ''The Crown'' (2016–201 ...

as John Streatfield (series 1) *Jack Roth as Big Issue Frank (series 1) *

Robert Glenister Robert Lewis Glenister (born 11 March 1960) is an English actor. He is best known for his television roles as Ash "Three Socks" Morgan in the crime drama series '' Hustle'' (2004–2012) and Nicholas Blake in the spy drama series '' Spooks'' (2 ...

as Phil Porter (series 2) *Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Jason (series 2) * Charlie Dimmock as self

Production

The series is co-written by two of its lead actors, Ralf Little and Michelle Terry. The first series was directed by

Craig Cash Craig Cash (born 11 September 1960)
Retri ...

, writer and cast member of ''

The Royle Family ''The Royle Family'' is a British sitcom produced by Granada Television for the BBC, which ran for three series from 1998 to 2000, and specials from 2006 to 2012. It centres on the lives of a television-fixated Manchester family, the Royles, com ...

'' (which also starred Little). The series was filmed in

. The first series was filmed in early 2011 whilst the second series was filmed throughout June, July and August 2012. The cafe set was built for the show. Cash and Little both worked together on ''The Royle Family''. Little and Terry met around 2008 whilst performing a sketch together at the Bush Theatre for the Latitude Festival. The title song for the series is the pop standard " Beyond the Sea", which was sung by

Kathryn Williams Kathryn Williams (born 15 February 1974, Liverpool, England) is an English singer-songwriter who to date has released 14 studio albums, written and arranged for a multitude of artists, and was nominated for the 2000 Mercury Prize, Mercury Mus ...

Building and legacy

The 11 m (36 ft) octagonal cafe building - which included a veranda and dovecote turret - was specially constructed, sited on Weston's sea front and after cancellation was put into storage. There was later an application for it be re-constructed and re-located to Hamilton Park in Taunton, Somerset. However, despite planning consent being achieved, the process proved too difficult and time consuming, and instead it was auctioned off for charity eBay, with the money raised going to the Army Benevolent Fund and The Baton charities.

Episodes

Series 1 (2011)

Series 2 (2013)

Reception

Mark Webster of ''Sabotage Times'' had this to say about the doubled-billed premier: "Over the last couple of years or so, Sky One have clearly made a consolidated effort to present themselves as a channel that wants to do its business just like their buddies over on terrestrial, and in giving this gently lapping little comedy space alongside the likes of 'Ross Kemp On..', 'A League Of Their Own' and David Walliams 'Wall Of Fame', they are proving they've got the chops to do it". Tom Meltzer of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' gave the series a mixed review. "In fairness to the writers, their performances are both consistently excellent, and the direction is both naturalistic and nicely understated. But while, as the name suggests, the show owes a clear debt to ''

The Office ''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...

'' in its style, it sadly failed to nick Gervais and Merchant's knack for writing characters, stories and, crucially, jokes".

Cancelled DVD release

The complete first series of ''The Café'' was set to be released in 2013 to coincide with series two's television airing. However, in August 2014 it was decided that the release would be cancelled indefinitely due to poor ratings. It is unknown if or when the series will be released.

References

External links

Official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Café (British TV series), The 2010s British sitcoms 2011 British television series debuts 2013 British television series endings Sky UK sitcoms British English-language television shows Television shows set in Somerset Weston-super-Mare