As if to illustrate my point about how tough writing TV shows can be, just after I had finished that blog I got an email from a comedian that I have been script editing a sitcom for to tell me that, after about five years and six different drafts (I have only been involved this year with the last two) they have decided not to proceed with the project. It's annoying for me, but heart breaking for her. All that time and effort and an original idea that has been interfered with by so many people from so many different angles that it's no surprise when it ends up pleasing no one. I do wish TV could go back to the days where an executive would find someone they liked and who they though was talented and let them get on with it. The Monty Python team just went in to a meeting and were given a dozen episodes without anyone really knowing what the show actually was and they just delivered what they wanted to do. Even with Fist of Fun we had very little outside influence beyond Stew, myself and our producer Sarah Smith and with This Morning With Richard Not Judy only very occasionally did an executive come in and ask us not to do a certain joke, in one instance saying it would make it difficult to get another series if we proceeded with a particular gag. But they rarely actually insisted on anything. I believe, like the ridiculous twats we were we actually decided to go ahead with the contentious joke (I don't recall what it was, but something critical of the BBC I think) and sure enough we didn't get another series. Though to be fair, I think Jane Root, the BBC2 controller had long made up her mind about this stupid show that she had inherited and didn't like. The useless twit.
By my calculations it is now 75 days since I had an alcoholic drink, which is over a fifth of a year. Back in 2008 I managed 100 days and my record (apart from the first 12 years of my life, where I drank next to nothing) was 6 and a half months back in 1993. Last time I abstained I cracked on a short holiday in Sicily, where it seemed rude and silly not to enjoy some wine in the sunshine with my beautiful new girlfriend on our first holiday. Coincidentally our short trip to Prague would coincide with the 100th dry day. And there is some lovely beer in the Czech Republic. Let's see if I get that far first, but I have to say that I haven't been missing the booze at all. Only in my dreams where occasionally, as with last night, I will sink a few beers, only to remember too late that I am not supposed to be doing so, or on a whim which I then immediately regret. I am feeling better in myself on the whole, but it doesn't feel like that much of a difference. I lost some weight initially, but now I am maybe only shedding a pound a week (although I did cycle for 80 minutes in the gym this afternoon and last time my dramatic weight loss was as much down to diet and exercise as being tea-total). I am still tempted to see how long I can go without booze. It would be kind of amazing to do a whole year, to not have a single drink in my 44th year, but let's not look too far ahead. I am just 16 days from a quarter of a year and another month on top of that and it's a third. Maybe I will never drink again. If I can get through the Fringe...
In other news, another 50 tickets for the sold out Collings and Herring gig at the Bristol Old Vic on the 27th September should be released soon, as we've agreed to do the podcast in the round. Given we do this seated it might be hard to do the gig with the audience on all sides, but I expect we will come up with a funny solution - I imagine it will be that we will turn our chairs 90 degrees every 15t minutes. I am glad that there is lots of demand from the people of Bristol. We need Londoners to get similarly excited about the gig on Monday and then Cardiff for November 3rd. We don't spend loads of money (or indeed any money) on PR so rely on you spreading the word to like minded idiots. Do come down - these live ones are some of the funnest performances I have ever done (and occasionally some of the most excruciating, but both extremes are quite entertaining). Contact the venues, not me, about when those tickets will be available. Click on the newsletters tab for details of all the stuff that's going on at the moment.
