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The chances of getting my sitcom script commissioned before I head to Edinburgh seem to be diminishing, as I am continually overwhelmed by all the other stuff that needs doing. This morning I had foolishly agreed to be on The Wright Stuff. Formerly this was an easy-ish early morning gig, as it was recorded 10 minutes drive from my Shepherd’s Bush home. But my car was booked for 6.45am and so for the first time in a long time I was woken by an alarm and dragged from a deep sleep at 6.15.
And before you think it’s swanky-dank (and I think that is the phrase you would have used) to be given a taxi from this far away, you don’t get paid for being on this kind of show (as the daily guest anyway) as it’s considered a publicity opportunity. And they get you a car to stop guests being stuck on public transport.
Still, I have to admit it feels pretty swanky-dank even so.
But I was very tired from the off set and The Wright Stuff is a long show where you’re expected to have opinions about stuff that you’ve never considered, so it’s a tough one to do when you really just want to put your head down on the desk and sleep. But after the This Week unpleasantness, it was good to be back on a TV show where the other guests were polite (even when they disagreed) and I was able to give an opinion without infuriating a failed Tory MP.
I don’t think I will be doing this show again though. It’s not worth losing a day to tiredness to and I suspect actually has little use as a PR exercise. Certainly there was no massive spike in Emergency Questions book sales, even though Matthew read from it at several points. I enjoyed the experience. (
you can see a bit of it here) but by the time I was home I was dizzy with tiredness and had to spend the afternoon in bed (largely failing to sleep). At this busy time a day of writing lost is a bit of a disaster. And if I am going to work efficiently and stay healthy I have to learn to turn stuff down. And today I turned down the chance to appear on Aled Jones’ weekend show (which records tomorrow and which is unlikely to have much of a crossover on the Venn diagram comprising of his and my fans).
My wife was equally exhausted (and in some ways growing a human being inside you is just as hard as going on Channel 5 and discussing school exclusions) but we still managed to drag ourselves out of the door to have dinner together at the local pub. And we at least partially overcame our waking coma and looking out on to the countryside behind us was pleasant.
So far the decamp to the sticks has been positive on the whole. We’re not so far away that the travel is too arduous, but my late night Tuesday and early morning Wednesday were made a lot tougher than they would have been.
We watched Game of Thrones. Every time the title comes up on screen I say, “It certainly is a game of thrones”. Because I am funny. My wife is a lucky woman.
RHLSTP with David Baddiel is now up on video here
