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Ouch. Once again up at 5.15am, though annoyingly after making the noise to rouse us, Phoebe went back to sleep til 7.30. But I sat on the stairs outside her room and finished the first draft of my AIOTM script. But was concerned about how I’d make it through this long RHLSTP day. But somehow I kept it going. And though I felt my energy dropping a little bit in the second podcast, I had a really fun day and I think we got two more excellent podcast in the can.
I’d had a lot of fun watching episodes of Murder in Successville which star my first guest, Tom Davis and experienced a wave of nostalgia as I watched a best of compilation of Who Dares Wins. And late in the day I got hold of a copy of Tony’s autobiography, “No Cunning Plan” which is an enjoyable read. He wrote about being in the original cast of Oliver! and how the young Lionel Bart was a happy millionaire, perfumed (which was unusual for a man at the time) and throwing his money around. I encountered him (from a distance) in the early 1990s when he lived about Oddbins in Acton, having blown all his fortune and signed away the rights to Oliver. It was strange to hear about him young and vivacious and successful. Thankfully Cameron Mackintosh gave him some money after a successful run of Oliver! which must have helped. But it’s a lesson of the traps and insecurity of show business and how you can never be sure what’s coming.
It was great to meet both guests for the first time (I think I may have been at some political meeting with Tony once but we didn’t interact and I don’t even remember what the cause was or why I had been invited). Tom is an imposing force, 6ft 7 tall and maybe just as wide, but he’s got a goofiness to him that is very likeable, plus a charming sense of disbelief that things have gone so well for him, though it’s easy to see why they have. And I didn’t know if Tony would be a bit grand and theatrical or not, but he was very down to earth, proud of his achievements and his knighthood, but happy for me to lightly take the mickey. I should be getting good at this rubbish after 130 episodes, but I do think the last couple of series of the show have been pretty strong and the last couple of weeks especially enjoyable. I am quite good at adapting the style of the chat to the guest, whilst still slipping in some inappropriateness and was not averse to asking the knight of the realm if he’d ever tried to suck his own pork sword. Tony has an amazing memory too which some younger guests have not had and was even able to give me a story about the Time Team episode that was set in Cheddar, that I am pretty certain he’s never told before. There was a lot of love in the room for him and what was nice is that lesser known shows like Maid Marian or Fat Tulip got as much warmth as his more famous role (but we did get some great stuff about Blackadder too). As Tony is growing a moustache for movember, we’ve decided to bump this one forward and it will be out next week. You can sponsor his laughable face furniture here - https://uk.movember.com/mospace/13478805.
I also had fun interviewing the Mabon brothers before the show. They aren’t anyone you should necessarily have heard of, but were kind enough to donate a wadge of cash to the kickstarter in return for a 15 minute interview on the stage of the theatre. I think only two lots of people went for this reward, which I am surprised about because although it was expensive, that is quite the gift for a RHLSTP fanatic. I had worried these might be awkward, but they were a lot of fun and the brothers learnt some stuff about each other as well.
I was pretty knackered by the end of it all but Tony hung around for a drink and we chatted some more. He seemed to have enjoyed himself. But the nice thing about this podcast is that I only have people on that I like and respect and my aim (in spite of all my cheekiness and rudeness) is for them to have a good time. Obviously that doesn’t always work. But it doesn’t go wrong very often either. It’s been a while since a night of RHLSTP hasn’t left me feeling a little bit warm and happy. Like I say, it’s partly because I am getting better at doing them, as I fucking should be.
Thanks for supporting them. I hope we can keep doing them for ages.
Oh and good luck world over the next day or so. We're going to need it. Here's the ever brilliant Peter Baynham on the subject. All I can say is that I am delighted his dad is dead.
