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I was woken up by the boy at 4 and couldn’t get back to sleep so I walked the dog in the dark to get one job out of the way. It was cold and the rain was biting, but there was hardly anyone around and it was sort of cool, if a little spooky. Though I was still sort of asleep. At one point a car drove past me and then stopped a few metres up the road, next to nothing and I wondered if I was about to be abducted, but after a minute or so the car moved on. Maybe they got a good look at me and decided I wasn’t worth abducting.
I did a bit of work around getting breakfast ready for me and the kids and then drove into London a bit early so I could polish up the last couple of scenes at the studio. I was writing it as the actors arrived. We recorded those two scenes in the afternoon. It’s fun how immediate radio can be.
We got plenty done again. Episodes one and three are now completely finished and we’ve taken a good chunk out of two and six. Alison and Phil who play Margaret and Ken are busy on TV jobs so we haven’t managed to get a recording day with them both in at the same time yet, but we will get everything else that doesn’t involve them done tomorrow and then hopefully we can pick up everything else in a single day.
I got to do a lovely scene with just me and Phil Davis, which is an absolute delight (I get to another shorter one with Alison Steadman at some point too). Although we are having a bit of a nightmare getting all the cast together, it’s not entirely surprising given the calibre of the actors.
When I got home I watched a bit of Who Do You Think You Are, which Phil does the VoiceOver for. It’s weird thinking I was pretending he was my dad a couple of hours before.
There’s a lot of driving to get to Acton and back again each day (if only I still lived in Shepherd’s Bush), but I listen to podcasts on the frustrating drive and today put Adam Buxton talking to Julia Davis (no relation to Phil, I don’t think). I really enjoyed it, even though both people involved seem a little self-conscious about whether they are entertaining or not (of course they are). Julia rarely does interviews (though I had the pleasure of working with her on the Comic Relief podcast crossover), but I thought Adam got some great stuff out of her. As I’ve said before, his personal losses have given his podcasts more vulnerability and thoughtfulness and last year I wrote to him hoping something else would go wrong for him. I was punished with my own minor tragedy (I don’t think a ball equates with a parent, even if my ball was exceptional). Anyway Adam’s podcast continues to be excellent. It’s the best interview podcast in the UK.
We’re doing a bonus RHLSTP at the Phoenix (near Oxford Circus) on 29th November. No guest news yet, but it’s a small venue so if you want to come and see it live then
book here (no filming or streaming for this one I’m afraid)
And the paperback version of the Problem With Men came out today!
Get it here or wherever you get your books. (Why not pick up Would you Rather? at the same time?) The Problem With Men will be up on
gofasterstripe.com soon too.
