ItÂ’s been a while since IÂ’ve worked at BBC TV Centre. Probably not since 1998 on anything significant - we did the first series of TMWRNJ there, but the second series was at the Riverside in Hammersmith. IÂ’ve been back for a few meetings and parties and castings, but not for any paid work as far as I recall.
But I can still remember the excitement of working in that building which I’d seen so often on telly as a child. Walking round that fountain that Roy Castle and all those other people had tap danced around seemed faintly magical. Feeling that I was not only allowed to be here, but I was actually MEANT to be here still appealed to the (not insignificant) part of me that has remained thirteen. I was genuinely delighted when I stood near to Jeremy Paxman in the lift and I genuinely made a point of leaning over and touching his brief-case with one of my hands. This incident formed the basis of one of the first things I ever said on the TV series “Fist of Fun”, but it’s important you understand that that was all true.
Of course it was sad when the powers that be decided that we were no longer meant to be there. That it was time for us to go and no longer be able to pretend to tap dance in Roy CastleÂ’s literal foot-steps when we were leaving the building after a few drinks in the legendary (and slightly rubbish) BBC bar.
But then again IÂ’ve had fun doing the stuff IÂ’ve done since the BBC made me clear out my desk (and I didnÂ’t even have a desk) and threw me unceremoniously out with my plastic bag full of no possessions. So IÂ’m not all that bitter. Well not all the way down.
So it was a weird feeling to return to the BBC legitimately to work. Not that it’s on anything that actually exists as a programme and not that I did all that much work, but I went in to meet Armando Iannucci to discuss the possibility of devising a sit-com. As I went to get my pass I planned to say, “Yeah, I’m Richard Herring and I’m meant to be here. I expect you feel stupid for throwing me out now.” Except of course the bloke at the desk wasn’t the one who threw me out and so wouldn’t know what I was talking about. And also I hadn’t literally actually been thrown out by anyone anyway. I’d just not been asked to come back after the last show. So the gesture would have been lost and wouldn’t have made any sense. And would have been further complicated by the fact that to begin with the man had no record of my supposed visit. So I might well have just had to say, “Oh right. I’ll just go home then.”
But one of the other women found a note on her computer and I was allowed in. That was their first mistake!
Funnily ArmandoÂ’s office is right next door to the office that we used for Fist of Fun, so that brought back more memories from almost a decade ago. We kicked around a few ideas for an hour or so. And agreed that IÂ’d go home and make some notes on a couple of them. ThereÂ’s every chance that nothing will come of any of this, but it felt OK to be trying.
When someone slaps you in the face youÂ’ve got to get up and try again. You know, after about five years of licking your wounds.
