Warming Up

A momentous day.

I finally met Charley Boorman and shook his hand and the world did not end.

After all the weird coincidences and not just of us having the same face, I finally see we are two different men, though it was a bit distracting whilst I was interviewing him and thinking “Is that me?”

I actually interviewed him twice today, firstly in a studio in Soho for my new podcast “Can I Have My Ball Back?” and then at the Leicester Square Theatre for RHLSTP. Luckily there is enough amazing stuff in his life to mean we managed to talk for around two hours without really repeating ourselves.

When I arrived at the studio the man working there said “Hello Charley”, which was a good start. He wasn't joking. Charley arrived shortly after me (and the man didn't say “Hello Richard” so we can't look that much alike) and I was surprised to find out that he was more or less the same height as me. I'd heard he was close to 6ft, but he was only a touch taller than me (though he has lost a little leg length after his many motorbiking accidents). He said that he had never been mistaken for me (I have had a good three or four occasions when people have thought I was him) and I don't think he really knew who I was and I suspect was put out that I thought I looked like him (even though I am much more handsome than him, despite looking exactly like him).

The reason I was talking to him twice was that in another bizarre twist it turns out that he has one only ball too, having also lost his right ball to testicular cancer.  Unlike me he opted for a prosthetic, though he has found it irksome as he can sit on it when motorcycling and it feels like he's ripped his scrotum off every time (testicles retract into the body a bit when you're scared, but of course prosthetics don't). The way he found out he might have an issue is also hilarious, but I will leave that for the podcast.

He talked very openly and knowledgably about it all and was a brilliant first guest for this new series (it will be a few months before this comes out).

We parted ways after the interview as he had to go and make some calls before the show. Ben the producer and I went one way and he went the other, but when we got to Shaftesbury Avenue (and partly because of roadworks making access difficult) we passed Charley again. We were outside a restaurant and I really hoped someone had seen Charley and said “There's Charley Boorman!” and then seen me coming the other way and saying “There he is again."

Charley was then, as expected, excellent value on RHLSTP, though I failed to get a photo of him and Terry Christian together in the interval (I'd planned to use that as the photo for Terry's episode). I don't think I've met Terry before and his is a fascinating story too. It was sadly a bit quiet in terms of ticket sales, but I hope anxious RHLSTP fans will start returning to the theatre soon. Next week is another cracker with Jamie Demetriou and Samira Ahmed. Still some tickets left (though only a couple for Armando and Rosie the week after. All details and links here.

Or buy the live streams (you can still buy the ones we've done too) here.