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Easing myself back into work and hopeful my recent flirtation with the void will give me a bit of focus, so I do more writing and less playing Homescapes. Given I spent most of the afternoon trying to write a jingle for a new Twitch of Fun character (no news yet as to whether Ian Twitch is giving us a new series, but the writing team and I are working very hard on the next 30 scripts just in case), I will probably carry on wasting my precious gift of life. But it's nice to dream.
In the process of filming the new puppet a bit for the animator to add him to the credits I came up with his name and (I think) his voice. I know most of the puppets basically sound the same, but there has to be an individual spirit behind each one, at least. And I seem to be only able to find that when there is a camera on me (except for the King of the World who came out of the box, said he was the king of the world and that was that.
I recorded a Taskmaster podcast for the new series with silly Ed Gamble. The first episode of series 11 is great and sets up the new team very nicely, though it's a bit weird to watch the opening titles and not be in them any more. How quickly they move on. How dare they? Also I am 10 weeks away from passing on my literal crown. You literally get a crown. And it's made of gold and diamonds. They don't mention it on the show because they don't want the winners to get burgled. It's sort of weird that they have wasted so much of their budget on this. And annoying that I not only get to keep it, but my contract dictates that I must never wear it so the secret will not get out.I can't even write about it in my blog or I will be fined for the cost of the crown. It's crazy.
I like all the new contestants, but I hope Sarah Kendal will triumph. I know her the best, having spent four Edinburghs sharing a flat with her, but she's also a great comedian, story-teller and actor. She rocks. Also she's in seat 5 where all the cool kids sit. I guffed into it a lot so that she'd not be able to forget I'd been in there.
The podcast is out on Thursday, straight after the show. There is some speculation about the Champion of Champions show. It's great to be given another chance to go back into the house, but I am very much treating it as a fun holiday. The standard of the opposition (apart from Ed) is so high that I am hopeful they will all cancel each other out and a couple of sparks of luck or genius will somehow get me over the line. Either that or me looking pitiful and saying I've only got one ball will somehow melt the Taskmaster's heart and make him give me the points. Of course, it will only result in him giving me one point for every testicle I have in each task. But what a joy it will be, whenever it is (and I don't even know) to sit in that studio, maybe not even socially distanced and be friendily bullied by that monster.
