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Back home by 11.30am with a journey untroubled by car fires. I watched Simon Farnaby in his documentary about the discovery of Richard III on All4 which is a fascinating watch. I suspect the producers thought they would have a funny show about some loveable fruit loops looking for something that was impossible to find - maybe choosing a comedian to host so that he could raise an eyebrow. But instead they got a major scoop and a brilliant documentary which subverts itself, but also shows the amusing confliction of the Ricardians who strongly believe that Richard III was not a hunchback, having to process the fact that the skellington they have found and believe to be him, has a twisted spine. There's a funny bit where they attempt to transport the bones with royal dignity by draping the king's colours over a cardboard box, but the archaeologists don't want to get involved in case they compromise their scientific rigour and the bones aren't Richard and Philippa Langley - the woman whose belief and research fuelled this find- doesn't feel she should do it and instead a slightly kooky Ricardian historian says he doesn't mind doing it, shakes out the standard that Philippa has carefully folded in a comical fashion and then drapes it over the box and walks the box slowly to the car.
But apart from their belief that the disabilities of Richard were invented, the Ricardians are vindicated. They are a bit batty and wild or dead-eyed, but they totally win. And Farnaby, maybe thinking initially this assignment would be more Come Dine With Me than moment of history is swept along in it all. It's transcendental!
So much to talk to this great man about in Monday's RHLSTP. It hasn't sold very well, unbelievably, so if you're around in London on Monday do pop down to the theatre. You'll be able to get tickets on the door.
Catie and I both exhausted from our respectively tough weekends and under the weather with this bug. We were meant to be going to see Bridget Christie in Northampton tonight, but the venue is closed (it will be open again for my gig on 9th November, I am assured, so I'd better books some guests). But we went on a date anyway, heading down to teh Ivy in St Albans, where I managed to eat pretty healthily. We'd been on the point of ducking out of it beforehand, but it was the tonic we needed. It's hard to make time for each other when you've got kids and are working hard, but it's pretty much essential to do it. Remarkably we still seem to love each other after all this time - it's pretty much 16 years since we first properly connected and we were an item within a couple of months of that date. Given my own failure to have a relationship that lasted over two years before that point, this is a remarkable achievement for me. And given what a useless human being I am, it's an even more remarkable achievement for Catie.
