7632/20571
I was unable to make the most of my extra hour in bed, with no kids around, and woke up stupidly early anyway. Which was OK because I needed to walk up to BBC TV Centre for Sunday Brunch. It was my ninth appearance - just one away from receiving a gold mug (hopefully solid gold for all the effort I've put in), but as long and weird as this show is, I like doing it, partly due to it being surreal and odd, but mainly becuase you get to eat great food made by top chefs. And sit with an unlikely array of celebrities, today including Richard Hammond and Leona Lewis.
I don't generally mix with celebrities and so aside from Rimmer and Lovejoy I hadn't met any of the people on the show before, but they all seemed very pleasant and Hammond was friendly and funny.
None of the show seemed real and I like to imagine that the hosts are in this studio 24/7, coming up with insane game formats and questions with an eclectic mixture of notable people and Channel 4 just happens to screen this random 3 hour segment.
I was so tired that in the interview I failed to mention anywhere where I was going on tour and struggled to think of guests who were coming on, but we did get to show a clip of the podcast and got to mention the book. I wonder how many people who might like my stuff actually watch this show (on Monday night I asked my audience at RHLSTP who had seen the show and there was only one person who shouted that they had - and they were sitting near the front so must have bought their ticket before the show was broadcast). But like I say, I get to feel like I am having an odd dream, whilst eating some nice risotto, so all is not lost.
At one point Lovejoy seemed to suggest that Hammond had no discernible skills which I thought was bold of him, just in case it made anyone wonder the same about him (or to be fair, quite a few of us in that room), but he got away with it.
I ate my food, avoided the segment with the cocktails (they actually took me out of the studio, though I would have been OK to sit there whilst others drank them) and then headed back to the Westfield to pick up my car.
I went to pick up Ernie from his grandparents. He'd seen a bit of the show. He doesn't yet think it's weird to see his dad on TV. But it is. As I am hardly ever on. Sunday Brunch will soon be the TV show that I've appeared in most episodes of!
