Skip to main content

Face in the Crowd.


Eagle-eyed viewers of this Wednesday & Thursday’s editions of Pointless may have spotted the back of my head in the studio audience. If you did, I’d question both your attention span and sanity.

Where's Wally?

This could be the highlight of my career. If nothing else, it proves I know my place. I don’t belong on the stage. I’m more suited to sitting quietly a few yards in front of it, staying out of trouble. It’s a shame it took so long to reach this realisation; if I’d known it fifteen years ago, I could have saved my dad a fortune in drama school fees.

I should have noticed the signs. While I appeared in a number of TV advertising campaigns in the past (one in just a pair of y-fronts), that was nearly ten years ago. These days, I’m much more likely to be found amongst the proles in the crowd than entrusted with the responsibility of addressing them.

It’s like when I went to see Paul McCartney at Maida Vale Studios.


While I'm in excellent company (that's Vanessa Feltz a few heads to my left and Rob Brydon at the opposite side of the frame), I’m still at a safe distance from the entertainment. Were the powers-that-be suggesting I have less pull than an ex-Beatle? Shockingly, this seems to be the case.

Both examples pale in comparison to the biggie: the time I was within spitting distance of the Queen.


That’s definitely one to show the grandkids.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...
Read more

'...I'm Gonna Look at You 'til My Eyes Go Blind."

Over the past week or two, I’ve been on a bit of a Sheryl Crow kick, largely thanks to rediscovering her cover of one of my most-liked Bob Dylan songs. She has one of my favourite female voices, yet despite this, I only own one CD and that’s just a single (her '97 release ‘Hard to Make a Stand’); on that basis, you can only imagine how much of her back catalogue I’d own if I hated her (it would fall into minus-figures). Dylan, conversely, takes up more of my collection than anyone else, save The Beatles and Paul McCartney’s solo work. He’s one of those artists who, when you get him, you really get him - and once I’d tuned into his style as a student, I'd time and again be blown away by his lyrics; he’ll have more jaw-dropping imagery in one track than other people fit in a whole career. These days, I mostly listen to music in the morning when getting ready, and more often than not, this will consist of a suggested YouTube playlist when I’m in the bath, r...
Read more

Stevenage: A (Tiny) River Runs Through it.

If ever a river was mis-sold, it’s the Roaring Meg in Stevenage. I just walked past it on my way to the retail park that has taken its name. They’re similarly uninspiring. The river is less of a roar and more of a dribble; cystitis sufferers produce greater flow. The retail park is soulless. What was once a thriving enterprise is nearly devoid of atmosphere, save an underlying essence of emptiness and despair. With a Toys R Us. When it was first built I was excited. Back then, the thought of a bowling alley, an ice rink, a Harvester and a Blockbuster Video within a small surface area was enticing. I celebrated many birthdays on site. There was an indoor cricket pitch there for a while where I once had a joint party with a friend. Why someone with an almost pathological fear of sport would agree to such a venture is beyond me, but I did it. Now, there’s very little at the Roaring Meg of note. The river would be a metaphor for the shopping ce...
Read more