mostly david ephgrave

Like many people across the UK, I spoilered myself in the wake of Prue Leith’s accidental Twitter announcement of the winner of this year’s Bake Off this morning in advance of tonight’s broadcast, rather than watch it in ignorance, when so many of the nation (my wife included) already knew the outcome. To be fair to myself, I didn’t actually look it up, instead letting my wife tell me when she got home from work, as I didn’t like the thought of her knowing and me not while we watched it together; I in fact predicted who it was and was instantly disappointed, as I’ve not been able to warm to Sophie, what with her cold tone and her know-it-all way. I may have misheard it, but I could have sworn I heard her describe baking as “a calling”, which could have caused me to vomit up a limb; I don’t know how anyone could use terminology like that without a hint of irony. First off, here are a couple of tweets I fired off in response to today's accidental BBC message: 3:...

Another week goes by and another episode of University Challenge goes out, and yet again, none of the contestants are Monkman. The fact my most popular tweet during tonight’s show was a statement to that effect only serves to illustrate that the rest of the nation are with me on this subject; well, at least sixteen people are, at time of going to press. None of the people to pass through the studio to be dismissed disdainfully by the world’s rudest (and consequently,   most unprofessional) presenter have been Monkman since, well, the last time Monkman appeared on the programme himself, and that was at the tail end of the last series; I’m starting to wonder if his over-urgent facial expression and overly asymmetrical fringe will ever grace our screens again. See below for the tweets I posted during tonight’s show: Ulster Vs. St Anne's - Oxford. (30.10.17) 8:03PM: Milliken will murder you and store you in his lock-up. 8:05P...

This weekend has mostly involved binge watching the second series of the excellent Stranger Things, with a brief diversion via the film Halloween, which I always watch with my wife at this time of year as a slightly dark tradition. We’d actually intended on going to watch the film at the Prince Charles Cinema today, but decided not to, as my labyrinthitis made the thought of travelling on the Underground or walking through Central London wholly unappealing; in the end, we opted for watching the DVD at home with a bowl of popcorn and a cat (we didn’t eat the latter). The film was fun, as it always is - though why Jamie Lee Curtis kept leaving knives lying around a briefly unconscious Michael Myers I’ll never know - but the first six episode of Stranger Things (that’s as far as we’ve got at time of writing) is something else, managing to truly rival the first series, with lots of room for character development with no-one wasted, and a great mix of h...

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to climb the bell tower at St Mary’s Church in Hitchin; something I’ve wanted to do for years now, but have always missed out on through not knowing it was open until after the event. It was lovely to be able to see my picturesque home-town from such an advantageous angle. St Mary’s is the largest parish church in Hertfordshire and the tower is unusually high for a church in a town of Hitchin’s size, but it was still surprising just how far you can see, with the view stretching far into the neighbouring towns and villages in the distance. Just the route up the tower was interesting as it afforded views of the inside of church you wouldn’t normally see. It’s a beautiful building it’s easy to take for granted through familiarity, which must have seemed huge back in the day. On the way up, I stopped to talk to a couple of the bell-ringers who were very informative about their pet subject. Apparently the oldest bell is...

As often seems to be the case when Strictly has a theme week, things were a little anticlimactic for me. Don’t get me wrong, there were some great moments - Debbie McGee’s terrific foxtrot for example, which was a joy to behold - but for the most part it was a little pedestrian; mainly in the instances when costumes didn’t match with the style of song a couple was dancing to. That said, those costumes, make-up and lighting were truly excellent, so gold stars all around. As ever, I tweeted along like a childish teenager with nothing better to do; see below for what I said. 6:39PM: How many shit ghost-related puns will Tess Daly gurn her way through this evening? 6:45PM: What, Anton? No sleeves? 6:46PM: "Singer...and face of a brand of condoms, Aston Merrygold." 6:52PM: It's like Tess Daly's not there when she's there. 6:56PM: Janette's make-up reminds me of what my cat looks like w...

Today, in an unprecedented moment for Mostly Comedy, we sold 150 tickets (our total capacity) for Jack Dee’s appearance next month to our mailing list in just fourteen minutes ; a remarkable way to mark our club’s ninth birthday, which was sullied by a slew of complaints we received almost instantly from a few of the punters who missed out. Not all of the emails, tweets and Facebook posts were like this; plenty were balanced and understanding of the fact the gig sold out so fast purely to the huge influx of interest. But while some people quickly grasped the situation, others couldn’t get to grips with it and continued to hammer the point, even after we posted the following statement - all within an hour of the show going on sale - to explain why things fell the way they did. The comment that sticks in my mind the most came in an email from someone who said, “I’m so disappointed in you guys”. That hurt. So much work goes into what we ...

Annoyingly, after some consideration, I had to cancel tonight’s Leicester Square Theatre show too. The reason for this is my labyrinthitis has come back with a vengeance over the last few days. I’d hoped taking yesterday off would help - it certainly did in the sense I didn’t have to go into London and throw myself about while doing my show - but if anything, I’m more dizzy today than I was then. It hasn’t helped that the last few weeks have seen a lot of staring at my computer screen or my phone, primarily to settle details for Jack Dee and Ivo Graham’s appearance at Mostly Comedy next month. It’s a great coup for the club and we’re both very excited about it, but there’s been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between us, their agent and our venue to finalise details, along with setting up the pre-sale and general sale links for the event so they were all ready to go. That, along with the admin for tomorrow’s show at the Market Theatre and my aborted sh...

The one plus-side to the fact I had to cancel my show at Leicester Square Theatre tonight due to the onset of my old foe labyrinthitis (damn my left inner-ear) was I was able to watch this week’s edition of the Bake Off when it went out. I’d still rather have been doing my show, of course, but in reality I couldn’t; I had to abandon a run of it during the day as I felt like I was going to faint - and while I may just have been able to get through it at home, going into London with all my gear in tow when my head was all over the place would have been very difficult; I curse that fateful day back in 2010 when I was in the midst of doing Dreamboats and Petticoats, when the shittiest of shitty conditions first reared its ugly head. While I enjoyed tonight’s GBBO instalment, I was sad to see another of my favourite bakers go, though to be fair, I’ve liked them all this series, with the exception of one (*cough* Sophie *cough*). As Mr Hollywood said himself, this week's res...

Tonight’s University Challenge wasn’t particularly enthralling, if I’m honest. It’s notable that one of my more popular tweets (whatever I mean by ‘popular’) during the broadcast was about my sadness at the lack of a Monkman in this series; despite there having been the odd - ‘odd’ being the operative word - amusing contestant, no one’s come along yet to steal Monkman’s throne; in fact, I’m beginning to wonder if anyone ever will. I guess there’s still time. Until then, I’ll keep watching each week, in the hope someone funny crops up; I’m not entirely sure I’ve grasped what University Challenge is all about. Merton - Oxford Vs. King's - London (23.10.17) 7:32PM: Thomas looks like an android. 7:33PM: "I'm reading for a masters in medieval studies". Useful. 7:33PM: I've got an average age of forty too. 7:34PM: Richard Senior is actually senior. Beautiful. 7:35PM: Oxford's Thomas...

My favourite line from Channel 5’s ace (no card-pun intended) documentary on Paul Daniels last week was, "It took twenty years for Paul to become an overnight success." That’s a statement most people in the performing arts industry can relate too, and a sobering reminder of just how much work and commitment is required to sustain a long career. These things don’t just come overnight, and if they do, that’s not to say they’ll stay. It’s a fickle and often-thankless world to be a part of, save for those few moments when you’re onstage and things fall into place. But Daniels career is testament to the fact that hard work does pay off; in his case, the years of effort he put to the cause prepared him for the success that followed. What underlined this for me while watching the programme was seeing footage of one of Paul’s earliest TV appearances, on the variety show The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club in the mid-1970s. He kicked off his set with exactly the sam...