mostly david ephgrave

I very much enjoyed BBC4’s remake of the Hancock’s Half Hour episode The New Neighbour, which aired as part of their current Lost Sitcoms season tonight. I’ve written here before of how excellent I thought the Kevin McNally-fronted radio series The Missing Hancocks was, thanks largely to McNally’s note-perfect performance as ‘The Lad Himself’. His attention to detail is extraordinary, managing to get Tony’s intonation, timing and mannerisms right, without descending to the point of becoming a one-dimensional impression. It was clearly a labour of love from a huge fan of the man I’m also a huge fan of, and must have been the dream job. Likewise, Kevin Eldon’s reading of Bill Kerr and Robin Sebastian’s of Kenneth Williams in the radio series were eerily spot on. The other huge point that rang throughout tonight’s programme was just how exceptional Galton & Simpson’s writing is. Their choice of language is so vivid and creative, and has barely age...

I'm finding myself sucked in by a documentary about Dusty Springfield on BBC4, when I really should be going to bed.  It's a programme I've seen before, possibly around the time it was first shown in the late Nineties (around the time when Elton John's hair was its finest bowl shape), yet despite being vaguely familiar, I'm still drawn in, largely due to the wonderful tone to her voice, her effortless performances and the 1960s backdrop, which plays firmly into my court; I was born in the wrong era.  I'll keep it brief, but the documentary has reminded me of a specific memory I have of my second professional acting job, touring in the Bill Kenwright show 'The Roy Orbison Story'. One of the songs I had to play on the piano in the show was the epic quasi-Bond-like 'I Close my Eyes and Count to Ten', which has a ridiculously overblown exposing introduction. I only had a week to learn the whole musical (which also incorporated playing Please Please...

I thought Jo Brand’s recent BBC4 sitcom Going Forward was pitch-perfect. I have a penchant for comedy that’s naturalistic and bleak; there’s something strangely uplifting about finding humour where it shouldn’t naturally be. Life is frequently framed by awkwardness and mundanity (or mine is, at least) - even at its worst moments; if Eric Idle can be optimistic whilst being crucified then so can we. I watched it with a tinge of jealously, as it’s something I would have loved to be in. It was full of understated, well-observed, laugh-out-loud moments; much like its predecessor Moving On, which is worth digging out if you haven’t seen it. That’s provided you don’t mind watching something that’s not afraid to be dark; this probably says a lot about my mindset.