mostly david ephgrave

I’ve never one to pass up a hashtag word game on Twitter, least of all when it involves my specialist subject: The Beatles. So tonight, in the interest of having an early night as I’ve got Mostly Comedy to contend with tomorrow, I thought I’d share a few tweets I just dashed off for the trending game #SitcomTheBeatles; there aren’t many of them and they aren’t that special, but at least they keep me off the streets: 10:42PM: 2point4 No One. 10:43PM: Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Raymond. 10:43PM: Frasier Blues. 10:44PM: Mrs Brown's Boys. 10:45PM: Rising Damp (with Eleanor Rigsby) 10:46PM: Only Fools on the Hill and Horses. 10:47PM: Wait(ing for God) 10:49PM: Goodnight (Sweetheart). 10:50PM: Yes it (Min)is(ter). 10:54PM: Steptoe and Sun King. 10:55PM: Are You Being For the Benefit of Mr Kite? 11:00PM: Baby's in Blackadder. ...

Kicking a pint glass of water over a pile of receipts wasn’t the most auspicious start to pulling together my records for my tax return this morning, but it was a start nevertheless. I actually managed to get a surprisingly large amount done, after stopping briefly to carefully hang the receipts over a clothes airer one by one. This was my second attempt at drying them out, which was more successful than the first (taking a hair-dryer to them resulted in an improvised leaf-blower effect). The fact I had to cancel a casting today as my vertigo was playing silly beggars may have made for a less potentially lucrative end to 2017, but it did at least allow me to make a self-assessment head-start; HMRC would be proud of me (if I’d had my records in order in time for the end of the tax year last April). One thing I hadn’t accounted for was the Cat Effect; no sooner had I sat on the floor to go through my receipts in more detail than I felt a paw tap me ...

Tonight saw tensions mount in the Strictly studio as the celebs faced their penultimate chance to show the judges and public what they can do. This evening’s spanner in the works was they each had to do two dances instead of one, so had less time to fit in more training during the week. Everyone came out of this excellently, with all manner of different routines showing off their crazy versatility. As ever, I tweeted my little heart out: here's what I said: 6:50PM: Sorry for being pedantic, but it's not really a semi-final, is it? 6:53PM: How many "Fuck off, Tess'" tonight? 6:56PM: Every week, before I go out, I watch a rundown of clips from the public on my iPad, telling me how great I am too. 6:57PM: I think Joe's splendid. 6:57PM: Live singers. Not dead: LIVE. 6:58PM: 6:59PM: Bruno gets a bonus in his pay packet every time he stands up. Not a euphemism. 7:...

Today marks the 37 th anniversary of John Lennon's assassination, which is almost as long as he lived, which I find difficult to fathom. For someone like me, who was born a few months after Lennon died, it’s almost hard to reckon with the fact he ever existed, as his icon-like status practically overwhelms the actual person; the image of John with long hair and granny glasses, or Beatlemania John, or moustachioed Sgt. Pepper John, or 1980 New York City John is as ingrained in the public’s consciousness as the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Marley or - dare I say it - Adolf Hitler. John's infamous “We’re more popular than Jesus now” mid-60s comment has an unexpectedly canny after-taste, which his untimely death only served to reiterate; nearly wiping out his more unpleasant characteristics in favour of an elevated, whitewashed version. It may be different if you’re older than me or you ever saw him in person, but it has always felt strange to have b...

I was only in Stevenage town centre briefly today, to make a connection on the bus to visit my dad, but the few minutes spent there were still a bleak experience. I say this from the point of view of someone who grew up there for the first sixteen-ish years of my life and didn’t want to leave it, which either suggests I was looking at it through some kind of filter inspired by youth, or that standards have seriously dipped since; I would say it’s a little of each, but mostly the latter, as the town needs serious regeneration to shake its lacklustre image. The problem with Stevenage new town is it isn’t, by which I mean it’s barely shrugged off its original 1950s architecture to move with the times and find improvement; this makes for a wholly uninspiring, apathetic atmosphere that it’s very hard to change. I think it takes real energy for anyone to sum up the motivation to want to leave it and move on; that’s not they should have to, but it’s not l...

Yesterday, I finished registering my work-in-progress dates at the Brighton Fringe next May and booked in a performance of ‘Now Who’s a Comedian?’ at the Etcetera Theatre toward the end of January, to plug the gap between now and my show at Leicester Comedy Festival in February , thus setting the wheels creaking into motion for 2018. It felt good to get back on my feet following last week’s unpleasant review, instead of stewing for too long on it, though I won’t deny, it hasn’t left my mind quite yet; it’s frustrating to be grappling with unnecessary self-doubt as I consider my next move, as any creative person has enough of this to contend with, without someone else sticking their head around the door to shout, “You’re SHIT”, before buggering off again. It’s just so tiresome. I’m already struggling to face the idea of working up something new to have to waste time bolstering myself from an outsider’s negative commentary; my brain ignores positive ...

While I’ve generally found the current series of University Challenge a little dull, tonight’s show was more fun than usual. Perhaps it was just Raii’s inspirational beard density that got me going, or Roger Tilling’s particularly enthusiastic voice-overs (though when are they not?). I may have been deeply perplexed by UCL’s complete incapability to identify a song performed by Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave, but that’s the way things seem to go on the programme, if one team’s incapacity to identify a track by the Manic Street Preachers was anything to go by; if a question’s not about something elitist, the contestants basically have no hope. See below for this evening’s Twitter rundown. 8:01PM: Maybe tonight, Paxman will be all warm, cuddly and approachable. 8:02PM: Just looking at Raii's beard makes a woman instantly pregnant. 8:04PM: There's nothing amusing about Roger Tilling proclaiming "Edinburgh Wang...