mostly david ephgrave

According to Twitter wisdom, twenty-five years ago today, the satirical send up of the media 'The Day Today' first aired on BBC2; a programme that had a huge influence on me as a teenager and I still love to this day. Until recently, I was sure I was introduced to the work of Chris Morris & Steve Coogan et al by a friend from the drama group I used to go to at the Gordon Craig Theatre, when he lent me his copy of the radio version of 'The Day Today' - 'On the Hour' - along with radio episodes of 'Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge' as a kid. I was absolutely certain of this and would have staked my life on it until I happened to see this friend again when he came to one of my shows a couple of years ago and asserted afterwards that I introduced them to him . Now I don't know what to think: it's as if the very fabric of my existence has been metaphorically ripped at source; that, or I've just got a shit memory. Ultimately it d...

Today, I stumbled across a post on social media describing me as "unique and not for everyone". NEVER GOOGLE YOUR OWN NAME. "The Internet gave, and the Internet hath taken away"; so said The Bible, with a tiny alteration. While on its own, the adjective ‘unique’ sounds impressive and like a compliment, the kindness is soon stripped away when followed by those other four slap-in-the-face words. ‘And not for everyone’ may as well read ‘and not for many’ or ‘and not for you’. They could have just used the word ‘crap’ four times: one in standard font, one in italics, one bold and one underlined. They could even have increased the size of the font for each word in increments of ten; as Ronnie Corbett said in that iconic Frost Report sketch, “I know my place”. Such is the joy of the World Wide Web; for anyone who likes you, there are a hundred and eleven who’d like to punch you in the stomach. The fictional MP Peter Mannion in Armando...