Sitcoms

 

Well the words are pouring out at the moment with two new website proposals written, my grandson’s dailyblog diary, my work website needing to be updated and this blog of course. I’ve put the ’embarrassing moments’ e-book on hold for a while because an old friend (who’s a lovely writer with a nicely observed dry wit) and I are doing some outline scripts for a tv or radio-based sitcom. We might well be using some of the red-faced scenarios within the plot lines so I need to keep them fresh and under wraps for the moment. Wouldn’t it be fun to see the most amusing days of your life played out on the silver screen? Anyway a long way to go before that happens.

Advertisement

Horse’s Doovers

Oh dear readers I saw something on tv today that will will live with me forever. No not the end of Spanish tika taka football but an edition of Come Dine With Me set in God’s own comedy land of Halifax, West Riding. It starred a young woman, Caroline, who was truly lovely but with an accent so reet belting Yerkshire she could strip t’skin off a stick uh rhubarb from 10 paces.

Y’a must be kiddin!

There’s a new sit-com just started on the radio. Based in Geordieland it’s called ‘Y’a tarkin shite man’ and it involves the goings-on at a shambolically-managed footie club affectionately known as the Doon, so called because, as the locals put it, that’s where the club’s gannin’ next season.

Chill Bill: Volume 1

I used to think I had the best of jobs when I headed up the marketing team at Cellnet and then topped it when I became Head of Sponsorship at BT. Both roles had their difficult moments: at Cellnet I worked for some really twatty bosses (exceptions BMc and SA) whereas at BT I had a great boss but the bureaucracy was numbing. But that apart I had a ball, working with some great guys and doing some of the most cutting edge, award-winning and, let’s be honest, enjoyable marketing stuff you could imagine. And they paid me. Bliss. But here’s the thing, I think I’ve found the law enforcement equivalent of the very best job in the world. Well in the Met Police. Here’s a clue:

Can we look forward to Ricky Gervais blacking up next?

I used to like watching Ricky Gervais enormously. ‘The Office’ was a brilliant concept and the follow up ‘Extras’ was  extraordinarily ambitious and funny too, when the humour was self-deprecating and aimed very much at his own character Andy Millman or his close circle of hapless associates or when he was pricking the pomposity of his celebrity guests. But to me it became rather uncomfortable viewing when the focus of the humour was re-directed away from the fame-hungry and towards some easier targets like the Down’s boy in the restaurant, the girl with celebral palsy, the dwarf actor and perhaps even the outrageously camp  BBC tv producer of Andy’s programme ‘When the whistle blows’, in the second series.

Nelly and the elephant

Remember this image because it’s absolutely perfect for this piece. It’s about my nan, affectionately known as Nelly, who was indisputably the kindest, warmest, most decent person I’ve ever known and I loved her utterly. She’s no longer with us of course – she died just before Carol and I got married almost 40 years ago. But I think of her often and this evening I had a fond smile at her memory sparked by a clip from tonight’s TV.

embarrassing moments

Well this is the latest in an occasional series highlighting some very awkward red-faced moments in my life. I was reminded of it watching one of those blooper shows on tv earlier today and I promise you it’s absolutely true and very wet….

splash

Well work on the house is going well. Tomorrow we have the pool guys coming to hopefully get the pool lining re-attached to the pool walls and in preparation for this we have to empty the deep end following the recent rainfall and to clean the remainder of the pool. We have no plug as such in the pool so it all has to be pumped out. It’s too much to do by bailing out with buckets so I was hoping to use the technique Ronato showed me when he came down with the tractor; the old syphon trick.