"He Had A Cold When He Drew That"

So says the Eighth Doctor of a Leonardo Da Vinci sketch seen in the TV Movie. Another set of annotations for the Bad Teeth Doctor Who: Draw My Life video that I wrote.

The Eighth Doctor played by Paul McGann, with kisses on his cheeks.

The Doctor is wearing Bruce's sunglasses and with the Master as a snake from the TV movie. If this seems sparser than the others it's because it didn't seem appropriate to mention his audio appearances as much as I love them.

Golden Years

Last night, Fifty Years Of BBC2 Comedy celebrated fifty years Of BBC2 comedy.

A talking heads-style documentary recounting anecdotes about the likes of Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones, The Day Today, The League Of Gentlemen, Knowing Me Knowing You With Alan Partridge, Big Train, M*A*S*H*, Open All Hours, Goodness Gracious Me, Shooting Stars, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Porridge, Psychoville, Inside Number 9, Marion And Geoff, The Office, Extras, The Fast Show, Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister, The Likely Lads, Miranda and Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle.

Astonishingly, one of the clips from Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle features yours truly for just less than a split second. This means that according to this programme, I have made a bigger contribution to BBC2's half century of comedy than Felix Dexter, Gregor Fisher, Richard Herring, Simon Munnery and Emma Fryer combined. Which is ridiculous.

The programme is available here to UK viewers for the next seven days or so depending on repeats.

Twitter Twatter #5

February's twittering:

And then I retweeted this letter, but to save any eye strain here's a bigger photo of the letter itself:

"All You Kangs Can Do Is Draw Wallscrawls On The Subject All Over The Place"

This is the Seventh Doctor talking about graffiti in Paradise Towers. More annotations for the Bad Teeth Doctor Who: Draw My Life video that I wrote.

In a move that objectifies women even further, the disembodied knockers now belong to the Rani played by Kate O'Mara as seen in The Mark Of The Rani, Time And The Rani and Dimensions In Time. They are joined by Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor. Also shown here are The Doctor's musical spoons also from Time And The Rani, Ace's baseball bat from Remembrance Of The Daleks, the Kandy-Man from The Happiness Patrol and the Doctor's question mark umbrella, which is a strong contender for the best prop ever made.

Burdett-Coutts At Home

Burdett-Coutts At Home was a version of the play about the life of Angela Burdett-Coutts that became Holly Lodge. It was the first time I played William Bartlett.

It had many similarities and involved many of the same cast. Burdett-Coutts At Home had a narrator that didn't make it into the latter show. The narrator was played by Ram John Holder of Desmond's fame. I commented on this at a rehearsal before I met him and was told not to mention it as it was a subject he didn't like talking about. The day arrived when he was set to join us and I was all set to bite my tongue. The door opened and in he came wearing his TV character's trademark Porkpie hat.

The veil for Angela and William's wedding scene belonged to the director and was a family heirloom of great age. In order to be able to lift the veil I had to lower it. During one of the performances the actress playing Angela turned to me I lowered the veil and my eyes was drawn to huge tear over one of her eyes. We turned out to face the audience and they must all have been staring at the eye busting forth. We made our vows and I lifted the veil as gingerly as possible.

Note to anyone reading this with a family heirloom of any sort. Never, and I do mean never, lend it to anyone for use as a prop or costume in theatre production. Just don't.

I enjoyed Burdett-Coutts At Home and I'm thankful that it lead to Holly Lodge.

"I Don't Know Much About Art, But I Know What I Like"

So says the Sixth Doctor in a rare moment of humility in The Two Doctors. More annotations for the Bad Teeth Doctor Who: Draw My Life video that I wrote.

Peri's knockers are joined by by Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, the Borad from Timelash, a Vervoid from the third segment of The Trial Of The Time Lord and a falling exercise bike from the beginning of Time And The Rani.

Orchard Record

HRC have released another video, this time for their Performing Arts course, featuring footage of me directing students during a rehearsal of The Cherry Orchard:



I should probably point out that I have never taught any of the interviewees, and so any and all of the lovely things said about their tutors do not necessarily apply to me.

Copper Load Of This

Following the High Sheriff's award ceremony, we were invited to do it all again. This time by the Hertfordshire Police Force.

Here we are with the headteacher of a local school (a local school with a fantastic string quartet no less) and the Chief Constable, who presented us with another pair of certificates.

The photos were taken by a forensic photographer, which must make for an interesting change of pace.

Immediately after the award ceremony, we had an unfortunate encounter with David Lloyd, our duly-elected Police and Crime Commissioner. A vile man who refered to domestic violence as "DV", presumably to save himself vital seconds. I was appalled and it must have shown on my face, but he interpreted it as confusion and sought to explain his handy acronym. He went on to compare the Police Force to a business and by extension saw himself as its managing director. We did not get on.

"We Can Form The Glimmerings Of An Idea As To What The Pictograms May Mean"

The Fifth Doctor was apparently non-committal on the subject of art, so this is a line from Snakedance said by a character called Ambril. Here are some more annotations for the Bad Teeth Doctor Who: Draw My Life video that I wrote.

Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor is shown here with his customary stick of celery, Concorde from Time-Flight, a cricket ball (in space) from Four To Doomsday and London with the great fire underway from The Visitation.

Here he is joined by an approximation of Nicola Bryant's breasts drawing focus in The Caves Of Androzani.