dongle 1 December 2009
Huge internet problems with me dongle, darlins (ooh MATRON)…sorry for the loss of transmission. No idea what was wrong with the wretched thing – it said it was connected then flatly refused to work. Reminds me of when we were filming ANGELA’S ASHES and a pair of small boychild twins were used to play 2 of the McCourts learned to talk while on the set and their first words were a NO each – they didn’t want the showbiz lifestyle and they let it be known…
Speaking of showbiz, I went to the last performance of a play on Saturday with some pals in it and produced by Landmark who I have had the great fortune and pleasure of working for and with on 2 previous occasions and very good it was too (KNIVES IN HENS by David Harrower) but I would have to say I found it honours stuff. It was all to do with how we name things and what a person needs to know to grow as a human being and how some people don’t want to learn at all. I was explaining to our Runner/3rd AD, Lou, that it was very beautiful and affecting but I didn’t understand quite a lot of it, to which she said ‘just like life, so’ – how right she was and is!
delight 30 November 2009
The Mrs Doyle Angel is done and left in Dublin for collection. I think she is very pretty, if not downright beautiful, but I am horribly biased as I know the ‘Artist’.. I would have been shanghaied entirely without the extra bit of hair given me by the SHAMELESS make-up department to pad out the back of the 7 foot 4 inches angel’s head, though, as the wig I have attached (which is the one and only Mrs Doyle wig) was made for me when I used to be a 5 foot 4 inches angel (now who knows what kinda creature I am – the divil herself if you listen to some…). I do have pics on my phone, taken in front of the Go On lights (some of you will remember that there are 3 of those in my ‘new’ dining area now) and they set off her lovely wings which have go on go on go on writ all over ‘em. I don;t know how to get them onto here though..as yet…I’ll try for that soooooon and I hope you love her as much as I do. And here’s hoping she fetches a pile of wonga for the childrens’ charities she’ll be auctioned for. I am finding ithard even now to be without her (am back in Mancunia, angel-less, and it’s not as magical as being with-angel, I can tell you)
jeraboam 28 November 2009
I had dinner at my lovely Vic Smurfit’s house last night and it was just fab. Great to catch up with such a good friend and share a lovely prize she won recently. It was a Jeroboam of champagne! I swear i have never seen as big a bottle and it seemed to have endless supplies of fizz within it. And it beats all of the silverware and trophies I’ve ever seen too by way of a prize – okay, okay, I’d still love a BAFTA for something (anything!) but that big bottle really was something else. We gave it a mighty send off if my poor head is anything to go by today. It had to be left outside to door to chill because it was too big for the fridge. Struck me that it would be a awful thing if it had been corked – so much champs would have been tainted and undrinkable, and an even bigger disappointment than usual as the bottle holds so much but happily it was not the case (even if my head disagrees with the word happily there just at the moment).
There has been a huge response from you all about the axing of JAM AND JERUSALEM – I will pass all your lovely comments on to the magnificent Jennifer Saunders. For those of you who were wondering, it was the BBCs decision not Jen’s – she loved writing that series as much as we loved loved LOVED being in it. I think it would indeed be great if you all complained to the BBC also – it may do no good but at least they’ll know the strength of feeling out there for the show and how poor a decision we all think it is to be rid of it.
AW NO! 26 November 2009
Well, the bad news we all feared and sad it is too – there will be no more JAM AND JERUSALEM. It’s a blow, I’ll not lie to you. That was one of toppest jobs ever as far as I’m concerned and it breaks my heart that there’ll be no more. I think it’s not a great decision on behalf of the BBC but, hey, what do I know, eh?? Still, I got to work with such a brilliant set of people on it and I am horribly proud of the result. I will miss it hugely.
dvd 25 November 2009
News today that sales of FATHER TED dvds (and presumably videos in there too?) have just topped the 2 million mark = hooray! To be honest I get feck all (tuppence ha’penny) out of those but there’s always the lovely little cheque you were never expecting that turns up just when you’re in extremis and it’s the TED sales so many many thanks to you all for buying them and enjoying them too (more to the point).
Writing away and I THINK it’s good stuff. I am just MAKING myself do it whenever I have a chance even if I don’t feel particularly inspired – the old 99% perspiration kicking in now…
Still loving the little Manchester pad. I cooked a chicken dinner for myself just now and that’s a total thrill compared with buying cold, cooked chicken from a supermarket fridge and having it sat at an anodyne desk in a hotel room (have no idea if I have understood the meaning of anodyne there and therefore used it in any way properly!)
All I lack is a great cat to share this present life with (The Husband visits and is aprt of it but, although a furry creature, he ain’t The G)…Herself would have had opinions and shared them and I miss her, frankly.
all day 24 November 2009
I’m looking out at the grey Northern sky and thinking I’ll have to emerge from my little cocoon soon and deal with that day out there. Mostly I need to check out the 24 hour gym that has opened down the road – don’t get me wrong it’s not that I have visions of visiting it when sleep is elusive in the wee small hours (as you all know it has been over the last while) just that there is no deadline in the evening on it for getting in a bit of exercise. I have various weights and stretchy things here in the flat that I grab hold of every so often but I miss a good stretch of the legs so need to get some treadmill action back in the frame.
Writing away all the while, though I wish it was happening a bit more quickly and perhaps more wordily (as in WORDAGE – I want WORDAGE and to rack ‘em up on the word counter…)
Emma, our wonderful Head of Make-up on SHAMELESS is doctoring Mrs Doyle’s one and only wig and I will attach it to the Angel at the weekend, finish all of the painting and release her into the charity community. From a creative point of view, then, that’s something I’ll have done, finished and delivered and I hope will be an inspiration to me for other ends of things (this darn novule!)
off 23 November 2009
Yup, I took Sunday right off – it was just going that way. I was treated to a top Sunday lunch with Johnny Bennett (who plays Liam Gallagher in the series) and his lovely family – top food, company and, yes, scoopage (actually, say it out loud, lashings of wine). Dear Lord but it has taken quite a while to get going today…So hands up, no blog, just hadn’t got it in me. Still don’t, it seems. Brain is a tad dead which is bad news as there is much to be done – stories to be told, words to be wrestled out and onto this laptop.
Today I am having my first full day in the new lil flat and while hoping to write like a demon/woman possessed inspiration is dropping slow…still, it HAS to be done…
Grey, grey, wet Manchester day so conditions are actually ideal for getting work done…if only I had a worthy thought at all in my poor head…am hoping mint tea and aspirin will provide all I need to get stuck in…wish me luck!
true 21 November 2009
Manchester is looking truly lovely with all of the seasonal lights up – I am back to thinking it’s a foxy town now that I have my own place and feel a bit native.
Took a bus to Burnley today (great title for something: The Bus To Burnley…) to see Villa play the local team. We were fairly brutal in the first half and I wonder if I was the reason…basically myself and The Husband were passing by the ground as my team’s bus pulled up and in the rain (hood up and glasses steaming) I spoke in to Martin O’Neill, manager extraordeinaire – when I introduced myself from this small distance he was understandably terrified (something I realised in hindsight) and seemed to be checking me for a weapon but I THINK he understood that I was unarmed and perhaps even who I insisted I was by the time he fled into the ground…I did not deliver a win to the home side (as is my wont these day) so phew, and a draw was what we all left with. It was lashing rain the whole way through and I now feel hardcore and true to the Beautiful Game to have sat through it and not just a glory seeker who goes to the big games and leaves a little smug…
sore 20 November 2009
Ah yeah, the body is now beginning to complain about the pilates…worse tomorrow, I should think…
Idiosyncrasies of the flat = smoke alarm still functioning though I thought I had killed it off by removing it (cos it was beeping) from the bedroom – er, NO, still working veh veh well as it went off as I cooked a steak for Himself this evening. A new neighbour says it happens in all the flats all the time…hmmm, another thing to ‘look forward to’…
MAnchester looking lovely in anticipation of Christmas.
Off to Burnley on the morrow to see some football – dear lord let Villa win cos if that doesn’t happen it means I really am always a lucky charm for the home side…and I’ll be excommunicated by the Villains…
pilates 19 November 2009
Sally Carman who plays Kelly, lewd lady of the parish of Chatsworth, has organised a weekly pilates class and I have been presss ganged into attednign (she is formidable and in fairness I am hoping for a bit of definition and tone on the slimmer body I now have). I have to say out loud it ain’t natural. As I fall over each and every time (I am clearly an unbalanced woman…) I ask aloud ‘tell me again what animal in nature does this??’ I have yet to receive an answer. Last week I felt grand after the class, and a bit achey the following day (in a kinda good way) and then on Saturday morning I had to roll out of bed as to sit up and get out was an impossibility. We have just had this weeks class so I am already getting ready for a weekend of looking like an elderly old dear who is carrying an injury.
As for the football match France V Ireland (World Cup Qualifier) – we were ROBBED and Thierry Henri, who was a bit of a poster boy for me till now, is no longer welcome in my affections…HANDBALL!!!!! The sooner there is video playback in football to aid referees and linesmen make correct decisions, and to correct wrong ones (as there is in rugby) the better.