ARG! · 11 hours ago
This is a note from the Husband to say that the Wife is going insane because her internet connection is not working and she can’t blog…think she may dictate a blog tonight if the dongle is still sulking..
dandy · 2 days ago
My favourite name for a pub at the moment is The Dandy Cock – thanks to our lovely cab driver in New Mills last night for that.
buxton · 2 days ago
Well, hello, I visited Buxton today – a place that was merely the name on a bottle of water before. Turns out it’s pretty. Grand, so. And nice for me cos I got recognised from SHAMELESS and not TED.
And then we went to New Mills and they still have a sweeitie factory there that makes Love Hearts = wehay! (and refreshers for those of us old enough…)
odd · 4 days ago
I am returned to Manchester and it’s all a bit odd. Basically, my brother, Ian, and sister in law, Curly, got cheap flights from Ireland and are visiting. This would make perfect sense normally, in as much as I spend a lot of the year here, BUT as we have finished filming the series I don’t actually have that much reason to be in situ. So, it’s a bit like I live as a native in Manchester now as well as work here some of the time. However, as luck would have it I did have a bit of dubbing to do today so I got to go to the regular studio for that and it has made being here more ‘normal’ somehow. Odd, though.
I have instructed the visitors that I am not let out until I have written my daily quota for the novel, then I am allowed a treat. In other words I am putting adults in charge…well, more or less adults….
I believe a meteorite broke up in the sky over Ireland a few nights ago and landed near Monaghan and was a spectacular sight. It’s not some thing everyone will see in their lifetime. Just as I confessed to a gobsmacked recording studio today that I have never been in an IKEA – fact. To be honest I don’t think I need anything from there as I have plenty of shizz in my life already and don’t need more ‘things’.
series · 5 days ago
Gail Renard is a mine of information and opinion and for this I give much thanks. She’s a writer and understands the leaving of projects and moving on and why it might be heightened on our artificial, showbiz world (though it’s really only a reflection of our ordinary lives, a little turned up). Anyhow she tells me that David Hyde Pierce, after Frasier finished, said that everybody tells you how to get a series, but no one teaches you how to say goodbye to a beloved one. How true.
I may not have seen the worst of the farewells as apparently there has been an exodus each day from the unit base with less and less people to say goodbye to and that would have finished me off altogether. Mind you, I also hear talk of a canteen full of the Series 8 writers throwing out ideas, so let the excitement begin to niggle again, eh?
I am writing myself, that Difficult 8th Novel, and it’s moving along…slowly, but along…
function · 6 days ago
A great thing about being in Dublin, however briefly, is that we have a great big screen now in one of the rooms so the watching of movies is well in order. Tonight we got INGLORIOUS BASTARDS out but left it a bit late to watch as it’s a long one (according to the dvd sleeve) so A PRIVATE FUNCTION was revisited, after a gap of many years. What a joy! There ain’t a dud performance or line in it and it is my favourite Bill Patterson role ever (he is the dour man of the law enforcing the strict laws about animal rearing and butchering). I had the pleasure of meeting him when I was doing publicity a while back, with the lovely Sue Johnston for JAM AND JERUSALEM, and he is a wonderful man. I love when the people you admire, and whose work you love, turns out to be such a good egg.
calling · 7 days ago
As you may all remember I made a movie with Brenda Blethyn, and several other goddesses of the entertainment world, year before last in the wonderful Ramsgate in Kent with the, even more, wonderful company MEDB FILMS. Well, it’s going to be on general release from 16th April onwards so do look out for it. And, in the meantime, check out the trailer on www.thecallingthefilm.com – enjoy!
hanged · 8 days ago
NO, fear not, I have not done away with myself – the opposite, perhaps, in as much as I have kept BUSY for the day so that meant getting up early to see Andy Murray get beat, an hours treadmill time, bit of buke stuff, half of the Man Utd v Arsenal match and then A PROPHET at the cinema followed by roast chicken and a bit of the drama about Mo Mowlam on tv – still low but I have been MOVING and DOING…
Struck me tonight that the food we eat in this house is a helluva lot less hairy now that the G cat is gone…so we probably have less roughage, which ain’t great, and I sure as hell know that I MISS her SO much…she was always a great help if I ever got this way…
One other thing, and unrelated, did Tony Blair declare war on Iran the day before yesterday when giving evidence to that tribunal thingy?? and he’s not even PM anymore! Thanks to Gail Renard for bringing it to my attention…
dog · 10 days ago
I spent yesterday dealing with the Black Dog that’s lurking now and always does at the end of a big and cherished job and so, last night, when it was clearly time to conk out I didn’t check in with youse here on the site in case it woke me up again and gave the dread creature a chance to pounce.
I didn’t go to the series Wrap party because I just knew I’d get all woedy (as my pal Helene calls it) and also that I’d get too drunk and wake up with a mother of all hangovers and therefore even more jittery and down than was good for me. SO, I got myself from Manc to Dublin by midday, hopped up on the treadmill, then lashed into the rowing machine and a few weights and thereby triggered a few endorphins. I thought it best to keep on the move so I arranged for Himself to meet me in a nice wine bar for dinner with some nice tipples for me (he is a sensible type who’s on the dry for January and is now threatening the same for February) and a bottle to bring home (always good to know there’s an emergency supply handy JUST IN CASE). It passed the day and I slept well and I am sort of repeating this winning system today only in stead of travelling I will slot in some writing…I’ll let ye know how it goes…
Oh, and if anyone has any hints on how to deal with this sort of thing please do let me know…
final · 11 days ago
ARGH, final day of the shoot and…yes… you guessed it, because you have all been here before at the end of jobs with me – I HATE IT! I HATE GOODBYES and I hope none of the ones I did today are final – passage of time and natural wastage and all of that – too much mortality and sheer faulted humanity and everything that they throw up.
I booked myself passage out of Manchesterford in the morning also because it’s time to start moving again and change aspect and, as it happens, change jobs properly – time to unleash Writer Pauline to concentrate on finishing the novel so that you may all have it in July, for that is presently the Foxy Plan.
Good Luck to us all on that…