I’ve been posting on social media about this show a lot, simply because I think it’s great and I’m really proud to be a part of it! I did half a day on it last year, in between shooting days for Murder They Hope, doing three scenes split between two episodes. Our first episode scene was really cut down but it is funnier like that, and then we’ve got a bit more in episode four. By “we” I mean my mate Nick Newman (on my right), the wonderful Omid Djalili, and Danny on my left. All episodes are available on Channel 4 online and you should absolutely check it out.
This film came out yesterday, and I’m in it. I mean I’m really in it. I didn’t get cut like King of Thieves (the Michael Caine film) and I’m very pleased. As you can see there’s some rather well known Hollywood A list in there, but also it’s got the likes of Rufus Jones and Emily Lloyd-Saini in, the latter of which I worked with on Kiell Smith-Bynoe’s Channel 4 Blap (Red Flag). I only worked on it for a day (got paid for two ;)) but I had great fun doing my scene with Cynthia Addai-Robinson and although I didn’t have any scenes with Kristen Bell, Allison Janney or Ben Platt, I did meet them all on the zoom readthrough. Also Claire Scanlon the director is fantastic and so nice. Check it out on Amazon Prime.
Holly Hall is a friend of mine who I met a few years ago when we were doing a VT sketch for the Last Leg on Channel 4. We were interviewing Mr Blobby, naturally. He jumped on me at the end. Of course. Anyway Holly won the BBC New Comedy Award last year and as result was given her own BBC3 short, which she wrote. It’s on YouTube now but it’s better for her ratings etc I believe if you watch it on iPlayer. It’s only 10 minutes and has some amazing people in it including Kate Robbins, Fiona Allen and Kiell Smith-Bynoe. Oh yes and she was kind enough to put me in it as well. Thank you.
Last Sunday I ran the Cabbage Patch 10 miler with my friends Dale and Sarah. The race was on the same day as the Great South Run (another 10 mile or 16.1K race) which I ran last year in a time of 1:28:08. A few weeks ago during the heat wave I managed 1:21:25 at the Harry Hawkes 10 mile, but I knew I could do better than that. I went in to Sunday’s race aiming for sub 1:15:00 which I knew was ambitious but I’d got 1:16:something on Strava for 10miles during my Big Half PB so I thought that might be doable. Anyway I was on pace for about the first 8K/5 miles and then I lost it. I managed to pick up the pace a bit at the end but managed to scrape an official time of 1:15:01! So a little annoyed I was only 2 seconds over my goal it’s still a massive PB so I can’t complain. That means to date I have the following PBs:
1 mile – 6:00
5K – 20:47
10K – 43:57
10mile – 1:15:01
Half Marathon – 1:39:42
Marathon – 3:53:50
I’m very happy with those. I don’t have any more races booked in for the rest of 2022 so I’m going to just try and keep my consistent training up till the end of the year when I start training for Manchester Marathon 2023. However, I may be tempted to try and break the infamous sub-20 5K barrier before the end of the year. Watch this space…
I had a lovely time working on Ghosts earlier this year, hanging round with Kiell, Charlotte and the gang in that iconic house for a few days. Caroline Sheen played my wife who was also great. Our episode was out on Friday on BBC1 and on iplayer here. It’s a big episode if you’re a fan of the show!
Trying is a comedy drama show that goes out on Apple TV starring Rafe Spall and Esther Smith. It’s a really nice show that people love but not a lot of people I know have seen it. You should really check it out. I’m in episode 3 of this new series playing Jared, an AA group leader who gets some very funny scenes throughout the episode with Oliver Chris’s character. Lots of fun to film.
Here’s a new sketch by my friend Ben Green who also stars as Darren. He asked me to play Stuart and I was delighted to do it alongside our friend Alexis Strum. It’s funny, plus it’s short. What’s not to like?
I met Kiell Smith-Bynoe at a tableread a few years ago, then saw him again just before Ghosts was about to come out. Of course now he’s a superstar, so it was great to work with him for a few days earlier this year on Ghosts, and I was over the moon when he asked me to be in his sketch show pilot, a Channel 4 Blap. It was a lot of fun to shoot, and the whole thing turned out great. There’s some other great people in it too. Do check it out – hopefully it’ll get a series! I’m in the “Murder Mystery” sketch after about 8:21
Friday night was an unusual scenario for me for three reasons. Firstly, I was in two TV shows broadcasting on the same night, on the same channel (BBC1). The first show was the new Tom Basden comedy starring Katherine Parkinson and Jim Howick, Here We Go (formally Pandemonium). The second was long running Lee Mack comedy, Not Going Out.
So the second unusual, and I dare I say it, interesting thing about this particular Friday night is that both characters I played had dogs. My character in Here We Go was actually credited as “Dog Owner”, and my Not Going Out character was a tree surgeon named Tom Taylor.
Now let’s get on to the third thing. I’ve been cut from a few things over the years – it’s just the way it sometimes goes – but never have I experienced what I did for Here We Go. Originally I was actually “Man On Phone” as my dialogue with Katherine and Jim is actually via speakerphone before they return my dog to me. When the producers asked me to come and do some additional ADR (an archery commentator, a radio DJ) they nervously informed me that they’d actually re-recorded my dialogue as I didn’t sound nasty enough. In fact, it is now Ed Kear who effectively plays my voice in the episode. Oh well, that’s another story for the podcast! You should be able to hear me as the archery commentator in Episode 4.
Now here’s a funny one. I got offered a part in Bloods, the comedy on Sky, which unfortunately clashed with something else I was shooting at the time. They very kindly offered me another part, but that disappeared in a rewrite. So again very kindly, they offered me a small role of a paramedic in episode 5 which came out on Wednesday. Great to work with Sam Kayo and the legendary Jan Horrocks, but my goodness that trolley was a pain to get on the back of that ambulance.
Here’s me as a Bloodthirster in the new Total War: Warhammer III which was released last month. I’ve been making this really funny joke on the socials about these being the unprocessed clips where they’re clearly processed. I’m laughing now just thinking about it.
Here’s something a little unusual. Last year I recorded the audio for the part of Mr Scraps in a kids show that would be performed at the delayed Dubai Expo 2020. As well as the normal dialogue I had a little song including a rap. We did it remotely from my home studio where I was directed over Zoom by people in Australia, Dubai and Egypt! And here is a video of the show with a bald gentleman miming to my recording.
You can watch an official video (which I can’t embed) here.
A wonderful man who has employed me again and again is director Tommy Forbes, and he got me in yet again to play a scientist in Southampton FC’s new kit launch video. My job, along with my fantastic assistant, Yuriko Kotani, was to extract DNA from a number of players, past and present. That’s Che Adams I’m antagonising in that photo (with a mop on my head), and James Ward-Prowse, Matt Le Tissier and Franny Benali were among the others. Lots of fun, and you can watch it here:
Very happy to get this episode out. Abi was really great and this episode turned our very well. We probably planned it out a bit more carefully than previous efforts (for Tim Plester’s episode, for example, we actually filmed two alternate endings but then used both!) but it was still a tricky edit! Always have to throw away such good stuff!
This is fun. An audiobook I co-narrated is a finalist in this year’s Audie Awards. I think that’s a pretty big deal so is quite exciting. You can check out the other finalists etc here.
I’m very happy that this episode is finally out, not only because I think it’s really funny but also because it was a tricky edit because there was so much good stuff that had be thrown away for the run time. Sam did a wonderful job with the edit especially during a particularly tricky time over the last couple of months with juggling home working with home schooling, and Tim was great with loads of ideas. I hope you enjoy it.
A couple of months ago The Young Knives invited people to remix one of their tracks, and gave out the stems. I think they had about 60 submissions, and I’m very pleased to see mine up on their Soundcloud page. It’s pretty out there but I’m happy with it!
I had a great time working on The Emily Atack Show back in July. I did 3 days on it, shooting 3 sketches which were shown over 2 episodes. Emily is lovely and it was great to work with director Tommy Forbes again. Everything was socially distanced and filmed cleverly to comply with Covid restrictions so extra kudos to the team! If you missed it when it was on last month, here are the sketches.
