MARCH 18,
2012: Spring At Baker Towers
Is it really
five years that you have all been
kind enough to log on to this
website and see how your humble
blogger has been faring and what
I’m up to generally and
professionally? Five years –
gosh! And it would be wrong of me
to allow this anniversary to go
past without reiterating my great
thanks to Rob Cope who has
mastered the intricacies of web
design and maintenance at the
same time as being endlessly
patient when this old codger
forgets to update him about my
doings. Part of the problem is
that he is so competent and
knowledgeable that I seem to
expect him to know things by
osmosis.
“I know it therefore Rob
must know it too!”
Clearly this is asking a lot
– but he is always very
forgiving when he is the last to
know something!
Today, as I write this, it’s
Mothers' Day and the sun is
shining – Spring is nibbling
away at the Buckinghamshire
countryside outside my window. I
am grabbing a few minutes away
from the chores at Baker Towers
to share with you all a few words
about what is going on in my
life.
I have agreed to go on tour with
a really exciting new play by
Chris Paling called The Final
Test. It is beautifully written
piece about a man who is perhaps
a little too fond of his
crossword and the cricket to know
what is actually going on a round
him and has to deal with the
consequences of that lack of
attention to the people in his
life. I mustn’t tell you any
more about the plot, as it would
spoil your fun if (as I hope) you
all come and see it while it is
on tour this summer. It opens in
Lincoln on May 31st and tours for
the next three months to venues
all around England and Wales
(alas no Scottish dates at the
moment) You can check the venues
elsewhere on this site. The play
is being toured by Ian Dickens
International – the same
producer for whom I did Woman in
White last year. Also in the cast
will be Peter Amory and Karen
Ford who were both also in Woman
in White, which I am delighted to
report will also probably be
touring again later in the year
to some of the theatres we
didn’t appear at in 2011.
Before that I shall be recording
a few Big Finish audios in April,
as I will not be available to
record any for a few months after
then. As you know, I am always
delighted to get back in to Moat
Studios to revive the doings of
‘Old Sixie’, and his
endless stream of excellent
companions – one of the
vintage ones will be returning
imminently! I shall also be
recording an exciting and spooky
audio drama for Moonscape
Productions in the West Country
soon. It is called 'Abercorn
House' and is written by Kirby
Fraser. I’m looking forward
to going down there in a couple
of weeks time to record it.
I’ve been enjoying a rare
opportunity to attend a few games
at Adams Park where my local team
Wycombe Wanderers play their home
matches. I’m a season ticket
holder but usually I’m on
tour and we always work on
Saturdays in the theatre, which
are invariably two shows days, so
I miss a lot of matches. Mind
you, my presence doesn’t
seem to have worked wonders as
we’re struggling at the
bottom of League 1, though we are
showing recent encouraging signs
of a late come back and recovery.
Fingers crossed.
Life at Baker Towers remains as
hectic as ever. Our Jack Russell
puppy, Henry Herbert, is keeping
us on our toes. He is
simultaneously the naughtiest and
the most beguiling dog we have
ever had. His favourite trick is
to grab something he thinks you
might like/want/need and then leg
it, stopping to waggle it at you
as if to say ‘Come on -
chase me!’ He also has a
slightly protruding lower jaw and
a snaggle tooth which add to the
raffish and comical air. The end
result is we have fewer
hairbrushes, pens, pencils, loo
rolls than we should – but
we’re never bored. And if we
do get cross with him he just
rolls over and presents his tummy
for a tickle. I wish I could get
away with that when people are
cross with me. Maybe I should try
it. On the other hand….
FEBRUARY 2,
2012: Come Panto With Me - and
after!
Well, panto
is over and I am sufficiently
recovered now to send my
greetings to all of you who are
kind enough to give a hoot what I
have been up to since October
when I last blogged. The Woman in
White tour ended just before
panto started and was one of my
happier experiences on the road.
They were a great company of
actors and we’re all waiting
to hear whether the play is going
to be touring again later in the
year. Provided that I am free, I
would be more than happy to give
my Count Fosco another airing to
those areas of the UK that
haven’t yet seen the play.
It’s a great story; and now
we’ve played it to a dozen
or so towns, we know the areas
that need tightening up and it
could be even better next time
out.
As soon as that tour ended I got
caught up in the exhausting
process of recording ‘Come
Dine With Me’, which many of
you may have seen when it went
out in the week between Christmas
and New Year on Channel Four.
My first reaction when my agent
said that they wanted me to do it
was to say ‘Not for all the
tea in China!’ - I genuinely
am not ,and never have been,
anything resembling a cook, let
alone a cook with pretensions to
giving dinner parties for anyone
– let alone four strangers.
But, as always, my family urged
me to do it and I decided not to
be a wuss and thought ‘What
the heck! As long as I don’t
poison the unknown foursome, it
could be a laugh!’
Fortunately, a lovely actress
called Karen Ford (who had played
Mrs Michelson in Woman in White)
had entertained the cast after
the show one night with a superb
dish that she had said was
‘easy’ to do, when we
all declared how wonderful it
was. It was a slow cooked
shoulder of pork and was
mouth-wateringly stunning. So, I
got the recipe off her and had a
couple of practices on my family
before the big day. I’m glad
I did because one or two of the
other celeb cooks were literally
winging it on their nights, it
seemed. Anyway Karen’s pork
won the day for me and I collared
£1000 for my local dog charity
– The Stokenchurch Dog
Rescue Society –which was
fab! The process was exhausting
though. Most nights I didn’t
get home until long after 2am
from the other people’s
houses – and on my night,the
camera crew arrived at 9am and
the last person left at 5-30 the
following morning! I genuinely
don’t know how they do it,
because we only had to do it for
that week. The production team
and crew have to do it week after
week. They were a great lot
though and seemingly still
retained a sense of humour and
some energy. Heaven knows how.
Funnily enough it was the two
young ones of the
‘celebs’ who found the
pace unbearable and kept falling
asleep over dinner. And they were
the ones who were used to going
out clubbing all night! We three
older diners, who generally view
any time after midnight as alien
territory to be avoided, seemed
to hold out much better and keep
our sense of humour. Linda Nolan
made me laugh a lot. She was
great fun.
As soon as that finished and I
had had a few hours sleep, it was
into panto time. The Mansfield
Palace Theatre. I don’t know
what I did expect, but it
wasn’t that I would come
away saying that was my best
panto experience ever. But it
truly was. The cast were, without
any small exception,the nicest
bunch of performers I’ve
ever worked with – and
talented in equal measure too.
The Palace Theatre is a little
gem that I had never been to
before. And the management and
crew made us all feel more
welcome than I have felt in a
theatre for years. If you had
told me before I went there, that
I would say ‘I can’t
wait to go back to
Mansfield’, I
wouldn’thave believed you.
But it’s true and I hope I
get to work there again. And I
hope too that I get to work with
all or any of the cast. We were
genuinely sorry to leave each
other. Usually I have to be, let
us say, 'diplomatic' in one or
two cases when I leave a job.
Now I am at home with a diary
full only of Conventions and
signing events at the moment, but
for a few weeks I won’t be
agitating to get work. My
agent’s phone isn’t
getting red-hot yet, though in a
few weeks I might arise from my
torpor like Smaug and start
harassing him.
The good news is that my book of
short stories,
‘Gallimaufry’ is, even
as I write this, being printed.
Yippee. Tim Hirst, the publisher,
had to wait longer than I would
have liked for my final
manuscript, which I delivered
before Christmas at his busiest
time, poor chap. But we have been
through the setting out and proof
reading processes and I am really
pleased with how it looks. I only
hope that the reading of it
provides some pleasure to the
countless millions (I wish!)
whobuy it. There are a couple of
stories in particular that I am
especially proud of and hope that
they find favour. Perhaps
it’s time for me to dig a
novel out from the recesses of my
chaotic imagination. I’d
like to give it a go before
senility creeps in, anyway!
I am enjoying my Twitter life -
both in reading other
people’s wittering and
chuntering on myself. The joy of
Twitter is that you can take it
or leave it, follow who you like
and others can do ditto. When the
odd numpty becomes abusive or
irritating, you can just block
them and they go away, well at
least as far as you are
concerned. Most Tweeters are
lovely – and, of course,
brief – which is the joy of
Twitter. Whenever I can, I scroll
through the @mentions and answer
a couple, although I can assure
you that if I answered all of
them, I would get nothing else
done at all. Not showing off
– just explaining. So
don’t feel rejected or
ignored if you tweet and get no
response. There just aren’t
the hours in the day, I’m
afraid.
My next event is a trip to
Prestatyn this weekend to Pontins
for the SFX event, at which it
appears there will be hordes of
folk. Should be fun. See you
there perhaps? And in two weeks
time – Belfast. I’m
really doing the UK this month!
Check elsewhere on this site for
full details of all .
Spring’s on its way. Hooray!
And my thanks yet again to Rob
Cope website maestro and guardian
of my reputation for keeping this
site so interesting and as
up-to-date as he can given my
terrible memory!
OCTOBER 10,
2011
Once again I
should start by apologising for
the length of time it has taken
me to update this occasional
Blog. But it gets tedious if I
always start by saying
‘Sorry’ and making
feeble excuses – so I
won’t. Although I am.
Anyway….
Since my last update I have been
trotting around England being
Count Fosco in The Woman in
White. The production, I am
delighted to report, has been
very well received everywhere,
since we opened in Wolverhampton
back in July. The reviews have
been very positive, which has
surprised all as we had, to be
honest, been worried that a play
which is in total pretty much
three hours long might prove too
much for most people. We hoped we
were doing a good job but feared
for the staying power of the
audience! But such is the
strength of the original story by
Wilkie Collins that the length of
the play doesn’t seem to
bother people. That is useful to
know for the future. I have been
in plays that have been around
two hours forty five minutes long
in the past and people have
complained that that was too
long. Clearly, if what the
audience is watching is
sufficiently gripping, then the
time will go quickly.
I guess too that the adaptation
by Nicola Boyce and the actors
can and should take some of the
credit as the cast is very strong
throughout – and it is a
larger cast than one might
normally see on tour these days;
so the producer, Ian Dickens,
should be commended for taking
the risk of sending out such an
expensive production when times
are so tough financially.
It has been a great cast to work
with and all of them have become
good friends over our three
months together. Most of us
shared a house when we were in
Derby and had the best week
I’ve had on tour for many a
long year. We rented a big old
mansion near Ashbourne and stayed
up far too late and talked far
too much. But it was great. As I
write this, we have only three
weeks to go before the tour ends;
so if you are in Crewe this week,
Malvern next week or Taunton the
week after, come and see us, if
you haven’t done so already.
Otherwise, I must confess that I
have still failed to deliver the
final version of my book of short
stories to Hirst Books, so the
delayed production of it remains
my fault and not the
Publisher’s. Sorry - all of
you who paid up front. I promise
you that Iwill complete the final
bit before my tour ends in three
weeks time and deliver it to Tim
Hirst. Otherwise all is well at
Baker Towers. No 1 daughter Lucy
has started her second Year as a
Primary Schoolteacher. My second
daughter Bindy whohas been in
Rhodes since April as a quarter
of an ABBA tribute band has
returned, slimmer, browner and
glad to be home – and is now
– as is the norm in the
entertainment business –
looking for the next gig. No 3
– Lally – is all
graduated and ready forthe fray
– but in common with all
those other young hopeful
graduates lookingfor the right
job, while doing a temporary
unpaid internship for an animal
charity. Rosie my fourth daughter
is still saving her pennies as
fast as she can before
auditioning for Drama School.
We have a new dog – a Jack
Russell puppy now five months
oldwho is a complete NUTTER! His
name is Henry Herbert. He is very
funny and very naughty and has
fitted very well into the
existing menagerie.
My wife and I managed to grab a
three day ‘holiday’ in
Cornwall during a weekout from
Woman in White and were lucky to
do so during that wonderful
weather at the beginning of
October. We both share a love of
Cornwall and dream of downsizing
there whenthe girls finally flee
the nest. If ever!
Panto approaches fast. Although I
have a day or two in audio
studios coming up – not sure
if I’m allowed to say what
I’m doing so to be on the
safe side I won’t say what
I’m doing now and will
update in the fullness of time.
I still haven’t found
anywhere to live while I’m
in Mansfield and really should be
doing something about that
instead of writing this probably
– but I have never been a
very good time manager and felt a
sudden stab of guilt for Rob Cope
whose continuing generosity of
spirit keeps this web site
running.
The most exciting thing that has
happened to me this year arose
because of very sad
circumstances. My dear friend,
the much loved Nick Courtney died
this year, as I mentioned in my
last blog. As a result the
Presidency of the Doctor Who
Appreciation which he so rightly
and gloriously held after the
first President Jon Pertwee was
taken from us, became vacant. I
was astonished and humbled when I
was contacted by DWAS to ask if I
might consider accepting the Hon.
Presidency. Anyone who has seen
me at a Convention knows that I
am not normally at a loss for
words; but on this occasion both
given the status (in my eyes) of
my predecessors and the wealth of
other Doctor Who luniaries
available, it did not occur to me
that I might be in the frame for
this great honour. I am very,
very touched that the membership
who voted consider me a suitable
person to bear the grat seal -
and I do most sincerely hope that
I will be in charge of it for
some considerable time. But I
must be circumspect here - I did
- remember - say I wanted to beat
Tom Baker's seven years as the
Doctor when I got that job. So I
shall just be honoured and humble
and shut up now!
We have also just seen another
fabulous new season of the
programme reach a very complex
and stunning conclusion. I loved
it and cannot understand those
few fans who say they don't. I
think Matt Smith just gets better
and better and for me just IS the
Doctor. No question. I hope he
stays on for some time. He and
Steven Moffat are a winning
combination - long may it
continue. And bring on the
labyrinthine plots, I say!
As for next year for me – it
is at the moment an open and
empty diary after panto. I was in
the running for a rather nice
tour but someone else recently
pipped me to the post for that
– so that's another actor's
name to add to me grudge list!
Watch this space basically. I
shall notify Rob as soon as I
know what is afoot.
Full Colin
Blog archives will be available
soon.
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