Barren in as much there were no shows and no work, but somehow I have been breathlessly busy. I did meet up with a chum and we went to see a studio recording of the new incarnation from Mischief theatre – a tv show goes wrong. I have laughed enormously at the live play that goes wrong, and The Comedy about a Bank robbery, but not so much as their various tv adaptations. And this was fascinating to watch – a half hour programme taking four hours to shoot. The poor director consigned to a remote box somewhere……heck I’d rather be down on the floor. And it’s interesting how an audience laughs differently after successive takes. It was funny, but somehow I miss the desperate need of the actors to have to carry on in the live theatre, and hear it was not as aspectacular. It felt a bit safe and predictable and you didn’t get the sense of a troupe of actors struggling. It was not the inspired observation of acorn Antiques nor the intelligently plotted Noises Off, but still very funny. I think such things work best live – the knowledge of their being a second take available undermines it. But hey BBC you really do have the most complicated of ticketing and entry systems, and not the most friendly either.
Animator, Director, Writer