I didn't get where I am today...

Got the script finished. 9pm last night. At 60 pages it's a short play. I'll put it away for a few weeks then get it out, make the necessary changes and additions and think about what I can do with a violent three hander with no obvious commercial appeal. One reason for writing this stuff, other than just to write, is to clear the mind of irritating nonsense. If I didn't get it down and out then it would just be buzzing around in there anyway. I'm sure you know the feeling. So, at 9pm last night, I felt some peace. It will be short lived. There are a couple of big projects looming that I'm just tentatively feeling my way towards so I needed to clear out all the interference. But no doubt something else will creep in there.

Finished the script in time to watch Comedy Connections. It was The Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin. I'd forgotten how much I loved this when it was on. I'll have been 10 when it first aired. Some of the stuff that I write has obvious nods towards David Nobbs, as M pointed out (there was a clip of Jimmy and Reggie reciting ridiculously big lists, which is something I find myself unable to stop writing). Again, on this programme, history was painted over. Leonard Rossiter's last sit-com was the quite dreadful supermarket gibberish Tripper's Day. It's not in any way an important part of his acting career - in fact, something of an embarassment - but to skirt over it completely, thus leaving a chronological gap that just sent Rossiter flying into a production of Joe Orton's Loot to return to his dressing room mid-performance to die just seemed, well, wrong, especially as Tripper's Day was being broadcast at that time. But, playing Inspector Truscott in a play about a corpse and leaving this mortal coil with Truscott's pipe in your hand, what a way to go, eh?

"Things that make me laugh are black jokes, which some people find distasteful. I like the story about Arthur Lucan, who was of course 'Old Mother Riley'. He'd been doing pantomime for about ten weeks, with the audience full of kids screaming his name. He goes off to his dressing room. Then there's a call for him, and he doesn't answer. The theatre manager has to go onstage and break the news. And he says 'Please could I have your attention? Kiddies, shush please. I have some very sad news. Old Mother Riley is dead.' And someone from the back shouts 'Oh no, she isn't!' "- Leonard Rossiter, 1980. More at Leonard Rosssiter.com