TMWS4 Recording One: "Some leaves and a carrot." 1st June 2009
The BBC issued precisely zero tickets to anyone I know due to their new ‘unlucky dip’ method of leaving applications open long enough for the whole bloody world to apply… I don’t wish to sound like a raving mad Mail reader with their “BBC Tax” obsession though. Due to my fan-blogging I managed to get us on the production guestlist so all was not lost (thanks, James) and we turned up to the BBC Radio Theatre, saw the massive queue, realised that we would not have to join in that very English pastime and went for a hot foamy milk aka Starbucks with “the children” (one of which had a scabby knee from falling off his bike) who had their own different guest list benefactor…
After saying hello to a certain Simon Kane (writer of some of the best sketches from the radio and TV series) we went off to the venue. It’s like pushing in but it’s not pushing in, or so I told myself. After getting in everyone’s way in different bar to the last few times (even tinier, bravo) we went in and found the Reserved seats. Being spotted by someone who read the blog (again) was nice but confusing, maybe the note book makes me stand out? After producer Gareth ‘fire exits’ Edwards did his fire exits routine (12″ extended version to account for the peculiarities of the building) and mentioned out of date noisy communcation forms that are banned it was time for the sketches.
*Spoiler Alert!* Here’s a list of sketches…
Episode One:
St Vincents (balloon) animal sanctuary (not the best start, we thought).
Alan’s discomfort.
“Hail Caesar” in the third person problems.
“What do you do?”1: Plastic surgeon (recurring but very good).
Policeman vs Top Cat.
Weird board games.
Actress watching herself on TV.
Light food for meaty ye olde banquet (one of those silly historical ones).
“Bums On Seats”.
Company meeting as a drinking game.
Bleach advert in style of Jack Daniels.
Mister Ampersand (favourite so far).
Film classification 33A.
“What do you do?”2: PR.
Whale surveys (Robert and David kept laughing).
Food snobs (originally performed at try out for tv series 3 on 10th August last year).
Zavvi Building (very silly, other favourite from part one).
Interval: We passed on the “warm white wine” from the bar. I took a photo of the empty stage and got told off.
Episode Two:
Room 102.
Boy Who Cried Wolf court case.
Weekend columnist ideas (nice bit of satire).
Magnetaman.
“What do you do?”3: Futures trader.
Metil or Normil? (from the try out for tv series 3 on 10th August last year).
Foreign yogurt company.
Scared straight.
Dr Doolittle and annoyed goldfish (great ranty one).
Radio debate with rather similar voices (another great one).
Dog sanctuary advert.
Farce company (if you like farce you’ll enjoy this sketch that had a few re-takes).
It’s on Radio 4 in September and from what I’ve seen (and mostly heard) the first two episodes are strong. More next week!
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