Things I Have Learned II

Things I've learned today:
1) if you want to go to a radio recording, go early
2) the radio theater is really quite big
3) John Finnemore has shoes that make his feet look long. Or long feet. Not sure which.
4) the Jubilee Line has travelators!
5) even in the age of ipads, radio scripts are still paper
6) when I tipsily said back in April that you should listen to John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme because it'd be funny, I was right. You should and it is.

Punctuality

As I type this on my irritatingly small phone keyboard, I'm looking out over a massive pit of BBC workstations at Broadcasting House. The canteen area in which audiences wait before radio recordings has a wall with glass windows and, no matter how often I've seen this sort of thing on TV, it's still weird to see it in real life. It's like the secret lair of a bond villain, complete with odd tracks just outside the window for equipment to go back and forth.

Why am I here? Because I was lucky enough to get tickets for the recording of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme. Happy as I was to get that confirmation e-mail, it's got nothing on the relief I felt when I got a little sticker on my e-ticket 20 minutes ago.

The advice that the ticket unit gives you is: "admission on site 6.15, studio doors open from 7:15". What they don't tell you is that, of you turn up at 6.20, the queue will already be right the way round the corner of the building and the people all around you will already be joking about getting turned away in an "I'm not going to admit just how bothered I'll be if I'm turned away" sort of tone.

Fifteen nerve-racking minutes later and I was in.

I'm now in a very informal queue that seems to have formed just because a couple of people went to stand by the doors. I'm not sure that we even know that they're the right doors but no one is going to miss out on a good seat for the sake of a little extra queueing.

I don't know if things have just changed a lot since the last time I went to a recording or if this is the John Finnemore effect. I've seen one girl in a pilots jacket so I suspect the latter.

The Benefits of Disorganisation

I wouldn't describe myself as a disorganised person. Anyone that has seen my desk would disagree. But I like to think that I take a normal amount of organisation and apply it in concentrated doses where it counts. Usually my work. 

Unfortunately that tends to leave a trail of chaos at home and a misty atmosphere of vagueness about what I'll be doing at any given time. 

Usually this isn't a problem but today I discovered that I've accidentally been counting one weekend in June twice. On the 23rd I will be camping. And on the weekend before the week of the 25th, I'm going to London. Camping, in case you are wondering, will not be in London.

Fortunately, this revelation was preceded by the far more pleasant discovery that tickets for John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme have gone up on the ticket unit site today, with dates on the 7th and 14th of July.

This is the first day I've not checked July's page since I added the ticket unit to my open-every-day tabs in the desperate hope of seeing a radio recording. So it came as something of an unexpected surprise, as did the fact that there's an Olympics specail of Old Harry's Game recording on the 8th of July. I've been a fan of Old Harry's Game for long enough that I have a cassette version of the first series. That's at least two audio formats ago.

So. Not only have I double booked myself on opposite sides of the country, I have also been too disorganised to get a hotel in London for the 23rd/24th. In addition, I have no adventurous evenings booked for that weekend. On the other hand, there is now a weekend in July that contains John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme on Saturday and Old Harry's Game on a Sunday. Plus I get to go camping.

I think the choice is obvious. 

Oh, and if anyone knows whether the BBC Ticket Unit are susceptible to any forms of bribery, please let me know.

John Finnemore's Priory Engagement

Okay, first full post on this tiny keyboard so please be patient with all the mistakes.

I've just got back from John Finnemore's Priory Engagement. For those of you with anything other than a perfect memory, it's the sketch try-out for a new series of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme. If that still doesn't mean anything to you, just think "really great comedy that will be on the radio".

I don't know when the series will be on Radio 4 but, when it is, please, PLEASE listen to it. I promise that you'll laugh out loud. Please, just trust me and listen.

I know that I've gone on about John Finnemtore before but the man is really very talented and tonight only served to emphasise that fact. The idea that this was the *draft* version is crazy. In the fantasy world where I'm controller of Radio 4 there are several things I'd scrap and just replace it all with John Finnemore's mental cutting room floor. There's an attention to detail and timing in his writing, combined with a perfect understanding of his audience that all adds up to something great. And, beyond being a talented writer, he's simply a very funny man. I know they say the pictures are better on radio but I think radio where you get to see the actors doing silly faces might be even better.

Anyway. After the show was over (all too soon), I stayed around long enough to drink a coffee to counteract the effects of the gin I'd drunk to occupy myself while waiting for the show to start (I think a smartphone may well be the best invention ever for women alone in pubs with 45 minutes to wait).

While I was drinking my coffee and trying to plot a tube route back, several people were approaching John Finnemore, chatting with him and having their photo taken with him.

I'd like to say that my reluctance about this sort of thing is well founded. Years ago my sister and I got a pretty rude response when we asked a comedian we idolised to sign our tickets after a show. But that's not it. The truth is, I simply wouldn't know what to say.

The fact that my blog is 50% about radio probably makes my feelings on the matter clear: radio is important to people. Good drama carries you off to a different world but good comedy reaches down into YOUR world and makes it a little brighter and a little better. I'd like to think that, if I came face-to-face with any of the comedians or writers I respect, that I'd be able to tell them:

"Thank you. Not just for making me laugh today but thank you for every time you've made me smile. I know you might not realise it but you're not just entertaining people, you're making their lives better. It might be just a smile or a laugh but smiles and laughs can turn bad days around. Thank you for cheering me up when nothing else in my day was going well. Thank you for distracting me and reminding me that life isn't really that serious as I drive home with nothing but work in my head. Thank you for sharing your worlds and you words and your wit with us. Oh, and thanks to you, the people on the bus think I get weird facial spasms because i'm trying so hard not to laugh out loud. Thanks."

But I know what'd come out. "Thanks, that was great". Or, even worse, "I'm a big fan". Urgh. Probably with a very nervous laugh too.

The line betwen appreciation and crazy fangirl stalking can be a pretty fine one and I'm staying firmly on this side. I'll leave the talking to the people who can express themselves better, or at the very least, to those who are completely oblivious to the crazy fangirl line.

I will leave you with this, courtesy of Angel tube station:
(Actually, I've no idea where this thing is going to put the photo. Sorry.)