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Another terrible night of sweat and disjointed thoughts and occasional sleep. Bit of a tougher day to get through though as Catie was off at 7am and I had to do the school run and for some ridiculous reason had agreed to play tennis at 1pm, just when the sun would be at its hottest. Plus Phoebe had a big football try-out tonight, so there wasn't much time to rest up, though I did have a little snooze when she was watching telly at about 4.30.
Maybe the solution to my exhaustion is to become nocturnal, and then I can avoid the terrors that come from being half-awake at night and I might get some work done with nothing to distract me. I will put it to Catie. Can't see why she wouldn't be up for it.
Amazon Prime suggested I might like to watch the Pink Panther show. I don't know how it knew. It's another of the shows that I loved as a kid that influenced my later work, though I had almost forgotten that until some algorithm knew me better than myself.
The other day Catie had given me a posh strawberry chocolate from Hotel Chocolat and I remarked, "Ooh, just like the Pink Panther bar," another repressed memory brought to life by sight and taste (not 100% sure that the bar was strawberry flavour, but that is my memory of it - it was certainly pink). Had that comment prompted my devices to search out the Pink Panther for me.
"Think of all the animals you've ever heard about
Like rhinoceros, tigers, cats and mink
There are lots of funny animals in all the world,
But have you ever seen a panther that is pink
Think. A panther that is positively pink!"
He was a gentleman, a scholar, an acrobat. He was rinky-dink and so on. All still in there.
My envy of the boy in the pink sports car returned. Who was he? How did he get this gig? Why was he allowed to drive? Why was he only in the opening and closing titles. Where is he now?
NO ONE KNOWS.There's lots of stuff about the Panthermobile, but no news that I can find on the boy. Or how he got this amazing job.
It's the New Tricks opening titles debacle all over again. Where are the serious journalists in this country?
It reminded me that I wrote closing lyrics for the Organ Gang very much based on the closing titles of the Pink Panther
"So you're met the Pink Panther..."
From memory it was something like
"So you've met the Organ Gang, the Organ Gang
And weren't they a gang composed principally of organs of the human body?
You've seen that they were groovy cats
Composed of blood vessels, gristle and fat.
They are the Organ Gang, the rinky-dink Organ Gang
And it's as plain as Norman Nose
They are the one and only, truly original, Organs Pink Organs from your head to Tommy toes"
Richard changed the tune enough that it could be played as parody, but maybe it never got to air. I just love putting rinky-dink in there.
Anyway I wasn't interested in watching an episode of the Pink Panther. Just the titles and the song. Like all classic kids show (it seems) the opening titles are the thing that stands the test of time and often the only good thing in it.
But I loved that groovy cat, both in cartoon and chocolate form. And I must acknowledge the influence he has had on my comedy and my arrested development.
RHLSTP Book Club is part 2 of my chat with Adam Buxton
