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Up to Liverpool today to do RHLSTP at a pretty much packed out Liverpool Playhouse (well over 500 people in, making it my biggest ever Liverpool crowd for one of my own shows) and two legendary guests with awe inspiring careers. First up was Kate Robbins who not only came third in Eurovision and had a number 2 solo hit, but wrote the theme to Surprise Surprise and produced an I’m a Celebrity runner up out of her body like magic. Unsurprisingly she was full of great stories, with a corker involving Michael Barrymore.
The other guest was screen-writer, children’s author and father of 7, Frank Cottrell-Boyce who is just about the most charming man you could meet, but who is terrifyingly intelligent and accomplished. I would be embarrassed to call myself a writer in his presence, but he’s also a brilliant quizzer who was ruthless in his almost solo victory on University Challenge. He also had great stories and a particularly great one about how the Queen ended up being in the Olympic opening ceremony. Liverpool is a proud city and rightly so and his reaction to the Sun attempting to spoil the surprise was priceless. And Liverpool has shown the rest of us how we can combat offensive tabloid journalism. It’s a shame the rest of the country hasn’t followed their lead.
He’s an inspiring and supremely intelligent man, though one of his biggest breaks came about via a piece of good fortune, without which he would probably not have written a Carnegie Medal winning kids book or been involved in the Olympics. As I struggle to churn out my radio sitcom I was in envious awe of his genius, although can’t really be jealous of this remarkable and kind man whose intellect fills the theatre like a shining light.
Absolute honour to share the stage with these giants and they made my job easy, which was lucky cos I’d been up all night dealing with my dumbass kids. I can’t write anything looking after two of them, so how does Frank do it with seven?
Back to our hotel which thought it was a ship and called the rooms cabins, which had a faded Shining vibe going on, right down to pictures of people of the past partying (some in black face- for shame). My room looked out on to the platforms of Liverpool Lime St station which is just what you want when you hoped to get to sleep til 8am. But I was tired enough not to worry for now. One of the three shows over. Let’s not think about the next one yet. Oh damn, I just did.
A giddy RHLSTP that I remember nearly nothing about in which I was drunk on tiredness (but that’s a good thing for RHLSTP) with Ed Gamble
Audio (listen out for the Thundercats sponsor read that Thundercats didn’t even pay for)
London 2019 gigs are sold out and over 1000 tickets sold in Glasgow (still a few more, but be quick) -this is getting dangerously close to being successful- but more Leicester Square Theatre dates added in 2020. And
still plenty of chances to see the tour - Oxford and Manchester (there’s a venue change but if you’ve already bought a ticket then you should get info through).
