Blog etc.

I have a new blog about portrayals of "the Troubles" on TV on the Guardian website today (ha ha, they won't let me write for the newspaper, but there I am at the tradesmen's entrance, sniffing the rarefied air inside), and I'm on Richard Bacon's Five Live show between 11pm and 12.30 tonight. As you were.

News 24: Happy-Go-Lucky

Filled in for Mark Kermode on News 24 yesterday. It's available to view here. (Warning: they showed the wrong clip of In Bruges (the one I was expecting was the one I carefully set up) and then ran a clip of Happy-Go-Lucky under my review of, well, In Bruges. I just kept talking and wished it hadn't be so windy out there.

Radio and TV with Fassbinder link

You can hear me banging on about Rainer Werner Fassbinder twice today, once on Radio 4's Film Programme, and then afterwards on News 24, where I shall be filling the shoes of Mark Kermode again (and as well as the new releases, Berlin Alexanderplatz is my DVD of the week). I fully expect half the cameras and desks to have been sold off at the BBC newsroom when I get there, and will probably have to sit on a crate while I'm waiting.

Banter repeats

The humorous panel game Banter (series one) is being partially repeated by Radio 4 in the 11.30 slot on Tuesdays starting tonight, September 11. We've been told that a new series will be aired in the New Year. Hooray.

What it says

I'm saying: you'd have to be in the Glasgow area, but if you are, I'm hosting a couple of sessions at the first and maybe only BBC Film Festival on Glasgow Green this Sunday (September 9). It should be good fun anyway, with loads of free screenings and events throughout the day in some tents. My sessions are with three screenwriters (Jeremy Brock, Kevin Hood and Gilles MacKinnon) and a Q&A with the hugely talented David MacKenzie, director of Young Adam and Hallam Foe. My old friend Danny Wallace is compering the main stage, upon which Michelle McManus will perform! Crazy!

Not Going Out pulled forward!

NOT GOING OUT: the press release

The Royal Television Society and Golden Rose award-winning sitcom returns to BBC ONE for an extended second series from Friday, September 7. Meet Lee (played by LEE MACK), a man who has a problem. His flatmate Kate has moved out for good and his best mate and landlord, Tim (fellow BAFTA Award winner and stand-up, TIM VINE), has put the apartment up for sale ...

Faced with the prospect of losing the flat, not to mention his well-meaning but utterly useless cleaner Barbara (MIRANDA HART, Hyperdrive, Lead Balloon), Lee rents the spare room to Tim's ambitious younger sister Lucy (SALLY BRETTON, The Office and Green Wing). The arrangement turns out to be far from perfect however with high-flyer Lucy taking on Lee in a bidding war for the flat.

Sibling rivalry turns into full-on anxiety as uptight accountant Tim quickly becomes suspicious of Lee's influence on his kid sister. To top it all, Lee starts to seriously question the suitability of Lucy's new boyfriend (SIMON DUTTON, The Saint and Holby City).

Still unburdened by ambition or drive – although now the proud owner of an ice-cream van – Lee finds his plans for keeping the flat are not plain sailing. On the plus side, his new domestic set-up does lead him to discover the art world, the underworld, and the lengths one man will go for tickets to an England football match…

An acclaimed live performer (with extension dates added to his 2006 sell-out tour from 2nd November and a first live DVD released on the 26th November 2007), television audiences will know LEE from Would I Lie To You? (BBC ONE) where he is a resident team captain. LEE was a key performer in the BAFTA Award winning The Sketch Show (ITV1), which ran for two series; he then worked alongside KELSEY GRAMMER in an American version of The Sketch Show; he wrote and starred in two series of the Sony Radio Award nominated, The Lee Mack Show (BBC Radio 2); hosted They Think It's All Over (BBC ONE); and headlined on Jack Dee Live at the Apollo (BBC ONE). In 2005 LEE won the Best Stand-Up award at the Loaded LAFTAS. He has also previously received a nomination for the Perrier Award, and won a Time Out Best Live Comedy Award.

Not Going Out Series 2 – BBC ONE for 7 weeks from Friday 7th September

Front Row, R4, last night

A humorous column (or that's what they asked for anyway) I wrote and performed about punctuation in pop music was aired last night on Front Row. It's on Listen Again and will be for a week: it's the show dated Monday August 13, and although my column doesn't appear in the listings for that show, it is on, at the end, about five minutes from the end.

YouTube discovery

I had no idea it was there, but someone has posted the BBC4 documentary I presented, Creating Life On Mars, on YouTube. I loved making this, as I got to drive a Fort Cortina into shot (the squealing tyre shots were done by an expert, and the owner of the car, who I seem to recall was called Wayne), and park it outside a Bristol pub, while the traffic was held up by a production assistant in a high-vis tabard. By the way, my pint at the pub table was a prop. I drank water. And the smoke was, yes, made by a smoke machine. This was a year before the smoke machine ban.

Part 1


Part 2

Bergman tribute

I am presenting a tribute to Ingmar Bergman at 4.30 on Radio 4 tomorrow (Friday Aug 3), but don't worry if you miss it due to, like, having a job: it will then be available on Listen Again for ages, in the archive for The Film Programme, of which it is a special edition. There are programmes from as far back as December available there, which is an excellent service, I think. That includes the two programmes I presented in April: the first, with producer Andrew McDonald (Trainspotting, Sunshine) as my studio guest; the second, Simon Day and Simon Channing-Williams (producer of most of Mike Leigh's films, Constant Gardener) in the studio. There's also the one I did in June, with Simon Pegg as studio guest, and Ioan Gruffudd and Frank Cottrell-Boyce in interview. These are fun progammes to make, albeit time-consuming, what with all the junkets and screenings.

Also, while we're here, I'll be presenting The Film Programme for two weeks on Friday August 24 and Friday August 31. Guests and interviewees tbc, but we're aiming for Judd Apatow, Chris Cooper and Ken Loach. Check local press, or this blog, for details.

Blog interview

An online interview I just did with a keen and patient man called Danny Stack has appeared on his Scriptwriting & Script Reading blog here. It's always nice to do interviews about how I manage to squeeze so much in, thus squeezing another thing in. It's a nice site anyway if you're interested in scriptwriting.