The Hollywood actor-turned-director Ben Affleck recently spoke about being given a “second act” after he won the Best Director award at the Baftas for his film Argo. Similarly, Les Miserables lyricist Herbert Kretzmer told The Guardian he “was able to give up my day job at 61” after it became clear that the show had a fairly certain future. (more…)
February 21, 2013. Tags: acting, blogging, creativity, entertainment, fiction, Fringe theatre, playwriting, writing competitions. Comedy writing, Fiction, Publishing, Writing. .
Cilla Black, UK television host and pop singer, apparently has never been on a bus, cannot drive and has never done anything mundane since she was 19. But she can open a bottle of champagne… (more…)
October 4, 2012. Tags: acting, Comedy, creativity, Drama, entertainment, fiction, television comedy, TV sitcom, writing. Comedy writing, Fiction, Humour, Publishing, Theatre. .
What’s the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you? I’m asking this because I read a profile of the playwright Penelope Skinner in the Guardian newspaper and her creative writing teacher had told her: “You can’t predict what people are going to like: no matter how bad it is, there’s always going to be one person who likes it. What you have to do is find that one person.” (more…)
September 27, 2012. Tags: acting, creativity, Drama, entertainment, fiction, Fringe theatre, playwriting, self-publishing, writing. Blogging, Comedy writing, Humour, Publishing, Theatre. .
‘The camera’s gone down…someone’s trod on the cable.’ We were meant to be going live with the streaming on Friday in 15 minutes. I was sitting in the lighting box ready to make a Skype call to Cape Town where a James Bond party had been organised in an independent film studio to watch Martini Bond in London…

Bond and Martinis in Cape Town
Skype wouldn’t make the connection at first – but then we got through. And saw a fab party – with glitter, guns and cocktails. Thank you Cape Town and Siobhan Cassidy and Shaun Conway for making it happen. The camera was also fixed but, unfortunately, the connection then went down for several minutes, so some of the start of the show was missed and others could not get past the paywall.
But here was Cape Town’s reaction:
We had a fun night and managed to see some of the show. It was kind of a pity that it took so long to get online properly… But, hey, it was the first time, next time will be better and we certainly were inspired to have a different party.
Then Saturday night was brilliant. The streaming worked. Here’s the evidence:

Martini Bond is on stream
And the reaction from France:
‘I loved the play. A perfect Saturday night’.
It shows it can be done. Hopefully, this will be a way that struggling theatres can start to build audiences who are willing to pay online to see plays.
Oh, and we had good numbers for the live audience too. Now we’re resting. Until the Manchester dates and possibly Edinburgh fringe festival next year.
September 24, 2012. Tags: acting, arts, Broadway Barking, Comedy, Drama, entertainment, fiction, James Bond, streaming online, writing. Blogging, Comedy, Comedy writing, Theatre. .

Julia Collier as Franken von Banken in Martini Bond
Wet suit, check. Ski suit, check. Dinner jacket? Husband won’t miss that – I’ve just thrown it in the suitcase and hope it doesn’t get lost… (more…)
September 17, 2012. Tags: acting, Comedy, Drama, entertainment, James Bond, writing. Blogging, Comedy writing, Fiction, Publishing, Theatre. .
Most dreamers should not leap, the article ‘So you want to be an artist’ in Saturday’s FT Weekend magazine said. Even if you are sure that it’s your vocation, you are most likely wrong. Oh no! I’ve always wanted to write comedy. And now this article is telling me to give up! (more…)
September 10, 2012. Tags: acting, arts, Comedy, creativity, Drama, e-publishing, entertainment, fiction, self-publishing, writing. Blogging, Comedy, Comedy writing, Publishing, Writing. .
Live streaming Martini Bond, Skyping to an independent film house in Cape Town in a live link-up while swigging Martinis… These were some of the ideas I discussed at the weekend with the creative producer of The Broadway, Barking. And I’m keeping my Goldfingers crossed they all come off for this fantastic multimedia event.
(more…)
September 3, 2012. Tags: acting, Broadway Barking, creativity, Drama, entertainment, fiction, Fringe theatre, James Bond, Women in theatre, writing. Blogging, Comedy, Comedy writing, Humour, Theatre. .
Martini Bond got its first review. OK, so a few of my journalist colleagues were in the audience and could see I was a bit down when the two reviewers didn’t turn up. So one or two offered to write something – independently I must stress – and submit to one or two websites – independent of their workplaces I must stress. (more…)
August 23, 2012. Tags: acting, Comedy, Drama, entertainment, fiction, Fringe theatre, James Bond, representation of women. Blogging, Books, Comedy, Comedy writing, Theatre. .
“You’re a local celebrity,” my friend emailed me. “Be careful you’ll get papped!”
Turns out one of my press releases had made it into a local paper, the Wimbledon Guardian. And my photo is almost as big as Jason Donovan’s… (more…)
August 6, 2012. Tags: acting, Comedy, Drama, e-publishing, editing, entertainment, fiction, Fringe theatre, self-publishing, writing. Blogging, Comedy, Comedy writing, Fiction, Humour, Theatre. .
I’d heard anecdotally that theatre ticket sales could be hit because of the Olympics in London. West End sales were down on this time last year, I was told darkly. After all, the thinking goes, people have come to watch sport, not take part in the sport of getting on the Tube in rush hour. (more…)
July 26, 2012. Tags: acting, blogging, creativity, Drama, entertainment, James Bond, London 2012, Olympics, writing. Blogging, Comedy, Comedy writing, Fiction, Humour, Publishing, Theatre, Writing. .
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