I was planning on posting about all sorts of real-life things today, like my new mobile (and why I have a new one) and my opinions on the news of the Blakes 7 remake, but then I heard that Humph died last night of the aortic aneurysm he went into hospital for last week.

The article doesn’t say, but the aorta is the main artery bringing blood from the heart and an aneurysm is where the walls have been weakened. When he died it would have been instant and he wouldn’t have known anything about it.

However, I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue won’t be the same without him. The stage show in Bournemouth last Tuesday had Rob Brydon stepping in and The Guardian liked it, but didn’t say how well he did, except to say that he sang (and he’s very good at singing).

I do feel lucky that I’ve got to see Humph three times, at two recordings and the stage show. On two of those occasions he played too. Tomorrow at noon they’re going to repeat a classic episode (how classic, I don’t know) and there’ll be a tribute to him at 9am on Wednesday, I assume also on Radio 4.

Edit: The Guardian has more details and says that he was admitted to hospital on 16th, had surgery on Monday and died Friday night following complications. So we don’t know exactly what happened, and given he was 86 it could have been anything, but he probably didn’t know anything about it.

I had this email about Humph through the ISIHAC mailing list:
Read more…

I went to London yesterday evening to the recording of the ISIHAC Christmas special, Humph in Wonderland (to be broadcast on 25th December at 12.04, incidentally). It being Sunday it meant that the trains stopped earlier, so I parked at Didcot, instead of Cholsey where I usually park. So that was a bit of adventure. I cunningly parked under a light, by accident, which was handy because the rest of the car park was really dark by the time I got back. I might go there in future because it has a much nicer drive back and isn’t much further away.

I got completely lost trying to find the theatre even though I had instructions. They were misleading instructions though, as they told me the busy road to my left was Shaftesbury Avenue, when actually Shaftesbury Avenue wasn’t busy at all, not in comparison to Regent’s Street. And there were so many roads in so many directions, that when the instructions said to cross the road it was hard to work out which one they were talking about. Although on balance I think it was them not saying which direction to go in next that didn’t help.
Read more…

I went to the I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue stage show last night in Oxford. In order to get there in time and eat, I tried a pot noodle thing from Trufree, on dad’s recommendation. I’d never eaten one before, but this was really nice and filling, even if it did seem a bit like eating baby food.

Non-Brits, the rest of this post will not make any sense – ISIHAC being a very British comedy.

Read more…

I’ve just had the email about autumn recordings of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, which are in Croydon, Manchester and Peterbrough. But, they’re recording the Christmas special (Humph in Wonderland) on Sunday 25th November in Shaftesbury Avenue. Which I can get to.

Tickets go on sale 10am Monday. Anyone want to come with me? It’s less than £10, even for the expensive tickets.

Since I was good and worked last night I gave myself a night off to watch non-Doctor Who TV. Which was supposed to inlude The Avengers but I finished dinner too late, so it’s been moved to tomorrow night now. Probably.

Anyway, there was Colin and Justin. Now, of all the people you’d not want to plan your wedding they’ve got to be top of the list. But as usual really, they had loads of crises but it all came right in the end. And Justin threw a hissy fit over something small. But it’s not as good as their usual house designing thing because you don’t get them having arguments with Katy and Andy, and the narrator for this one wasn’t as funny. I’ll still be watching next week though.

Then I listened to The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents from Listen Again, and 1.30 Saturday on BBC7 wasn’t that convenient. And my non-Doctor Who night went awry because David Tennant was in it. I’d entirely forgotten the story though, so I really enjoyed it, just as I had reading it. I do like the little girl who makes her life a story and whose name I can’t remember how to spell.

The long DW fic is now up to nearly 14,000 words and ten cups of tea.

I think I have officially given up on watching Lost. I got so behind with my TV last week that I still haven’t got round to watching it. This was, in part, because there were other things I would rather watch, but it’s reached the point now where I’m just not going to get it in before this weeks. And I haven’t missed it at all, so I’m taking it as a sign and giving up. I just can’t quite bring myself to care about any of the characters, or the island’s secrets any more. If I get really curious I’ll just surf a bit, or ask some Americans who I know watch it.

I’m feeling virtuous about my writing, too. The Sheppard/Weir Thing is now on v4, complete with, shock horror, some description! And a couple of adjectives! I mean, really, what more could you ask for? I think there’s some action (ie a bit of movement) I could probably describe – I mean I know where they’re moving, what direction they’re facing etc, but it’s not all in there. I’m trying (note the important word here, trying) to get it to the stage of needing beta’ing by the end of the month. Hopefully that’ll be v5 or v6.

I had to remind dad that I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue started tonight (having previously reminded him last week when MiniMinder reminded me). He’d forgotten. I’d got a tape out ready to record it while I cooked/ate dinner. Sadly, though, I was washing up when I realised it was halfway through and it might have been a good idea to have actually pressed the record button. Hopefully it’ll be up after Shakespeare and I can listen to it in bed. I wish TV had listen again, it would be so useful for people like me – unless I set everything to record I forget to watch it! (although I have on occasion forgotten I’ve recorded something and accidentally taped over it)

I went to see the next two episodes of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue recorded in Oxford last night. It was great to actually see what happens (although I already knew the truth about Samantha and the laser display board). The only complaint was that the theatre was really hot. Although in all fairness, it wasn’t that much cooler outside.

Each episode took over an hour to record, so even when they take out the bits that went wrong, there’s still quite a bit of that’s going to get taken out. It will be interesting to listen and find out what (if I can remember).

The guest was Harry Hill, who I wasn’t terribly impressed by until they did a science fiction segment and he did a wonderful Dalek impression without the aid of any props at all. Graeme Garden’s Darth Vader was also good but did involve a glass of water.

I won’t spoil the episodes but suffice to say they were up to their usual standard.

I found out, while I was there, that Art is coming to the New Theatre, and has Russell Boulter in it! So I will have to go back there to see that.

On my way I stopped off at Borders. Who were doing Doctor Who books at �1.99 and 4 for 3 but they only had two Doctor & Ace books and I’ve got them both. I was quite interested to discover there is a novelisation of Scream of the Shalka. There was also quite a good selection of Lois McMaster Bujold books, so if I get really stuck with finding them, that’s an option.

And onto tennis. I was quite disappointed to miss Greg Rusedski’s match yesterday, as it sounds as if it was quite exciting. Mind you, so was Tim Henman’s today. But Andy Murray is my little star. Not only did he win a match, but did it in straight sets, beating a seeded opponent, getting him lots of points. Annoyingly, I don’t quite have enough money to swap Henman for Roddick (assuming he won after BBC2 stopped at 8.30), so I might get Hewitt instead. Otherwise I only have one man left in! Suffice to say I’m doing quite badly in the fantasy league, but then I was this time last year as well.

I’m really looking forward to a weekend of doing nothing but watching tennis and Glastonbury, except for all those things I’ve been putting off till the weekend. Which will be good anyway because I’ll be bored on Sunday with no tennis to watch.

I had a bit of a revelation today. I’ve been enjoying Atlantis recently and I’ve been trying to work out why – then it occurred to me. It’s because I’ve been watching it on it’s own and not straight after Stargate. The trouble is that I like all the characters in Stargate (except for the love to hate ones) and I’ve been watching it for a few years. Whereas on Atlantis I don’t like Teyla and I still can’t decide about Weir. In all fairness, I didn’t like Teal’c at first so that could change.

Also, I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue is back on Monday. Of course, my dad, the minute I tell him this tells me I have to remind him. He’d be stuffed if it wasn’t for Listen Again (mind you, so would I). I wish TV had the same system – once something had been shown, you can watch it any time within a week afterwards.

The good news: Enterprise has been renewed (http://www.trektoday.com/news/200504_01.shtml
The bad news: Richard Biggs has died (http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17099)

I went away for 26 hours at the weekend and returned to find 198 e-mails, of which 144 were spam. I’ve been answering them while listening to “Six Characters in Search of an Answer” on BBC7’s Listen Again. Which is so useful because I never listen to anything on the radion on time. I only remembered to watch Have I Got News For You on Friday because the video came on (in my defence I’m usually out).

On the plus side this weekend I established that Hobbycraft still doesn’t have any rabbits I can cross stitch. I might have to go on a hunt on the internet, or end up doing cats. Which are nice, but not as nice as rabbits. I’ve still got a fair bit of The Librarian left to do so it’s not urgent yet.

I also made about 20 CDs and did all my backing up. At the same time I finally saw Miss Congeniality. I meant to go and see it when it was out at the cinema. I meant to get it out on video. I even meant to watch it on TV, but forgot. That’s a record, even for me.

I re-injured my toes tonight, exactly the same way as I did last week, so they hurt. What’s worse is that I had my glasses punched twice on the same side, so the floor now slopes. Which is not helpful.

I finally got round to doing these quizzes, this is from Selenay (I can’t quite bring myself to use the word gacked, to me it sounds like the cat’s about to be sick):

Good stuff, you are “Wedding? I love
weddings! Drinks all around.” You’re the
life of the party and nothing gets you down,
not even certain death at the hands of your
zombie nemesis or the Navy. Come to think of
it, realism isn’t your strong suit…

Which one of Captain Jack Sparrow’s bizarre sayings from Pirates of the Caribbean are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

How true!

This I first saw on fileg’s journal:

Yep, that would be me