Sparks on The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman

The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman is an unusual album, even for Sparks. Originally designed as a radio programme for Sweden (and hence written in Swedish) it is now being released in English and Sparks are in the UK to promote it.

One of these promotional appearances was on the Stuart Maconie Radio 6 programme, Freak Zone, and this was recorded in front of an enthusiastic audience, myself included. This was at the BBC Radio Theatre, a familiar venue for me which made getting middle seats in the front row hardly a challenge.

The show started with the album played in its entirety. It narrates the fictional but allegorical story of Ingmar Bergman's attempted seduction by Hollywood.

Ingmar Bergman plays the role of narrator of his own story and he provides the link between the songs.

Musically the album is something of a new direction for Sparks (not that they are unused to taking new directions) and there is only one song that sounds as though it could have come off one of the recent albums.

From one hearing it is hard to define a theme or a mood to the music but I do recall a lot of heavier rock-like tunes. There was also a lot of what I thought was Steve Reich influenced.

The hour of music was followed by an hour of interviewing though I suspect it will be greatly edited down when broadcast on 8 November as Stuart Maconie looked and sounded rather lost at times and the interviewed drifted poorly between subjects and (mostly) failed to reach any meaningful depths.

It was not all gloss though and when Sparks were asked specific questions about music (most of these were audience questions) then we did learn some new things, such as Ron's appreciation of the music of Bernard Hermann (most famous for the soundtracks to several Hitchcock films) and of John Adams.

But I do not want to focus on the negatives because it was a very good evening; we got to hear the exciting new Sparks album before its official release and got to spend an hour in their easy company. It's nights like this that make living in London such fun.

The Now Show, 13 August 2009

My initial thought was not to bother to try and get tickets for the latest series of The Now Show but I weakened and applied for, and got, tickets to the last show of the current series of eight shows.

The logistics were a little easier than usual as the rest of the family were all on holiday so there was no waiting for the last boy to get home from school followed by the rush to get to Broadcasting House.

If you've read the previous postings on The Now Show then you know that the plot is Pizza Express, get in the queue early enough to get into the first waiting room then jockey for position to ensure a front row seat. It all worked again.

Hugh Dennis was even more up for it than usual and we had an extended set of warm-up renditions including the crap gymnastic dismount, old man running, rings, ski jump and (pictured) the legendary raptor, which is also on YouTube.

Andy Zaltzman was the guest comedian and as a semi-regular guest he fitted into the programme well.

That apart it was The Now Show doing what The Now Show does, that is being funny about topical subjects in a very middle-class way with plenty of references to not-so-recent films and TV shows. This is exactly what you expect from, and hope for, in a Radio 4 comedy.

I would like to claim that one of my jokes made the broadcast version but as most of the audience submitted "I do" as the thing they regretted saying it is hard to be certain that it was my copy that got read out, but I think that it was. In the theatre they read another one of mine out too but in the editing they seemed to think that the cast's jokes were better than mine. Odd that.

The News Quiz 21 May 2009

The Friday evening comedy slot on Radio 4 alternates between The Now Show and The News Quiz and while I have been to see recordings of The Now Show several times I had never been to see the The News Quiz until this week.

The News Quiz is also recorded on Thursday evenings at the BBC Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House so much of evening followed the usual ritual.

Part of this was a pizza at the Pizza Express all but next door but this may be for the last time. Comments made on previous visits and provided a £10 gift token but not an improvement in service - the dough balls ordered for a starter failed to arrive but were included in the bill. Not impressed.

Decided not to rush for the show and was happy to join the queue in position 100, instead of the usual 50. This was still good enough to get into the first waiting room (despite the usual incident with security which then made it easy to get a seat in the middle of the second row.

The stage was set up quite simply in the traditional game show way with Sandi Toksvig, the chair, sitting in the middle with the news reader, Francis Wheen and Robert Ince on her right and Steve Punt and Fred MacAulay on her left.

Steve Punt, as one of The Now Show creators is not meant to also appear on The News Quiz, and I guess that he was there as a late replacement for Jeremy Hardy who is a regular on the show and who was in that episode according to the BBC website.

The format is quite simple, each contestant in turn gets asked a question on a topical question which they find a correct but amusing way to answer and then the other panellists chip in with other relevant am musing comments. When the rambling runs out of steam Sandi brings the question to a close and moves to the next one. This goes on for three rounds.

The show is clearly partially scripted and the panellists have prepared some bon mots on topics that they know are likely to come up, like MPs' expenses.

The overall effect is rather like a conversation at a dinner party where everybody lets everybody else say their piece and emotions are kept well in check.

As a result it is consistently amusing but rarely very funny. The broadcast version is funnier because they edit it down from around one hour to half.

Some of this editing is pretty simple and brutal, of the twelve questions recorded only nine were broadcast. The rest of the editing pares the rambling down so that only the bonnest mots that pass UK legislation are broadcast.

I was glad I went as being there to see a show being made is always interesting but, unlike The Now Show, the live version of The News Quiz is not that much funnier that the broadcast one so I am unlikely to go again.

The Now Show, 23 April 2009

The umpteenth (i.e. 26th) series of The Now Show ended this week and I was in the audience for the recording; the second show that I had seen this series.

The logistics were much as before, though a school meeting meant travelling to Oxford Circus on the train from Kingston rather than the tube from Richmond, and after dinner in Pizza Express we found ourselves around 40th in the queue for the show and were then well placed in the waiting room for front row seats, which we got.

We prefer to sit right of centre as that is where most of the action is.

Hugh Dennis is roughly in the middle of the stage with Steve Punt to the right and Mitch Benn goes further right still when he plays his three songs and does his various character voices.

Left from Hugh you have Jon Holmes and Laura Shavin who speak a lot less.

No Marcus Brigstocke this week but he was ably replaced by Lloyd Langford who was very funny on and off script.

Anybody who has head The Now Show knows what to expect and they duly delivered. We had topical jokes on the budget and some of this series' running jokes, e.g. kids being amazed by the bleeding obvious.

Also as usual, the live show is around 50 minutes and this gets edited down to 30 for broadcast. I think that the BBC is missing a trick here and I would love to see the full show being podcast. Material World used the lack of time constraints to have a longer podcast recently and I see no reason why The Now Show should not do the same.

One of the loudest cheers of the evening went to Laura Shavin who had to read out a long and complicated Chemistry question from an old exam.

This gives me a good excuse, not that I really need one, to include a close-up of Laura (having failed to do so two weeks ago).

She was some distance away and obviously I could not use a flash during the recording but I am pleased with the camera's ability to sense the light, zoom digitally and allow for my shaking.

There was no audience question this week, instead we were offered the chance to display our audio talents to the world.

Only one person rose to the challenge seriously and you may hear him gargle "Rule Britannia" for about a second when the show is broadcast. In order to do this, he had to sign a page long contract to give the BBC full rights to use the recording of his gargling! Jon Holmes read the full contract in amazement and then Steve Punt pointed out that Jon's contract had all the same clauses in it!

The rest of settled for submitting amusing but impracticable entries and three (of four) of ours were read out so we will be listening to the broadcast version to see if any made it through the editing process. The claimed talents were to do an very quick summary of Alistair Darling's budget ("We're doomed!"), play the Welsh Harp to concert standards (sadly not brought with us) and to be a Wookie who can do Mitch Benn impressions. The last one made Mitch Benn laugh anyway.

The evening ended nicely with a quick word with Mitch Benn and his wife following my chance encounter with Mitch earlier this week.

I have also had chance encounters with Steve Punt (John Lewis in Kingston) and Hugh Dennis (outside Television Centre when I was queueing for Two Pints ...) so either I am a lucky guy or it is all down to effective stalking!

The Now Show, 9 April 2009

For various reasons, including being unlucky in the ballot for tickets, I had not been to see a recording of The Now Show since last July so it was a welcome return this week.

The routine was largely unaltered from the previous visits and the evening started with a pizza at the nearby Pizza Express. The only minor change here is that they have stopped doing the half bottle of Pinot Grigio so I had to have a large glass instead.

The combination of a slightly later start to the recording (it moved to 6:45 from 6:15) and being able to get away early due to the school holidays combined nicely to promote us from our usual 50th in the queue outside Broadcasting House to the very front!

There were slight panics when one of us lost their ticket and I realized that I had brought my penknife with me but a security guard found the ticket and his colleagues failed to find the knife hidden amongst my keys (this works with most airlines too!) so it all worked out fine.

Things were even better when we went to the usual holding room as there were more seats than before and we were able to get four right next to the exit. However, the temporary bar there still charges £3.20 for a 33cl plastic bottle of Grolsch.

The evening dipped when, just before we went into the theatre, we were informed that the first four rows had been reserved for production guests so despite being in the front of the queue outside we found ourselves in the 5th row. This was disappointing (I have already written to the BBC about this) but the upside was that it did allow me to take more photos than usual during the recording.

But the whole point of the evening was the show itself and that did not disappoint at all. After playing (good) reserves for the last few weeks The Now Show team was back to full strength with the return of Hugh Dennis and Marcus Brigstocke to play alongside the other regulars, Steve Punt, Jon Holmes, Mitch Benn and Laura Shavin, and all were on top form to provide over an hour of top entertainment. Listeners to the programme and the podcast will have to settle for the 29 minute edited version.

The proof of a good show is whether you would go and see it again and despite having seen The Now Show several times in the last few years I am already looking forward to going again in a couple of weeks.

In the city there are a thousand things to do

I'm taking a few days holiday (use it or lose it) and am trying to make the most of the extra free time. Tickets for the recording of a radio show gave the opportunity to see some of London, so I did.

First port of call was the Tate Modern on the south bank of the Thames, always worth a visit. The installation in the former Turbine Hall was typically huge, interesting and (to me at least) confusing. I have no idea what the point of dozens of metal bunk beds is but it makes an effective display and was clearly appreciate by all the people walking through it.

I also had a quick look at Material Gestures, an exhibition "devoted to painting and sculpture from the 1940s and 1950s, showing how new forms of abstraction and expressive figuration emerged in post-war Europe and America". A lot of this I really liked and some of it I really hated, but that's what I expect from modern art.




Leaving the Tate Modern on foot there are two scenic options, along the south bank or cross the rover on the Millennium Bridge. I took the bridge where I took the above picture of the city. The tall building on the far left was called the NatWest Tower originally and I worked there for a few months way back in '93.

The path from the Millennium Bridge leads up to St Paul's Cathedral where I had a much appreciated coffee and a cake at one of the Starbucks nearby. I was surprised that there was no wi-fi there so my twitter silence had to continue for a few hours more.

After the bun it was time for a pizza and so it was off to the Pizza Express in Charlotte Street. Tried to work out how many different Pizza Expresses I've been too and came up with the answer 12 to 15. Not sure if that is too many or too few.

From there it was a short stroll to the Drill Hall Theatre for the recording of BBC Radio 4 comedy The Party Line. Was not too surprised to see some of The Now Show audience regulars there and spoke to some of them while waiting for the theatre to open.

The show was good entertainment both because of the topical satirical script (well, it is written by The Now Show's Punt and Dennis) and because of the interactions between the cast, particularly when cock-ups were made.

Finally, back to Richmond for a few drinks in the Angel and Crown, the chili vodka was excellent! The perfect end to a perfect day.

The Now Show with extras

This week's visit to a recording of The Now Show had lots of familiar elements to it.

The trip to Pizza Express beforehand; having knives confiscated by BBC security; getting ticket number 53; drinking Grolsch out of a plastic bottle in the waiting area.

Getting the seats in the front row between the mikes used by Punt and Dennis; having some of our replies to the audience question read out at the end; a cracking show of around 50 minutes that will be edited down to 29.

And we had a pleasant surprise to top the evening off.


The Now Show audience was roped in to play the part of a radio show audience in an episode of the third series of Lead Balloon, starring Jack Dee.

In this episode Jack Dee's character makes an embarrassingly (adverb!) inept appearance on a show about language.

We were only wanted for one short scene but we were sitting in the front row so should be easy to spot when it is broadcast.

All in all it was another excellent night out. Thank you BBC!

The Now Show (again)

This week's visit to a recording of The Now Show was a triumph of planning. We achieved our two main objectives (eating in Pizza Express beforehand and getting seats in the front row), our secondary objective (getting one of our jokes read out during the audience question section) and also our tertiary objective (getting one of our jokes broadcast).

The mixed news was that Hugh Dennis was missing (Boo!) because he was recording the second series of Outnumbered (Hooray!).

He was replaced this week by Jon Culshaw (Dead Ringers etc.) which was an interesting change as Jon is much better at voices whereas Hugh live is really funny (the famous raptor impressions etc.) but, obviously, a lot of this is missed by the radio audience.

For a show that bills itself as "Everything that's now, nothing that's then" it continues to have some surprisingly old references. Last time we saw them there was a parody of The Goons' Ying Tong Song and this time it was Julian and Sandy from Round the Horne. I'm old enough to get these jokes but anybody under 40 would probably be lost (do people younger than 40 listen to Radio 4?!).

The show was, as always, funnier and longer live which is why it is so worth going to see it being recorded.

The Now Show

The Now Show is a worthy BBC Radio 4 tradition and the latest series started a couple of weeks ago. A more recent tradition is our attendance at recordings of the show. These are held on Thursday evening and the show is first broadcast the following day at 6:30pm.

The routine is bus/tubes to Richmond, Hammersmith, Green Park, Oxford Circus, eating in the Pizza Express near to Broadcasting House, being around 50th in the queue, me getting picked out by the security system, and positioning ourselves successfully in the waiting area so that we get seats in the front row.

Almost part of this tradition is getting one or more of our replies to the audience question being read out. This time I had two read out during the recording but neither made it to the show as broadcast - no real surprise as both jokes were a little weak and the killer punchline to one of them was censored by Steve Punt (again, no surprise given its subject matter!).

The show itself lived up to expectations being 50 minutes of live anarchy that was edited down to 30 minutes of tight comedy and part of the fun is trying to remember which bits were cut.

I'm already looking forward to the next show in a few weeks and until then I have the radio shows and podcasts to keep me going :-)

The last in the current series of The Now Show

For the second time in four days I went to a recording of The Now Show at BBC Broadcasting House in Central London. The ritual includes a pizza beforehand at the Pizza Express just the other side of All Souls Church in Langham Place, joining the queue early enough to get into the bar area before the show (several rooms are used to hold waiting punters but being in the bar means access to drinks and being best placed for seats for the show), thinking hard about the response to the audience question, and successfully manoeuvring for a seat in the front row.

The show followed its usual format too with the studio audience being treated to Hugh Dennis' warm-up, a much longer show than gets broadcast, interplay between the cast and the ad lib stuff during the retakes and podcast additions.

Now I have to wait until Friday evening to see if my joke that was read out on the evening (in French!) makes the broadcast version and until the end of February for the next series.

The Now Show, in reverse!

There are only six shows in this series of The Now Show. The final show goes out on Friday 4 January but was recorded on Monday 17 December!

I was there (yet again) and was in the front row (yet again) so was able to take this shot of most of the cast (Mitch Benn is off to the right and Laura Shavin is cut-off on the left).

Being Monday, rather than the usual Thursday, meant that Marcus Brigstocke was able to do the guest slot, and that is always welcome.

Show 6 looks forward to 2008 and they read out my reply to the audience question and now I have to wait a few weeks to find out if they use it on air.

After they recorded show 6 they recorded show 5! Show 5 (to be broadcast on 28 December) looks back over 2007 and is basically a greatest hits collection for which they recorded some links to string them all together. They also read out my reply to the audience question for this too :-)

Show 4 is being recorded on Thursday (and broadcast on Friday) and I will be at that also!

The Now Show is using my jokes again!

This week saw the welcome return of The Now Show to BBC Radio 4 and I was at Broadcasting House to watch the recording of the first show.

As usual, live the show lasts about an hour and it gets edited down to the half hour that is broadcast. This alone makes going to the recordings worthwhile.

It's also worth being there to see the actors and the expressions they make during the sketches and to each other.

Hugh Dennis' warm up routines are legendary and we were treated to the familiar ski jump (must put that on YouTube) and the new gymnast recovering from a bad landing.

And you have to be at the show to be in the show.

They ask an audience question while you are waiting to go in to the theatre and they read the best ones out afterwards and a few of these also make the broadcast show. I am delighted and rather surprised, to say that my reply made the broadcast show for the second time in a row. Perhaps I've missed my vocation!

The Now Show, fun to watch but hard to queue for

I flew back from Helsinki on Thursday evening and went straight into central London to see the latest recording of The Now Show. This series has moved from the Drill Hall to the BBC Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House, just off Oxford Circus. The new venue sounds like a promotion and the theatre is much better but the logisitics are much much worse.

Firstly we had to queue outside which was not a lot of fun in the rain. As with other BBC venues (e.g. Television Centre) we had to go through an airport-style security systems. Having just been through a real airport security system I was not impressed to have my bag of dirty shirts pulled over for having a suspect pair of scissors in it, which it did not. When I protested they rescanned the bag and the scissors disappeared.

As we were in the first 50 in the queue we were able to squeeze in to the small cafe area though we had to steal a chair from a store room to get a seat.

At the Drill Hall we had queued indoors, got a table in the good size bar and had had some drinks and snacks in comfort while waiting for the show. All in all the two hours plus between arriving at the BBC and getting into the theatre were rather unpleasant.

The show itself was fantastic, although we won't know until later today which bits of the hour or so that was recorded made it into the final cut. For example, Mitch Benn did three songs during the recording but only two will get into the broadcast show. If the "rabbit's foot" audience joke makes it on to the programme then that's one of mine.

The cast was the "A List" for The Now Show with all the regulars present, including Marcus Brigstocke pictured here doing one of the few retakes. Hugh Dennis adds hugely to the live recording through his mimes and facial expressions which alone make the show worth seeing live. Mitch Benn also enlivens the evening up by laughing at everybody else's jokes.

The Now Show is still a great night out but I hope that they've sorted some of the logistics out before we go again in August.