I've been busy with a new script for the past few weeks and really enjoying the joy/agony of creating new characters and a new world for them to play in. But I have spent the past few days sitting at the keyboard in the office bleary-eyed.
Bloody cricket.
England playing an Ashes series in Australia used to mean a dodgy Channel 9 highlights package fronted by Richie Benaud but not any more. Richie has hung up his ivory/beige/fawn/cream jackets and now the action is beamed live from OZ in the middle of the UK night. And there is no way I cannot watch - not all of it, the school run means I have to get some sleep otherwise my daughter wouldn't get to the bus - but as much as I can stay awake for.
The first Test ended in a thrilling draw and now the second Test has been won, brilliantly, by England. Thank god they wrapped it up quickly.
Watching in bed means I look at the Sky pictures but have my earphones plugged into the DAB radio. I've been a fan of Test Match Special, that most quintessentially English of all radio shows, since I was a kid and for me there is no comparison between the speech on TMS and the commentary on Sky. I like some fun with my cricket. Sky is far too po-faced and repetitive for my liking.
A few years back the wonderful Charles Collingwood, the long-time Archers actor and all-round good fellow and cricket nut invited me to Lords for the day. At the time I was producing a TV show on which he appeared. We enjoyed the cricket but the day was made extra special for me as Charles had arranged with TMS for us to visit the commentary box. This was before the space-age media center was constructed, in those days it was still atop the pavilion. Now entry to the Pavilion at Lords is reserved for a select few and Charles, being an MCC member is among their number. I was to be allowed in as his guest. However, on approaching the door we were stopped by an aging jobsworth and ceremonially grilled. Who are you, what do you want? Charles explained we were off to the TMS box and grudgingly the old chap agreed to let us past but as I stepped forward he put out a hand to stop me, looked Charles in the eye and said, "You won't let him run around will you". I was 38 at the time.
Cricket, I love it.
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