BBC Recording 'With Great Pleasure'

So, a little while back I applied, on the BBC's website, for tickets to go to the recording of With Great Pleasure at Christmas, for Radio 4, recorded on Saturday,  to be broadcast on Christmas Day. Tickets are allocated by random draw, and just over 2 weeks before the recording, I got an email to say I'd been successful and got tickets. 

The recording was in the evening after I was due to see Antony and Cleopatra, so I arranged  to meet up for a meal with my friend A, and then to go to the recording. Which we did. (although we had an anxious wait as they send out more tickets than spaces, and we were among the last to arrive, so were holders of yellow 'wait' stickers instead of white 'definite seats' ones..) But all was well, we got in, and the evening was a lot of fun.

The format of the programme is to invite a guest presenter to share some of their favourite pieces of writing. 10 years ago I got to go to a recording of the Christmas episode, where the guest was Terry Pratchett. This time, the guest was Neil Gaiman..

Photo shamelessly nicked form Mr Gaiman's facebook page, of the performers 

Neil had picked various poems and extracts from books, which were read by (and in one case acted by) his friends - Mitch Benn, John Finnemore, Nina Sosanya, and the Angel Islington himself, Peter Capaldi .Oh, and 4 members of the ukulele orchestra of Great Britain!

The evening opened with some festive music from the ukulele orchestra, then we heard lots of readings. (skip this part if you want the programme to be a surprise...)
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The readings included some horrifying children's stories (Lucy Clifford's 'The New Mother', and Charles Dickens' 'Captain Murderer)', extracts from Mary Poppins and 'Wind in the Willows', a Saki short story, several poems, including  Henry Treece's 'The Magic Wood' and Nicholas Moore's 'The Island and the Cattle', and Wendy Cope's 'Differences of Opinion (amid some chat and jokes, and Neil's demonstration of the 'I was wrong' dance he and Amanda have for diffusing any disagreements).

 Mitch Benn sang Alan Moore's ' Me and Dorothy Parker and the Ukulele orchestra performed their (Yorkshire) version of Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights'  

We heard an extract of the original BBC  radio HHGTTG recording, and a poem by Terry Pratchett, and Neil read and extract from his own Norse Gods. There was a bit of Brahms and Simons' 'No Bed for Bacon' (about paying writers)

It's difficult to pick, but I think my favourite part was perhaps the performance of A.A. Milne's 'The Fair Lady Dorothy', in which the stage directions / footnotes were read by John Finnemore, and Peter Capaldi played the dastardly (and somewhat obtuse) lover.

Neil introduced each of the pieces,   mostly with a brief explanation of why he chose it, or a joke or comment. And of course we got to see and hear the other performers, including Peter Capaldi's amazing, evil, grin! 

At the end of the recording, there were a few brief re-takes, and then it was all over. I think one of the things which made it special was that everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, performers as well as the audience!

Walking back to the tube station, there were slightly fewer people around on Oxford Street, so I was able to stop and enjoy the Christmas lights, which made a nice end to the evening! .

Angel on Oxford Street

The programme is to be broadcast on Radio 4 Christmas Day, at 7 a.m. and repeated (or just possibly, a slightly different variation of content) at 10 p.m.  Full details here, and for those overseas or unable to listen live, it will be available on BBC Sounds afterwards. Listen and enjoy!

In Which there are Poems

This year's Bath Festival of Children's Literature started on Friday. Although there wasn't any one event this which which leapt out at me as being totally unmissable, but lots that struck me as interesting in one way or another, and I have tickets for 5 or 6 events.

The first was Michael Rosen (well, technically, the first was Ali Sparkes, but I booked that before I knew I had to work on Saturday morning, so I had to miss it, which was a shame)

Michael Rosen's event was in the Guildhall's banqueting hall, and was sold out, which means there were about 350 people there - at a guess, about half of them were small children, and everyone seemed to be enjoying Michael's stories about his school days (back in the Stone Age, when teachers didn't allow children to breathe during lessons, and there was a school dungeon where rats gnawed your toenails) and his poems, many of which involved audience participation.

The event was clearly aimed at young children, but despite neither being, nor having with me, a small child, I still found it lots of fun. An excellent start to (my) festival.

Grumbles, and Cheering Things

It has not been the best week. Lots of stress at work, I've been sleeping badly (which makes me feel ill) and it seems to have been pouring with rain without cease since last weekend. I think someone ought to tell the Rain Gods that the "Showers" part of "April Showers"  does imply that there should be gaps between the periods of rain.

However, as is often the case, even the most miserable week is not all bad.

On Wednesday, I received a package in the mail, from the lovely Kitty, of  Neverwear, containing my print of Neil's wonderful Poem, illustrated by Olivia Beradinis. It really is utterly gorgeous, and as it is printed on thick, rag-paper it feels nice, too.

Yesterday I took it to my local framer, (although I was a little reluctant to part with it, even temporarily) He recommends giving it a wide, black frame, with the inside edge of the frame lined with gold, so that when seen from an angle the gold will be visible.

He recommended it on the basis that the print needs a dramatic presentation, to reflect the dramatic nature of the print. I think he is correct. I shall look forward to seeing it when it is done, and shall occupy myself in the meantime, in deciding where to hang it.

I also went into Bristol, to run some errands, one of which involved going to a branch of my bank. I don't go often, as I usually deal with them by phone or online, but needed to drop some documents off, and Bristol is my closest branch. I got there to find a member of staff on the door denying everyone entry.

After a confused moment wondering when the bank started to employ bouncers, and how I ought to dress or act to get past them, I asked him what was up, and he explained that unfortunately they had had to shut, as their roof had just collapsed! As excuses for being unavailable to assist their customers go, I guess it is quite a good one.

I suppose I should be glad I didn't get rained on too badly - it absolutely poured while I was on the train, but only drizzled while I was actually out of doors. Small mercies...