I have just had the adrenalin tsunami of my first TV interview. Major stage fright beforehand, giddy, panting, feet numb.
Can’t remember much of what I said although I’m told I talked about Danny Lancaster, Rock Hard, Gibraltar, travel writing and a few other bits and bobs.
I don’t recall smiling at any stage and I certainly failed to wave my hands around like they do on the BBC.
I tried trimming the beard earlier. Usually a No2 does the job but I think the ratchet on my shaver is slipping. I looked like a badly-plucked chicken.
When the cameras stopped and the lights died, one thing I took immediately from the experience was a huge respect for actors.
If I can melt into a tunnel-visioned wreck talking about my crime thrillers, imagine the skill and mental strength required to present Hamlet to an audience of hundreds.
It’s only a five-minute interview so, hopefully, brevity will be the soul of wit. Perhaps I protest too much but that’s the job, words, words, words, rough-hew them how we will.
In hindsight I think I probably have the perfect face for radio.
Exeunt omnes in pursuit of a beer.
It was 40 years ago yesterday that ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest at Brighton Dome with Waterloo. And 400 years ago today that Renaissance painter El Greco died. A Cretan, his real name was Doménikos Theotokópoulos. You can see why he changed it.
Nearly crashed the car when Radio 4’s Inside Science programme about the age of the Moon quoted the “radioactive dating community”.
‘Did the Earth move for you?’
‘Yes, darling, because you glow so beautifully in the dark.’
Hot sex anyone?
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@williamjtodd
Remembering Barbara – www.barbaragubbins.co.uk