Here We Go Again.

A Cast Of Thousands... Well, about 25

So today was the cast read through for series 4 of Benidorm and as you can see from the murky iPhone pic I took just before everyone got there I think the next comedy show I write I should have a few less characters! The venue was The Groucho Club in London’s Soho and to make sure  I didn’t have to get up too early I stayed in one of their newly refurbished hotel rooms (yes, it’s a hotel too).  That was  a good idea in theory but  of course I woke up at 6am with a mixture of excitement and trepidation and spent most of the morning pacing around reading through the scripts.   It was a great (but long!) day tinged with sadness as of course we are missing our dear friend and fellow actor Geoffrey Hutchings.  We read the Christmas Special and episodes 1 -5.  We didn’t read episode 6 because of a slight technical problem; I haven’t written it yet. 

 This is because of all the rewriting I’ve had to do but to be honest when we did series 2 I wrote the last episode (Madge and Mel’s wedding) while sitting at a beachside restaurant imagining everything happening; then of course our director, the amazing Sandy Johnson, brought it all to life.

It’s hard for me to be objective but I honestly think we’ve got a good show with the Christmas Special but time will tell and with these blog entries you have the opportunity to comment so I guess I’ll know what you all think of it sooner or later (well, as it’s not gonna be on until near Christmas, probably later!).

I can’t tell you too much about the Special except we’ve got some hilarious guest stars (who were at the read through today) including Su Pollard, Louie Spence and… well, I think I’m entitled to keep a few surprises up my sleeve, don’t you?  After all, what better time of year for surprises than Christmas?!

Viva Espana

I banned a good friend of mine who is a member of the Benidorm cast from reminding me how many weeks there was to go before we all head off to Sunny Spain.  It’s not that I wasn’t looking forward to going as much as he was it’s just that it terrified me to think there was so little time remaining for me to finish the scripts.  I must say for this series (or season if you’re reading this in the USA) I am worryingly behind schedule.  Not only because of my usual excuse of being a lazy bastard (actually I’m not lazy, I just like to put things off until the last minute) but because so far we have had three people drop out of the series (for various reasons) and one cast member tragically pass away.

So now I know exactly how many weeks it is until I go to Spain (I can count them on one hand) and I only just finished episode five this evening.  So I still have to start and finish episode 6 (traditionally a difficult one as I always assume it will be the last ever episode) then go back and rewrite episodes 1,2,3 and 4 (I’ve already rewritten the Christmas Special).  Then on top of that I’ll have the other general rewrites, just going over the scripts trying to make them as good as I possibly can.  During all this of course I have to attend casting sessions to find the new regular characters and all of the guest stars, meetings about scheduling, locations, accommodation and of course all of the other personal stuff one has to organise when planning 4 months away from home; house sitters, dog sitters, etc etc….

So why the hell am I sitting writing this when I should be starting episode 6??!  Well, what can I say, I like to keep in touch.  And since this is my only contact with my loyal supporters since my self imposed banishment from the world of Twitter I intend to keep it up (Matron).

Don’t forget you can always contact me in the form of questions at http://www.formspring.me/derrenlitten – and if you’re wondering why your question was deleted without being answered it will be for one of the following reasons:

1) It wasn’t a question

2) I’ve answered that questions many times before  (scroll back over previous answers)

3) It’s none of your business!

And on that bombshell it’s good night from me and a goodnight from Charlie!  x

Geoffrey Hutchings

It is with incredible sadness that I share the news of the passing of our dear friend Geoffrey Hutchings.  He was the most talented actor I have ever worked with and a hugely popular memeber of the Benidorm cast.  I saw Geoff and his wife Andi only a couple of weeks ago at the screening of his latest TV series ‘Grandma’s House’, he was on top form and we all shared a lovely evening.  It still hasn’t quite sunk in that we won’t see him again.

All of the Benidorm cast send Andi our heartfelt love.

This is just adios and not goodbye.  x

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10494592.stm

Update :

Just a short blog today.  I wanted to thank everyone for their very kind messages of sympathy regarding the untimely passing of our dear friend and cast member of Benidorm, Geoffrey Hutchings.  It still feels surreal that we won’t see Geoff at the read through, or see him on our screens any longer.  Sadly I can’t reply to everyone and those who sent their messages via formspring, I’m sorry I deleted your messages but I did read them all, it seemed a little odd and repetitive to have a string of answers saying the same thing.

A question I can answer here was “will you keep the character of Mel and re-cast with a different actor?”.   No, Geoff was a one off, we could never replace him and we wouldn’t want to try.