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| 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?!
