Not taken a traffic cone. Have walked into a lampost though (AKA an intro to 'The Film Show').

Having spent the hottest day of the year so far in a small studio with no air-conditioning to record introductions to some year-old radio footage, you would think that I would leap at the chance to go outside and enjoy the sunshine whilst it lasts, but no. It turns out I’m exactly the sort of recluse who can lock himself away for hours on end, only really going out for sustenance and socialising. However, it wasn’t really a case of suffering for my art (indeed, if intentionally being antisocial can be classified as suffering, we might want to redefine the word) as I enjoyed the work and it means that the world can finally hear the classic comic commentary of The Film Show. What is this show and why am I so keen to get it out in the public domain? Well, what follows is some sort of explanation…

University is, famously, an environment in which to experiment. For some, this means trying out substances, confirming their sexual preferences, or finding out exactly how many pints it takes before you steal a traffic cone. For me though, it’s been the perfect place to try out different things creatively. Consequently, in little over two years, I’ve performed stand-up, written several tiny plays and monologues, directed my own audio version of A Christmas Carol, acted in pieces at the local Theatre Royal, put on sketches for a Jubilee street party, become one of the founding members of a flash fiction group, and hosted my own radio show all about films.

The latter came about through my joining the radio society with the intention of collaborating on a regular sketch show. Almost immediately, this fell through, and I became part of a panel show that went through various incarnations until it too was, like beers in a six pack, canned.  It was only when I pitched the idea of a review feature on films that I ended up with a vehicle that would last for six glorious practise episodes until, regrettably, multiple other commitments (including several of those in my extensive list above) meant that we never had the time to broadcast live.

But what a fantastic set of six it was! From episode one, the basic format was more or less in place. Every episode, I would lead a series of discussions with comedy night M.C., James, and (soon-to-be) fellow Flashnificent, Chris*, around a set classic film, such as Die Hard or Spiderman**, before discussing more topical stuff such as interesting new trailers, the latest box office top ten, and whether there should officially only be three Indiana Jones films. Off this loose structure, we frequently span off into fantastical tangents which would continue until we realised we were straying too far from the original topic (episode five is notable in that a show provisionally about The King’s Speech somehow sees our discussions repeatedly lead to talk of Liam Neeson) and hastily cut to a song in order to refocus.

You will find no such songs in the podcast version of The Film Show however as very few people would rather hear the Foo Fighters instead of a  conversation about Batman (again, a topic that bizarrely cropped up with remarkable regularity in the King’s Speech show). Plus, with them included in the programme, some episodes would be up to two hours long, and nobody wants to listen to something as lengthy as eight editions of The Archers***.

Also notably absent from these edited audio treasures is any nuggets of information that would overtly identify either the university or the society radio station (the latter of which is, as of time of writing, still running****). This is not in any way to disassociate the podcasts from these institutions that provided a home for such a show; it’s just a way to ensure that their reputation isn’t muddied by a couple of blokes who are perfectly content to talk about Liam Neeson for an hour and a half.

Unless someone tries to sue us for libel.

In which case, it was -

*Incidentally, our team came together when Chris told me that he’d disliked the host of our society fundraiser. That host was James. I mentioned we were doing a show together.  Chris said he'd be up for joining in. The rest is history – well, very minor little-reported history, that is. It’s not exactly going to make the next series by David Starkey or anything.

**Okay, so maybe I’m slightly stretching the meaning of the word ‘classic’…

***Similarly, no one would want to listen to The Archers if it lasted for two hours.

****Not that the university isn't still going. I just mean that the station and society hasn't since ceased to be or been shut down because somebody said 'sodding' whilst the mic was live.