News Roundup: Sooty, Menston Green, Theo

I must apologise for the formality of this blog's title. But what else to call it? This is going to be a very 'bitty' post and I could think of no better word than "roundup", a new word for me given that I rarely have much to "roundup" besides cats and stubborn croissants, (notice my personification of the PASTRY and not the feline - that's how my brain works.)

I'll start off with my latest "commission" - the Theo the Mouse DVD for Wink Taylor and Wendy Abrahams. What a joy this has been so far! Pre-production bores me to tears - the phone calls, the emails, the schedules, it's a snooze, and yet it still stops me sleeping, an infuriating irony that bores me in itself. But I've not had to do any of that this time, because the show isn't my baby. Wink and Wendy are on it all: the sets, the props, the costumes, the scripts. All I have to do, when we start filming next Wednesday, is turn up and point the camera! Okay, admittedly I have to edit the thing, and conjure up some visual effects, but I really enjoy that stuff! So this is shaping up to be an ideal job, focusing on the things I love with very solid, professional people, (who also bring me food and toy Daleks - perfect.) The timescale's shifted slightly, so the finished DVD is more likely to be available in the new year than late 2012, but I'll keep you updated.

But before that, Sky TV will be running a promotional feature(!) which is recording on October 31, (not sure if it's a live broadcast or not, or indeed which Sky channel it's on! I have been told, but unless this information comes to me in the Written Word, it's most likely to disappear through the colander in my brain. Yikes. No doubt I'll bombard Facebook and Twitter with shameless self-publicity when the time arrives.) But Wink Taylor fans can rejoice: he'll be there operating and voicing the eponymous Theo, ably 'assisted' by his chum Wendy.

Menston Green, starring Colin Baker

Next: Menston Green, (my surreal sci-fi supermarket comedy starring Colin Baker!) We recorded it in July and it's shaping up very nicely. Tim at Visionary Sound did me an initial dialogue edit in September, which I sent back with notes, ("make it tighter, make it quicker!") And he did just that. Edit #2 was both tight and quick, in-keeping with the Official Motto of the Alex Skerratt School of Pacing: "If it's not moving at 900mph, it's not fast enough." (It's true!) So, terminal velocity now achieved, he's onto recording sound effects and music. The finished product will probably be available in early 2013, in a format to be confirmed.

Finally, Sooty. Me and Winkleton met up with Mr C last Friday to start planning the second series, and it was a blast. Oh those two make me laugh, (it's a tough thing to do, seriously; I'm as dead-pan as they come.) Nothing is set in stone for the 2013 series, (as these things never are), so we're just writing blind, but with immense enthusiasm. We've planned out 12, with Wink drafting 6, and me drafting 6, which we'll go through and tweak the next time we 'confab' in (hopefully) November.

Mr C was kind enough to take us for a very tasty carvery where we continued to plan ideas over meat and veg, gesticulating passionately about custard pies, magic wands and water pistols, whilst apparently piquing the interest of the senior gentleman at the next table:

"So!" he said, keenly. "How are you boys finding the job market?"

Richard turned to him and answered politely, "Yeah, it's okay."

The gentleman frowned. "Oh, you're all employed then?!"

"Yep, very much so," Richard replied.

I chuckled inside. "Very much" employed(!)... Richard owns a theme park!! He's very humble about it. I wondered what had prompted the man to ask this, and the only conclusion I can draw is that we must have looked like a set of graduates, desperate to break out into the Working World with our magic wands and custard pies, (okay, this is actually true in my case.) But what a compliment to Richard and Wink, who are a few years older than me.

So that's what's been happening. I decided to write this blog because I'm aware I've left some of the 'Menston Green' folks completely out of the loop, and they deserve to know what's going on. So that's my excuse for Skerratt Media's first official news, erm, "roundup." Now, where's that pastry...