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Post by adrianics on Apr 12, 2024 10:06:07 GMT
Speaking of Joe Lycett, I had an awful audience experience seeing his outstanding show at the Utilita in Birmingham a couple of years back. I came back from the toilet to find that someone behind me had hung her jacket and bag on the back of my chair, so I turned around and asked who it belonged to. One of the women behind me said their friend who had gone to the bar, so I said "please tell her to keep her belongings to herself when she gets back" and put the coat and bag on the floor. I heard the woman I spoke to say "oh god, she's going to kick off".
Sure enough, the woman got back and immediately tried to put her coat and bag back over my chair. I turned around and told her to keep her belongings to herself and she asked me what my problem was, to which I said "you, right now". I asked her why she didn't just put her things on her own chair, to which she just smirked and nodded at me, so I said "anything of yours on my chair, you'll lose". She then gave up but I heard her say "it's a shame men these days are such princesses". I was going to turn around to ask her if she was aware that nobody she was with was happy she was with them, and that when she was gone they were all talking about how she was going to cause a problem, but my wife stopped me.
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Post by adrianics on Apr 1, 2024 20:25:29 GMT
Back in 2007, a couple of friends of mine went to see Avenue Q and realised they were sat behind someone famous but couldn't put their finger on it.
Eventually, one of them said "I think he's Neil Buchanan from Art Attack", the other disagreed but the first kept saying "he's Neil Buchanan from Art Attack".
After a couple of minutes, the man turned around and politely told them that his name was Mark Speight and that he was the presenter of SMart.
My mum was once on a teambuilding day in Stratford-Upon Avon and had to do a scavenger hunt around the town in the afternoon. One of the items was "a photo with a celebrity". She saw someone she recognised from the telly and said to him "excuse me, are you famous?" the man responded "I suppose some people think I am" and agreed to a picture. The man was Gary Waldhorn, most famous for Vicar of Dibley.
My own awkward encounter with a celebrity: In 2018, my wife and I were in Hollywood as part of our honeymoon. One night we went to Bird, a trendy mid-market restaurant next to the Uptight Citizens Brigade. There was a single unisex toilet, and when I was in there I heard an extremely loud and extremely Welsh voice bellow "I HOPE THE GUY IN THERE ISN'T HAVING A sh*t!". I opened the door and it was Matthew Ryan, who must have been on a break from filming Legends of Tomorrow as he had his unmistakable bleach-blonde Constantine hair. You couldn't miss him!
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Post by adrianics on Feb 17, 2024 20:54:02 GMT
Loved the finale. All three thoroughly rumbled weeks ago but put in fantastic performances in their own unique way. I've been a fan of Alex Brooker for a long time and it made me oddly emotional seeing him sing I Am The One and Only. I never knew Danny Jones could sing like that, and Lemar was just pure class start to finish.
I don't know anyone other than my wife who watches this, so I'm grateful for this little community who shares enjoyment in this bizarre and silly show with me ❤️
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Post by adrianics on Feb 12, 2024 11:29:40 GMT
No chance of any further surprises in the final, it's nailed on to be Alex Brooker (Bigfoot) and Danny Jones (Piranha). I suppose there's a tiny chance that Cricket is Simon Webbe rather than Lemar, but this feels very unlikely.
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Post by adrianics on Feb 12, 2024 9:09:44 GMT
Not sure why he's doing an 'old man shouts at cloud' about it They are available for people who want them. Some themes are traumatic for people, nothing wrong with some consideration Hope no one asks him about intimacy co-ordinators next This is pretty much it. There are people out there who are deeply traumatised by their experiences and have real, physical, uncontrollable and volatile reactions to unexpected reminders of their trauma. Does it really make anyone's life worse to have a brief warning that will waste seconds of your life if it doesn't affect you, but allow those it does affect to make informed decisions?
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Post by adrianics on Feb 6, 2024 9:21:47 GMT
Traitors Australia is kind of amazing for completely different reasons than Traitors UK, they must be piping some kind of gas into the castle because every player completely lost their minds almost immediately and there isn't even a hint of comradery or teamwork!
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Post by adrianics on Feb 6, 2024 9:17:17 GMT
Will admit I didn't see Nicky Campbell coming, largely because I know nothing about him beyond his time hosting the 5 Live breakfast show. I'd never heard of the show he's apparently been doing with McCall for over a decade!
I was going to moan that all the hints about football and politics went unexplained, then I realised that it's just the latest example of the show blurring the line between presenting/reporting on things and being directly involved with things.
I found it funny that the panel guessed every Pussycat Doll for Maypole apart from Melody Thornton. Must have been a little awkward!
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Post by adrianics on Jan 29, 2024 9:49:44 GMT
I saw a screening in my local cinema yesterday. This is the first time I've been to an NT Live screening and certainly won't be the last; I greatly enjoyed it, felt I didn't miss an awful lot from watching on screen rather than going to the enormous inconvenience and expense of travelling down to London and especially appreciated the interval! It's a shame that the quick-change makeup (particularly the bald caps) didn't stand up to scrutiny when on-screen, but that's obviously understandable.
I'm a huge football fan who has followed the Southgate England team very closely having become entirely disillusioned with them during the Eriksson/Capello/Hodgson years, so was very much looking forward to experiencing this.
To me it's a fascinating example of a creative project simultaneously trying to cover far too much ground but also being far too long; the significance of Southgate's England team in the wider context of the country's political and social direction, the amount of scrutiny and pressure international footballers face against their personal feelings, the lack of mental health provisions for top athletes, the "shut up and play" controversies that have come with cultural figures becoming more and more outspoken on social media, everything the play touches on is ripe for artistic analysis but ultimately Dear England tries to cover all of it with various levels of success. To me it would have been a lot better to cover a single tournament, probably the 2021 Euros, rather than Southgate's entire tenure to date. I would also just remove the various references to real-life political figures if you're going to chicken out of doing anything more dangerous than just having an ensemble member put on a bad wig and do a Boris Johnson impression.
The staging of the production and performances from the ensemble were spectacular. The stand-outs amongst the players for me were Pickford, Sterling and especially Harry Kane; the running motif of the pressure that comes with taking penalties, tied up with one of the world's most dependable penalty takers missing the most important penalty of his career, bordered on genius and was very effective. I absolutely *loved* the players reciting their numbers in the order of England players across time before taking their penalties, which was a beautiful way of portraying the effect Southgate had on changing the perception of playing for England.
I have very mixed feelings on Fienne's performance as Southgate. He's clearly put an enormous amount of time, work and effort into capturing the mannerisms but at times it bordered on the ridiculous and I wondered whether it was supposed to be venerating Southgate or mocking him. His monologue about his trauma of missing the penalty was absolutely sublime in writing and acting, and the final moment between him and Kane was perfect.
All in all I think I'd give this 4/5. I agree with the comments that it would make a good movie!
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Post by adrianics on Jan 28, 2024 11:50:08 GMT
I felt painfully sorry for Mollie in that moment. An extremely high-stress, high-pressure environment and of course we only see what the production wants us to see, there will be hours of footage on the cutting room floor and interactions that weren't filmed at all. I think we've all had that horrible moment when we discovered that someone we trusted unconditionally had been lying all along, I certainly have. All seemed very bright and conciliatory in the follow-up show!
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Post by adrianics on Jan 28, 2024 8:57:12 GMT
I also thought Dippy Egg was Ed Balls, but it's (spoiling because this person blurted out it was them during a live broadcast this week) {Spoiler - click to view} Simon Rimmer from Sunday Brunch. Wasn’t that a fake reveal/joke? Maybe? I haven't been following the situation all that closely. Not sure what the joke would be, I have to say!
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Post by adrianics on Jan 28, 2024 7:53:18 GMT
I also thought Dippy Egg was Ed Balls, but it's (spoiling because this person blurted out it was them during a live broadcast this week) {Spoiler - click to view} Simon Rimmer from Sunday Brunch.
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Post by adrianics on Jan 27, 2024 22:20:44 GMT
Got to say that the masked singers brought their "A" game tonight, some spectacular performances particularly from Lamar as Cricket!
Lorraine Kelly really surprised me as Owl, does anyone know what the significance of the Russian flag in week 1 was?
Ellie Goulding referring to Danny Jones as "Danny from Mcfly" when she's dated Dougie Poynter and is fully aware of Jones' name was really funny.
Anyway, my remaining calls:
Eiffel Tower: Macy Gray
Cricket: Lemar
Piranha: Danny Jones
Maypole: Ruth Jones
Bigfoot: Alex Brooker
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Post by adrianics on Jan 27, 2024 21:08:34 GMT
Absolutely incredible television beginning to end, the production team have completely smashed it. The companion show with the reliably great Ed Gamble was wonderful as well
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Post by adrianics on Jan 22, 2024 13:59:10 GMT
Leon Jackson (if you said "who", I don't blame you) is the most infamous example of that I can think of. There was an X Factor third place finisher (Ben something) who nearly walked off the show when he was told the winner's single, which was clearly tailored for the eventual winner rather than him.
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Post by adrianics on Jan 22, 2024 7:27:01 GMT
If The Masked Singer was live and had public voting, I'd understand the annoyance but it's not and really it doesn't matter. The annoyance from my side comes from the fact that it's becoming increasingly obvious that, at least in part, the order in which the performers are unmarked is in some way planned. It would be fair enough if they were open about this, but if the studio audience's input has no real bearing they shouldn't pretend it does. My guess for Eiffel Tower is Macy Gray, it certainly sounds a lot like her.
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Post by adrianics on Jan 21, 2024 20:44:27 GMT
Once again, a fix. It just so happens that the person voted out this week is connected to the guest judge 🙄. Yeah this was lame AF. The Chicken Run clue being chickens wearing ice skates annoyed me a lot! I now think Owl is Alex Scott.
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Post by adrianics on Jan 14, 2024 20:30:24 GMT
I'm fairly confident that Dippy Egg is Ed Balls. Voting clue, "commons" reference in the extra clue and football + tractor = "Tractor Boys", the nickname of Ipswich Town, the rivals of Norwich City who Balls used to be Chairman of.
My inkling for Maypole is Samira Mighty due to them clearly being a trained singer and many references to Love Island. I really hope it's not Rita Ora but I wouldn't put that beyond the producers.
Cricket is Lemar, I knew I recognised the voice and my wife and I both *screamed* when Olly Murs guessed it!
(Murs, as an aside, was great. I'd be very happy to see him replace Ora)
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Post by adrianics on Jan 7, 2024 18:16:10 GMT
Gilligan and Ross are both great, McCall is fine, but they should definitely bin Rita Ora.
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Post by adrianics on Jan 7, 2024 10:24:24 GMT
Air Fryer: Michelle Visage
Bubble: Emily Atack
Owl: Rachel Riley
No clue on Eiffel Tower but it's someone who's been on I'm a Celeb and EastEnders
There is no way Piranha is anyone but Danny Jones, hell of a distinctive voice
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Post by adrianics on Jan 2, 2024 17:48:08 GMT
What an obvious fix that Dionne Warwick said she will do 1 week and the producers told the panel how to vote. They all guessed it was a soul legend but then voted her out first 😂😂😂. I thought the same, tbh
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Post by adrianics on Jan 1, 2024 16:05:11 GMT
Brooker sang to end the recent Last Leg Christmas special and has clearly been getting some lessons in!
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Post by adrianics on Dec 31, 2023 13:26:57 GMT
My only surety is that Bigfoot is Alex Brooker: Huge hint was being compared to a sporting rhinocerous, and he's played for the Leeds Rhinos disabled rugby team. The cast on his leg is most likely covering up his prosthetic leg and also works as a reference to The Last Leg.
I thought Cricket might be either Joe Thomas or James Buckley, due to the "Gold Dust" reference and "ins and outs" possibly being a reference to The Inbetweeners.
i think Dippy Egg is someone who has been on Bake Off and I'm a Celebrity, but that doesn't narrow it down an awful lot.
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Post by adrianics on Oct 29, 2023 10:00:05 GMT
Absolutely shocking news to wake up to this morning; Friends has been a mainstay throughout my life, and as a socially awkward teenager who loved humour I identified so much with Chandler. Perry himself is one of the very best to ever do it, his comedic timing was unparalleled and his characterisation iconic. It was always so sad to read about all the issues he had throughout his life, and I hope he's at peace and free from pain now. www.avclub.com/r-i-p-matthew-perry-friends-star-1850970396
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Post by adrianics on Oct 9, 2023 7:55:04 GMT
I'm quite devastated to be honest. I don't really directly benefit from HS2 being built in any specific way, but the idea that we were actually building a high speed rail line the likes of which we should have had decades ago was such a beacon of progress. The backbone of improving rail services across the country, improve links up to Scotland, get more local passenger services onto railway lines making it more convenient and a viable transport option instead of it always being the car, more freight on rail rather than in 100 lorries. All gone, and instead complete spin and nonsense about what the money might go onto instead. The Brexit bus comes to mind. And increasingly it sounds like there's no opportunity for a future government to reverse the decision, or at least to do so will now be considerably more expensive than what the project already was going to cost. So sad. This is where I am, too. As a public transport nerd, the appalling state of the UK's rail provision is mortifying and embarrassing to me. It really should not have been allowed to stagnate into its current state, where getting from one place to another by rail is a universally expensive, stressful and miserable experience and it simply is not surprising that so many people choose to travel by car. HS2 represented a step in a positive and progressive direction, a sign that maybe our government was finally capable of long-term and ambitious thinking on this particular issue, and it's all been felled by countryside NIMBYs and a flailing Prime Minister desperate for a short-term victory whilst knowing he's on the way out. We will never progress or develop as a nation as long as we're controlled by such thinking.
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Post by adrianics on Sept 16, 2023 9:46:54 GMT
Core Theatre, Solihull, closed until the end of November. I know several people who have been rehearsing amateur shows that have been cancelled
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Post by adrianics on Sept 1, 2023 14:45:44 GMT
Nobody has "described the population of Britain as a bunch of drunks" or said that "they hate living here so much", and "Binge Britain" is a perfectly apt description; our country has a deeply unhealthy relationship with alcohol consumption, it permeates every aspect of our culture in some way and has created a subculture that revolves around drinking as much as possible as quickly as possible, and any subsequent consequences to that are part of the fun. It is entirely correct to say that this is starting to bleed into theatre and causing significant problems.
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Post by adrianics on Sept 1, 2023 8:51:40 GMT
It does amuse me when people slag off the country they live in, if you hate it so much, why not move abroad? The grass isn’t always greener. I love my wife, but since I don't believe she's an entirely flawless and literally perfect human being, presumably I should get a divorce?
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Post by adrianics on Jul 14, 2023 16:06:12 GMT
It's been very illuminating doing reading into the reasons behind the strikes. I kind of naively thought that once you were a recurring character on a popular tv show you were pretty much set for life, then I read an article about Orange is the New Black where central actors were earning $900 a day and had to supplement their income on the show with day jobs where they kept getting recognised. It looks like streaming comes with some enormous loopholes where studios don't have to make viewing numbers public, which makes residuals pretty much non-existent - the writer of a She-Hulk episode said on Twitter that they've earned about $3 in residuals - and means they can really lowball the actors.
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Post by adrianics on Apr 25, 2023 11:30:42 GMT
Something else to mention, especially in light of my complaint in the "bad behaviour" thread about the low standard of audiences these days: What an incredible, impeccably behaved audience. Not a phone in sight or whisper to be heard, raucous laughter and applause in the appropriate places and an incredible atmosphere throughout, especially for the afterparty at the end. A genuinely great bar with fantastic beer selections and you were permitted to take your drinks in with you for the standing section, proving that it actually is possible to have it both ways!
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Post by adrianics on Apr 23, 2023 10:23:21 GMT
Thanks for confirming that, never seen an understudy debut before so that's one to add to the books!
A few other highlights from the top of my head: Nicely Nicely hit on my wife during the title number; one of the Save a Soul members pointed at my pint and shook his head whilst singing "put down the bottle"; quite simply the greatest interpretation of "Marry The Man Today" I've ever seen and from now on I'll be deeply disappointed with any production that doesn't feature Sarah and Adelaide getting plastered together ("BACARDI!" got the biggest laugh of the day); the ensemble to a person were hot as hell and I've never seen such a steamy rendition of the Hot Box numbers; absolutely loved the Cuban rendition of "I'll Know" during the Hot Box scene.
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