Farewell Bear Facts - Helsinki / Writer's Guild Award

- Helsinki and Gdansk were swapped in the broadcast order when David Tyler the producer somehow managed to get the amazing Alison Steadman to play Awful Auntie Ruth. The show was still young, and we were keen for people to notice it, and maybe even to review it. Papers don't review radio shows much, but when they do they tend to review the first episode of the series - so we thought we'd better put the episode with Alison Steadman (plus of course Simon Greenall and Matt Green) up front. (This was all still pre-Sherlock, of course. Somehow, we didn't tend to worry as much about people noticing the show from series three…)

- Awful Auntie Ruth's surname is Gregson, which is a reference to Bertie Wooster's terrifying Aunt Agatha Gregson 'the one who chews broken bottles, and wears barbed wire next to the skin'. His 'good and deserving', - but also strong-willed and sharp-tongued - Aunt Dahlia, meanwhile, lives at Brinkley Chase… which is where Carolyn will later invite Herc for a dog walk in Ottery. There's a lot of Aunt Dahlia in Carolyn.

- This is the episode where I discovered the power of an upset Arthur. Whilst planning, one of my main preoccupations is to work out what everyone wants over the episode, and in each scene. I've said elsewhere, I think, that I found that the show worked best when Martin's 'want' ('Desire' isn't quite the right word, and nor necessarily is 'objective' or 'need', so to myself I tend to use the ungrammatical 'Want') is abstract, emotional, and if possible contradictory… and Douglas' is simple, practical, and if possible directly related to his own comfort or gain. Carolyn often ends up with the 'cast grown-up's' Want of keeping the show on the road, and the company in the black; though some of her most fun episodes are the ones where that's not the case (Jo'burg, Ottery, Uskerty.) Arthur's are usually the simplest, because he's not exactly a driven man, and tend to be things like 'Arthur wants to help' or 'Arthur wants to enjoy the trip'. But when, once in a while, there's something he really does want, like a present for his Dad in St Petersburg, or a cake for his Mum in Helsinki (Huh… hadn't quite realised how thematically linked those two were…) the novelty of it makes, I think, for quite strong and emotionally charged plots.

Also, if you insult any of the crew, Arthur will defend them. But if you insult his Mum, he will throw seventy-five Euros of mainly chocolate thing at you.

Deleted line:

When Arthur is hiding in the cafe, practising what to say when he leaps out with the cake…

ARTHUR:          (MUFFLED) 'Ta-da! I've made you a cake, but it works better with your eyes shut.' 'Ta-da! I've made you a cake, but I'm really sorry.' Or maybe not make a speech… 

In other news, I'm delighted to say that John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme has been nominated for a Writer's Guild Award. Interesting, one of the other nominees is Marcus Brigstocke's excellent show The Brig Society, produced by one D. Tyler. This could get bloody…