So, I haven't posted here for ages, and now I'm here it's just to plug things and show off. This is not, I realise, the way to win friends and influence people. Sorry. Still, here goes.
Firstly. The reason I haven't been here this week is that I have been filming a pilot for a TV sitcom, which, if it gets made, will be incredibly exciting, at least for me. But what a big if that 'if' is. Also, I have fallen in love with two of the cast. This is pretty awkward, as you can imagine, but what can I say - the heart wants what it wants.
Secondly. My sketch show is about to start on Radio Four! It's called John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, it begins on Sunday at 19.15, and I really hope you like it. I will try to do a blog for each episode, the way I did for Cabin Pressure.
Speaking of which... thirdly, Cabin Pressure has been nominated for a Writer's Guild Award. Hooray.
And now, as a small reward for making it through all the self-promotion, here is a sign from the pub we filmed in on day two.
The five kisses / censorship of the five letter place you're not allowed to put a pet in is pretty good, but the exclamation mark before 'pet' is twisted genius. And don't tell me the author is a native Spanish speaker. It's not upside down, it's in the middle of the sentence, and there's none at the end.
Can you ?explain that XXXXX
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30 comments:
The friend-winning and influence-having is already done. :)
Congratulations on the nomination. Richly deserved.
Heard the trailer on The Today Programme this morning. Had a little squee. Looking forward to it - even if it is in a god-awful time slot.
John, despite sharing my home with a hyperactive kitten I didn't believe in perpetual motion until I 'met' you. I hope you'll have time for a break at some stage.
And I don't blame you for falling in love with those two, even though they're those very strange 'not-cat' creatures!
As Arthur would say WOW... an award ,thats BRILLIANT .
Cabin pressure is the greatest .Cant wait for next series .Tell me :-) How do 6 episodes go so quickly ?
Can you answer me two thing? One, Will there be another series of Cabin Pressure? and Two, do think you'll do a TV transfer of Cabin Pressure?
P.S. Fantastic series
Congrats on the WGA nomination. You really should win.
Can't wait for the sketch show. John Finnemore, Apparently was great. I especaially appreciated the writeups for Cabin Pressure episodes, so I look forward to these.
Also they really did a far quicker turnaround on the sitcom pilot than I expected. Seems just yesterday that I read it was getting pilotted.
Wonderful news all around. Soon we'll be hearing of nuptials to a young basset hound.
Maybe the author of the sign is a computer programmer and the ! before the word means "not" as it does in many programming languages?
Congratulations on the nomination. Cabin Pressure thoroughly deserves to win!
I wait with baited breath until Sunday (although I may have to unbait it in the mean time so that I don't asphyxiate).
I'm so stupidly happy about the nomination, I can't even imagine how thrilled I'll be when you win. Did I say "when"? Oh, guess I did. Also, yes, I know it's not me winning anything but my thrillingness will be as genuine for you as if I did. Crap, you know what I mean. Hooray!
Congratulations on the nom! That's wonderful news!
Brilliant!!
Congrats on the WGA nom - if you don't win, I will be a rabbit of negative euphoria!
Well done on the nomination John. You deserve it :D
The sign could be some joke about how there shouldn't be any "heavy petting" in the pub, and the X's are, well..
Big congratulations on the WGA nomination. Keep us posted (!)Looking forward to tomorrow night.
Brilliant show! Just listened to the first episode. But only 4 made?
I just caught the final sketch in your new show and I'm still fizzing with how absolutely brilliant it was!! Cheers!
Cabin Pressure is a gem and deserves every nomination going. I've just missed your new sketch show, so will have to wait till the BBC load up the iplayer, but I have high hopes!
Souvenir Program was lovely! Very glad I caught it and hoping it'll be up on iPlayer this week. I am hereby calling Cabin Pressure a gateway drug. I've become ruthlessly addicted to radio comedy. Being from the US, this is not an easy fix to find. Well, except from BBC radio. Huzzah!
Great to hear about the nomination for "Cabin Pressure" - very much deserved.
Found the show a couple seasons ago when I decided to see what Stephanie Cole had been up to (I know her from showings of "Waiting For God" here in the US)...found a sample on the internet and fell in love.
As far as someone's suggestion to move the show to TV...that would be wonderful if it wouldn't mean losing Benedict Cumberbatch (great thing the "Theater of the Mind"). That might be inevitable anyway (good for him) but why rush it?
just finished listening to your Souvenir Programme and wanted to tell you that it was hilarious and I loved it and want to marry you. it, I mean, marry it! wait, that doesn't make sense either! backspace, backspace, delete comment...
Congratulations on the nomination for Cabin Pressure (fingers crossed for you on November 16th).
Just finished listening to the first Souvenir Programme on iPlayer. Brilliant (but then again, like the guards to those doors, I could be lying, or not, or then again...). Loved the Pooh sketch...and Eeyore was meant to sound like Alan Rickman??! Heck, loved it all.
In the absence of more Cabin Pressure, this will do very, very, nicely indeed. Roll on next week.
Congratulations on the WGA nomination!
Really enjoyed your sketch show - I loved your Alan Rickman inspired Eeyore. Pooh with a honey addiction - brilliant :-)
I thoroughly enjoy your blog posts - your blog is one of the only sites I actually bother to give feedback to because I just can't heap enough praise upon your glorious writing (I'm a lurker usually)...
Congratulations, well deserved.
It seems, though, you have far too much busy-time at the moment so I'm guessing the answer will be no, buuuut... will you eventually do a Rotterdam post?
Seeing the writing processes of others is so fascinating and the glimpses of your notebook for the other episodes were brilliant.
Best of luck with the pilot.
Haha, there're, like, pilots in your radio series, and you're doing a pilot for TV... ha... ahem... I'm so sorry. I'm going to go sit in this corner and be quiet now.
Congratulations on the nomination for a Writer's Guild Award for Cabin Pressure! You and your wonderful show really deserves it.
I've just finished listening to the first Souvenir Programme on iPlayer, and it's fantastic and very funny.
Pretty intrigued about Google tag)
oh, and yesterday Souvenir Programme was a work of pure genius, thank you so much for this most delightful piece of comedy.
Perhaps it's a thoughtful orthographical reminder that there is no !pet in XXXXX. I appreciated the reminder, since, like many people, I had fallen into the error of spelling it XX!petXXX.
Please NO!!!!
I don't want Cabin Pressure ruined by putting it on the TV!!!!
It's like THHGTTG it works cos you can't see the joke till it happens - TV comedy is second rate usually the few classics stand out because they are so unusual. And completely different in tone from Cabin Pressure.
I think Cabin Pressure should be on TV not because it isn't already perfect on radio, but simply because it deserves wider recognition. One of the true comedy classics - and let's be honest, how many people know about it? It should be as famous and as well loved as Fawlty Towers.
BTW, I was listening to the whole series again since posting my congrats above...
I'd mentioned that "CP" would be nice on TV except that Cumberbatch doesn't physically match Martin so...(he's very good but he can't make himself shorter).
And I've been reminded that all through the series your character is called things like "Idiot Features" and other things like that (even by his mother!)...
Just wanted to say that I didn't mean to infer that YOU match that description (although I'm certain you're a good enough actor to pull it off). Far from it, in fact.
Sorry about that.
If Cabin Pressure does ever go to TV, BC could always guest as "Actor Martin" in Rotterdam (with Toby Jones or Tom Hollander as "Little Martin" maybe?)? No reason why it couldn't be as great on telly, like my other fave radio show, Hancock's Half Hour...
Don't know if you've seen this but conservapedia seems to be a fan of MJN. http://www.conservapedia.com/MJN_Air.
This coming from a website that believes homosexuality is caused by educational indoctrination and sexual abuse and that Obama was not born in the USA.
Don't know if their typical readers realize that it is a fictional airdot. But still.
The Douglas Programme won!! Hooray!! Congratulations!! Heir will be delighted when I pick him up from school this afternoon. Spare asked specifically this morning if we could listen to "the funny bing-bong show". He will be pleased for you too. Well done!
Dear Mr. Finnemore,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you, from the very depths of my soul, for your exquisite radio programs. The hilarity and poignancy of both your script and also your impeccable casts have made the holidays about a thousand more times more bearable!
My extended family traditionally exploits Thanksgiving as an opportunity to drink too much wine and eat too much cheese while playing cards, making moderately inflammatory statements, and generally reinforcing every known French stereotype in a slightly larger gathering than usual. Ever since I discovered Cabin Pressure last year, however, I started a wintery, exploitative tradition of my own: I load my ipod with Finnemore goodness, don my ratty old college sweatshirt with the headphones still sewn in, and proceed to get cheerfully intoxicated on cheap Chardonnay and your comedy.
Cumberbatch babbles about control; I smile benignly. You sing about meerkats; I chuckle to myself before drifting off to sleep in my armchair, though the air is thick with well-aimed insults and the occasional cracker. Your writing is an invisible shield against their frothing insanity, and for that I am blissfully grateful. I know it's pretentious, posting this on your blog, but I really wanted you to understand how pivotal your work has been in at least one person's life. You, your cast, and your crew are the BEST.
Thank you ever so!
~R
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