Late blog - Thursday

Right, this is a rather late night blog from my bedroom at the lovely Craig's house. We've had a cup of tea and it turns out that Craig is friends with Toyah Wilcox, who was Constanza to Bill McCabe's Mozart on the last tour I did 20 years ago. Small world! We shared stories. I can't share them here; they involve royalty and I would be sent to the tower.

I had a lovely chat to the friends of the Theatre Royal this morning which was basically just me telling theatrical anecdotes and talking about my dad and telling them how I became an actor. They had to drag me away after an hour. I was loving it.

I told them my final Anthony Quayle story. I haven't shared it on my blog yet but it's the story of why Claude Rains, the actor in Casablanca who plays the Police Inspector, didn't do a French accent in the film. That sounds intriguing, doesn't it? But I'm not going to tell you now. It's far too late and I must get to my bed. I'm off for a day out at the seaside tomorrow with Sam and Chris and I will need to build up an appetite for a large haddock and chips.

So, before I leave you for slumberland (is that some bed department store? I'm not going there at half past 12 at night!) I will give a report on the shows. We had two today.

I have discovered a button. For those of you not familiar with comedy talk, a button is something that finishes off a comedy routine and encourages the audience to laugh and applaud. Anyway, I have found a button for the end of my scene. Consequently both performances got a round of applause at the end today. I have to admit that what I do is quite shameless but then those of you have been following this gunk will know that I am without shame. I can't really describe what it is but it involves screwing up a piece of paper and chucking it over my shoulder. Clearly this is not Shakespeare.

I promise that when I have more time I will tell you the Claude Rains story. But not now. Sleep, perchance to dream. And almost certainly, snore.

Night night xxx

 The New Castle in Newcastle - hey, let's build a railway right next to it! Why not?

Walk along the Quay between shows provided this lovely view. Lovely Newcastle.