Write stuff

I've been very healthy all week and not touched alcohol. Until last night.

I just can't help myself on a Friday evening. Happy in the knowledge that the weekend has arrived, a glass of wine and Chris Evans' All Request Show on Radio 2 is now my idea of heaven. Boy, I'm getting old.

And, of course, when old age is mixed with alcohol, the end result is a sore head the following morning. So, can you guess what I woke up with today? OK, right, Vanessa is not an incorrect answer. But sore head was what I was really looking for.

My headache plus the time spent waiting for the Nurofen to work set my plans back a bit but I'm still delighted to report that 30 August 2008 has turned out to be an historic day for me. For today, my friends, I started writing my sitcom.

Those who know me will probably have heard me talk about this several times over the last 11 years - and then do nothing.

Over this period, the subject has changed several times and my writing partner once after the person I originally asked emigrated to Australia - some people go to the greatest lengths to avoid me, you know.

Ben (pictured above with his little girl Maisie) is my "new" partner although I first asked him about three years ago. We finally had some actual meetings last summer and then things drifted, my excuses including training for the marathon and, more recently, fatherhood.

However, our get togethers did lead to the agreement of a plot, a list of scenes and a cast of characters.

The next stage was for the two of us to go off separately and write a pilot episode before bringing the two drafts together. That, as I say, was last year.

But today, to my own astonishment, I managed to write three whole scenes. And whilst they're not very good, at least I'm underway.

The story is centred around a fictional council in the North of England but I'll say no more than that at this stage in case someone nicks our idea and becomes rich and famous instead of us. However, I will keep you informed on how we're progressing (or not, as the case may be).