Amy MacBeath

Last night I went along to the BBC at Pacific Quay to see the filming of a new comedy, The Old Guys.  The programme was filmed in the new high definition studio and starred Clive Swift (Richard Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances), Roger Lloyd Pack (Trigger in Only Fools and Horses), Jane Asher (actress and novelist who also developed a range of cakes) and Katherine Parkinson (Doc Martin, the IT crowd).  The comedy is basically about two guys growing old disgracefully and I have to say had a good few laughs but I won’t spoil it as it will be on tv soon enough!

I haven’t been along to anything like this before and it was really interesting learning about the mechanics of how it all works and the amount of work that goes into sets down to the tiniest detail like live goldfish and the various books and props cluttered around.  I was also very impressed at the professionalism of these actors, which may seem like a given as they have been in the business for many years, but I suppose I expected more mistakes and joking around. 

I feel I should mention the warm up guy, Tom Bins, who provided plenty of hilarity throughout and kept the crowd going…not to mention the (not at all planted BBC staff member) guy who was in front of me who cackled on cue and whose enjoyment of the programme (as instructed?) did entertain us considerably.

After the show I also managed to introduce myself to (a somewhat surpised) Jeff Zycinski, Head of BBC Radio Scotland.  It did come as a bit of a surprise to hear from Claire that I had been mentioned on his blog though, although I must have done well to hide my delightful Invernesian accent!