No Fuel . . . Not Even For Ready Money

Monday. 8.40 a.m. I've taken Alfie out at around 7 this morning. It's getting colder as the days go by. I am wearing my blue Regatta jacket. I don't know what's happened to Alfie, it's not raining, but he does his wee on the grass and heads straight back indoors. It's not raining or excessively cold, so this isn't his normal behaviour. He's currently curled up on my bed as I write this. He will be due out shortly for another walk. I hope he doesn't repeat the 'shooting-back-indoors' act, as he needs a decent bit of exercise.

Regarding fuel for my car; I think I will wait a few more days, as the level of the fuel in the car's tank is low enough as it is, and driving around looking for diesel when it's at a critical level just means there is a real risk of it running out entirely. This whole situation is just causing a certain amount of stress.

I had heard that they was fuel at the ESSO station, so I drove round to Childs Way. Unfortunately, there was no diesel, which didn't help my stress levels. I then drove on to the Shell station in Grafton Street and the same there. By this time the light had come on which tells me the fuel level is low, so there's no sense in driving aimlessly around hunting for fuel when there's the danger of running out completely. I just need to  be absolutely sure I'm going to get fuel before I set off which is so difficult at the moment. I just hope this situation gets resolved soon as it is really annoying and stressful.

Thursday.  8.45 a.m. Alfie as taken completely by surprise at around 7 this morning. I was all ready to take him out, had his lead in my hand, suited and booted, as the saying goes, but he was curled up asleep on the sofa. Somewhat wet and windy as we got out onto the grass along Strudwick Drive. It doesn't look as if it's going to clear up and very overcast and murky. Oh well, we are into October now, so it's to be expected.

Saturday. 11.20 a.m. I have abandoned the idea of actually managing to find a petrol station locally which had a supply of diesel, so I could fill up my car. As a result I had to cancel my booster covid vaccine jab which I had booked for yesterday morning. There is no point in aimlessly wandering around Milton Keynes with a virtually empty tank of fuel and risking entirely running out of fuel. It would cause so many unnecessary problems, as you can imagine. I have done an online Sainsbury's shop, which is scheduled to arrive around 8-9 pm tonight. That was easy enough to do as I have so many items which I buy saved in the 'favourites' section, which makes ordering so much quicker and easier. All done in around 20 minutes or so. I have also ordered a fuel can from Amazon, with the intention of using it to be filled up later in the week and the contents put in the car, so at least I can actually drive to a petrol station when fuel stocks are back to some sort of normal after all the panic buying. I just need someone to drive me to such a petrol station to complete this operation. Watch this space for further news of this operation. Hopefully completed within the next week or so.

3.50 p.m. Any idea that I was going to take Alfie out late this afternoon was swept away when I peered out of the window and saw that it was raining. So, I decided to watch the Benedict Cumberbatch 'Hamlet' which is available on Amazon at the moment. I have watched the first half and have paused at the interval and will continue later or probably tomorrow afternoon. It is another 'Hamlet' to add to my ever-growing collection or at least, productions I have seen. The first, although I didn't watch it, but worked as A.S.M., when I was working at Liverpool Playhouse in 1971 (goodness, is it really 50 years ago? That's an amazing thought.) The production which was the first play I worked on when I arrived there that February, or might it have been late January, I really can't remember. I was entailed with operating the counterbalance fly system, which was worked from stage-level. Nobody had thought to train me in the operation of the system. During the technical rehearsal, when all the technical aspects of a play are first rehearsed and worked out, I had to bring in a curtain during a scene change in a blackout. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure when to stop the curtain and when the lights came up, the aforementioned curtain was laying in a crumpled heap on the stage. You can imagine how embarrassing it was, but I suppose, looking back, that's a good way to learn how to do something. The rope which operated the counterweight system went down into the basement of the theatre, below the stage, but the pulleys were in a kind of gulley which filled with water and as a result the ropes shrunk considerably because of being wet and this made the rope lines very taut, although it wasn't that which made the curtain lay crumpled on the stage floor.

Other versions include the National Theatre production with Rory Kinnear and Patrick Malahyde in it which I saw at the Milton Keynes Theatre with Carol before Christmas a few years ago, the Kenneth Branagh film which utilizes the uncut text and runs around four hours, and a version which I saw at the Derngate Centre in Northampton, again, in uncut text, directed by Peter Hall. It ran for around four hours, and it was two hours before there was an interval. Stephen Dellane and Donald Sinden in the duel roles of Polonius and Gravedigger. It was a matinee put on especially for schools, and you can imagine the reaction when, at one point, the mad Hamlet runs across the stage stark naked! The school girls in the audience shrieked and the whole auditorium erupted  into convulsions of laughter and surprise, which I suppose they would have be expected to behave.and this held up the action for several minutes. Gina Bellman was Ophelia and I have a connection with this actor in that she was in 'Blackeyes,' a Dennis Potter television drama series in which I was a stand-in/double for another of the actors, Nigel Planer.

As I've mentioned, I ordered groceries from Sainsbury's website. My delivery was scheduled between 8 and 9 p.m., but I got a telephone call from Sainsbury's to inform me that, due to a problem with the vehicle, the delivery would be around an hour later than scheduled. I imagine that it might possibly due to the fuel shortage due to panic buying. The delivery came around 9.30 p.m.  Not actually a problem, but it meant staying awake to receive the order. There were a lot of substitutes for items I had ordered, but that is no doubt due to the shortage of H.G.V. drivers. But that wasn't much of a problem.

Working on Dennis Potter BBC Series "Blackeyes"

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I have done a fair amount of 'walk-on' or 'extra' work in television productions, ranging from 'EastEnders' to 'Lovejoy' and 'Keeping Up Appearances.' Generally you are in the background, literally 'walking-on', propping up the bar in the Vic in EastEnders or being a ruffian in the crowd in 'Middlemarch.' (This was described in quite a lot of detail in an earlier post.) Some you have to take quite a lot of direction. Anyone who says that being an extra or 'walk-on' is easy may like to know that you have to be able to take direction and not make mistakes and concentrate when being given instructions, as if you do  so it is going to waste valuable time and no production is going to want to employ people who constantly make mistakes and fool around on set. It is an expensive business making good quality drama for television and eventually you will be blacklisted and won't get used again.

On one occasion in the early 1990's I was called by my London agency as they were looking for someone to double for the actor Nigel Planer. I was told years ago that I had a striking resemblance to this actor (he made his name in the comedy series "The Young Ones.") This was for a new Dennis Potter series being made by the B.B.C.  called "Blackeyes," and the interiors were then being filmed at Ealing Studios. This would involve two day's work so I would need to drive to the studios each day. I was somewhat excited about this, as you can imagine, as I have never been a 'double' for anyone. Not only was I to be Nigel Planer's double, but I was to be his 'stand-in.' I have known that people do  this sort of work, being used on the set for lighting, setting up cameras, so that the star can remain in his/her dressing room or caravan and then just appear when needed for the actual filming. 

On arriving at the studios for the 'call' which was relatively early (as most filming starts at the crack of dawn for make-up, wardrobe etc.) I was met by a production assistant and then told that I would be working on the set with a young lady, ' who was standing in for  Gina Bellman, another star of the show, walking' the movements of the actors and speaking the lines. This was because most of the takes were very long, around 10 minutes, without any sort of 'cut away' and the camera was set up on a sort of track on the floor and as we spoke and moved around the camera would follow us. It was quite intensive and we had to get the moves right.

It was quite exciting filming at the famous Ealing Studios. At the time this was being filmed it was owned and operated by the B.B.C., but in it's past it was where a lot of really well-known films were made, mostly the famous Ealing Comedies such as 'Kind Hearts and Coronets', 'The Lady Killers;' 'Passport To Pimlico' and many more. In another studio next door to where the 'Blackeyes' set was built they were making one of the B.B.C. 'Narnia' series, based on the C.S. Lewis books. I'm not entirely sure which one, but during breaks outside the soundstages I saw actors in costume who were playing the little creatures which appeared in it, as they had taken off the costume heads and were standing around talking and having a cigarette break, so I assumed that was was what they were filming. 

During a lunch break one one of the days there I went to the canteen for lunch. I always talking to people I meet. It makes for really interesting day. The whole filming experience is really interesting and I have always had a keen interest in how television programmes and films are made. As I was sitting and eating my meal one of the crew sat with me. He was the lighting cameraman and we started chatting and he was telling me that for his next assignment (bearing in mind that this was around 1989-90 I'm talking about.) he was going to be filming a documentary series with Michael Palin, following in the footsteps of the character Phineas Fogg and going "Round The World in 80 Days." I now now how successful and popular that series became and how many more similar voyages Michael Palin made in future series, so it was quite a privilege to meet the man who actually went with him and filmed it!

Dennis Potter actually directed 'Blackeyes.' I can't say that it was one of my favourite Potter series, as I quite enjoyed his earlier series such as 'The Singing Detective', 'Pennies From Heaven' etc. This was somewhat controversial. A lot of his work has caused controversy in some way, but when you consider the rather dull drama we get served up by television these days, it certainly makes a difference to not have yet another police series or one set in a hospital. I suppose the nearest we get to what he was attempting would be Stephen Poliakov.

There were some scenes in the series where I was supposed to be watching someone through a window and I had to wear a costume that exactly replicated what Nigel Planer was wearing. There was also a scene where a man on stilts walked past the window of the flat and peers in. All this took a great deal of time and effort to film, but having since watched the finished, broadcast production I don't remember it being used, nor seeing myself in the background, watching through a window from across the street!  A pity, but you don't really do walk-on or even stand-in work to be seen necessarily. It was quite odd to stand and have a break with Nigel Planer as we are very similar facially. I just wish now that I had got someone to take a photograph with him. I was rather like looking at yourself in a mirror. I suppose today it would be a good deal easier, what with digital cameras and having cameras in mobile phones, but you aren't supposed to take cameras onto the set when you go filming, but I think people do regardless. All in all quite an interesting experience.