Hi there, how are you doing? I hope you have had a good couple of weeks. Mine have as ever been very busy with lots going on.I mentioned last time that I went up to see a mate of mine in Liverpool for the weekend and that he had a two year old daughter. Well apparently since I left she has been randomly asking after me quite a bit at various points during the days. Including when she was at Nursery. So much so that one of the staff there actually asked my mate’s mum who Neil was when she collected her one day. She said she didn’t know so unfortunately for my mate and his wife it now looks like everyone at the nursery thinks his wife is having an affair with some bloke called Neil. I have apologised several times to my friend but it is still happening. He actually sent me a text last night saying she was found in a room by herself shouting for me earlier in the day. His daughter not his wife that is. I’m very surprised by the impression I seem to have made and yet at the same time I am thinking about employing her as my agent.

A few Saturday’s ago I went to the Cadogan Hall just off Sloane Square in London to see my mate Mike Sterling performing in Stars of the West End. It was the first time I had been to the venue. Which has recently been refurbished. It is a fantastic building to watch shows in with really nice and helpful staff. For somewhere that is right in the heart of London the place weirdly has a really lovely community feel to it. The show itself was absolutely fantastic. It featured Mike alongside fellow West End Stars Shona Lindsay, Tom Soloman and Jayne O’Mahony performing songs from many great musicals backed superbly by the West End Sinfonia led by the brilliant Toby Cruse. Mike who has played the lead roles in both Les Miserables and the Phantom Of The Opera heroically sang the big anthems from both of these great shows in the breathtaking finale’s to each section of the performance. The whole cast were great and it was a really enjoyable night out being entertained by some truly talented people. I happily did manage to catch up with Mike Sterling for a very quick drink after the show. I am so showbiz! It was really good to see him in action on stage, chat to him and hear what he has been up to. It is always nice to see people you know doing well.

I was once again lucky enough to be working behind the scenes at the last NFL International Series Game between the Detroit Lions and the Atlanta Falcons at Wembley Stadium. The game was yet again played in front of a sell out crowd. Who were treated to an on stage performance by Little Mix as part of the pre game show. It was a fun day. There is always a great buzz about the place when the American’s are in town. My roles included escorting various VIP’s to the Field area to watch the players warm up before the game then showing them back to their seats before the action got under way. After the match I was helping to direct the Detroit Lions back to the team bus. They were all very friendly and really nice. Mind you they had won the game with a last second field goal, which I am sure helped their mood some what. I ended up watching the exciting finale to the game on a television in the players tunnel. That had about a five second delay on it. So we heard the cheer then had to wait to see the pictures on the screen before we could be totally sure exactly what had happened.

There is always quite a good celebrity turn out at these NFL events. Guests at this one included Tim Lovejoy, Joey Barton, Alexandra Burke and of course Mr American Football himself Vernon Kay was there. Vernon plays for the London Warriors American Football team. I did happen to have a conversation with one of his team mates. The training regime and food intake required for players of the sport is pretty impressive. A fact highlighted by the way the NFL players leave the stadium with giant pizza’s all to themselves to eat.

Due to the fact there were a few very slight complications the sequel to my Root Canal treatment at the dentists has now been turned into a trilogy. As all the best movie franchises are. I went back for the second phase and discovered there was actually still a slight issue and outside risk of infection relating to one of the three roots of the troublesome tooth in question. So my dentist had to dig out a little more of the root. Which was about as much fun as it sounds. But once again fair play to her it did not hurt at all and I suffered no after effects. It just means I have to wait another week before the procedure will be finished. As part of the visit I saw my first ever x-ray of a tooth, as she explained to me the situation. Strangely I quite enjoyed looking at it and it gave me a good understanding of what was going on. Plus as I am not a parent that was as close I have ever come to seeing a personal scan relating to me.

Last Monday I went for the first time to the ITV London Studios on the South bank. Some of the television shows that are broadcast from this location include Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Take Away, Good Morning Britain and The Jonathan Ross Show. I was there to see the latest It’ll Be Alright on the Night being filmed. Outside the building there is a wall of hand prints of lots of the stars who have presented shows from there. Including Lorraine Kelly, who according to this display does have ridiculously small hands. Then as you walk in to the studio itself there are lots of great pictures on the walls showing stills from many of the different shows that are produced there. I have always been a big fan of the out takes clip show, for just about as long as I can remember. From back when it was hosted by Denis Norden and his clipboard. The current host is now of course Griff Rhys Jones who has fronted the programme since 2008.

Once everybody was sat down and in position. The first thing that happens when they are ready to get going is that the warm up man comes out to tell the audience any information that they need to know about the recording, check audience levels for the sound department and get the crowd ready for a night of laughing, cheering and clapping. The man charged with this role for the evening was a bit of a legend himself. It was none other than Ted Robbins. Who as well as being a hugely experienced comedian and warm up man, also appeared in both series of Peter Kay’s comedy Phoenix Nights. So as you would expect there were several big screens up so we could see the clips and then react accordingly to them. I quite liked the idea of being one of the first people to see all these brand new bloopers before anybody else.

Before we got started Griff came out and had a bit of a chat to the audience. He was really good from start to finish, he’s very good at what he does. Then it was time to get the recording started. Ironically there was a slight technical fault at the start of the show so they had to re-shoot the opening twice in the end. It was great fun to watch. And there are as ever some very funny moments during it, featuring the great and the good from the world of television. There is no confirmed date for this latest episode to be broadcast as yet but it is expected it will be on our screens either during December this year or January next. Either way keep an eye out for it so you can see some more examples of when television goes wrong. And to see if you can hear my unnaturally loud clap or even catch a brief glimpse of me on the screen.

Last week I spent the day in London doing a couple of different tours. That were both taken by friends of mine. The first one was called The City Square Mile Walking Tour. Which as you would expect from the title involved walking around a section of the city. That was historically the original centre of the capital. It was truly fascinating learning about which businesses were originally based there. How lots of the streets got their names. Plus all the information about the old and new buildings on view. And discovering how many Roman remains can be seen right in the heart of London, if you know where you are looking. Towards the end of the tour the guide took us to a new shopping centre. Which seemed a bit odd at first until he took us up in a lift to a viewing area at the top, which gave us a great view over London.

The second tour I did on the same day was at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Now I have to confess I did not study the great Bard at school, so I do not know much about him. But in my defence it seems that nobody really knows that much about him and a lot of what we believe is calculated guess work. The Globe opened in 1997 and it is an exact replica of what it is believed the theatre looked like that the Chamberlain Players and The King’s Men performed Shakespeare’s play’s in during the 1600s. It is a brilliant place. I really like the way they try to put the performance on there in the manner and style that they would have been performed it in. Back when these plays were new and being shown for the first time. It was a very interesting tour, during which we got to try out several of the different seating areas for size and learned lots about the theatre. Plus the customs and behaviours of the people during that period in history. Having been there I now really do want to go and see a Shakespeare play performed there. I think that would be amazing. It is on my to do list for next summer when their new season of plays start.

My mate Ben Langley’s play Ha Ha Hood makes another appearance in Buckinghamshire this month at the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury this coming Wednesday 12th November. I saw it in High Wycombe earlier in its UK Tour and I have to say it is brilliant. It is just a good old fashioned variety comedy show with plenty of big belly laughs guaranteed from an amazing cast. It stars Tommy Cannon, Bobby Ball, Su Pollard, Andy Pickering and the man who also wrote it, the man himself Ben Langley. The show tells the story of Robin Hood twenty years after where we all left the original story. And it is fair to say things have not necessarily worked out how we would have expected them to. If you saw the latest episode of the new BBC Four Comedy Detectorists you would have seen Ben make a brilliant cameo appearance as a deliver driver towards the end of it. I am very much looking forward to seeing the show in Aylesbury for the second time. And hopefully I will get the chance to catch up with Mr Langley while he is in town. If you fancy a fun and crazy night out then go and see it. You can find more details about the show here http://www.hahahood.com/

I can finally tell you a little bit more about the new quiz show that I was helping to do a little bit of research and development with earlier in the year. For starters I can now reveal the name of it. It is called Smart Ask and twists the conventional quiz format on its head. As the contestants are the ones who write and compile the questions in the hope of baffling a team of experts in to giving the wrong answers. The more questions they get wrong the more money the players can win. A pilot was shot in London last weekend hosted by Robert Webb. They are hoping to film the first series of it at the start of next year. Which is still something I might be involved in. You will see quite a bit of publicity about it when it is launched, as it will offer a top prize of half a million pounds.

I am again very much looking forward to working at Wembley this weekend behind the scenes at the final NFL International Series Game for this season between Dallas Cowboys and Jacksonville Jaguars. It is as ever bound to be a star studded affair. And being the last one of the year I believe there are some pretty spectacular things being lined up before and after the match to mark the occasion. Normally it is only the home team who bring their cheerleaders over for the game but I have heard some rumours that both team’s troops will be coming to England for this game. Which for the record I am perfectly fine with and have to say this seems like an excellent idea. I will let you know how it all went next time we speak.

Have fun and we will catch up again in a couple of weeks. Cheers Neil.