Eve Of The War

I had no idea what you were talking about, so I Googled it and it all came back to me, Clifford! I suppose there are similarities, the potbelly the cartoon style. Gordon was supposed to be more like a small Godzilla. I think we chose a dragon because our dental lab logo is St George and the name Gordon because we are Gordon Dental Laboratories Ltd.

Ahh Clifford. That's it. But he had false teeth too. And he'd take them out and rinse them in a glass of Listerine.

But I can see now that they are different characters.

You should do something with him for sure. And it's more than just a story it teaches kids the importance of brushing and flossing.

I did get another commission for Radio 4 by the way. It'll be on in early June at 3.30pm. Don't know the exact date yet. It's 40 years since Sgt Pepper's was launched and the Beeb are doing two week thing on it. I was asked with four other writers to pick a song from the album and write a short 2000 word story about anything I want, using the song as a title. I chose Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Paul Mc Gann is penciled in to read it. Alexi Sale is one of the other writers and the woman who wrote Lillies for BBC 1 recently.

That's great news, Something to look forward to, keep us informed about the date.
Any ideas what your story's going to be about yet? (without giving too much away).

I don't know, I had never made the connection with Listerine's Clifford and I'm almost certain my brother didn't either but other people would, especially Listerine Ltd. And there are plenty more ideas where that came from, without infringing on someone else's ideas even if it was unintentionally.

Change it a dinosaur then.

I've already written the story. A gypsy caravan, settles in a town and their music is magical. Flowers bloom, marriages get their spark back. A man falls in love with he most talented of the Gypsies women. Then one night the gypsies disappear. 8 months later a baby boy arrives on the mans doorstep. With a note saying - never allow him to play a musical instrument. The boy grows up and wants to learn how to play electric guitar. His dad makes him a prop one out of a tennis racket. But when he plays it, it sounds like an electric guitar, and he creates incredible music from it. It's magic of course. He starts a band, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band and their touring, leads him to face the persecute of his mothers people. It gets a bit horror story there. I won't say anymore.

Sounds good, Terry Pratchett meets Stephen King.
I take it, it's already got the necessary approval from the Beeb?

Yeah, I was approached to write it. The brief was choose a song and write what you want, 2000 words. Has to be a story. They're very pleased with it.

I think their Sci/Fi season is starting this Tuesday 2.15pm on Radio 4, with an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's 'The Veldt' (See below), I've read this Bradbury short story but wasn't impressed, but that's how I feel about most of Bradbury's work (overrated in my opinion).

Must be. My Short story is on early next month. Still don't know the date. I'll have to ask.

By the way, my Girlfriend gave birth to our new little daughter on Thursday. She's called Rosie.

Congratulations on the birth of your new daughter.

Must try and record that play if I can. I wonder what else they're doing in the season?

Thanks.

I don't know what else they are doing.

Congratulations to the both of you and all the best for little Rosie's future


Keep us informed won't you?

I congratulate you with your newborn child on my behalf.

thanks Oever

For all those who are interested, Loz's latest Radio play will be on BBC Radio 4, Friday the 8th of June at 3.30pm. if you miss it you can find it on the BBC's on-line 'listen again' site, for up to a week after that date.

Details below:

Was that in the Radio Times?

Yes.

Thanks, I'll buy a copy tomorrow.

Re; Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Nice one Loz
They saved the best for last, Well written with a few, little jokes added and well read by Charlie Anson too. I thought some of the others were well written but were disappointing at the end.
I'd worked out the ending to Jimmy Mulville's story 'A Day in the Life' two minutes in and 40 seconds of that was taken up with the opening music and why J Mulville didn't read his own composition is beyond me, I often listened to his performance in Radio 4 'Old Harry's Game' and he has a good, clear voice and it would have been perfect for his story, instead they had John Henshaw slurring his way through it.
Anyway, Well done again I really did enjoy it

Thanks a lot Lonesome. It's great that you listened to them all. I must admit I agree. The worst read was Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. I got lucky with Charlie. He was perfect.

Nice one, Loz! It has a wonderfully timeless fairytale quality to it. It was damn hard to find, so for anyone else who hasn't yet listened, here is a link to the page where all five can be found (scroll down, though, as next week's short stories are already being billed on it):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/afternoon_reading.shtml

hey thanks mctodd. thanks for listening too.

they are hard to find but if you had typed my name and the title into a search engine you'd have got it pretty quick.

That's what I had to do in the end! Honestly, Auntie beeb isn't very helpful, is she?

So have you got anything else lined up?

Yeah, it's unbelievably hard to find stuff on the BBC Radio websites. It doesn't help that they are doing an absolute ton of different shows to do with Sgt. Pepper at the moment, so that makes it worst.

At the moment I've just started a new theatre commission to write a new stage play, which goes on a regional tour of Merseyside in 2008.

I have a proposal for an afternoon play slot, for a dark fantasy, it's gone into the final round. But I won't know if it's going to be made or not, until August 10th. Fingers crossed on that one. It's about a family who guard an ancient bag with the power to give you the object of your desires at the cost of destroying those that are close to you.

And in July my new play is having an in-house reading, and soon after that the Everyman Theatre will make a decision on whether it's a play they want to do or not. and if not then my agent will start sending it out to other theatres.

That's about it at the moment. apart from - I've been asked to write a trial script for Doctors. So I'll be getting on with that in a few weeks time.

How's the orther Eve of the War foum doing? This ones going to close down unless the members pay, and it's only ever me and Lonesome here, and that's rare too.