Write-ly or wrongly...

For my sins through life and waffling about nonsense, I have been many things. Some would say I was something still, but in my 32 years I've fitted in being a disability swimmer, a football mascot, someone who's written letters to stars and television executives, a mature student who's retaken his GCSE's plus also a hospital radio DJ. Most of which I've failed at of course, but one thread has run through my life and still does and that is comedy.

The old school - Hardly inspiring isn't it?

Now, its easy to watch and pick it apart with such precision to look at the nuances of it all. From an early age I have enjoyed alternative comedy, even before maybe I fully understood it. But it was a language to get through school with that 1990 to 1995 period being dominated by Bottom of course. Not everyone would have understood it with majority looking on at East 17 or Take That as their main course of action, especially the girls. Otherwise it was football for the boys, but entertainment dominates in my mind as wanting to be a continuity announcer when I left school. Though after realising that dream had gone when I sounded like Mr Bean, never the less I turned my attention to getting into writing comedy scripts. They were just put down on A4 paper, I didn't know what it all meant most of my ideas usually would end on television not by my own hand.

"Eddie, there's people looking at us..."
"Blimey, Ritchie... You're right!"

Whether that was my luck or not I don't know, but it was never off-putting and eventually I wrote sketches that and they were sent off for appreciation to people like Danny Baker and Iain Lee, never got a reply back but by putting them out there it would show I was here and not going to go away, even showing them to other people who had a better grasp of the English language. They said they were alright but if that was just to puff me up a bit I don't know. I chose to write still by doing an article for 'Off The Telly' about a programme  I had seen on daytime on Channel 5 and for them to publish it on the site was something to behold. OK, it had needed changes both from my brother and also from others at the site. But I felt justified in what I was doing and I could feel proud that something I wrote was being read by people all over of the world.

So where's the News at One music then?

Maybe it was a case of 'Go Me!' but it felt like there was a freer spirit coming out of me and that rather then speaking words could flow forth on the page or the screen about what was going on in my mind. By this I had tickled my own funny bone and there was something to be said about it all. In terms of everything I might not be a journalist or a novelist, the expression of the word can never be any truer then something spoken by somebody.

The scripts? Well, they are hidden away for a rainy day, so who knows? The words come forth and so do the ideas...

How local is local?

With Jeremy Hunt saying about local television this week, that spaces on the Freeview multiplex will be give to microcosmic local television channels, similar to the old RSL licences. There is a case in point to look back at another experience I had...

In my time I had auditioned for the now defunct TV12 on the Isle of Wight, to not much success to be said. Now I had been working for the local hospital radio for a couple of years when an opportunity came about to appear in a local training video as one of many disabled people who had found opportunities through volunteering. To me this seemed a bit almost wet, but it was appearing in front of the camera so I took it.

This lead me into Portsmouth Television, the seemingly hotbed of local television... To tell you the truth, it was a news room and another room with a chromakey screen. But I had to look around ], so at the end of my recording I said is it OK to take peep at where the action is? They said yes, apart from the average presenters who have gone to other media organisations or just out of the industry...

But there was one person who looked set for the top even then, in the corner there was a women with long eyelashes concentrating hard who didn't even acknowledge when I said hello to all the people in the newsroom.

"Moody so and so..." I thought... But after getting some autographs of the presenters including Sarah Dinenage, Fred's daughter. It was time to go home, I kept watching the service to see if it would improve but this young lady kept appearing nightly reading the news...

I never thought much would come of her...

Then one day I switched ITV on and there she was...

Eyelashes not included...

Oh, I thought as I put my head in my hands... It was ITV News' Andrea Benfield...

Star spotting, not a great talent of mine... But it has come about that 65 licences are to be given out and it seems like the local news on this 'Channel Six' will be sponsored... But eventually as has been proven by other RSL's, that they will need to break even pretty soon after launch otherwise advertising revenue will not be big enough to maintain the service even with huge financial backing. In Manchester even with the full backing of Guardian Group, that Channel 'M' closed down eventually, but now is putting a bid in for the same region...

Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks, but getting them to remember it can be a pain...

Sign here, here and here...

The article in question...

Back the turn of the century, I was an chap full of ideals looking to get into the media. Having stumbled into hospital radio, it was ambitious time maybe spreading my wings away from a Monday afternoon radio show. So how do you ask for advice when you don't come from a media family?

In the 80's my eldest brother brought a very early edition of Who's Who on Television and from that there was so much to learn, not only about the people inside but also contacts of who to write to. Really this was my inspiration, maybe with a touch of desperation in there too.

After searching, I bought myself a copy of said book to see what I get from it. Apart from addresses, a lot as it turned out. When just looking at this tome, a thought came into my mind. Could I wrote to all the people in this book and get an autograph from them, thus turning on the charm and praising celebrities to the hilt. From this came autographs from the likes of Rolf, Melvyn Bragg and even Lou Carpenter himself... All people I admired from the television, but my record Hale and Pace aren't on television any more and the less said about Angus Deayton the better!

So on 29th May 2000, came first my autograph... So I thought, but it was something more...

A hand signed letter from Arabella Weir, from this I was tickled pink that she would take the time to do this...

The onslaught of ink continued, which got me think who was the best person to go to for advice. The one man who had been there for me through my life...

Hello again!

John Craven was always a influence on me, watching him on Saturday morning and also on Newsround as well. The plunge taken I wrote off with in trepidation thinking he was too big for likes of me, but then this arrived with said photo.

The nicest guy in the world...

This gave me the boost to go on and start on a path towards media, I did hospital radio till 2004. Then we sort of drifted apart and from that Televisual Cabbage was born to indulge the comedy side but if it wasn't for John Craven's kind words I wouldn't have had the confidence to go further...