That small white building on the far bank to my immediate right is the Globe Theatre
From here on these blogs will be tailing off and probably a lot shorter and less detailed, because I’m going to be spending my evenings with real human beings. Up to now I’ve been out sightseeing every day, walking miles and coming back to my digs physically exhausted but full of impressions and images that I could spend hours writing up in solitary splendour. Not any more!
I’m leaving my B&B two days earlier than planned because I’m worried about possible Tube strikes. They’ve called this one off, but who’s to say there won’t be more at short notice?
Going to squat with Adam (lol – meant to write ‘stay’ but auto-correct knows best in this instance and I’m going to leave this in, because he’s the only one left in this rather decrepit old building and will be moving out in a couple of weeks. I get the feeling he’ll be glad to leave – he’s had some happy times here but it’s not the most salubrious part of London).
It’s cold this morning with a threat of rain in the air. On the Tube, it’s nice to see that people still read newspapers and magazines, not just play with their iPhones. I read my neighbour’s newspaper upside down and get a grip on today’s news. But I wouldn’t want to do this every day. At each station more and more people get on, and now as we approach the city we’re PACKED like sardines. Grim faces set in stone, no-one looks at anyone else. At my destination I alight and leave the platform, heading for a narrow passageway that marks the Bethnal Green exit, and run into a tightly packed mass of human bodies, all facing the same way and shuffling slowly forward with mindless but inexorable determination. These zombies are commuters waiting to leave the station, and I must join them if I’m ever going to see daylight again. Only by the most rigid self-control do I resist the urge to groan horribly and lurch forward like something out of ‘Dawn of the Dead’. These poor creatures are condemned to join this ghastly procession every working day of their lives. Mercifully, I am but passing through.
Adam meets me at the entrance to Bethnal Green Tube – it’s a long walk, he says, deep concern in his voice, do you want to get a bottle of water before we start? But I already know his place is quite close by and this is just an Adam joke. Good try, though! We walk around the corner and in the front door. This is the heart of ‘East Enders’ country, lots of street markets, people everywhere going about their (mostly lawful) business. But where are the Beales and the Fowlers, the Mitchells, the Brannings and the Carters? I feel like a foreigner here, there are so many Middle Eastern faces, women in flowing headscarves, men wearing white nightshirts and little skullcaps, exotic speciality shops.
Adam tells me I’m much less likely to be mugged here than where I’ve been staying (Arnos Grove). That’s reassuring.
Tickets – a tiny scrap of doggy heaven
We take Tickets for a walk in the nearby park, Weavers Fields. It’s a lovely surprise to find such an expanse of green here. Tickets is let off the leash and chases a tennis ball with hilarious enthusiasm, little short legs covering the ground with unbelievable speed. She will probably sleep for the rest of the day once we get her home. Adam cooks a nice healthy lunch (fish, rice and broccoli), then I take a nap while he goes to Sainsburys to do some shopping.
Unmissable photo op near St Paul’s Cathedral
The Tate Modern from Millennium Bridge
In the afternoon we take a stroll across the Millennium Bridge to visit the Tate Modern, Britain’s national gallery of international modern art. It used to be a gasworks – the Bankside Power Station – and the massive old brick chimney soars above us. Although entry to London’s museums and art galleries is generally free, there are always special exhibits that you have to pay to go and see. But not us, not this time, because Adam has a members card which he shows at the doors and we just breeze through! The Matisse cut-outs are on display – I remember discovering them in an art book years ago and am looking forward to seeing them for real at last. They are truly impressive, particularly when you see the video showing how he created these cut-outs – just going at it freehand with paper and scissors and coming up with such amazingly fluid and lovely shapes. Kind of like play-school for gifted granddads.
Matisse cut-outs – umm, Adam, I don’t think you’re supposed to take pictures here …
The Richard Hamilton exhibition is rather more challenging – in a career spanning more than six decades, that man must have experimented with just about every art genre! Some of the works are interactive, you can walk right inside them, and he did some amazing things with mirrors. Others remind me of Escher, the kind where you have to turn your brain inside-out to see them properly.
Then on to ITV for the long-awaited ‘QI’ recording session. Because I’ve got Production Guest status we don’t have to join the long queue snaking halfway around the block. Just stroll right into Reception, names ticked off on their list, yellow band around wrist to identify us as members of the Chosen Few, then we’re ushered into the lift and taken into the studio where our seats await with our names on them! The show gets under way about 7.30pm, and ends just before 10pm. Tonight’s guests are Danny Baker, Jeremy Clarkson and Sandy Toksvig. And of course, Alan Davies! We are in the third row from the front and we don’t miss a thing. This episode probably won’t make it to Australia for a while, it’s the very first of the ‘L’ series. At the end of the recording they wait to find out whether they need to do any re-takes – but these people are such consummate professionals there are only two or three small bits to re-do, it’s done and dusted in just a few minutes and then it’s all over. I’ll be looking out for that episode, because I know all the naughty bits they had to cut out!
Free taxi back to the flat, courtesy of Uber. Adam very excited at having seen the show being made, so glad we went – he has met Stephen Fry several times at the Kings Head, and in 2009 directed his play (‘Latin! or Tobacco and Boys’) at the Cock Tavern Theatre.
I email a quick thank-you note to Sarah Lloyd at ‘QI’, and sleep right through the night!
Waiting to go into ‘QI’ recording session
Where do you think you are? 