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What a difference a day makes? That’s what the song says, and it’s the time of year when we start to think what a difference has 365 days made? For me, it’s considerable. This time last year, I faced the prospect of my first Christmas as a single man with no family. And it was not nice. I was saved by two dear, fabulous friends who took me into their home in France and gave me a beautiful, intimate and joyous Christmas. The journey from there has been full of surprises. Lots of travel for business and fun. Dogging with huskies in northern Norway; a week of shows and museums and shopping in the Big Apple; and a fabulous two-week single-handed odyssey of a trip around the land of the rising sun. Japan was the most stunning trip and the desire to return is great. Add a week in the sun on the Amalfi Coast and I have indeed been lucky. Work has been varied and fun. Letting the world see the results of a year's filming in 2022 as The Full Monty dropped on Disney. Directing events in Ibi

Beard is a slang term, American in origin, describing a person used, knowingly or unknowingly, as a date, romantic partner (boyfriend or girlfriend), or spouse, either to conceal infidelity or conceal one’s sexual orientation. And there’s me thinking it was something that my agent asked me to grow for something that starts filming next January. It’s the sequel to a project I filmed 10 years ago. In that instance, I had false facial hair, brown and lengthy. Today I’m sporting ten days’ growth, which is alarmingly white and short. Currently, I look like someone who didn’t even get a recall for the recast of Captain Bird's-Eye. Perhaps I could be one of the group of animated vagrants who assist Vincent Price in his murderous exploits in the film “Theatre of Blood”. It won’t be long before it’s second glances on the tube and I can stop using deodorant. Since the events of this series take place only eighteen months to two years after the events of the series, we filmed ten years ago, a

This week I attended a memorial service for an actor I had the pleasure of working with in corporate role-play on many occasions.  He made me laugh, loud and often. He knew his stuff, and he always had an eye to make sure we didn’t get overused for the money. I was always pleased when I saw his name on a job sheet. He was a wonderfully intelligent man, and it was a great pleasure to be in his company. Rest in piece Greg Harris The celebration was wonderful and gave me a chance to catch up with many colleagues who I no longer see as the areas of my work have changed Greg was my four years younger than me. He’s not the only one of my contemporaries to have left us in the last few months., The wonderful comedian Andy Smart. The director, Michael Boyd.  I’ve spent the last twenty months finding my new life. The realisation is that I don’t know how long it will be. So there is no time for regret. No time for wishing “If only” and “What if “. Time to throw off the duvet each morning and gree

I suppose the principal aim of this blog would be not to mention the weather. As we all know, we would sadly diminish conversation in Britain, if it were not for our climate. I wonder how well the holiday business has done during this last rainy spell. I know that one of the first things I did was to book myself a nice sunshine holiday for December. So even if the current diluvian days continue, I have a beach to look forward to. Living on a boat means one is constantly aware of water, and the thrash of the rain on the roof is strangely comforting. My first instinct living on Scout when the rain started was to run outside and start collecting pairs of animals. Now the downpours are an excuse for me not to have to get the pressure washer out for boat cleaning. Just one chore on the household list when one lives on a boat. I’ve never been overly competent with a screwdriver. The tool, not the drink. Mercifully, the community feeling that we have on our pontoon means there’s always someon

There has recently been a big sense of things finishing . “The Full Monty” which has occupied my life for most of the last 18 months, has now dropped on Disney UK to great success. It’s so good that so many people can now enjoy the story that we could tell. While Monty opened in Sheffield, I was enjoying a fantastic two-week adventure in Japan, something I’ve been eagerly awaiting since much earlier in the year, as part of my ‘Get out and do it on my own’ programme. Many of you were kind enough to read my Japanese travel blog and shared the journey with me. It was a life-changing experience and gave me a confidence that I thought I had hitherto lost in terms of being a solo traveller. Last Wednesday, the court declared my divorce final. Just a few things to mop up and that’s it. Twenty five years of my life put into the filing cabinet. So where next? And that’s the question. On hearing the news of my divorce, many friends texted me and said, “well done. You’re nearly there.” But I’m no

 So this is a link to the fourteen days I spent in Japan An awfully big adventure  Read my travel diary! https://www.traveldiariesapp.com/en/diary/822d6c61-9aaf-4f1c-9779-6d11e7bc5f79

Today I am held prisoner in Limehouse. Not detained here by some global pandemic, or some new ridiculous measure by the Conservative party. Not held here by some Victorian golem, but surrounded by one of the most wonderful displays of humanity London provides each year.   Last October, I set off one Sunday to get my hair cut in Canary Wharf, oblivious to the fact that one of the country’s greatest sporting events was taking place around me. My hair may have become shorter, but my trip home was immeasurably longer as I tried to work my way back to my boat.   Today, forewarned is forearmed, and I’ve loaded the fridge with food and spent most of the morning, reading the Sunday papers and catching up on correspondence. It’s a dull, damp, rainy day and yet thousands of people have taken to the street for the London Marathon. Not just runners, but an astounding gallimaufry of supporters, cheering encouragement and filling the air with boosting catcalls and primeval cries to drive the runner

it’s been a little while, since I last took to these pages, and the year has moved on with alarming swiftness. It’s fitting, perhaps that I’m sitting at a hotel desk in Milan to write this, given that travel has played a very important part in my life for the last couple of months. Last year as a newly single man, dealing with holidays was a problem. I hadn’t really solved. They say going on holiday with somebody is when you really begin to know them, and I don’t think I’d ever been on holiday with myself. When I did, I realised was that if I’m not going to lie around on the beach all day and have a nice dinner in the evening, something I think that is much better done as part of a couple, then I needed things to do on my holiday So I planned three trips away centred around having activities. And the one part of a holiday that would still be missing-that of sharing it with someone-could be achieved by a daily blog post on social media. So my keen followers have been with me to the

There’s a lazy Sunday afternoon winter’s son over the Limehouse Basin today, and I’m six months into my adventure. I moved into my houseboat as part of my divorce proceedings on 1 August last year to begin an adventure for a couple of years. It may seem strange to some people that to steady my life I move onto a home can adjust in the wind and rain, but it has become a haven. I had two and a half months of beautiful weather, throwing on a pair of shorts every morning I wasn’t working, and life seemed like a holiday. I’ve learnt about inverters and Webasto’s, when to put my fuel order in and when to top up my water tank. Many people worried when I said I was going to buy a boat. They immediately thought of the winter, and with a sense of comedy timing that I’d like to think only I could manage, I bought my boat before one of the hardest coldest winters we’ve had. And I know that it might not yet be over. The Beast from the East came in March, and my mother was very fond of the mant

You another year starts, and we’ve grown used to writing a fresh set of figures at the end of the date. We’re all debating whether it’s still permissible to start an email with “Happy New Year”. We are pushing at the edges of those resolutions we may or may not have made, and having passed blue Monday where now well and truly settled into 2023. Having worried myself over where I was spending Christmas in the New Year, at 1:30 on January 1 I walked back along the Thames from an exceptionally pleasant drinks party on the 30th floor of an apartment building in Canary Wharf, having watched the fireworks from a magnificent vantage point. It was therefore surprising to bump into one of our well-known senior actors outside a public house and receive an invitation to partake of a little stimulation. I resisted the temptation and headed home to begin what, I hope, will be a successful year. 2022 was a rollercoaster both professionally and emotionally and although it’s not something that I ev