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Christmas Eve Scam: Beware the Festive Fraudsters

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It was Christmas Eve, and everything was exactly as it should be. Brayden and I had returned from a Roman spa by the Strand, feeling utterly relaxed. The tree was decorated, presents wrapped, and we were dressed for dinner out. All was calm and bright, until my phone buzzed. A notification from Chase Bank informed me that someone had attempted to order £6.99 worth of Domino’s pizza in Liverpool. Odd, given that I’d spent the afternoon in a eucalyptus-scented haze nowhere near Liverpool. Moments later, my phone rang. No Caller ID. “Hi, this is Nigel from Chase Fraud Department.” Nigel. Not a name that inspires confidence, but the alert had just popped up, so I stayed on the line. He explained that someone had tried to set up a standing order for £350 to Amazon. “Was that you?” Certainly not, though given my spending habits, it was almost plausible. Nigel then asked for my account balances “to secure them for the record.” A crafty script, but something about his tone—a little too ba...
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The Joys Of Christmas

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The prospect of Christmas has always filled me with excitement. As a small child, December felt endless, each day marked by opening tiny chocolate-filled doors on the advent calendar, counting down how many sleeps remained, and sneaking peeks in the back of my parents’ wardrobes to confirm if the Chad Valley Bandit Chase game had really arrived. That anticipation hasn’t faded with age—in fact, it has evolved. For many years, December has meant not just Christmas but also a holiday, sometimes both rolled into one. Yet, my ideal Christmas remains one spent at home. Last year, Brayden and I celebrated our first Christmas together aboard our boat, and it was nothing short of delightful. We enjoyed each other’s company, took a refreshing Christmas Day walk, indulged in a healthy Christmas lunch (well, the walk was healthy!), and topped the holiday off with a Boxing Day visit to the theatre. But the real cherry on top was a four-day trip to New York after the festivities. This year, howeve...
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Chritsmas comes but....earlier and earlier

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I've often commented that at this time of year, I desire to become a bear. I settle down in my den or cave with a hefty supply of nuts, berries, and whatever else I need and sleep until mid-February. For the first time this year, that's probably not the case. The big conference I've been working on for the last eighteen months took place in Glasgow at the start of October. It was a great success, even though I say it myself, and I came home with some empty days in my diary. And I'm not good with empty days. I've been fortunate that I have not stopped since we returned from Iceland in the summer. Three big TV pieces were filmed, followed by two conferences, which kept me busy in real terms and bulged my inbox. The last two weeks have seen too many empty days. There have been days with nothing in the diary, and I've been bad about arranging lunches and catch-ups. So that needs correcting. Now, things are lurching towards the end of the year, and retail is pus...
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Banking on You

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It's nice to have things you can rely on in life. A partner, friends, a working car. Just that feeling of getting up in the morning and trusting that life will be okay. Increasingly, a lot of what we rely on is digital. At the forefront of that, in my case, is my phone. I haven't upgraded my phone much to the chagrin of Apple's Accounts department since the iPhone 13. My phone has been reliable, effective, and a good friend. Last Saturday, while flying up to Glasgow, I decided to invest in the new iPhone 16 Pro Max. They've proved almost impossible to order from an Apple store, and the tech store at Heathrow Terminal 5 had one left with just the memory I required and in the colour I wanted. Titanium black. How proud was I? Of course, being the small boy who could never wait to open his Christmas presents, I tried to set up my phone on arrival in Glasgow in my hotel room. Hooking up both old and new phones to the hotel Wi-Fi. All went well. I never read instructions ...
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A Few Little Treats

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When we were on holiday in the summer, I expressed a wish that I could have an acting job to keep me busy and inspired. Before starting the regular autumn season of corporate conferences, I was fortunate to have three. They've been great fun and varied, allowing me to work with some old friends and make new ones. All three productions will end up being shown within about two weeks of each other. Now it's back to the world of corporate conferences. Rehearsals have heightened, filming is taking place, videos and presentations are being prepared, and on a day-to-day basis, the emails I have to answer yes or no to fill my inbox. So it's a great treat this week to have Brayden's mum over from Canada. I arranged a little scheme with her so she could be here for his birthday at the end of the month. She's an absolute delight, and having lunch with your prospective mother-in-law is good fun, if not a little daunting. I'm fortunate that autumn brings familiar work....
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Court In the act.

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I've got a confession to make. As an actor, I don't do research. I know that so many of us submerge ourselves in our roles before we start. It might well have been useful to have spent a couple of months working behind the counter of a cafe prior to filming The Full Monty a few years ago, but I rather hope I managed to perfect the preparation of the lettuce salad sandwich and my level of customer abuse without such thorough research. Twenty-six years ago or so, I played a hairdresser in the West End. The main thing I wanted to achieve was the lovely way they use their scissors balanced on the thumb and the third finger. I was dispatched to a hairdressing school for the afternoon and practised hopelessly to get my snipping action just right. I'm not sure that I ever did. On stage every night, I used to cover it up with some hasty combing, but what I did get right was the fact that my performance, outrageous and extravagant as it was, was nowhere near as flamboyant as the...
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The Early Bird

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The proverbial wisdom is it's the early bird that catches the worm. I'm not sure I've ever really been an early bird. The first 10 or 15 years of my working career were based around theatre, where the day's climax was the evening and relaxation time didn't begin until 10.30 at night after a particularly long Shakespeare. It was the pub or dinner, and bed rarely came before 1 am in the morning. Rehearsals often dragged one out of bed the following day. But wherever possible, I would enjoy a lazy morning between the sheets. Revelry was quite often the cause of those lazy mornings, so when I gave up drinking 25 years ago, one of the benefits I discovered almost immediately was the fact that I had so much extra time as I woke by 8 most mornings. I could complete my to-do list for the day by 9.30 and have the day stretch in front of me with opportunities and possibilities. For the last three weeks, I have been dragged out of bed at 5 a.m. to get in the car at 5:30 to...
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