claytoncast

After a bitty Saturday with a Scene and Heard runthrough breaking up the day, we decided to brave the horror film of the moment on a wet Sunday evening in Beckenham. Pefect horror film weather as we drove to the cinema, lashings of rain and windswept trees. The film "Paranormal Activity" is a 15. Hence the cinema was full of teens.Chatty and up for a scream the moment the film began. Well except for the guy next to me who was more up for a chat with his girlfriend. Yes a chat! So irritating as his lack of attention to the film was, and I diud worry about his wasting his £9.45 entrance fee, we were in the back row for gods sake! Where were his wandering hands? Where was the bra strap fumble of old? God, I can't remember how many films in the Essoldo Rotherham were merely an excuse for copping a feel of a hardening teenage penis. And that was just the boys! This guy however was more interested in his mobile than his girlfriend and her delights. Poor cow The ...

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It's true what hey say isn't it? Life is an endless succession of Ying and Yang - of "What goes around comes around" or however else you would like to phrase it. This week I got an absolutely lovely box of old fashioned tuck shop goodies from our friend Charlotte. Delivered by JOhn Lewis and full of old fashioned love hearts, sherbet chews ,black jacks etc. Each bite was a memory. Fabulous. Thursday saw a morning rehearsal for the Tap. - one next week at Teatro Technis in Camden for those with an evening to spare. I returned home exhausted but happy, only to find I had two Lucy's in my e mail inbox. A lucy is the name given to an e mail that one gets, always on Thursday afternoons, from Lucy Griffin, who is the accounts lady at my agents. It contains a Remittance advice and means you've got some money. Lucy's often come out of the blue and indeed this week I wasn't expecting one, so to find two was an unexpected joy. You never know what a Lucy is worth...

Yesterday saw a very early start to get to Hitchin for 9.00am for some role-play. Thank god we had a nice team of actors. Lovely kate Harper, Sian Richardson, Brian Jordan and Simon Westwood because god it was a boring day. Ill dressed trainers. Why do the actors always have to wear business suits while the trainers can look like shit - a feat which they managed with style yesterday! Dull scenarios rushed through so no one can really have got anything out of it - and certainyl we all came away on a damp day with no real sense of job satisfaction. And not much richer either. I keep finding little moments to think about Christmas and dash into shops to get odds and ends. Don;t know why I'm panicking as my work calendar is alarmingly empty for December so I won't be short of shopping time. As Rich was out last night living the high life and dining at the Ivy, I curled up with "Am I a celebrity Get me out of here!" My friend Lucy was the first one evicted on Monday night...

Spent this morning being a tap - for the children's charity Scene and Heard. It's their autumn show next week and i'm taking part for the first time in two years. I've been doing it off and on for ten years and over that time have directed loads of their plays, but also played parts as varied as a hit man bullfrog, a yorkshire rabbit, a bumper car, the globe and a frying pan. this time I am playing a golden tap - the Queens golden bath tap with two diamonds to be precise. I'm acting opposite my mate Ben Porter who is a joy to work with. He's playing a hairy donkey. We haven't yet got to the stage where we cant look at each other for laughing but I feel its not far away. A quiet weekend with all the bad weather and I still feel very tired a lot of the time. I suppose its all from the Palsy which does seem to be going but it's still infuriating. I can;t say my B's and P's properly yet but other than that am making headway.

This week has sen a lot of trains. Yesterday after an interview for a new BBC3 sit com (No money there then!) I headed off to t Pancras to experience the joys of First Class on Midland Mainline up to Sheffield. The carriages are nicer than Virgin and the seats more comfortable and the prices are cheaper - but then who wants to go to Sheffield anyway! Well I did yesterday as I was taking my mUm and four of her friends out for afternoon teat to celebrate her 88th birthday next week. I took them to the Leopold Hotel which is Sheffield's newest boutique hotel. Actually I think its Sheffield's only boutique hotel, but there we go. It's been converted from the Old City Grammar School and is in the middle of the city and is actually quite swish. It doesn't do lunch but for some reason thinks that afternoon tea is a more popular choice with the steel working people of Sheffield. Nice tea, sandwiches and scones and cream and jam and four lades in their older years. Vera, who t...

So Monday evening took me Manchesterfordwards to do some coaching on the Tuesday morning. Virgin trains - First Class don't you know. It's just such a funny thing. T hey pretend to be an airline - stewards standing by the doors as you get on. And of course Virgin Atlantic are a wonderful airline..bu then as son as the service starts - some Manchester Sapper flinging tea fro, a pot and hoping it finds your cup. Choice of curry pie or egg and spinach sandwich hurled at you like a throw in the world Frisbee championships, and complimentary drinks rushed through the carriage on the "stop me and try and find one' principle" you realise that this is first class for chavs and scallys . The Manchester tones can be welcoming in the right situation , but placed in the mouth of a customer service operative, or whatever grand title has been bestowed on them, who is pushing forty, hasn't seen a hairdresser in weeks and thinks that etiquette is some s...

Spent a lovely Sunday, crisp sunny weather visiting the Pop Life exhibition at the Tate Modern followed by Sunday lunch at Roast in Borough Market.\\really nice autumn Sunday, The exhibition was good, if a little varied. Best exhibit was a pair of real life twins sitting on two identical chairs dressed the same under some perfect circles of colour on the wall and was by Damien Hirst . Brilliant. We also went into the black box dark room exhibit which is in the Turbine Hall. A huge three storey high empty trailer of darkness which really plays with your idea of perspective. Very simple and very effective. Tonight Dr Who and my mate Lucy Benjamin on "I'm a Celebrity" Just to so you can see - the face is slowly getting better- when I'm relaxed the mouth is nearly horizontal. Thanks for all the good wishes and lovely messages I have received from everybody

Thats going to be the main problem with this. Keeping it up to date. Wednesday night we went to see "Little Voice" with Diana Vickers from the X Factor. We both hated her virulently with her waving hand and throaty croak when she was on the show so it is nice to be able to say she turns in a good performance. The acting is passable and the singing is very good. Bit of a curates egg as a show - good in parts. Although there really is no excuse for the dreadful X factor type song that has been stitched onto the end of the play.-truly awful I've had lots of rest this week and things seem to be improving. I can drink without a straw and my face when in repose looks almost normal. Still having to tape my eye up for sleep and problems focussing with my right eye and when i get tired it still sounds as though I have a load of pebbles in my mouth when i speak, but it is all promising that it will go away slowly. Last night went to Scene and Heard. I am going to do their next show...

Tuesday dawns foggy and misty in South east London and today I'll learn to scroll back through this blog so that he whole thing gets spell checked and not just the last two paragraphs. My big step forward yesterday was that I managed to drink a cup of tea without a straw. Lots of slurping and noise and not very polite but felt great. Have got very sick of hot drinks through straws over the last couple of weeks and indeed the taste of plastic for all my drinks. I know its going to take time and on the scale of what people have said I am only two and a half weeks in and it could be two to three months before I gain full use of my face back, but it was a small thing that meant that it was moving forward. Today is my last dose of steroids . They' ve made me insomniac and ravenously hungry and breaking out in sweats in the middle of the day so as a medication I shan't be sorry to have to come off them. Yesterday we took delivery of our new car. Syd the smar...

We had a ovely night out at Martin's in Clapham . Bonfir , fireowrks and lots of gay men - what more could one want when a noisy fireowrk goes off! Sparklers in abundance. Lovely food and nice fro once to go to a small party wheret he firewroks were lit rather than a big display. Really nice evening. Simon Cowell laughing al the way to the bank this mornign as he let John and Edward continue their rise to the top of the X Factor. Not that they will for on e moment win, but Cowell , clever to the core knows this series is dead at the moment without the, Knowing how the public have voted, (Cone on don't believe he doesn't!) his sacrifice of the bland Lucy shows he knows how to maintain his viewing figures. All very clever This morning I have had a drink from a cup of tea and managed it without a straw so I think we do have some movement in the lips. Rich says he thinks he has sen my right eye blinking a little over the weekend, and God will I be grateful...

Sunday morning. Both woke early today. Sleep has been a bit of a problem for me over the last two week.s As the muscles in my right eye aren't working the eye does not blink and i have to tape it closed at night and wear an eye mask. It doesn't take much to irritate me and wake me up. This allied with the steroids which seem to have given me insomnia has not helped. earlier in the week in Glasgow I really did have four nights where I slept for only 2 or 3 hours each night and it began to take its toll. Since getting back I've managed more sleep thanks to the comfort of our own bed, but woke early this morning . Rich went out and we did something we rarely do these days - had The Sunday Times in bed for an hour which was just a delightful way to start the day. Not sure but there does s eem to be a very slight movement i n m y right eyelid today. It certainly l ooks as though i can blink though it still feels very stiff. The face seemeed slightly less lo...

Just had a lovely bunch of flowers delivered from Janie and Mike - what a lovely way to start a Saturday.Thank you

Well it's a crisp November Saturday morning here in South East London. The prospect of lots of bonfires over the weekend. We'll be taking our fireworks to a private party in Clapham tomorrow night. Two large fireworks called a super woof and a rocket box or something to be let off as £40 goes up in smoke. A lazy day of shopping, lunch at the cafe and a tv night of Strictly and X Factor lie ahead ..and do you know what?.the thought is fab- nothing t do and Rich to do it with. Lovely.

..... That this works from my phone. Sent from my iPhone

Just to say that re the Bells palsy i am still a bit lopsided of face, and find it difficult to drink without a straw and eating is a problem. Speech is odd but not incomprehensible and at last after ten hard days work i am getting some rest so hopefully I can begin the road to recovery. The prognosis is that most people recover within two or three months so fingers crossed. here's to a slightly quiet end of the year, looking a little like an enigmatic haddock on a fishmongers slab!

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This is a blog sent in on the move from the study to the bathroom. Interesting huh? Sent from my iPhone

Just to check that I can get pics up onto my blog - will circulate the address of this and you can all log on.

This is me starting a blog to let people know what is going on,. Sign in and become a follower and se if this works for you as a gossip update. Hopefully we can keep this up to date on a daily bais. Much love Paul