Walking the Walk.

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and yet as you become an old dog, you realise that new passions come along rarely and when they do, you should seize them with both hands and enjoy them.

This summer, August loomed a little empty in my diary. Yes, I am supposed to be editing the first draft of my new book "The Working Actor" which aims to be published in December this year, but I have no major work commitments and no filming. For the last two summers I have spent August in front of the camera. Two years ago in a rather sweaty and moist wedding marquee for the final series of "Him and Her - The Wedding" and last year on intermittent filming days bedecked in velvet and fur for my brief appearance in "Wolf Hall”.

This year my diary for August was looking a little like a heavy snowfall - all white. That didn't necessarily worry me, though I have to say I am not at my best when I don't have a deadline, and having commitments to other people and to work is something that drives me forward. I needn't have worried. The month has managed to fill itself up with meetings, little jobs, and domestic tasks in abundance. The domestic tasks seem to have achieved fruition. I've managed the absence of our regular cleaner for a month and we have managed to grass our balcony and turn it into a perfect artificial garden. I've edited the first 50 pages of the aforementioned tome, and thanks to my agent who seems to have kicked into overdrive of late, I've been up for several castings. I may be slightly out of my stride as they don't seem to have come to much, but I have a nice filming job booked in for early September which is very pleasant for a whole variety of reasons -more to follow on that soon.

Also in early September, we’re having a sponsored walk at the Actors Centre. If you're a follower of mine on Twitter or Facebook, or if you're on my email list, then you can't have missed this as I have probably already pestered you far too much in an attempt to get you to sponsor me. Friends and colleagues have been very generous and my sponsorship is around about the £2000 mark, which is absolutely fantastic. On the day I will be walking alongside Alan Bates winners Elliott Barnes Worrell, Adam Buchanan, and Luke Dale, who will be there for moral support and also to raise the profile of the centre that they believe in, and that has proved useful to them. 

Sadly the uptake on the walk by members of the Actors Centre has been extremely disappointing. We have over 2400 members currently on our books, and yet at the moment of writing, less than five have actually signed up to do the walk. It may be that many don't know that the Actors Centre is actually a charity that as well as its income from workshops and membership fees needs constant support from a variety of sources if it is to achieve its goal. We have a wonderful building, slap bang in the middle of Covent Garden, a great asset that distinguishes us from many of the other groups who provide actor support services. Keeping this building in a good state of repair, and indeed improving the facilities that it offers cannot be done out of our main income stream. It requires special fundraising, and this walk is the first stage of that. Before we apply for grants, or talk to the bank, we have to show that we are capable of raising money ourselves to make things happen. Several loyal members of the Actors Centre staff are walking and have gained sponsorship, but the fact that so few members have become involved leads me to question what people actually want from The Actors Centre, a subject I feel I will have to return to in my column in The Stage, or The Huffington Post, if the take-up for the walk doesn't increase before the day.

And yet it's this very walk that has given me my aforementioned new interest. The last time I walked any real distance was probably about 12 years ago on a sponsored walk for a children's charity. Given that my friends and colleagues have been so generous in their sponsorship on this occasion, I know that I can't let them down. I'm also not a person who walks a great deal as part of his daily life, to which end I bought myself some walking shoes a couple of weeks ago and with my partner (who did a 40km charity walk himself earlier this year), we have been exploring the byways of North West Kent near where we live. I'm absolutely amazed that within 3 miles of our home near Beckenham, we can walk through woodlands and across meadows and feel as though we are miles away from the capital city into which it takes us only 25 minutes to commute. Current mileage on my walking shoes is around 17 miles and we have a nice long bank holiday trek planned with a pub lunch in the middle of it. A walk is time for contemplation. It's a great time to spend with the most important person in my life, and evidently, according to research published this week in the press, it's helping my memory and doing my prospects for old age no harm at all. So it’s a win win. I’m hoping it’s something I will keep up. A good four or five miles at least once a month. No doubt it may be harder, and my resolve may falter, during the winter months, but certainly until the end of September, I'm pretty sure it's something that's going to remain in my diary. Something to squeeze in. And the thing I've tended to find is that the more you're doing the more you get asked to do. Work never comes along into an empty diary, it pushes its way into a tight schedule forcing you to make time for it, and to see it quite rightly, as just another part of your life.

So start filling that diary now.

And just in case you haven’t yet managed to sponsor me and the boys, click on this link, and help to support a whole new generation of British actors who are starting out and using the Actors Centre as part of a successful career.

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/paulclaytonwalks