claytoncast

The week has ended with a burst of golden summer. We even rooted about in our shed - yes,we are the proud owners of a shed - and got the sunlounger and the deck chair out yesterday afternoon to spend an hour in the garden reading. Fabulously my Amazon Kindle works brilliantly in the sun shine - something the over hyped i pad won't do. This was a good dry run as in two weeks time it will be spending its days in the Turkish Sun on holiday! I'm so looking forward to our annual holiday this year. The spare bedroom is about to see some pre packing this week, which even for me is early. Normally I like to do it the week before, but this year the anticipation is high and I can't wait. I don't know whether it is just age, the run of various ailments that I've had this year or a general sense of recession related ennui but I want my holiday. I really can't get very excited about the jobs I'm doing at the moment and I want to be away from them. We've done Turkey e...

I spent the first term at Grammar school straining to see the blackboard. I just couldn't read the writing and spent most of each lesson asking the people sat next to me what it said. At the point at which I was in danger of losing friends, or worse still being moved to the front of the class, I was diagnosed with myopia. A school eye test told me I was short sighted and horror of horrors I would have to wear spectacles. Great pains were taken by both me and my mother to keep me out of NHS frames and a suitable sexy black framed pair were chosen. Very Joe 90 - this was 1969 after all. The first morning I wore them at school, full of nerves and trepidation, I sat in registration holding my head high only for our form teacher, the redoubtably busty Miss Pjnder to say "Clayton, take those off and give them back to whoever they belong to and stop messing around" It took every ounce of gall and fortitude to puff up my medium chest(at the stage I was one of the shortest boys in...

After all the excitement of my Prime Ministerial handshake last Sunday morning, and my following appearances on both of that evening's BBC News bulletins, this week would be hard pressed to live up to such heady heights. I found myself looking forward to the work in hand this week. Three jobs that I knew I'd enjoy. On Wednesday I was down in Wales working with some directors at a media company who produce corporate videos. Clever talented directors , but who had had no training in how to work with actors. They are not alone. These days hardly anyone bothers. Most tv shoots consist of reading the script and standing in position while the shot is lit and then going for it. Unless there is a camera error, the last thing a take will be redone for is the acting. An awful lot of directors in tv these days don't seem to have an idea about how to establish a dialogue with actors. We like to be challenged and pushed out of our comfort zone. These days budgets and sch...

It' s been a strange week. All over the place work wise and some peculiar highlights. I managed to set off for a job in Preston on Monday and leave all my credit and debit cards at home. With just £8.56 in my pocket it became a matter of ingenuity to last the course. Thanks a million to the lovely Sikh taxi driver who took me to the hotel for £7.30 when the fare was £15 and thanks to Maria my fellow actress who I met there for lending me a tenner. Thanks be for pound shops of which Preston has a lot so that one can stock up for the train at three chocolate bars for a pound. I didn't leave anything behind on Wednesday night when we went to the Press night of "All the Fun Of The Fair". the new David Essex musical at the Garrick. I only wish I had - namely all my critical faculties. Its a travesty of a show. It looks like it's been touring since 1980. The set is so tired. It's the first time a set has made me angry. Running away to Doncaster - as near as d...

As a freelancer, life follows no routine pattern. Therefore most weeks one is lucky enough to do something special and unique that you may not do again. It's a shame therefore when one gets to the end of a week and one looks back and thinks that the past seven days were a bit dull. The highl ight undoubtedly was seeing "Hair" at the Gielgud theatre on Tuesday night. Rich saw the first night of this production last year on Broadway and was at the first night in London last week so I caught up with it with friend Lee on Tuesday evening and we loved it. My previous memory of it was some tatty revival at Her Majesty's in 1976 and d idn't understand it at all. This production positively heaves with energy, zing and sheer 70's love - the cast are superb and the songs come singing out across the years. It is a must. Not for nothing did Rich say it was one of the best things he;d ever seen on Broadway. Go now! Ok. Commercial over. the rest of the week wa...

This week has bee n a weeks of ups and downs. At the end of last week I went for a casting for "Waking The Dead ' I was offered the role last Friday - two episodes in the new series. the role is quite a key role, though it would be wrong of me to say what function the character has in case there are any fans of the programme reading this. Suffice it to say they had found it a hard role to cast and were evidently pleased to get me. Of course the filming day for the first of two episodes clashed with Wednesday 21st this week when I am already booked by my good friend Debbie Manship to do a corporate video for her company Rolecall . She was not willing to let me go, and I an understand that. the BBC seemed incapable of taking on board that I was not free on that day and my agent the gorgeous Amanda had producers ringing her and pressurising her and upping the m oney - though let's not get carried away here - the two episode fee would just about have bee...

After a happy and lazy middle class weekend entertaining my in laws over Easter, on Tuesday morning I was pushed head first into the inner city grit and realism that is the Aylesbury estate. The uniquely gorgeous Charlotte Benstead, a university friend of Richard's, runs a fantastic charity community project called Inspire based in the crypt of St Peters Church in Liverpool Grove just off the Walworth Road. It caters for all elements of the community both young and old with a huge variety of classes, projects and events. Bordering as it does the huge horrendous Aylesbury estate, soon to be demolished as city planners see the errors of their ways, it provides a welcome beacon of light and hope for many in the area. Inspire has a drama group, Real Drama, based there and this is who I have just spent the week working with. My friend and colleague Daisy Douglas was at the helm with me, and we found ourselves facing ten South East London kids ranging from 17 to 23 all with aspirations t...