claytoncast

We have found ourselves in a situation which no one could have imagined. I’m not talking about a global pandemic. Evidently governments have done dry runs of such a possibility and failed miserably. I’m talking about a world in which a 99 year old man has to walk around his garden on a walking frame in order to fund the NHS. I’m talking about a world where a footballer has to point out to the Prime Minister that children will starve during the summer holidays if meal vouchers are taken away. Both Major Tom and Marcus Rashford did amazing work and are to be applauded and thanked. We in the theatre world however seem to be still looking for someone to lead us in our action against the pandemic.  Or should that be against the government? Loosening the lockdown on Tuesday, the government’s very own Tintin, Boris the Bumbler, said “I’d like to go to the theatre again.” The scientists stood by looking like a shifty version of the Thompson Twins. Reluctant to wholeheartedly back Tinti...

All of us have had a lot of up and downs as a result of the self-imposed imprisonment that we have been suffering from for the last 12 weeks.  I remember the government announcing the fact it would be 12 weeks for most people to have to stay indoors and thinking what an incomparably long amount of time that was. Yet in many ways it seems to have flown by and become our accepted way of life. It has brought many changes and made many things harder for many of us. I find the hardest point of any day is the moment my head lifts from the pillow and I slowly gain full consciousness of the world I am about to enter. I want to stay out of it all. Getting up in the morning has not been this hard since the fourth form. I've had a few blowouts of the "I'm just not going to take it any more" variety, more often than not provoked by having to watch the imbecilic behaviour of various politicians on the 5 o'clock government comedy show. I fully understand that nobody has found t...

I haven’t blogged for ages. It's all been a bit of a shakeup. I hurled myself into lockdown thinking, ‘Okay here we go. Let's find things to do.’ I enrolled on a criminal psychology course which I'm still working hard at and doing quite well, I’m 32.5k words into my second novel, but getting frustrated by having to do all my research on locations on Google Earth. The foremost thing was that the charity of which I'm a proud patron, Grimm and Co was in danger of losing an open day at the fabulous new premises we have bought in my hometown of Rotherham. May 2nd should have seen us throwing open the doors to what was the Talbot Road Methodist Church and let the public in to see and hear examples of the children's work. Many of the children who the brilliant staff at Grimm and Co deal with in writing clubs, are on the autistic spectrum or suffer from problems such as ADHD and for them lockdown has been difficult. So the chance of being able to zoom in on writing clas...

"Cut back on things that get in the way and find space for the nice things. Rather than trying to satisfy everyone, find an hour for coffee with the person you really like."  When I wrote those words in my last blog entry on January 11 this year as a sop to the idea of New Year resolutions, I little realised just how they would be implemented.  Life has changed beyond our comprehension. Yet looking at those words, I find that there is space for the enjoyable things. And the great joys of my day are a Zoom chat or a FaceTime coffee with a friend or two. A definite appointment making a definite amount of time free to look eye to eye and chat.   The site of forty also my loveliest friends and acquaintances all in little boxes on my screen on a Thursday night doing quiz night together bring me untold joy.    I'm still having difficulty finding space. The amount of work done having to do seems to have spread among the virtual days in the office, but more than e...

I’m never sure at which point it becomes politically incorrect to keep on saying Happy New Year. I’m still including it in emails at the moment, but I think by the end of next week I’ll probably have to knock it on the head and accept that 2020 is here and it’s no longer new.  2019 went out with a bang in many ways, but most obviously with a long planned trip to Australia which did turn out to be the holiday of a lifetime. Simply from the point of view distance, when you arrive in Australia you feel the need to enjoy yourself as you’ve travelled all that way. And sometimes stepping away from things can bring clarity. You don’t necessarily need to go to Australia, but the beginning of the New Year is a good time to stand back and take stock. An awful lot of self-help homilies keep appearing on my Facebook feed and I have to resist the urge to click on mute or block each time they do, but there does seem to be a trend. Instead of saying what we will do in 2020, it might help a...

There can't be many actors who didn't have to suffer the process of animal studies at drama school. Mine came in my first year. I remember thinking "what has this got to do with acting?". To which end  I chose to be a snake who was asleep. It was soon pointed out to me by the rather excellent, if barking, movement teacher we had that snakes had no eyelids and slept with their eyes open, so my initial plan of slithering into a corner of the movement studio and catching 40 minutes kip was halted. The number of animals I have played in my career is exactly one,  if we discount a short scene as the front end of the cow in "Dick Whittington" in York in the late 70s where the calibre of animal performers was rather higher than one might have thought. The cat was played by one Gary Oldman. I remember being rather jealous of the fact that he didn't have any lines to learn. He also got away without being involved in a rather energetic "milking" routin...

So I shall wear my poppy this year with an extra bit of pride. The Second World War was the greatest event in my mother's life. I can't imagine how it must have felt setting off at the age of nineteen to join the ATS as she did. Stationed in Kent near Maidstone, she was a plotter. She placed the position of enemy aircraft on maps during the Battle of Britain and throughout the rest of the war. You could hear the pride in her voice whenever she spoke of the five years she had given up for her country. It had given her a sense of community, a sense of belonging, and a sense of camaraderie and importance that she would use throughout her life. On a trip into Kent one Sunday in her late 80s, she pointed out to Richard and I, a pub in a charming little village. This was where she had spent the night of her 21st birthday "getting a little merry" as she put it and from where she and other members of her squadron staggered back down country lanes to find they had missed l...