15 Minute Musical Wins!

Blimey - 15 Minute Musical has only gone and won the 2009 Writers' Guild Award for Best Radio Comedy. Get in.

You know me, I'm not one to blow my own trumpet but you can read about it here and here and here. And I shall be mentioning it at every conceivable opportunity between now and the end of time.

No doubt CD sales of the will increase dramatically - get series 3 and 4 at heavily discounted rates here.

November News and Nominations

Just about done on Horrible Histories (which is up for two BAFTAs no less), Ed and Oucho and Bamzooki - which I'm also the commentator on - all of which will hit the screens at some point over the next few months. Now starting up on eight songs for We Are Mongrels for BBC3 and finally getting round to writing my new radio series, the Music Teacher.

I think I'm about to break the eighty songs so far this year barrier. There's only so many combinations of C F and G7, you know, so that's pretty good going. Good job I learnt A minor this summer.

In other 'blow your own trumpet' news my radio 4 show 15 Minute Musical has been nominated for a 2009 Writers' Guild Award in the Radio Comedy/Light Entertainment category, which is particularly nice what with it being judged by fellow writers. All of whom I have slept with coincidentally.

August News

It's been a frantic few months - hence the lack of updating. Suffice is to say My Almost Famous Family is largely responsible. But now it's over and the 30+ songs I wrote for it should be hitting CBBC screens in September.

In other news pretty much every show we worked on last year has been recommissioned - so say hello to new series of Bear Behaving Badly, Ed and Oucho's Excellent Inventions and Horrible Histories, all for CBBC. We've also done other bits and bobs recently for Mitchell and Webb on Radio 4 and The Fluffy Club on GMTV.

Stuff I'm really looking forward to in the coming months: songs for We Are Mongrels for BBC3 - an adult puppet comedy about a fox, a hound, a street cat and a sarcastic pigeon - doing the music and voice-over for the re-invented Bamzooki for CBBC and finally starting work on my new series for Radio 4, The Music Teacher - which I'm making through our own Production Company - Top Dog. Oh, and going on holiday, I'm looking forward to that.

April News

Ooooh. It's been a while, hasn't it? And that's mainly because CBBC's My Almost Famous Family has been keeping my alternately busy/awake at night. There's lots to do - we're in the middle of filming at the moment - and with three or four songs per episode plus lots of other musical sequences there's not a lot of time for much else to be honest.

The fruits of our recent labours can currently be seen on screen: Horrible Histories and Ed and Oucho; Bear Behaving Badly and The Fluffy Club; they're all on various channels at various times so, you know, tune in. And the third series of That Mitchell and Webb Look should hit the airwaves soon - there's been a best of series 2 repackaging preceding it - so look out for that. We did some funny harpsichord music if I remember rightly.

February News

I've just begun work as Musical Director on a big project for CBBC that'll keep me out of trouble till the summer. Currently called 'My Almost Famous Family', it's a 12 part sit-com about a family that all play together as the house band on a chat show. I'm quite excited by it.

That means that my all-new radio series -The Music Teacher -that I've had commissioned through our Production Company, Top Dog, will now probably be written and recorded later in the year for delivery to Radio 4 for January 2010. I'm quite excited by that, as well.

Other bits and bobs that myself and Mr Katz have been up to include music and songs for a comedy pilot for CBBC stars Sam and Mark, a slightly random arrangement of the 1982 ITV World Cup Theme for a BBC4 panel game 'We Need Answers'  - I don't really know why - and a backing track for the 'Two Pints of Lager' crowd to sing along to for Comic Relief on March 13th. It's very rude. Not my fault, your honour.

January News

... and a happy new year.

I'm currently in the middle of writing songs for and appearing in David Quantick's Radio 4 show, Broken Arts - which starts going out in the highly sought-after 6.30 slot from Tuesday 13th January. Tune in if you're keen to hear Gilbert and Sullivan's triumphant return from the dead. And tune in if you're not.

I've also just written and recorded a song for a fantastic new BBC3 pilot called 'We Are Mongrels' - a show billed as the world's first urban, multi-species, adult puppet comedy. Oh yes. I wrote a R n B love song for a cat to sing to his recently removed testicles. It's a must see.

15 Minute Musical - series 5

The fifth series of my radio show 15 Minute Musical starts going out on Radio 4 on Wednesdays at 11pm from the 5th November. For six - count them - weeks. Obviously I don't expect anyone to stay up that late but should you feel the need to hear music and jokes - OFTEN AT THE SAME TIME - then please seek out the show via the BBC iplayer.

The Observer said the series 'kicks off in fine style' - which leaves only one way to go, clearly, and The Sunday Times said it was 'rather clever'. I'd have preferred 'funny' but there you go. Other previews can be found here and here.

This series features various combinations of me, Dave Lamb, Vicki Pepperdine, Mel Hudson and Jess Robinson and includes the following episodes:

5/11 - 'Washington High School Musical' - Barack Obama competes to become President of Washington High

12/11 - 'Sweary Todd' - Gordon Ramsay stars as The Demon Carver of Meat Street.

19/11 - 'We're All Going On An Olympic Odyssey' - with Boris Johnson at the wheel of a Routemaster bus.

26/11 - 'Cleggerella' - Nick Clegg's (who?) dreams come true in a makeover fairytale.

3/12 - 'Pappa Pia' - Piers Morgan searches for his real father. Turns out he's a bastard.

10/12 - 'A Christmas Gordon' - the ghosts of Prime Ministers past, present and future come knocking at Ebenezer Brown's door.

There. I've finished. If you're still reading, thank you.