Irish Times

Hi there, how are you doing? I hope you have had a good couple of weeks. Mine have been by my standards fairly quiet really. Which has actually been quite nice. A bit of calm before the storm, as the next month or so is going to be nice and busy for me. Although short listed to be a contestant on a big new ITV show I did not in the end get chance to go on it and play the game.

The first series of it was filmed up in Manchester last week. It is a fun quiz called Alphabetical. Which is hosted by the excellent Jeff Stelling. It is really just an old school style general knowledge quiz with a couple of nice little twists to make it more original. Watch out for it on your television screens later this year. It is definitely worth a watch. It was lots of fun to play at the audition.

Neil Quigley TV Radio & Live
Neil Quigley TV, Radio & Live

A while ago now I did some recording sessions for a project a very good friend of mine Andy Holmes was working on. He has written a series of short radio plays. Which have now been produced starring an all star cast, including me. He is starting to release them on a weekly basis.

So far the first two episodes have been made available. I am personally involved in two of them. Playing a futuristic tour guide in one of the stories and then popping up and making a quick cameo guest appearance as a Radio Presenter in another of them.

Neil Quigley
Neil Quigley

It was good fun going in to the studio to record my bits for these productions. I have worked with Andy Holmes on several things over the years and we always have a good time working together. It was a little different for me getting to play characters and doing a little bit of acting.

I am of course just more used to being myself on the radio. The great thing about radio plays of course is you do not need to learn the script as you can just read your lines during the recording itself.

Neil Quigley
Neil Quigley

The first one featuring me was released last weekend. The series is called The Andy Holmes Angle and the episode I appear in, which is episode two. Is called “The Empty Space”. That is the one where I play the Tour Guide in a galactic fantasy trip set in the future. A snapshot of what holidays could be like in the feature and in many ways a suggestion that the human race learns very little from past experiences.

As I said it was great fun to record and do listen out for an uncanny Ruth Madoc impersonation from me about half way through it. So here is a link to the play, for you to enjoy at your own convenience. Just simply click on it to hear it. The Empty Space

Neil Quigley
Neil Quigley

I am still suffering from nose bleeds due to my team Tottenham Hostpur still being up in second place in the English Premier League. This is the first time ever in my life that I have felt that just may be we could actually have a slight chance of winning the league. It is an odd and strange feeling that I am totally not used to at all. But that said long may it continue, please.

It was a bit of a shame going out of the Europa Cup to Borussia Dortmund. But the main prize of winning that is a place in the Champions League. Which hopefully we should achieve from our final league position. It is going to be an exciting run in with lots of twists and turns still to come, I’m sure. I just plan to enjoy every minute of, whatever happens in the end. Come on you Spurs.

Neil Quigley
Neil Quigley

I am looking forward to going up to Liverpool for the Grand National Meeting next month. However this week it was the other big event in the jump horse racing season the Cheltenham Festival. Unfortunately I did not manage to make it along to the famous race course this time around. Although lots of my mates and even my parents enjoyed a day’s racing there this year.

I watched as many of the races as I could on television. It really is a great spectacle. It is retired former champion jockey AP McCoy’s favourite meeting. This year was the first year he had not had a ride there for twenty years. He was there still though working for Channel 4 and I found his comments and insight into the whole thing fascinating personally.

Neil Quigley
Neil Quigley

It was an exciting week’s racing and you really get to see how close nit the racing community are. They are very competitive but at the same time very supportive of each other and do seem genuinely happy when others are successful. They really do love and take great care of those horses. There were also bumper record crowds there to witness lots of great races.

I thought the television coverage was brilliant and because they are all known people within horse racing, presenting it. They get access to and so get to speak to everybody. And because they know them all personally you get some really nice and intimate interviews with the jockey’s, trainers and owners alike.

Windsor Races Winning
Windsor Races Winning

The festival this year also saw a debut appearance from the Olympic Gold Medal cyclist Victoria Pendleton. She has retired from professional cycling and has dedicated the last twelve months to horse riding. With the big aim of being certified to ride in one of the biggest racing occasions in the world. She has been taught by the best and worked with some great trainers and top jockeys along the way.

She rode a Paul Nichols trained horse “Pacha Du Polder” in the prestigious Foxhunter Chase on the famous Gold Cup Day of the championships. Over the Gold Cup course itself. So from having never ridden a horse before to going over the jumps at one of the most testing race courses in the whole world inside twelve months is quite an achievement.

Neil Quigley & Jeff Nolan
Neil Quigley & Jeff Nolan

I was lucky enough to meet and interview Victoria Pendleton a few years ago at a cycle event she was an ambassador for at Whipsnade Zoo. She was I have to say absolutely lovely and clearly very passionate about her sport and keen that as many people as possible should get involved with it. To enjoy the obvious health benefits and at least some of the satisfaction that she got from training and competing at the high level that she did.

She clearly had great drive and dedication. So I was not surprised that she managed to fulfil her horse racing dreams. She is a great person and I wish her all the best with her next project, whatever that may be. This lady can probably just do anything she sets her mind to, to be honest.

Neil Quigley with Olympic Gold Medal Cyclist Victoria Pendleton
Neil Quigley with Olympic Gold Medal Cyclist Victoria Pendleton

Last Thursday it was of course St Patrick’s Day. Now as someone with some Irish roots (my Granddad was born in Southern Ireland) and a name like Quigley. I always like to celebrate this special occasion. In my opinion the best place to do this is at my favourite pub in London Waxy O’Connors. So I was in there during the afternoon enjoying a few pints of Guinness and listening to some brilliant live music. The atmosphere inside the place was as ever brilliant and perfect for the day.

St Patrick's Day
St Patrick’s Day

I got in there just after midday and they had a band called Walking on Cars booked to play a short thirty minute set from around one thirty. They were brilliant and are definitely a name worth looking out for in the future. I spotted Chris Moyles’s producer the very lovely Pippa Taylor in there enjoying the music to. And the friend that I was meeting there Kayleigh Gill had an even better celebrity spot. As she saw Suggs from Madness having dinner in a restaurant on her way to the pub.

St Patrick's Day
St Patrick’s Day

The staff and customers in there are always so nice and friendly. It really is a wonderful place to spend the afternoon. The decoration and styling of the place is also amazing.  Some parts have a church feel to it, some parts are like an old fashioned country pub. And who does not like a pub that is right in the middle of Central London and has a tree running right down the middle of it. You are in the heart of the city but once you head down the stairs and in to the lower bar. You feel like you are miles away from anywhere.

St Patrick's Day
St Patrick’s Day

The music was great and perfect for the occasion all afternoon. Then from six they had yet more live music for the evening with a traditional Irish Trio featuring of course a fiddle player. They played a host of classic Irish Songs. Which had the whole place singing along to them. It was quite a sight with the bar full of people wearing Guinness hats and waving Irish flags. It was another brilliant St Patrick’s Day celebrated in my favourite pub in London.

St Patrick's Day
St Patrick’s Day

The latest series of Newsjack has come to an end. The topical news comedy show will return to BBC Radio 4 Extra for another run later in the year. It was as ever brilliant fun writing jokes for the show once again. It is produced and performed by a very talented team. Plus it is a great stepping stone for new comedy writers to cut their teeth and progress their careers. A lot of people credited on the show have gone on to write and produce on a more regular basis for the broadcaster. So to be just a small part of that is a lovely feeling.

Neil Quigley
Neil Quigley

Newsjack is recorded in the Radio Theatre, which is part of the BBC Broadcasting House building in Central London. They record lots of top comedy radio shows there and that is where Radio 2 also do a lot of their music specials from. So if you hear that a band or singer is playing a small gig for the radio station. That would normally be coming from the theatre.

BBC Radio Theatre
BBC Radio Theatre

I was there though at the end of last year to watch a television show being filmed. It was called Live at the BBC. It is a new comedy show showcasing new and upcoming acts many of whom were spotted at the latest Edinburgh Festival. They are on line on BBC Three plus they have started showing some of them on BBC Two as well. They are well worth a look. I saw both James Acaster and Felicity Ward do their full latest stand up shows during the recording and they were both very funny. So do keep an eye out for it.

Neil Quigley Presenter
Neil Quigley Presenter

I do have a few exciting things coming up over the next month of so. I am going to see a recording of the television show Safe Word in London in the next couple of weeks. I will also be at one of the new Tonight Live at The Palladium shows. That is always a great theatre to visit and I do really like a bit of variety, so that will be fun. And next month I will be attending the Gadget Show Live at the NEC in Birmingham. Which I am sure will be very interesting and a good laugh.

London Palladium
London Palladium

Have fun and we will catch up again in a couple of weeks. Cheers Neil.

Going Out For A Takeaway

Hi there, how are you doing? I hope you have had a really good couple of weeks. Mine have been pretty busy with some interesting things happening. I went to the brilliant Phoenix Pub in central London to see a top comedian perform a pretty intimate work in progress gig for starters. It was part of a mini comedy festival they had there. The place is a well known venue to see stand ups perform new material. They have a Monday night comedy club called The Old Rope. Which I believe is run by the excellent Tiff Stevenson and it always features a great line up of acts.

Phoenix
Phoenix

The man I went to see was Russell Howard. I have been following his career for many years since he appeared on one of my favourite television shows Mock The Week. He now of course has his own BBC series called Good News. Which always makes me laugh. I saw him on one of his previous tours in Yeovil about eight years ago and he was brilliant that night. This recent gig saw him already trying out some new stuff for the big nationwide tour that he is planning on doing next year. There is nothing like being organised.

He walked out super confident after being introduced by Tiff Stevenson, had a bit of a chat with the audience and then just sat on a stall in the middle of the stage and reeled off great gag after great gag. If this is just the early stages of this show by the time it is finished it is going to be amazing. He did have his notebook with him but he hardly used it. He already knew at least eighty percent of it, I would say. Which bearing in mind he did just over an hour and possibly a lot of these jokes will not even make the final cut. That is some pretty impressive work, whichever way you look at it.

He is a man in my opinion at the top of his powers. He was captivating, entertaining and supplying original very personal material that most crucially was very funny. And this was only a warm up gig. He was so assured and looked so at home sat up there. Then when he finished he told us he was just dashing off to another gig to do it all over again. A great hour of live comedy at a great venue.

Neil Quigley
Neil Quigley

I did of course watch the Brit Awards on television. I do not think I have missed one for at least fifteen years I reckon, possibly longer. I did actually go along to it once. Mind you that was about seven years ago now. It was the last one they held at Earls Court hosted by James Corden, Matthew Horne and Kylie Minogue. It was great to be there but nowadays with Twitter I think it is nearly equally as much fun watching it unfold from the comfort of your own home. This year’s show was presented by the super charged duo that are Ant & Dec. Which was another reason why I was not going to miss it.

This is how dedicated I am to enjoying it. I also watched the ITV2 Red Carpet Pre- Show and the ITV2 After Show Party. I wanted to soak up the whole of the night and not miss anything. I really enjoyed watching it. I am biased because I am a huge fan of theirs but I thought the Geordie Duo did an ace job fronting it. Keeping it light, making it fun but getting on with it and getting the acts on and the awards given out.

Neil Quigley
Neil Quigley

As you would expect there were some great live performances from Coldplay, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, James Bay, Jess Glynne, Adele and my personal favourites Little Mix. But I did feel a proper old school Brits unusual one off duet was missing like when Tom Jones performed with Robbie Williams, when Lady Gaga sang with the Pet Shop Boys or when Jarvis Cocker joined Michael Jackson on stage.

I thought all the winners were totally deserving of their accolades, especially the big winner on the night Adele, who walked away with four statues. It is always nice to see a fellow Spurs supporter doing so well. Her voice and the songs she writes are very unique. Plus as she always simply names her albums after her age when they are released. She never has to have any boring naming meetings. She tells the record company in seconds what it will be called. To be fair it has always been a winning formula for her from the start, that.

Neil Quigley TV Radio & Live
Neil Quigley TV, Radio & Live

And there was of course the lovely tribute to David Bowie with the poignant words from Annie Lennox and Gary Oldman. Then that stunning cover of Life on Mars by Lordes accompanied by the great man’s own band. Which was out of this world. Ant and Dec have announced they are stepping down as the hosts, so whoever takes over next year has some big shoes to fill. It is fair to say it was not as wild and crazy as previous years. In fact the only person to swear was Adele. I enjoyed it and thought it was a fitting celebration of the music and artists we have enjoyed over the last twelve months.

ITV Studios London
ITV Studios London

So last Saturday then I got to do something I have been wanting to do for several years now. See Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway while sitting in the ITV Studios on London’s South Bank. I finally managed to get myself invited along and got given a cracking seat just a couple of people along from the best seats in the house. That big sofa where the people who went to the mystery sofa somewhere in the UK the previous week and got selected sit. I mean sadly they did not share any of their champagne with me but they did look to be enjoying themselves.

The warm up man for the show is the brilliant Andy Collins, who is lively and hilarious. I have seem him perform a few times in the pantomimes at the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury. Which as that is where he lives makes lots of sense geographically. He is always wonderful in that, by the way. So on the night he comes out first and gets the audience laughing and cheering. Before explaining what will be happening. And then what we will need to do during various points throughout the evening.

Saturday Night Takeaway
Saturday Night Takeaway

Next they introduced us to the guest announcer who was Lee Mack. He then gets taken up to his booth ready for the start of the show. This week the introduction was a little different as the show started with a live performance from Bryan Adams of his latest song. While Ant and Dec were basically all over the place messing about behind the scenes and while the audience were up on our feet singing and dancing along.

Then the two hosts start the show as normal with a little piece to camera. From my point of view as I have a huge interest in presenting and television, it was fascinating watching them prepare for each bit and the little things they do just before they go live.

While they throw to a pre-recorded piece I have to stand up in my seat to let little Ant & Dec and the lovely Ashley Roberts get past, so they can chat to the people in the best seats in the house. Having seen the former Pussy Cat Doll so close. I am happy to confirm that she is tiny but totally stunning. She was great fun to, very relaxed and also happy to have a quick chat to the people around her.

Saturday Night Takeaway
Saturday Night Takeaway

The show just flies by so quickly from the great Coronation Deceit skit to set up the lying barmaid featuring several regulars from the huge ITV soap opera. And of course Ant in a dress for the second time in a week. We get to sing along with Bryan Adams on Summer of Sixty-Nine for sing-along-live which I have to say was a pretty cool moment. We witness Gino D’Acampo relive his I’m a celebrity get out of my ear. So we are watching him see it all for the first time while he is sat on stage with the Geordie’s. Some of their reactions are priceless.

Evelyn from the audience wins big on win the ads. And we get treated to the first episode of Who Shot Simon Cowell? Which already looks brilliant. Then to top it all off the extremely talented Little Mix looking sensational come on to perform a special Country and Western version of their huge hit Black Magic. To act as the soundtrack for the Cowboy saloon sketch, that was the end of the show, show. Brilliant fun, I loved every second of being there in person in the studio. I have to say the two lads and the whole crew, which are one of the best in the country work really hard. None of them gets much time to rest during the show. I bet they are all completely shattered by the time the final titles role.

Saturday Night Takeaway
Saturday Night Takeaway

At the end after the transmission has ended they thank all the guests and then Ant and Dec both say a few words of thanks to the whole audience for coming along and creating the atmosphere, which is really the heart beat of the show. Ant did say it was a bit of a tough week for them rehearsing and getting the show done, with the after effects of a slight Brits hangover. But you couldn’t tell, as they did a fantastic job as always. Brilliant fun, great night.

Neil Quigley
Neil Quigley

We are already half way through the latest series of BBC Radio 4 Extras topical news show Newsjack. Once again I have been writing some jokes for it. So far a few of them have made it in to the script and have been performed during the recording at the BBC Radio Theatre but none have made the cut as yet. But with hundreds of people supplying gags for it.

To be honest making it in to that stage is pretty satisfying and I have had material included in it before and hopefully I will again in the next couple of weeks. If I do manage it rest assured that I will probably mention it here. Nish Kumar and the team are doing an excellent job with it once again. I am really enjoying listening to it.

BBC Radio Theatre
BBC Radio Theatre

This week I went to the wonderful Noel Coward Theatre in London to see the brilliant Mrs Henderson Presents. They did make a film about the story around ten years ago now, which featured Dame Judi Dench and Will Young but predictably like many films I have never seen it.

Though I did know roughly what it was about I had no idea how it would actually be portrayed. It is a really interesting and clever piece. Which as well as looking at many different generations and the views they held and decisions they made in life. It also gives quite a decent account of England and London during the second world war.

Mrs Henderson Presents
Mrs Henderson Presents

It is basically about an old widower who decides to buy an old cinema, turn it in to a Theatre and then when it struggles to make money she decides to stage London’s first nude review show. Which takes a bit of creative thinking to get it past the in those days very strict sensors and law makers. So yes there is some nudity on stage but it is all very tastefully done, as it was at the time when it was happening for real.

The cast are amazing they all sing, dance and act brilliantly and it is actually a wonderful and in many ways heart warming story. As people are thrown together and form in a way their own little family. Some catchy poignant songs and a nice amount and humour as well. For me it was a perfect night out at the theatre. It is a very enjoyable show in which everyone really plays their part.

Noel Coward Theatre
Noel Coward Theatre

Still surprised if I am honest but certainly delighted with how well the football season is going for my team Tottenham Hostpur I really cannot think of a time when we were still in with a chance of winning the Premier League this close to May. It has been a tremendous effort by the manager, staff and the whole team and I am loving watching Spurs and being a supporter of theirs at the moment. I mean could we win it? Who knows? If so that would be a great achievement and one I would definitely be celebrating. Probably all summer. Fingers crossed, come on you Spurs.

Neil Quigley
Neil Quigley

I still may be a contestant on a brand new Quiz Show. If I am selected my appearance will be filmed in the next couple of weeks and I will let you know what I can about it when I am allowed to by the production company.

If you remember a while back now I said I went to a filming of “It’s Not Rocket Science”. Well the show I saw was on television last Tuesday. And the reason I ended up high fiving Romesh Ranganathan that night was because he scored that amazing penalty at the end. If you watched it, you will know what I mean.

Neil Quigley Presenter
Neil Quigley Presenter

Have fun and we will catch up again in a couple of weeks. Cheers Neil.