Deadline celebrations, celebrity encounters and cat invasions in this week’s peek behind the blast doors
Yesterday team SFX sent not one, but two issues to press. Back slaps all round us! Issue 215 of good old SFX and issue 9 of Comic Heroes . It will come as no surprise then that most of the team descended on the pub just outside SFX Towers minutes after 5:30 for a long overdue evening of merriment and libations. It also doubled (tripled?) as a belated birthday celebration for Rich, as the team were in full on work mode for his actual birthday last week. Needless to say bleary eyes and black coffee are the order of the day around SFX Towers.
We’re also celebrating the fact that Alex Kingston confirmed this week that she’ll be attending the SFX Weekender 3 in February 2012, something which has momentarily distracted the team from the daunting prospect of the Weekender workload ahead of us. Less than four months to go. Eep! Tickets are still available, but going fast. Book now by calling 08700 11 00 34, or head to www.sfxweekender.com/tickets for more information.
Russell has been immersed in a top secret work project that's keeping him from his home (more news next month!). But when he does get home he's been cursed with a neighbourhood cat he let in the house that won't leave! "It got to midnight and I still couldn't get rid of him!" he moaned. "Eventually I had to get really angry with him to force him out. It was very stressful." Incredible news. Expect to read all about it in next week’s Bath Chronicle .
Rich is also doing some top secret work – interviewing a TV personality who’s due to call any minute. He’s not as hungover as he thought he’d be. Obviously we didn’t put enough free birthday drinks in front of him. He’s also looking forward to Wales taking on Ireland in the Rugby World Cup quarter finals on Saturday morning. If only it didn't kick off at 6am...
Fresh from his appearance on BBC4 , Dave G spent his weekend at the Bath Children’s Literature Festival. Before you think it, no, he wasn’t stalking the little uns, he was there to chair two talks by young adult authors John Connolly, Will Hill, KJ Wignall, William Hussey. He was uncharacteristically nervous about it all on Friday afternoon, a state of mind easily fixed by some liquid Dutch courage. He met top author Charlie Higson at the event too, who told him how much he loved the zombie special. Fun fact: Higson has one of the zombie keytoppers given away free with the special on one of his keys, a ringing endorsement if ever we heard one! It’s on sale now, but if online shopping is your thing you can buy a copy here . Speaking of online shopping, did you know you can also buy our amazing Star Wars DVD Guide at the Amazone ebook store ? Well you do now.
Dave B is going to be watching and reviewing Saturday's Merlin later. He’ll be doing it in the daylight since last Saturday's was so scary. Dave B also went with Ian to see a talk by comedy writing legends Ray Galton and Alan Simpson ( Hancock’s Half Hour/Steptoe And Son ) at the weekend. Afterwards, he made an exciting discovery on the IMDB. In 1974, the duo wrote a half-hour piece for the Beeb’s Comedy Playhouse series (a testing ground where sitcoms such as Til Death Do Us Part and Are You Being Served began) called The Last Man On Earth . Featuring Dandi Nichols (aka Alf Garnett’s wife) it sees a mother and son returning from a caravan holiday to discover that everyone in the world has disappeared. Yes, it’s SFX material! Why isn’t this on DVD (it does exist)? If you’re listening, Network DVD…
Nick is looking forward to meeting a movie-making icon next week (but gutted he’ll have to skip the next Couch Potato to do so), while Jordan is getting very excited about Zelda: Skyward Sword after chatting to a chum who has reviewed it for SFX sister mag Edge . He’s also still hopelessly obsessed with Fallout 3 . We’ll only start to getting worried when he begins making moral decisions based on the amount of karma he’ll get though.
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Random Discussions Of The Week: A 30 minute "debate" about the Doctor Who season six finale, is Blade a superhero movie? And why is it so hot?
Random Quote Of The Week : “There is a bizarre parallel between BBC breakfast and Harrison ford films.”
Whose Glasses? (last week’s answer: they were Rob’s Batman kicks!)
