Millie Week 8 Thu 25 - Sat 27 1990

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New character alert - and this one's a keeper. Called Dave in the original scripts and then changed to Duane, as can be seen by the slightly different handwriting where the new name has been inserted. It was probably my change, my shallow babe magnet characters tend to be called Wayne or Duane.

UPDATE: SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Show's over. Normal service can now be resumed. And if you missed the Hastleons production of the Sound of Music you've only got yourself to blame/thank (depending on your opinion of The Sound of Music). In my opinion it was an excellent production of a show that really needs to be put out to pasture now.

Anyway, back to The Magic Shoebox, Crippen Comprehensive's winter show. Duane's fall off the stairs is something I know well, being very short sighted and, until I bought a pair of prescription round spectacles that fit all time periods, occasionally required to act without my glasses. Don't even bring up the subject of contacts... the very idea makes me shiver. Most people remember The Merry Wives of Windsor, in which, as Dr Caius, I had to threaten someone with a Rapier and have a short mock fencing battle with my faithful assistant, Rugby. I'm doing this effectively blind. And then I fall off the stage during a dress rehearsal. For the rest of the run, poor Rugby was sweating cobs as I jabbed sharp pointy lengths of metal in front of his nose, with no way to gauge distances apart from guesswork.

How short sighted am I? Very. Without glasses this screen becomes unreadable from six inches away.

British Summer Time ends this year at 2am next Sunday morning - the clocks go back an hour and I have to drive home from work in the dark for five months. By the time we reach Christmas the sun will be setting at 3.45pm. On the plus side - it means we get really good mileage out of our Christmas decorations.