Gavin Scott |
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Gavin Scott

19 Mar

Absolutely Anything Rehearsal Day Two

Today Kate Beckinsale has arrived and I get to read the part of fiancé. Well, the lunatic Marine Colonel who thinks he’s her fiancé, who’ll be played by a real Marine Colonel named Rob Riggle. But until then Kate nobly puts up with me leaping through the window and threatening to throttle Simon Pegg, who, as Neil, wants to be her fiancé but finds his talking dog Dennis has come between them. I also play the sandwich lady during the scene in which Neil’s best friend Ray is turned into a...

12:02 / Absolutely Anything Diary
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18 Mar

Absolutely Anything Rehearsals Day One

To our production base, the old Ashmount Primary School in North London, where Terry Jones has just arrived. It’s great to see him again and to celebrate the fact that the script we’ve been writing for so long is finally getting made. which is an abandoned educational establishment and the perfect location both for the school where Neil teaches and the flat where he discovers his supernatural powers. It’s now buzzing with set dressers and carpenters and even people doing up the daffodils in the school grounds – and the...

12:18 / Absolutely Anything Diary
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13 Mar

A Flight of Lies

A Flight of Lies was my second thriller, and introduced the character of Ronald Foster, a sort of modern comic counterpart to John Buchan's Richard Hannay: a wonderfully ill-informed, impulsive young man who stands for everything the British Secret Service likes least. the novel is told in form form of letters and memos which gradually reveal Ronald's unorthodox impact on international affairs. The story was inspired by a piece I did for BBC Radio about the hunt for the bones of Peking Man. A Flight of Lies - First 50 pages...

15:20 / Books
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2 Comments
12 Mar

Rupert Bear in Space

One usually associates Rupert Bear with Nutwood, but in this marvelous images from a 1960's annual, here are his pals, pigs, badgers et all, gliding across the surface of a new planet as if they belonged there. And Rupert himself, of course, supervises from his personal UFO.   Who else Albert Bestall and his heirs could have made space seem ...

07:46 / Artifacts / Pop Culture
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12 Mar

Galactic retirees

This is a picture of a galaxy which has put its feet up. Dating back to the early days of the universe, it began its career creating stars as fast as it could. And then, for some reason, decided its stellar family was big enough, and stopped. What does that mean for the inhabitants of the stars it did create, billions of years ago? Have they evolved mightily since then? Are they the wise and far-seeing aliens of our dreams? Who knows. But this is what has just been reported about these...

05:20 / Commentary
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11 Mar

Brocks Fireworks Poster

This poster for Brock’s fireworks perfectly conjours up for me the cosy world of my 1950’s northern England childhood. We never actually had a bonfire in our back garden, which was a bit small for that, but we did let fireworks off there, and the Big Bonfire was just across the park from our house. For weeks anticipation grew as we watched the park keepers add autumn leaves, fallen branches, old bedframes, decrepit sofas and all sorts of wonderfully inflammable things to the growing pyramid. Topped of course, by Guy...

10:43 / Artifacts / Pop Culture
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02 Mar

Absolutely Anything

Absolutely Anything is a comedy I began writing with Monty Python’s Terry Jones many years ago. Terry and I became friends when he directed on of the episodes I wrote for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and we’ve worked on projects on and off ever since. We’ve now got an amazing cast for the movie, including Pythons, Robin Williams, Simon Pegg and Kate Beckinsale, and Terry has asked me to do a daily blog from the set when we start shooting at the end of March – so stay tuned. In...

12:08 / Absolutely Anything Diary / Film & TV
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23 Feb

Surprising Scenes

Every now and then I look at one of the toy figures I’ve collected for my sculptures and a little joke occurs to me, which leads me to take a photo. Here are a few of these whimsical creations ...

09:43 / Art
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20 Feb

Old Airport Forest

When the Santa Monica Airport is finally closed down I propose it should be converted into an urban forest, the asphalt replaced by dense, shady stands of trees of all kinds, threaded by bike paths winding past pools and streams, and little unexpected playgrounds, bandstands and bowers. But I don’t just see this as a place of delight and recreation: I want people to work there too. I’d like those winding paths to lead us to eccentric, charming, tree-house-like buildings where cutting edge companies create new products and ideas which...

16:36 / Commentary
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