Diaries 1969-1979_ The Python Years - Michael Palin [176]
A rather forlorn, rain-soaked notice tied to the railings, which read ‘Big Charity Match: All Stars XI v Happy Wanderers’.
A very strange afternoon altogether. I scored an own goal (though we won in the end). TJ scored his first goal since he was ten, there was an apparently total absence of any paying spectators, the changing room was minute and the beer was Watney’s Red Barrel. Oh, the glamorous life of an All Star!
Wednesday, January 7th
Very warm again. Temps over 50. Sitting up in my room as I have done, with great pleasure, for the last three mornings. The boys went back to school on Monday and I embarked on a vast pile of letters – mostly from America. In two days I wrote about twenty-three replies to fan letters (not the very naughty ones!) plus a four-page New Year missive to Alfred Lord Levinson.
Today is Tomkinson day. To Terry J’s to watch the show. Also there are Eric, Terry Gilliam, Chuck A,1 Nigel and Dizzy.2 The show looks fine. The reaction within the group of us was very, very good. Terry G … ‘Ah, well … you’ve got no problems with that.’ Chuck chuckled throughout. Eric was highly enthusiastic. Terry Hughes rang to tell me that Ronnie Barker had called him as soon as it finished to say how much he liked it.
When we got home later my head and stomach were suffering from excitement, relief, tacos and too much cheap Spanish wine. Kitty, our baby-sitter, had a list of calls which she’d rather nicely headed ‘People who enjoyed Tomkinson’s Schooldays’. Graham C rang to say how much better it was than he remembered it. Went to bed feeling rather ill.
Thursday, January 8th
Gradually dawns on me during the day that Tomkinson has been something of a success. But for all the right reasons – nearly everyone who has liked it has mentioned its quality. Fresh, different, etc, etc. A meaty and handsome review in The Times by Alan Coren makes my day. Met Denis Norden in a shop, and he grasped my hand and told me he hadn’t laughed so much since before Christmas!
Finally, as the shadows were lengthening over Gospel Oak, Jimmy Gilbert rang to give the official BBC verdict. He wants me to go in next Monday and talk about more shows.
I’m as pleased for Terry Hughes as I am for anyone. He worked the BBC system superbly – got us everything we wanted. He was always in sympathy with the script and its intentions and had an instructive and highly accurate sense of where it worked and didn’t work.
Monday, January 12th
The continuing backwash of enthusiasm for Tomkinson’s Schooldays has helped enormously – our reception by Jimmy at lunch in his office was tinged with more than just his usual cordiality – there was an undeniable air of self-congratulation which resulted in broader smiles, firmer handshakes and a generally more relaxed feeling. Only on a couple of occasions after Python’s success did I ever feel this warm glow of unstinted BBC approval and even then it seemed qualified because of our naughty, enfant terrible reputation.
Then there’s the question of front money from America. Jim clearly regards himself as something of a transatlantic supersalesman, and is working hard on Time-Life (whom Gilliam and I dragged into court less than a month ago!) to buy a series based on the successful Tomkinson, and therefore put up front money so that the BBC can afford our expensive services.
Out of all this we won several points. In the end Jimmy agreed that Terry Hughes should direct them all, he also agreed (a momentous point of principle here) that we could, if we needed to, do entire shows on film. I never thought I would live to hear a BBC Head of Comedy make such an heretical suggestion. In return for all this, Terry and I will supply the BBC with thirteen Tomkinson-style shows by mid-summer 1978.
Thursday, January 15th
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