July 9, 2008
MeeBOX UPDATE!
GET BACK BACK IN THE BOX!
I keep bumping into people at gigs who are nice enough to ask what’s happening with MeeBOX, so here’s the deal. BBC3 have decided against taking it further because they don’t feel it caters to their 16-24 target demographic. It’s disappointing news because although you might imagine that TV companies everywhere are desperate to give me millions of pounds to make programmes for them and be their king, this was in fact the closest I’d got to getting a show off the ground since the last series of The Adam & Joe Show in 2001. I’ve always done other things of course but making a whole show, either with Joe or solo has been the most fun.
I’m aware that left to my own devices the kind of stuff I produce is not particularly in synch with the world of Lilly Allen and Gavin & Stacey and it may never have the potential to cross over the way those chaps have but I hoped there might be room for a diversity of shows on BBC3, especially as a series of MeeBOX would have cost less to produce than a couple of episodes of The Wall, so it could hardly be thought of as a costly risk.
Most people seemed to like the show although I heard some criticism that it didn’t work as a parody of You Tube. Although that was one way I explained it to people in interviews and such, it was never meant to be the whole point of it. The vague on-line look was more just a peg on which to hang the videos. What was important to me was that each individual element was funny in some way. If it had been commissioned I guess I would have gone further with the You Tube spoof angle or perhaps pulled back from it completely but as it was a pilot I didn’t get too hung up about it.
I think MeeBOX is funny, not particularly obscure and very televisual. The BBC said they agreed absolutely but it had been a case of unfortunate timing. When the pilot was commissioned BBC3 was still a place where wonderful shows like Snuff Box (more BOX based marginalia!) could co exist with the channel’s more obviously teen-brained fare. Now that’s apparently no longer the case and there is a ‘brand’ in position that needs to be consistently maintained, or some such. I guess that’s the reality of life in the dirty UK multi channel world: get successful or fuck off. Well, duh! you may say, but in TV as with most other things ‘successful’ is by no means always the same thing as ‘good’.
As you can see, it’s impossible to analyse these kinds of policies without sounding like a bitter and twisted old fartcake so I’ll try to resist and say instead that I hope you watched the show and if you liked it, you might find some way of letting BBC3 know. They’re unlikely to reverse their decision but hey, who knows? If on the other hand you thought the show should have been called ShiteBOX, then I guess your interests are being well served.
Either way I was pleased with MeeBOX and I’m very grateful the nabobs at the Big British Castle gave me the opportunity to make it in the first place. I’m also indebted to everyone who helped on the show, especially Dougal Wilson who directed several segments, Garth Jennings who made Sausages with me, Jonny Greenwood who wrote and recorded the title music, David O’Reilly who worked tirelessly to create the title sequence and most of the graphics for the show, John Pocock who produced it, Robin Hill who edited it with me and tied it all together, Jack Cheshire who exec-produced and championed it from the start (along with Armando Iannucci) and all the actors and comedians who were kind enough to be in it. Thanks too to the rest of the crew and production team who helped it turn out exactly the way I hoped it might.
Love Adam
9th July 2008
June 22, 2008
MeeBOX WEEK!
WATCH IT NOW ON iPLAYER OR ON BBC3 WEDNESDAY 25th JUNE AT 1.30am!
OK, so there’s no way you’re actually going to watch it as it goes out on telly unless your life has gone wrong or you’re some kind of young party person, but why not record the show so you can watch it over and over and over?! Your other option is catch it on the BBC’s iplayer. In a way that’s preferable because then the geniuses at the Castle can see how many people actually watched it rather than doing their insane pseudo scientific TV ratings guesstimates. I’ll post a few more clips (and possibly some out-takes) and say more about what’s happening with the show in the next few days. I know the BBC are keen to see if people respond to it, so please do respond and if you like it perhaps you could encourage your friends to watch before it vanishes from the radar! Here’s a quintet of recently uploaded clips to get you going
Fanques!
Love Adam
BAAADDAD’S CLICHED MEMORIES OF PUNK
FUNKY SONGS OF PRAISE
TODAY ON XANTIAR
KEN KORDA: TALKING INDEPENDENT FILM
FAMOUS GUY INTERVIEW 1
June 11, 2008
MeeBOX TRANSMISSION NEWS!
WATCH MeeBOX ON BBC3, SUNDAY 22nd JUNE 2008, 11.45PM
MeeBOX, the pilot I made for BBC3 last year is finally being transmitted on the night of Sunday 22nd at 11.45pm. I showed a few clips from the show when I was MCing at the 100 Club last weekend (thanks for making it a very enjoyable night if you were there) and they all went down very well so I’m hoping the massive audience I’m bound to get in this incredible slot will respond with similar enthusiasm. It was made for very little money but I had a very happy time putting it together and I’m deeply grateful to all the many people who helped. When the show goes out I’ll say more about the production and give some proper credit for anyone who’s interested. As far as the future of MeeBOX goes, I have a meeting at the BBC next week so I hope I’ll be able to tell you soon if I’ll be making any more for TV.
In the meantime, here’s the first of a few clips to whet your appetite and maybe encourage others to tune in. This is a video for a song called Sausages that I made with Garth Jennings. It pretty much speaks for itself I think. It’s nice and short so I hope you’ll send it around to all the Sausage lovers and haters out there. Lord knows, everybody’s one or the other!
love Adam. 12th June, 2008
October 3, 2007
MeeBOX, STARDUST, LADIES & GENTLEMEN PILOT NEWS!
MeeBOX NEWS!
I’ve just had a couple of days filming with a proper digibeta crew this week for my BBC3 pilot, MeeBOX. Pop video/commercials whizboy Dougal Wilson was directing and every department was top notch. One of the things we shot was a fake clip from one of my Hollywood star character Famous Guy’s films (a sci-fi thriller) and it looked exactly as I’d hoped it might, which is very seldom the case with these things. In fact everyone was so good at what they were doing that a couple of times I felt a little embarrassed of some of the less well formed ideas that we were working on. Thing is, a couple of days like this eats up a large proportion of our meagre budget so you may as well shoot as much as you can even if you only end up using a couple of bits. The majority of the show (which is broadly internet themed) is going to be shot on mini DV, webcams, digital cameras and the like.
The digibeta shoot was a lot of fun though and we got some great stuff but when I got back last night I felt a little sick that I hadn’t spent some more time thinking about the point of a couple of bits! We’ll see how they look when they’re edited. I’m indebted to those who came along to help with little scenes here and there including Jo Bobin, Gareth Tunley Leah Charles, Tony Law, Jo Neary, Matt Berry, Emma Pierson and my dad, a.k.a. BaaadDad. I hope they had a good time too.
The only downside was that the filming coincided exactly with the worst cold I have had in a while. I was feeling a little dodge on the eve of the first day but assumed it was the usual feeling of vague physical collapse I often get before I do anything of personal importance in my life but it just got worse over the course of Monday and Tuesday and now I’m writing this in bed having had a night of feverish dreams. One of them was about working in a deserted fast food joint that had pubes scattered about the counter. That can’t mean anything particularly good can it? Anyway I’m feeling pretty positive about the pilot, which we still have a good couple of months left to work on so I’ll keep you briefed from time to time.
STARDUST PREMIERE ILLNESS QUANDRY NEWS!
The question preoccupying me right now, is am I going to feel well enough to attend tonight’s star-pebbledashed premiere of Stardust in London’s glamorous Leicester Square? I asked my Mum to come along with me and she’s making the long journey from Reading this afternoon so I don’t want to let her down, but what if I go along and sneeze on De Niro then he gets my cold and it affects his performance on the incredible ‘return to form’ film he may be working on? Not that he isn’t on form in Stardust of course, he’s great and very funny but still, I have to be responsible. Oh fuckit, I’m going to dose up on Lemsip Max and go along. Apart from anything else I want to say a personal thankyou to Neil Gaiman, the author of the graphic novel from which the film was adapted. He got in touch the other day to say that he’d brought me back a Stardust poster from Japan and I’m on it! How cool is that? And how incredibly nice of him to think of bringing me one back! So unless I take a significant turn for the worse later to day I’m going to put a bad suit on and head over there!
I’M IN ‘LADIES AND GENTLEMEN’, C4, FRIDAY 12th OCTOBER 2007, 10PM
The pilot I shot back in June by Peep Show writers Sam Bain and Jessie Armstrong is being shown next week as part of Channel 4’s Comedy Playhouse series. The cast includes Reece Shearsmith, Darren Boyd, Lucy Punch and Rosie Cavaliero as well as myself and is a sitcom set in Victorian England. I have no idea what its chances are of getting commissioned as a series but I was a little unsettled by the fact that Radio 4 recently ran a series with a superficially similar sounding conceit called Bleak Expectations starring Mitchell & Webb regular James Bachman. Apparently it was very good although I didn’t hear it. I can’t quite work out if that’s a good thing for Ladies and Gentlemen’s chances or not. Regardless, I hope you’ll check out the show when it airs on Channel 4 on the 12th. This is a picture I put together as an invite for a screening a while back as well as a picture of me and Reece who I’m still kind of in awe of being a big League Of Gents fan. Excitingly, he and Steve Pemberton are going to be making a new show for BBC2 next year! Should be wickles.
CHECK OUT THE PETER SERAFINOWICZ SHOW, THURSDAYS, BBC2, 9:30PM!
I’m not in it or anything, I’m just excited about it. Here’s a bit here. Apart from being someone whose work I enjoy hugely, Peter is the person who got me into You Tube, which I guess you could say has indirectly lead to me being able to do this BBC pilot so cheers Peter! I’ve no doubt his BBC2 series is going to be a smash so why not get in at ground level and check it on Thursday then you’ll be the one with the hot new catchphrases in the playground on Friday morning. Is that how it still works with comedy? I need more Lemsip.
August 30, 2007
6 MUSIC, MeeBOX, BUG 03 & KEN KORDA’S SADDAM COMMENTARY!
MEEBOX NEWS
You may have noticed that I have removed the Spoon video I made from You Tube. This is not because the band were unhappy with it but because looking at it again I thought it might actually fit quite well into my BBC pilot so now that most of you, my dot comrades have had a look, I’m going to keep it in my trousers for the next few months. As far as the rest of the pilot goes, it’s just such a great feeling to actually be working on something like this again. I have no idea what it’s chances of being commissioned are, but I’m digging it while it lasts!
6 MUSIC NEWS
Tomorrow is our last day covering for Sean Keavney at BBC 6 Music. We’ve had a blast there and although I never want to get up that early for that many consecutive mornings ever again in my life, I really hope it won’t be the last time we do a radio show for the Big British Castle. Sure, they can be a little rigid with certain rules and regulations, making some of the spontaneity we use to enjoy at Xfm a little harder to indulge, but that’s more than made up for by the smoothness with which everything runs (thanks to our great production team for that!) and the variety and quality of the music which you get to play. Plus I’ve got a plastic pass with my photo on it that makes all kinds of doors click and swish open gratifyingly. Aaah, the feeling of belonging, if only for a couple of weeks! Thanks if you listened and texted or e-mailed. We were very heartened by the messages we got. It makes a big difference!
GIG NEWS: KNOCK2BAG @ BAR FM, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19th 2007
I’ll be performing at the Knock2bag Comedy night, on September 19th at Bar FM, but you probably worked that out from the headline, right? I thought I’d make it perfectly clear. You can see details of how to find Bar FM here and reserve tickets for the night here. Make sure you specify which night you’re reserving for, otherwise there might be a slip up of some kind and the world could end. Apparently someone made a mistake reserving tickets for one of these nights a while back and the next thing you know; Global Warming. So do be careful. I’ll be doing about 15 minutes of something or other. Probably Famous Guy, I don’t know…
BOOK NOW FOR THE NEXT ‘BUG’: FRIDAY 14th SEPTEMBER 2007 @ BFI
There’s been a bit of confusion about the exact date for this, the 3rd BUG (a selection of the most mind blowing and innovative new music videos hosted by the dreadful Adam Buxton) but I have been assured by the organisers that it will be on Friday 14th of September and not Thursday 13th and has been indicated in some BFI publications. So do book now; it was fairly rammed last time. Now, if I was reading that about someone else’s event I would think ‘well if it’s rammed I’ll skip it’ because I don’t enjoy the discomfort of the rammed, but at the BFI Southbank (formerly the NFT!) your comfort is always guaranteed as the cinema seats are spacious and comfy and best of all, you can take booze (or soft drinks if you’re one of those non boozers!) into the auditorium with you. It’s a fun night so book here.
KEN’S SADDAM STATUE COMMENTARY
To make up for taking down the Spoon video, here’s one from the vaults, part of which turned up in Time Trumpet last year. I was sat home one afternoon in April 2003 when I turned on the TV to find several of the big terrestrial and digital channels had decided to provide live coverage of a small group of western troops and Iraqi civilians laboriously yanking down a statue of Saddam Hussein. It took fucking ages to get this thing down, but the TV stations had all decided that this was ‘an historic occasion’ and the fear that if they cut away to something else they would miss the actual tumble was so intense that they just kept broadcasting this utterly rubbish footage. The unfortunate reporter charged with turning the torpor into telly gold for the BBC was Iraq Invasion journo star Rageh Omaar. He did is best it but wasn’t enough to paper over some desperately crap questions from the studio as well the overwhelming sense that we were watching something that may well have been stage managed to give the invasion some kind of uplifting conclusion. Anyway, I didn’t have a lot going on at the time so I taped the coverage, removed the Rageh (can’t help saying that name in a Scooby Doo voice) and replaced him with Ken Korda. It was one of the first kinds of these things that I did and it was fun although not brilliantly funny. This is a much bigger chunk than the one that appeared in Time Trumpet. That may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your affection for Ken. Ta ta!