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Here’s a solid, undeniable fact… people do not express themselves using barbershop often enough.

I actually used to despair in that fact, until I met Barbershopera. These guys are talented. Like, really talented. If I was in charge of Radio 4, 5 Live… actually any radio station where people could speak, I’d get these guys on. Thanks to producer Ben Walker (who co-produced our Doc Brown comedy vids) we collaborated and made a spoof music video in time for the royal wedding. It’s called I Could Have Married Kate and features four dejected people and one horse who thought they had a shot with Kate Middleton… but in the end it just didn’t work out.

The video was featured in The Sun, ICanHasCheezburger CBC Canada, WhatsOnStage, Chortle UK, Chortle Australia, Comedy.co.uk, CurrentTV, Euronews, AsiaOne, Kontraband, Prankies, The Poke, 3 News New Zealand, Stuff New Zealand, KateMiddleton.com, local news in Bolton, Derbyshire, Birmingham, Amersham and Brockley and was played on Australian breakfast TV where they showed the bit with Prince William with a cock and balls on his head LOLZ.

It was a great project, we turned it around really quickly and I can’t wait to do more music video and comedy projects now I’m freelancing full time. The whole thing fell together easily and I’m really proud of what we’ve created.

If you know anyone who needs a director… call me.

“Bring on the dancing girls!” *clap clap*

…I’ve heard this phrase said in so many Sinbad the Sailor-esque movies but I never thought I’d be lucky enough to say it myself. That is until we shot a rap video in a stretched Hummer with champagne, bling and grinding beyatches in bikinis (that’s rap speak, not my words).

I can safely say this is something I can now tick off my ‘list of things I might one day shoot if I’m VERY lucky’. Things left on the list include…
- filming a dinosaur
- filming a laser war in space
- filming a fight between a whale and a giant squid
- filming the discovery of the lost city of Atlantis
- filming a talking penguin
- filming a stunt man attempting to break a world record but it all goes wrong and he has a horrendous accident and technically dies for a few minutes but then he comes back to life and gets up, insisting that he does the stunt again, breaking the record by more than double and bringing everyone to tears with his bravery and awesomeness.

You know, the usual.

The whole video is about how the term ‘pimp’ is used in rap songs as though it’s something good, when in reality the life of a pimp is just plain nasty. We had great fun dirtying Doc up with used condoms and pizza stains on his shirt, and Doc was especially proud of his yellow shoes and tracksuit bottoms combo. Fact attack: those shoes were worn by a member of Finley Quaye’s band to the Brit Awards. That’s true, swear down.

Finally, a big thank you to Emma for putting up with being a comedy lady of the night for two days. Also to Richard, the man who can pull the funniest faces in television, as I’m sure you’ll agree when you see the bank manager scenes…

The wonderful chaps and chapettes at BBC Comedy recently published our new Doc Brown films on their website and I’m ecstatic. This first one is called Grandpa Dave and is about wishing a celebrity was your relative. I directed and edited this one and we shot in two great locations…

The first was the famous Maida Vale studios, a place so steeped in history that someone as un-musical as me had no right to set foot in. Little fact for you quiz fans, we shot the piano scenes in same studio as Bing Crosby made his last recording before he died in 1977. Pay attention, there will be a test at the end.

The other location was the Horniman Museum in South London. This is a cracking place created in 1901 by a tea trader called Frederick John Horniman. What he traded it for I don’t know (biscuits?) but his business became the biggest tea company in the world.

What a guy John was, travelling the world picking up interesting stuff, e.g. an actual walrus, and bringing it home to display in his house. And when his house got too big he built a museum. And when he died he gave that museum and the surrounding land away to the people of London… forever!

When I grow up I want to be just like him.

Anyway, fact attack over with, the test is cancelled. I hope you enjoy the comedy rapping talents of Mr Doc Brown and I’ll blog with the other videos soon…

Ladies and Gentlemen (and cats and dogs and the rest), here is the latest release available to buy in shops soon… The Being Human Series 2 DVD!

Being Human is a big part of my day job. It’s a BBC Three show about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost that share a flat in Bristol. I run the online stuff for the show, editing the behind the scenes videos, writing articles and tweeting to the fans who are, without exception, brilliant. And bonkers. I love them.

This year we ran an online storyline, CenSSA: The Centre for the Study of Supernatural Activity, which I wrote and directed. We took a character from the show – Lloyd – and gave him his own YouTube channel and website where he tracked werewolves, vampires and ghosts. Gradually this research led him to Annie, George and Mitchell, the main characters in the show. Lloyd was kind of bumbling and (I hope) a bit funny and entertaining to watch. Fans could leave him messages on his YouTube profile and he would respond, so he built up a rapport with the audience.

However, when the series began, it turned out Lloyd was a major baddie… he even killed a werewolf in his first scene (Dun dun durrrr…). So from then on, anyone following his YouTube vids could witness his reactions to what he’d done, and speak to him directly, hopefully bringing the character to life. We wanted to expand him from just a man on screen into someone you could follow, argue with and tell off.

What’s exciting is that this year the blog team took over the production of the DVD extras, so we got to have a little fun with that too. There’s actually a locked area on there with some CenSSA goodies… but you’ve got to do something in particular to access it. Good luck finding it… Muhahaha!

Other blog team member Phil cut some brilliant in-depth behind-the-scenes features about the gorier aspects of the show, including behind the scenes of a guy haemorrhaging to death in a pressure chamber. Gross. There’s also behind the scenes of the moment Mitchell and Daisy, two vampires, rip a train carriage of people to pieces. We’re talking pints and pints of blood… so gory that even the lead actor, Aidan Turner, brought his camera on set.

There’s also some funny stuff on there. Mitchell fans will love the 1960s bonus feature, where Jason Watkins (Herrick) accusing Aidan Turner (Mitchell) of becoming less handsome. Something I’m sure most female fans will disagree with.

The main guy shooting our behind the scenes footage is our cameraman Geoff, or ‘Sexy Geoff’ as some of the fans call him. And quite rightly too, he’s a handsome man. He’s great at what he does, getting right into the heart of the action. However, for the first three weeks of production he wasn’t available, so I took over on shooting duty. One task was shooting on set of the cave scenes, where Mitchell has to knock another vampire’s fangs out with a brick. It was pitch black down there, with low walls carved out of solid rock… it’s one of the weirdest places I’ve ever been, and gets a feature of its own on the DVD. If you watch it, imagine me banging my head between takes. That’s basically what happened most of the day.

I’m really excited that the DVD is about to be released and can’t wait to hear what the fans think. Hopefully it should feel like an extension of the blog, as it’s us blog guys who have been in charge of putting it together. So if you buy one, I hope you enjoy it. We tried very hard to please you…