Saturday 19 February 2011

Words behaving badly


 - or, as in the case of Simon Nye, behaving inordinately well. 

He's my latest hero.

(Yesterday it was Tom Bidwell, who wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-nominated short, Wish 143. If you have twenty minutes to spare and a box of tissues, watch it here )

Back to Simon Nye.
He wrote Men Behaving Badly and co-wrote, with David Nobbs, the re-make of Reggie Perrin.

Well, that should be enough to convince you of his Hero Status.

Here's why he was suddenly elevated from Someone I Had Vaguely Heard Of to Lifelong Hero Of The Day

I was listening to a programme on Radio 4 about the making of Men Behaving Badly. A snippet of dialogue was broadcast and that was IT. I was swooning with admiration mixed with a most pernicious sort of envy.

I WANT TO WRITE LIKE THAT.

Here it is (I hope, accurately)
................................
A plainly-drunken Tony speaks to Gary.

Tony: I'm ready to seduce Deborah now. I've been imagining it in my head in minute detail.

Gary: Right. So what are you going to say to her then?

Tony: Say?
 .............................

That, to me, is perfection.

And on that note...back to the writing, or I might just put a brown paper bag over my head and hide in the corner in foetal position with thumb in mouth.

1 comment:

  1. Note: It would have to be a LARGE brown paper bag to enable me to get my thumb into my mouth.

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