Forever Friends

People might say reading my previous posts that I was disillusioned with TV but I am not. I love working in TV and all that entails if I didn't I would have got out long ago and got a boring 9-5, but frankly I couldnt think of anything worse.

Friends

In the industry you meet so many different people and like I said in TV a family affair its not what you know its who you know. The people I would call my best friends I met working in the industry and even though one has migrated to a 9-5 and we dont see each other as often as we used to I still know Dimmock is willing me on.

Mental Asylum

We met on my first day at the studios working in Manchester. We have worked together on many shows since and have been through lots of random TV experiences together. Exploring a derelict Mental asylum and locking Dimmock in a cell was great fun although a little cold. I think it snowed while we were there. We survived the delirium of the white corridor together and over many cups of coffee and cake have planned or futures.

White corridor

Jet2 is another person I met whilst working on the long white corridor. We have been on holiday together and as they often work abroad I got to have a cheap holiday staying out in Menorca with them, this wasn't my finest hour I got horribly drunk, sang meatloaf, spoke german, was sick all the way home, thought I was going to die before going snorkelling, and got food poisoning. Their boss now refers to me as the "sick friend"! I will tell you all about this at another time as it has nothing to do with working in TV! Whilst working with Jet2 on a dating show we encountered many a funny story involving London being in Britain and how a microphone works.

And of course I met Whippet if someone will save you from a dog then you cant not be their friend.


So through working in TV I have met some of my closest friends, I have met good friends and I have made a lot of connections, this industry can be a small place and you can bump into people on different jobs that you haven't seen for ages or that you always seem to be working with. But I love it.

I have never taken a motorway exit at 80mph

It was great being a runner and under 25 it meant that you didn't have to drive the hire cars. The only down side is the fact someone else was and not always competently!

smallest car

As a runner I have driven many a hire car and they always come in one extreme or the other. Either the company is trying to save as much money as possible and you end up with the worlds smallest car or your expected to drive everyone around and you get a MPV. there rarely is a middle ground.

There's the old joke isn't there "What's the fastest car?..... A hire Car!" well it certainly isn't any hire car I have driven. I recently had a Vauxhall corsa hired to me for work, I predominately had to use it to get to and from the big cities on the motorway. There was just me and my friend Whippet (I'll explain the name in my next blog) so a small car wasn't a problem to get everyone in, the only problem was with my foot to the floor trying to join the motorway was a life threatening situation. My own car is a moderate one and easily handles the speed required to drive anywhere, this hire car however had clearly never heard of 70mph. With whippet clung to the dashboard eyes closed it would have been easier if the footwells disappeared and like Fred Flintstone and we could run.

Legs out the footwells to go anywhere!

Before I was 25 though it was no safer. On one job we where traveling in an MPV to Wales. It was a cold October and raining. My best friend Dimmock  (after meeting my aging Grandparent they announced she looked like Charlie Dimmock, she doesn't and they are going blind but still!) and I were in the back and the window wipers were working flat out. The runner driving although had passed their test many years ago lived in a city centre and didn't have a car. Not used to driving let alone driving a MPV full of people the journey was never going to go well. Ugly betty was already on location and waiting for our arrival. With no Sat Nav it was a miracle we where heading in the right direction.  Heading down the motorway rain lashing down Dimmock and myself began to look at each other in horror as we swerved violently between lanes the driver not even looking round to check it was safe. Turning the wheel suddenly as if driving a rally car we where thrown around in our seats.
abruptly we flew off the motorway round a sharp bend almost rolling the MPV, as the window wiper flew off Dimmock and I closed our eyes and held hands, this was our moment, this is how we were going to die!
No we where just leaving the motorway this was our exit! I have never taken a motorway exit at 80mph and will never be doing so again. Heart in my mouth I looked at Dimmock and nearly cried. As the journey continued in the same violent manor Dimmock reached for her phone. sending a message to Ugly Betty "We are all about to die!"

Finally shaking and without minus a window wiper we arrived on set, Ugly Betty greeting us with news that they had put another runner on the insurance and they would now drive!

Hire cars do have a benefit though, you get to test drive lots of cars and know which ones not to buy for yourself!