...And back down South!

So it's been a while since I've updated the blog with what I've been up to...

I finished filming Series 3 & 4 of The Furchester Hotel a few weeks ago now and I can honestly say it was one of the best jobs I've ever had the good fortune to take on.

I got to spend my days with Cookie Monster, Elmo, The Furchester family and all the myriad monsters, creatures, Muppets and weirdos that inhabit their silly, crazy world. I was lucky enough to get to perform a few guest characters during the show so be on the lookout for some singing citrus and a melancholy wolf to name a couple...

We had special guest appearances from Big Bird and Count Von Count as well as a couple of other nice surprises! And we also had special guests on set ranging from important people from high up at the BBC, to politicians, celebrities and a fantastic chance to open the doors of the hotel to our friends and families and invite everyone to check in for a day!

I think the big thing I'll take away from my time there is the love and dedication from all the puppeteers. We are all geeks and nerds (some more so than others) but when we're all geeking out together and making the absolute best show we can there's nothing quite like it. Our Puppet Captain, Andy Heath, was constantly pushing us to be sillier, more anarchic, more ridiculous and to give him new ideas and to be funny and innovative. It resulted, I think, in a show that is rich with invention and filled with very funny and very old-school Sesame Street moments.

Since getting back home from Manchester I've managed to take things fairly easy with a couple of auditions and some puppet building. As I mentioned before I've been building the puppet for a new circus piece called Dust by Elusive Circus, run by Tamzen Moulding. The puppet is a giant figure with and umbrella for a face and umbrellas for hands. We've been exploring exactly what his role is in the piece but it's become clear that for all his imposing size and black shadowy looks he can definitely do disarmingly cute very well! I've been running the puppetry sessions and I'll hand the reins over to dancer, circus artist and choreographer Emma Brunton for the end of the month in order to get him integrated into the rest of the show before I rejoin them on the last day to add any finishing touches and watch the showing. There's currently a Kickstarter campaign to fund the show once it's finished so do feel free to give that a once over here! Pictures to follow after the photo shoot on Tuesday!

Other than that I'm still awaiting news on the future of Gerry Anderson's Firestorm - the pilot will be released later this year I think and I will of course post about it when that happens. I have a couple of potential Christmas shows in the offing so some decisions to be made there. But mostly I'm happy to be back home in London and looking forward to the next adventure!