Born on this day, 1564: playwright William Shakespeare

Just had the bill for our heating oil. Does anyone want to buy a kidney?

Six million views for this in the last three and a half years and I suspect at least half of those are me. Hits the spot like little else. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxil...

I’m barely on the social mediums these days but just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and the finest and dandiest of new years.

My YouTube algorithm has decided to bombard me with Michael Caine talk show clips, and I’m very happy it has.

Very moving (and funny) tribute to the great Bill Dare at the BBC Radio Theatre today. If you ever laughed at Dead Ringers or Spitting Image, that's probably thanks to Bill.

I've just finished re-watching @simonblackwell.bsky.social's glorious Back. Both series are on Netflix should you want to treat yourself to some top notch telly.

Jo was a gifted actor and such a kind and generous soul. When she knew her character in Breeders was based on my late mum she went out of her way to get her Battersea accent pitch perfect. Gone far too soon, she’ll be much missed by everyone who had the privilege to know her.

20 years ago today since the first episode of The Thick Of It went out. www.newsbreak.com/the-independ...

Never fails. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwyu...

Swifts are back and if we forget that they’re early because of terrifying climate change - hooray.

Just finished a draft of a thing. It’s a nice feeling. It now exists in an un-noted limbo. Could be great, could be crap. But it exists.

Currently some snuffling hedgehogs out in the garden, one of my favourite sounds.

Boycotting the grocery store until they start buying an equivalent volume of groceries from me

Back, the sitcom we made a few years ago, is now on Netflix. www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/n...

This feels like a trap.

"... Ooh, he's here again..."

A chat about comedy writing with Mike Battle from the Red Carpet Rookies podcast. pod.link/1529608643

Sad to see no Alan Bennett diary in the London Review of Books this Christmas, always one of the highlights of the season for me. LRB says AB thinks his life is “so dull he won’t inflict it on LRB readers”. (Personally I’d rather read dull Alan Bennett over exciting anyone else.)