John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Realistic plots

"If you write a story about a soldier going AWOL and kidnapping a pregnant woman and finally shooting her in the head, it’s called searingly realistic, even though it’s never happened in the history of mankind. Whereas if you write about two people falling in love, which happens about a million times a day all over the world, for some reason or another, you’re accused of writing something unrealistic and sentimental."
— Richard Curtis

[Richard Curtis has written and/or directed many things, from Blackadder and Mr. Bean through to romantic comedies like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually. Hence the words above, given during a 2007 interview.]

Baldrick and the car park

Richard III may go down for a generation (or more) as the King in a Car Park; it's even the name of the documentary made about this week's revelation that his skeleton was found in just such a place. 

It's nice to see Richard III jokes on the go, and I wonder if Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time, one of my favourite detective novels, will get a boost. 

Nothing, though, could make me laugh like I did when I saw this Blackadder (I guess that should be Black Adder, with a nod to the first series) spoof making the online rounds. 

Two posts in a day connected to Richard Curtis: that is not bad at all. 

 

25 years of Red Nose Day

I've always wished we on the western end of the Atlantic got to see the full Red Nose Day set of specials that air in the U.K., raising money for Comic Relief. 

It's hard to believe, but it's been 25 years since the first was launched. Here's Comic Relief's founder Richard Curtis, one of my very favourite writers, making the pitch on U.K. TV. 

Who's who in Love Actually

Largely because it's set at Christmas, and mostly because it's fun, we watch Richard Curtis's Love Actually every year in December. This year, Nick sat with us on the couch and saw it on the first time; as expected, Rowan Atkinson's super-fussy sales clerk was a favourite. 

Here's a diagram that maps out how the characters in the overlapping storylines are connected to each other. As seen here, on I Love Charts. 

How to get Richard Curtis's attention

Richard Curtis is, arguably, one of the funniest people on the planet. He wrote much of Rowan Atkinson's stage material and later wrote much of Mr. Bean, wrote for Blackadder through every iteration, wrote Four Weddings and then became a fine director, making Love Actually among other films.

He also made Comic Relief happen, and has done as much for food relief than anyone, including Bob Geldof (but more quietly).

He's involved in the Twitrelief campaign on today, in which UK celebrities are offering plenty of things, largely agreeing to follow you on Twitter.

I love this one:

"He will join Twitter to follow you and only you." Not bad!