Dinner with Saddam (Press Night)

Dinner with Saddam at the Menier Chocolate Factory London

What a treat it was to see such a great play by the mighty Anthony Horowitz, and then meet him and all the cast afterwards. An added bonus was to have even more celebs to meet at the after party! And I got a photo with all of them (except Ian Hislop and Meera Syal) and every member of the cast.

I found Dinner with Saddam extremely funny and thought provoking. I loved it! It makes sharp comments about family life and politics, occasionally venturing into farce, laced with some very witty lines. It's also pretty tense at times! It has a very clever story line and each character is wonderful - what a great cast they've assembled for this show! 

Go and see it! I guarantee you an excellent night out. 

I see the play has got itself a well-deserved 5-star review on What's On Stage!

See also: Review: Dinner With Saddam **** - Jewish News

Click here for more photos from the Press Night.

Dinner with Saddam is on at the Menier Chocolate Factory until 14th November 2015

#DinnerwithSaddam #PressNight #Reviews

With Anthony Horowitz and Amanda Redman

Sanjeev Bhaskar with Steven Berkoff being photographed by Rex

Pretty much the whole cast & crew being photographed by Rex

With Rebecca Grant (Rana Alawai) and Sanjeev Bhaskar (Ahmed Alawai)

With Steven Berkoff (Saddam Hussein)

With Nathan Amzi (Jammal)

with Shobu Kapoor (Samira Alawai)

With Ilan Goodman (Sayid Al-Madini/Hasif Assultani/Colonel Farouk)

With Ryan Early (look him up yourself on IMDb!)

I won the Harold Pinter Theatre's Spamalot competition!

My Spamalot "goodies"

I happen to notice a tweet from the Harold Pinter Theatre announcing a Spamalot competition. All you had to do was tweet the theatre a picture of yourself holding a can of Spam to win a bag of Spamalot "goodies"... So that's exactly what I did.

My competition entry: Me and my Spamalot-edition can of Spam

It turns out I was the only person to enter, so I won the bag of Spamalot "goodies" which comprised the UK tour version of the Spamalot CD, the theatre programme, a Best of British Theatre bag and a Grail Bag from www.spamalotstore.com - a website, believe it or not, that I had never heard of!

To the Harold Pinter Theatre, thank you very much for my prize!

The Spamalot run at the Harold Pinter Theatre has now ended, but will return on 14th November 2012 at the Playhouse Theatre for an indefinite period.

Spamalot is the funniest show EVER! Do yourself a favour and go and see it.

Spamalot - my 9th time!

Yes, that was the 9th time I've seen the show (or was it my 10th?) On this occasion, I went with 11 friends to whom I had sold the idea, using extreme enthusiasm as a method of getting my own way! It worked!

Sorry, no pictures this time.

Needless to say, the show was excellent, with me smiling from ear to ear the whole show through, and me constantly wiping away tears of laughter, as usual. And everyone else seemed to have a good time too.

Spamalot is currently touring the UK so don't miss it http://www.spamalotontour.co.uk/tour

The show is SO good, you simply cannot, must not and should not miss it!

No Naughty Bits Press Night #montypython #terrygilliam #michaelpalin

A very short and very loud clip of Terry Gilliam gesticulating a lot

It was a total celeb-fest! In other words, to use a Jonathan Ross term, the celeb/civilian quotient was rather high!

Nigel Franklin talking to Terry Gilliam still gesticulating

In no particular order, on Tues 13 Sept, in addition to Terry Gilliam himself, the Hampstead Theatre was graced by:

• Emma Thompson
• David Gilmour
• Steve Punt
• Larry Lamb
• Alexei Sayle
• Greg Wise
• Maureen Lipman
• Amy Rosenthal
• Simon Jones
• Nancy Lewis-Jones
• Tim McInnerny
• Alison Steadman
• Maryam d'Arbo
• Hugh Hudson
• Robert Hands
• Christopher Biggins

I had such fun that night - one of the most amazing and memorable nights of my life. Thank you SO much to all the lovely staff of the Hampstead Theatre who looked after me so well.

I gave the author of http://therealgilliamfan.blogspot.com over in the US a bit of a shock during the interval. I called her up, then handed my phone to Terry Gilliam. She blogged about the experience here: I Just Told Terry Gilliam "I Love You!!".

In addition to chatting with Terry, I was very pleased to be able to see Simon Jones again. He is SUCH a lovely man. So warm, kind and friendly. I had to talk about his "This is my receipt for your receipt" scene in Brazil, obviously. I also met his wife, Nancy Lewis-Jones, who I think was very tickled for having just seen herself on stage in 1975. And I met their charming son, Tim Jones, who took this picture of his dad and I.

John Wood (me) with Simon Jones

As if that wasn't enough, I ALSO had a chat with David Gilmour. I told him that the album Wish You Were Here was a major part of my school years and that it is just an incredible album. I've got an idea I'm not the first to tell him that, but I'm really glad I did anyway. It sort of completes the circle, and it's not every day you get the opportunity to do that sort of thing now is it?

Press Night Photos/Reviews

1. Wooller.com
2. Broadway World
3. The Arts Desk
4. The Stage
5. What's on Stage?
6. The Independent
7. This is London
8. The Guardian
9. Benchmark.dreamhosters.com
10. The Telegraph
11. The Financial Times
12. The Financial Times - Arts Extra
13. The Metro
14. British Theatre Guide
15. Hampstead Theatre News
16. BBC Radio Four's Front Row
17. Variety
18. Pythonesque
19. West End Whingers
20. (As Yet Unnamed) London Theatre
21. Theatre Voice
22. Wall Street Journal

The Real Gilliam Fan Blog

• No Naughty Bits: How smutty British childish humour took on corporate American and won
• I just told Terry Gilliam "I love you!!"
• First Look: Hampstead Theatre's "No Naughty Bits"

Other links

• Hampstead Theatre on Fousquare
• Hampstead Theatre's Twitter feed
• Twitter search for "No Naughty Bits"
• Twitter search for "Hampstead Theatre"
• Hampstead Theatre's Facebook Page

The last page of the script, signed by Nancy Lewis-Jones and Terry Gilliam

I've seen Spamalot 8 times now! Aylesbury, 1 April 2011

Spamalot, Aylesbury, 1 April 2011

Aylesbury Waterside Theatre

This brass statue of Ronnie Barker, unveiled in September 2010 by his widow Joy, David Jason and Ronnie Corbett, keeps watch over the theatre's entrance. In the 1940s, Ronnie Barker joined the Manchester Repertory Company, based in Aylesbury.

The ticket office

My guest, William Souvatzoglou, founder of the Aylesbury firm GT Recycling, surrounded by Spamalot merchandise

The show is about to begin!

Me with King Arthur (Phill Jupitus @jupitusphillip). He was the 6th actor I've seen playing the part of King Arthur. He played the role very well I thought.

Me with the Lady of the Lake (Julie Prenger @musicalmissy) who is the most hyperactive Lady of the Lake I've ever witnessed and I told her so! Wonderful voice!

Me with the very talented Graham MacDuff whom Harry (son) and I met back in 2007 backstage at the Palace Theatre when Spamalot was doing a run there. He recognised me immediately to my astonishment and asked how Harry was doing! In 2007, he was playing the part of Sir Galahad but now he is playing Sir Lancelot. He must be the longest serving member of the Spamalot team!

See also:

• Bucks Herald
• UKTheatre.net

Spamalot Woking - my 7th time

We eat ham and jam and Spamalot!

Marcus Brigstocke and King Arthur and Hayley Tamaddon as the Lady of the Lake

I took some friends to see Spamalot. Needless to say, it was hilarious and we had a rip-roaringly wonderful evening! Eric Idle, you are a genius!

SPAMALOT - World's Largest Coconut Orchestra

We did it! All 5,567 of us, packed into Trafalgar Square yesterday (St George's Day) and issued with free coconuts, got into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest coconut orchestra!

The day was made extra special for me because both Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones were there, as well as the entire cast of Spamalot!

As you can see, Harry & I had a fantastic afternoon:

We even got on TV - on ITV London's 6pm news bulletin. They asked us if we knew what St George's Day was all about - we didn't which was exactly what they wanted to hear.

Well, Harry couldn't wait - the queue to the loo was too long!

Some peasants turned up for the event.

There's another one!

Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam encouraging us to go and see Spamalot "because Eric Idle's house in LA is very large and very expensive to maintain".

Michael England, orchestra leader for Spamalot conducts the crowd into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Hannah Waddingham (the Lady of the Lake) with Terry Gilliam, the original Patsy from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, doing the face he used for the part.

Terry Jones holds up the Guinness Book of World Records certificate. We did it!

See also the following articles (can you spot Harry & I in the photos & videos?):

• http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=207&story=E8821177416825
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRLCuoPkdmk
• http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=17787
• http://www.reuters.com/article/gc08/idUSL2323950720070424
• http://www.reuters.com/news/video/videoStory?videoId=49669
• http://www.nbc10.com/news/13013332/detail.html
• http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=46416&in_page_id=34
• http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/galleries/gallery-23362089-detail/Coconut+Orchestra+World+Record+attempt/pos-5-image/gallery.do
• http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23393661-details/Coconutters!+Monty+Python+orchestra+breaks+world+record/article.do
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6586187.stm
• http://www.montypythonsspamalot.com/news-pop.php?news_type=5&news_id=1337

Monty Python's Spamalot - our third time!

Yes, we love Spamalot so much, we've seen it 3 times now: for my birthday, for Harry's birthday party and, yesterday, for Harry's actual birthday. The show was excellent as ever.

It worked out so well as we had great seats and, funnily enough, we got to meet (and photograph) all the cast members we missed last time. And here are the photos to prove it:

In front of the Palace Theatre, moments before the start of the
3pm matinee performance, Tues 17 Apr 07.

Harry at the stage door after the show.


Harry hanging around waiting to meet the cast.


With Graham MacDuff who plays
Sir Dennis Galahad, The Black Knight and Prince Herbert’s Father.
Harry asked Graham to sing "Now we're into E!" from
'The song that goes like this" in a squeeky voice and he did!
With Tony Timberlake (left) who plays Sir Bedevere, Mrs Galahad and Concorde and Darren Southworth who plays the Historian,Not Dead Fred, a French Guard, a Minstrel and Prince Herbert.
With Robert Hands who plays Sir Robin, Guard 1
and Brother Maynard. Harry asked him not to poop his pants
- he promised he wouldn't!

Harry & me on stage, taken by Ben Jefferson himself
- the Spamalot company manager!

What a fantastic time we had - the Spamalot team are such a friendly bunch of people!

Our Spamalot adventure is still not over yet because we are going to see the cast again and break a world record with them on St George's Day (23 Apr 07) in Trafalgar Square.