So many biscuits...

Today, finally, after months of waiting we managed to get Bill Bailey into a studio to record the links for our Radio 2 documentary about tribute bands. Blimey, it's taken a while...

The recording went well. The studio happened to be about a ten minute walk from my flat, which considering the tube derailment earlier in the day meant that we didn't have to brave a confused transport system. Phew. The studio, the Soundhouse, was a fab little place, all tucked away round the back of the Majestic wine warehouse. They didn't have any wine, but they had some fantastic biscuits. And then some more biscuits. And a few more biscuits on top of those. In fact there were biscuits everywhere and I'm surprised anything coherent ever gets recorded for people constantly chomping on a biscuit.

The engineer, Paul, was a very friendly soul so that's obviously gonna make life so much easier. He said he liked the script and had in fact recently seen a tribute band, the Counterfeit Beatles, who played at the studio's 2oth birthday party. He was chuckling along as Bill read our words, which was nice of him.

We didn't get the chance to chat much with Bill, sadly. He stormed through the links, pausing only for a cup of tea and a sandwich, and was funny, and silly, and, well, Bill Bailey really. He was briefly distracted by a couple of rogue sentences that he highlighted for their abstract absurdity - the line 'made up entirely from dwarves' in the hands of Bill Bailey is a powerful weapon, capable of rendering nearby listeners virtually helpless. Take note the UN. Then someone asked him to move his car because it was blocking Tom Conti's Rolls Royce, who was next door recording a radio drama. After that, everything was checked, then it was a quick handshake and Bill was off. I wonder if we'll see him again?

We're back in a fortnight to do the edit but at this stage Bill's happy, the producer's happy, the engineer's happy and we're happy. So we're all happy.

Oh, and I spotted Stephen Greif in the corridor AKA the original Space Commander Travis from off of 'Blakes 7'. He was holding a cup of tea and waiting for us to get past. And he had a bit of a weary expression on his face as he waited. But I resisted the urge to say, 'Alright pal, you'd best get back to Servalan'. For those of you who don't know the series, Travis finally gave up his obsessive pursuit of Blake and the rest of the Liberator crew, relocated to Scotland and had a series of hit records including 'Writing To Reach You', 'Driftwood' and 'Why Does It Always Rain On Me?'