Spaced.... for posterity

Oh, this is so belated!
Saturday marked a day in my calendar (and Miss Charlie's) that I've been looking forward to for... well, a jolly long time: The Spaced Marathon at the BFI!!

I love Spaced. Have I mentioned before how much I love Spaced?



Anyway, it was a really fantastic day! Charlie and I caught the train to London, and made it to the BFI with enough time to scarf down a sandwich and some crisps each, having picked up our tickets from the Guest Ticket Booth (a desk), with an alarming lack of difficulty. We were under full instructions as to our reasons for impersonating an ex-Publisher of the company we work for, but alas, our acting skills were not needed (at that moment). At just before 12.30, we took our seats for the screening of the first series. We were shown to the very back row on the right of the auditorium, but comforted ourselves with the fact that we had good seats for the Question and Answer session that was happening in the middle of the event. We got VERY excited when Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg came on to introduce the first series.



We were sitting next to a woman with a dog like Colin, who was small and pretty and dark haired and wearing real Uggs (as was Charlie, by the way). I looked over and smiled at the dog, and at the lady and then realisation struck, and I whispered to Charlie that I was sure that was Simon Pegg's wife. Sure enough, he introduced the audience to... his dog, Minnie, the cute little thing in the pretty lady's arms. I thought I was lucky to be in the presence of a celebrity dog... until after the introductions, Simon Pegg left the rest of the cast and came to the back of the auditorium to join his wife, and sat next to us!

It was hard to play it cool. It helped that it was dark. Mr. Pegg kept on fiddling, he did a lot of jumping in and out of his seat, slipping out, whispering to his wife, but basically for the majority of the first series, he sat next us, and at one point was right next to Charlie, with his dog in his lap! He also dropped his mobile and Charlie picked it up!! We could see him texting! I was weak in the presence of comic greatness (and he's pretty gorgeous in Spaced you know, it was a bit of a mind bend watching him on the screen, while sitting right by him), but Charlie held up admirably under the pressure of having someone she much admires directly to her left.

But lucky lucky us!
Also wonderful, was that Brian and Marsha (Mark Heap and Julia Deakins) sat in front of Simon P. and Mrs P., and when Marsha did one of her funny exits, Mr. P tapped the actress on the shoulder and gave her a big thumbs up. It was super cute.

The question and answer session was really great, you can read all about it here and we had brilliant seats - near the front and in the middle. Of course, it was wonderful to hear that Daisy and Tim *were* meant to be together, and that is how Simon Pegg imagined it ended. It was wonderful to BOOOOOOO the US version of Spaced, and it was excellent to laugh at the funniest guy there - Nick Frost, although it didn't surprise me.

When we got back to the back, Charlie and I swapped seats in the hope that we would again be in the presence of the Pegg. Alas, no. We watched four episodes of the second series, before calling it quits, and catching the tube across London to meet Tom, for our ride home. It wasn't that we didn't want to watch the last three episodes. It was just that we were knackered, hot and thirsty, and the stars had gone. We were ready to call it quits. It was a good excuse to get the DVDs out this week, too... not to mention all the boasting in the office. Although, really, only marginal boasting, all things considered. But there is a lovely round up of the day on Edgar Wright's blog.

But my brush with fame didn't end at the weekend. Last night I went with Laura to a fiction masterclass, which was taken by Julian Barnes 'in conversation' with the writers of four short pieces, plus he did a reading. I was worried he was going to be terribly snobby and pretentious, but he was very down to earth and lovely seeming. I've never read any of his work, but I might now.