What do TV comedians and The Guardian have in common?

Answer = me (at the moment). As well as The Guide having asked me to interview Tom Davis about his BBC1 sitcom King Gary, I also had the chance to do a piece for The Guardian’s TV section where I interviewed personal hero Kenny “Fucking” Powers. Sorry, sorry: Danny McBride (always get them confused after watching Eastbound and Down) about his new TV series, The Righteous Gemstones. Spoilers in case you can’t be bothered to read the full pieces:

1. Tom Davis used to pretend to be Ariel From The Little Mermaid.

2. Danny McBride may end up playing Kanye West in a movie of the rapper’s life.

3. Nope, that’s all you’re getting. And I’ll level with you: both of those revelations are in the first paragraph of the articles. You didn’t think I was really going to let you skip reading the pieces, did you?

Why do we keep watching the same old shows?

Illustration: Tobatron/The Guardian

Speaking as someone who has watched Arrested Development to the point where I can basically quote along with it, I totally resonate with the fact that Friends was the most watched show via streaming services in Q1 of 2019 (even if I have no desire to actually watch the show).

But I recently had the chance to look at what the deeper lying reason for it is by writing a Guardian Labs piece where I spoke to various experts about our love of revisiting old pop cultural faves like albums, films and TV shows. Turns out it’s actually a genuinely interesting phenomenon packed full of psychological benefits. As well, obviously, as the opportunity to watch Will Arnett perform really bad magic tricks. Or maybe that’s just me and Arrested Development.

'Dyl communication' is not a good title for a Dizzee Rascal interview

Ok, ok: you are probably unsurprised by the revelation contained in the title of this post. But let me tell you, when I did the NME's exclusive cover feature with Dizzee Rascal – which was the first interview he'd given to any journalist ahead of his latest album – I was pretty damned excited to have come up with it. Although, admittedly, it only really works if you:

a) Have a pretty good knowledge of Beastie Boys album titles
b) Have a good enough knowledge of grime to know that Dizzee is sometimes referred to as "Dyl" by people who name him well enough to use a shortened form of his first name (Dylan).

So maybe that's just me, then.

Anyway, you can read the whole NME cover interview with Jeremy Paxman's favourite grimer here - alongside the headline that they went with in the end.

Recognised at an awards ceremony

I was recently recognised at an awards ceremony. Fortunately that awards ceremony did not take into account the speed at which journalists blog about having been decorated by awards panels, because given that it's taken me over a month to write this blog, I clearly suck at it. 

The British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME) awarded me a 'Highly Commended' certificate in the category of 'Best Print Writer' at their 2017 Talent Awards. They've even given me a logo to use 'on your website', so I've put it here as I don't really know what else to do with it.

It's been a good few months for me in terms of awards, given that this 'Dear World' cover that I wrote for Time Out ended up winning 'Best Cover' at the Digital Magazine Awards (Second category down) and my Skepta interview  for Time Out was shortlisted for Scoop of the year at the BSME awards and won an 'honourable mention' for Best Features Package at the 2016 Eddie Awards (no: me neither - but praise is praise, eh?). Not, obviously, that I got round to writing about any of them until ages later. Slow journalism, yeah?

I've been shortlisted as Best Writer at the PPA Awards!

I'm not 100% sure who actually reads these blog pieces, so I don't know if you'll have a clue what the PPA Awards are or not. However, they are, according to 'The Celeb Diaries' – the autobiography of ex-Heat (and, later on, Time Out) editor Mark Frith – 'The Oscars of the magazine industry'. Admittedly, he was probably saying that to make working in magazines sound slightly more exciting than it actually is, but it sounds good, so I'm sticking with it, ok?

Anyway, to my utter joy and astonishment, I have made the shortlist for Best Writer (fifth category down). Aside from being pretty much the most exciting thing to have ever happened to me (which it very definitely is), it will forever more mean that I'm able to say to people 'I'll have you know that in 2015 I was one of the 12 best magazine writers in Britain!'. Which, you have to admit, has a hell of a ring to it.

I deep fat fried an entire Easter roast and ate sushi off a man

Photo: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian

Yes, yes. The photo screams 'chip shop nightmare'. It is, however, the entire Easter Sunday roast that I had deep fat fried for me by Miss Cakehead and Jim Thomlinson, aka Fry Hard, for a two-page spread in yesterday's G2 section of The Guardian. Full feature available here.

Oh, and obviously, it's not healthy to go around only eating deep-fried food. So I also ate some sushi. Off a naked man. The below one, in fact. If you'd like to read about it – it was for The Telegraph, not some sort of fetish for naked dudes with troubling aromas – you can find the piece here.

*Heads off to eat the most normal plate-based meal he can find*

Photo: Jeff Gilbery for The Telegraph

Jamie Oliver is EXACTLY as nice as you think he'll be

For a 'Time Out' food issue in April, I interviewed Jamie Oliver a couple of weeks ago. Unsurprisingly enough, he's every single bit as lovely as you'd imagine. Polite. Interested in people. Remembers details about their lives. And so ludicrously busy that we had to start at 7.30am for him to find the time. And even then, members of staff were rushing in with dishes for him to taste. The full piece will be out in a few weeks, but until then, here's a picture of 'Time Out' photo editor Jael, posing with Jamie.

I played a drinking game with Caitlin Moran

I love Caitlin Moran as both a human and a writer. So, when her PR suggested doing another interview with her, my tummy was all aflutter with excitement. Until, that is, they also told me she'd like to revisit our previous boozy debacle. At which point, it was mainly fluttering with thoughts about the booze-induced nausea that lay in the future. It was, if you like, Naustradamus.

However, it turned out that my editor loved the idea. Also, a Twitter conversation quickly made me realise that if I didn't go ahead with it, I'd be a massive wussbag.
 

@Alexiduggins HAHAHA! The trap is set. Are you scared? YOU SHOULD BE

— Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) February 25, 2015

But this time I decided to keep it a bit safer. So I set up a drinking game: ten quotes which Ms Moran may or may not have written. Ten shots of booze. Ten guesses. One hour. If she got a question right, I drank. If she got it wrong, she drank. The result? I got very pissed in the company of one of the most phenomenal people I've ever met. Oh, and we took loads of sozzled selfies. The full report's out in Time Out in a couple of weeks, but for now, a few of our pics are below. NB the eagle-eyed amongst you may notice that there is blood coming from Ms Moran's arm. The only explanation either of us have? BOOZE.