Website Interview: Part 1

The website interview contained a lot of questions, in three sections. Tom was brilliant in answering them all, even transcribing the whole thing so I didnt have to! He is truly amazing.  

PART ONE

Guilty Pleasures and Favourites   

TV:

Favourite -

The Wire is the greatest television show ever made, but Lost remains a close second for having slipped such a complex and intelligent show under the radar and onto a mainstream American TV network.

Guilty pleasure –

Masterchef. Watching Gregg Wallace manage to fit a shoebox worth of pastry on one fork and then put it all in his mouth in one impressive go is oddly satisfying.

Film:

Favourite –

Too close to call. Dancer In The Dark, maybe? But there’s another seven or so jostling for that number one slot. Tough question.

Guilty Pleasure – Back to the Future.

Reading Material:

Favourite –

Love Haruki Murakami, Michael Chabon, Don De Lillo, Jonathan Safran Foer, Raymond Carver, David Mitchell (Number 9 Dream/Cloud Atlas author, as opposed to one half of Peep Show.)

Guilty Pleasure –

Pretty much anything by Stephen King. Who somehow manages to simultaneously be wildly successful and hugely underrated. And at the moment Brian K Vaughan’s “Y: The Last Man” series of graphic novels.

YouTube Video:

Favourite -

Changes on a pretty much daily basis.

Guilty pleasure –

“Fat Kid on a Rollercoaster”

Last dose of live culture:

Blur’s reunion gig in Hyde Park

Last album bought:

Florence and the Machine – Lungs

If you had to be stranded in any one place in the world, where would it be?

I’m a little bit in love with New York.

Last meal on Death Row?

Sashimi. And Haribo.

Who in the whole of history would you most like to sit next to on a long-haul flight.

Anyone comfortable enough to a) tolerate my staring straight ahead silently and nervously during take off, b) steadily getting drunk on the complimentary miniatures, and then c) falling asleep in their lap. The softer the lap the better. So for his patience, his forgiveness and his comfortable thighs, I’ll go with Buddha.

Best hangover remedy?

Don’t drink too much the night before.

What helps you get out of bed in the morning?

Road-works outside my window.

Are you a night owl or a lark?

Night owl – very much so. I tend to do all my best work in the middle of the night. Although nobody’s around to see it.

Who was your celebrity crush growing up?

I was a big fan of Cheetara from the Thundercats. Either her or Bronwyn from Neighbours. I remember kissing her page of the Neighbours Annual 1988 so much that I went right through to Madge.

What’s the single worst purchase you’ve made in the last year?

A pair of leather slippers from a souk in Morocco. By the time they’d got home they smelt like dead people. I think they may have been made from a camel’s bladder.

Your favourite item of clothing?

I’m a bit of a sucker for wrist nonsense.

It’s not fashionable but you like…?

A nice cup of tea and a sit.

We wouldn’t know it about you but you are very good at…?

Cooking, even if I do say so myself. I like to think that if it all came crashing down tomorrow I’d try to retrain as a chef.

We may not know it but you are no good at…?

Football. At all. Which, I can tell you, makes being at an all-boys’ school a lot of fun.

You ride/drive

The tube. Even on the days when half the lines are suspended and it’s hot as a microwave, it’s still the quickest way round London.

Your favourite work of art?

I go back and forth. I like Ron Mueck. Edward Hopper. I love David Shrigley. And I have a real passion for photography. But not sure I could ever pin it down to one.

The shop you can’t walk past?

It used to be HMV, but working in one for three years to fund drama school kind of killed the magic. Now, I’d say The Apple Store.

The best invention ever?

I am lost without my MacBook Pro. And iPhone. It’s pathetic, really. I’m Steve Jobs’ bitch.