Upstairs Downton Abbey

Just a quick update as I'm determined not to let this blog go without a fight.
I haven't made a huge amount of progress with Touchstone but I have at least now got a document saved with a list of some ideas on it from which soon will hopeful gestate a synopsis. Yesterday however I realized that one of my ideas to use two characters from somewhere else as the main characters for Touchstone wasn't going to work as the amount of baggage these characters would have brought with them would have clashed with the central story idea as I currently envisage it. I have however come up with a separate story idea which hopefully will make use of the characters from elsewhere but because this will need to be pitched because these are not my characters to use without permission I've decided to park Project Two for the time being.
Meanwhile on the way home from a committee meeting tonight someone I know was suggesting the idea of putting together a show featuring old time music hall songs but with a new or modern twist. I half jokingly suggested doing something inspired by Downton Abbey and my friend said I should think seriously about doing something with that idea whilst he was going to play around with a different idea of his own. So I now have Project Three or as I've decided to provisionally call it Upstairs Downton Abbey The Musical - I will obviously come up with a proper name in due course but whether I actually manage to come up with a workable story line for it remains to be seen. Anyway I shall keep this blog updated with progress.
Time for bed now but there will be another update soon regarding a rather important personal decision I reached yesterday.
To be continued....

Random Shoes

I am determined not to give up on this writing blog even if I only manage one post a week. Anyway I thought it was about time I wrote a brief explanation as to why of all things this blog is called Richard's Random Shoes of all things.

I suspect that both my readers will be aware of the 2006 Torchwood episode with the title Random Shoes. I've always been quite fond of that particular episode of that rather disjointed first series for several reasons.

Firstly, the episode was written by Jacquetta May who just so happens to also be an actress. Most notably she appeared as the main character Steven's mother in the 1998 film Get Real. There is a particularly memorable scene in the film where she confronts a couple of bullies and threatens to "have your bollocks for earrings" if they so much as lay a finger on her son.

Secondly Random Shoes centres around the one-off character Eugene, brilliantly played by Paul Chequer who first came to my attention in the hidden gem As If (2001-2004). At the risk of sounding self-pitying I did see aspects in myself in this character.

Finally, whilst there is an extra-terrestial mcguffin involved in the proceedings there is a somewhat pseudo-Christian redemptive ending to the episode in which Eugene makes a Christ-like ascension into the sky.

Meanwhile, just to say that inspired by some of the many things I've listened to recently I've been inspired to start properly writing. Currently contemplating several ideas but I've decided to focus initially on writing an outline for a project I've provisionally given the title Touchstone.