The downside was having to get up at arse-o-clock in the morning. I am not a natural early riser, and after travelling to London the previous evening after a full day's work, getting in at nearly midnight, and then to bed about one after chatting all to briefly with artnouveauho  , who was jetlagged meaning we were both slightly frayed around the edges of rationality, it was then a severe shock to the system to be awake before six.

It was however, strange and interesting to be moving about London in the dark of the morning rather than dark of night, when the world is just waking, when the streets are full of delivery lorries, people going jogging, and early morning cleaners. I was in an exhuberant mood. It's been a very long time since I was wandering around at that time for a work purpose. The streets were being gritted againt the sharp frost and I was very glad of the six layers of clothes and two pairs of socks - a day's filming outdoors in a bleak January is not to be attempted without a warm vest on!

The set location was actually closer to Latimer Road tube, which I already have, so didn't stop for pictures when I arrived there are 6.45am. The sky was just turning that deep electric blue of pre-dawn and the chap in the ticket booth had put stirring classical music on over the public address system. There was only myself and one other person to enjoy this winter concert - I wonder if he's allowed to play music all morning, or just gets away with it because there are so few passengers travelling at that time - but I thought it was marvellous and better than a shot of coffee to spark the brain awake.

Quick jog trot to keep warm in the bitter cold and thence to the set winnebago for tea and sausage rolls. I got on with my costuming bits and bobs, spraying things silver and pinning letters on stuff, before getting roped into playing a ' background forensic person' which just meant wandering about in a paper suit pointing at things...chap playing the policeman has also been a cyberman.


As always, filming means a few minutes of frantic activity followed by long stretches of drinking tea. The make-up artist and I chatted and to pass the time she airbrushed my belly . She'd been doing The Seven Deadly Sins for a different shoot so had the stencils of the sins in her kit. Rupert had 'lust' done down one arm, so not wanting to copy him, I settled for 'wrath' in faux gothic lettering acorss my tummy.  It now makes me lust for another real tattoo...


The location had been chosen for the abundance of wonderful graffiti about. Sure not everyone would think it beautiful, plus it looked semi-official to me...I took plenty of pictures of the urban art as we were standing around. After lunch, I got drafted in as more on-screen talent to wave a UV lamp about, then as dusk fell we wrapped and I had two hours spare before the train back to Bodmin.



I walked back to Wood Lane and thence to the White City tube station past BBC Woodlands and more urban art.


I've been out to TVC in recent years, to meet up with the director of today's little adventure in fact, but as I was wandering along I worked it was '89 that I last actually saw the Woodlands site, where I temped for a few months printing scripts in the old prop room - my boss-of-the-time told me that before the print machines were installed they had to chuck out all the old bits of Doctor Who props that were gathering dust in there..daleks, robot masks and bits of the console room all ended up in the skip to make room for the photocopiers on which I printed up the running order for Kilroy and scripts for Alf Garnet...oh, the pain...I actually had dreams about rescuing things from the skips.

I stood outside the building, looking in at the glowing windows of 'my' office, a welter of memories from my very earliest days in London, and from some of the worst parts of my life. Walked on beneath the underpass, thankful for the changes the years have seen.

In the months that I worked there, I didn't use the White City tube station as it was easier to get there on the 295 bus from where I was living in Clapham Junction, so this was the first time I've passed through the ticket barriers. Nabbed a nice couple who were part of the early evening throng of BBC employees streaming into the station to take the pictures.

From there, as I had plenty of time, I decided to knock out the gaps on the Central Line, so in rapid succession I popped out and in again at East Acton, North Acton and West Acton to the befuddlement of the people I roped into helping me.

East Acton - nice man with waggy dog


North Acton - avoided the hoodie wearing group of 'yoovs' (have I been absorbing Daily Mail stereotypes subconciously) in favour of nice Asian chap who worried about blur in the dim light.




West Acton - very helpful Eastern European young chap who seemed amused by English eccentricity:



One of these, and I can never remember which is home to the four story concrete eyesore that is the BBC Costume Store. Inside a truly ugly piece of totalitarian nastiness are All the Clothes in the World. I experience 'lost time' events in there. Went in once looking for Moulin Rouge dancers outfit, thought I must have been about twenty minutes, turns out I was pawing through sequinned dresses for nearly four hours. Search parties have had to be sent in before to tempt me back into reality from amoungst the racks of chiffon and bustles. I think I should state in my will that I want to be buried there.

Heading back East from West Acton, the original thought was to return to White City, walk down to Shepherd's Bush on the H&C then up to Paddington, that way taking out the Paddington station on the H&C that remains uncollected. But it was still really early - trains coming every 2 mins meant I'd completed the Acton's in no time at all, so a creeping thought occurred - 'get Chancery Lane' - that would remove all the Central Lines on the Ealing Broadway Branch as far as Liverpool Street. So as we pulled back into White City, I stayed on the train...