This week marks another personal landmark, in that it was 40 years ago this week that I made my first-ever sale as a professional writer.
It was of a one-line topical gag, to The News Huddlines, at that time a popular show on BBC's Radio 2, produced by Jonathan James-Moore.
It was the very first time I had submitted any material to the programme and I hit the target, and continued to do so for the next 18 months or so.
I can still remember almost word-for-word what the joke was, and to the penny how much I was paid for it (plus a 65% repeat fee as the show was broadcast on Thursday evening and repeated on Saturday afternoon).
The following evening I had another gag used on Weekending, BBC Radio 4's then flagship topical satirical show., which was repeated on Saturday evening
In the space of that 24 hours I went from being an aspiring international banker at Midland Bank International to knowing that what I really wanted to do for a living was to write.
I knew I wouldn't be able to do it selling one-liners but I started scanning The Guardian Media section on the Monday morning hoping to find something suitable...
I don't think this was a try
I don't think this was a valid try: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/rugby-union/68395119.
The player's feet were in touch when he put the ball down and one of the first lessons I learnt when starting to play rugby back in 1968 or 1969 was that even being level with the touch line meant you were out of play.
Why on earth did he not just stay on his feet?
Posted at 01:30 PM in News & Comment | Permalink | Comments (0)