My A Dog's Breakfast Experience

Now that Josh has his surprise.....and it only took him three days to notice....I can finally start making posts about my most amazing weekend.

Well, where do I start....I guess with the special screening of A Dog's Breakfast, a phrase which regulars to my blog should be well familiar with by now. My father and I made it to the cinema with plenty of time to spare, going from Bognor to London via Southampton to hand in my final essay from last semester. I wasn't to sure where to go and spotted a small crowd at the front doors with teddies, ID tags and ADB t-shirts and hazard a guess that the line started with them.

While I got chatting with some of the folk which I had conversed with on cyberspace for the last few months, it was nice to put some faces with the names, although I have since forgotten who was who. Father, finding the whole experience slightly 'odd', did what all good British men do when surrounded by hyperactive women and went for a cup of coffee.

Good job he did as he soon returned to inform me that David Hewlett, the man which I have been babbling on about incessantly since mid-summer, was in fact sitting in the coffee shop. Doing the 'fan' thing I wandered in, and under the guise of 'innocent patrons' we sat ourselves at the table opposite.

I was a little worried about losing my place at the front of the queue and so delegated the job of 'queue line holder' to my father, who obediently went outside to stand in the cold. (note to self....give dad a big hug). I decided that sitting at the table staring at the poor bloke for the next hour was going to be little too 'fangirl' weird even for me, so in a moment of pure genius I decided to pull out the daily paper and engross myself in the sudku on the puzzle page.

This, I summised, would obviously make me look all intelligent and as if I had no idea that the star of the best sci-fi show on television and first time director was sat just feet away with his fiancee, Jane Loughman and friend and producer, John Lenic.

It would have worked much better if I hadn't screwed up the puzzle within the first three numbers and scribbled all over the page. This didn't happen because I was listening to the group talk about costume changes and gossip for season four of Stargate: Atlantis...no, not at all.

Anyhoo, Jane and John ventured into the previous screening to see where the film was at and I decided it was now or never and when David next glanced in my direction I asked my question.

We had a nice little chat about British television comedies and he seem genuinely interested that I wished to write an essay on the film. It was a surreal moment and Jane and John also joined the conversation upon their return. I even had to send the bloke on his way when Jane announce that they were needed for the Q & A and David continued to chat about Basil Fawlty and the Two Ronnies. With my confidence adequately buffed I rejoined the queue and about a half an hour later we entered the cinema for the screening.

Now, I won't go into detail on the content of the film, but the basic story is about a 'Mr. Bean' type eccentric who takes umbrage to the fiancee of his sister and decides that the actor, on a cheesy daytime sci-fi soap, needs to die.

David Hewlett seems to have developed an interesting and unique directorial style, making the most of the budget and location restrictions and the film has some especially funny visual sequences which were both scripted and opportunistic. But enough of the technobabble...It was a funny film, with interesting characters, a good story and a cute dog...what more could you want!

After the film there was time for a Q & A and after my previous tet-a-tet with David I re-asked my question, gaining a PHD comment from the man himself.....from now on I'd like to make it clear that my name is indeed Emma Kidd PHD, because McKay said so!

Other questions included the, obvious, 'what was it like to work with your brother?' for Kate and a gratuitous McKay & Mrs Miller reference by asking the pair to say 'sorry'....in all a highly entertaining evening.

That was Thurs 1st Feb 2007....stay tuned for more of the best weekend I've had for years