It's been a bit quiet...

...but it'll get noisy and objectionable again soon enough. A good writing evening this evening as Peter and Phil got their heads together to bash out a few ideas for new Danger Signs sketches.

And there's the bulk of a new episode done - so expect some action soon. Regarding toast.

There will be blood

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Originally uploaded by missinghen

Fun evening's filming with Peter and the stage blood. Well, fun for me, Peter doesn't look so happy. Don't know what he's got to complain about. He's only covered with blood-soaked cotton wool pads and air hoses underneath that shirt. Perfectly normal.

And the sketch is nowhere near as sadistic as it looks, honest. Although the blood does taste horrid. I'm told.

Radio>TV>Radio?

There's a longstanding progression route in comedy that includes a leap from radio to TV. Just like the "Fawlty Towers two series" rule, it's seems to be an immutable law with familiar examples trotted out from Hitch Hiker's Guide to Little Britain.

Mitchell and Webb are currently bucking that trend. After three TV series, they've not written off the radio version, which is back on Radio 4 for a new series. That pleases me, as I think they work well - and differently - in both media. I'd love to see it to inspire other comedians to give radio another go without seeing it as step back. In particular, much as I love the Mighty Boosh on TV, there were some moments of fantasy on the radio show that they've never reached since. I'm talking about you, Tommy Nookah.

We've been writing!

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Originally uploaded by missinghen

We had a very successful meeting of the whole team to work on scripts for the next batch of the News@Then. It's the first time all five of us have been in the same room for about 18 months, so it was well worth all the diary wrangling.

It was a real boost to throw ideas around in the same room - especially given that most of the production process (even the filming, with greenscreen) can now be an almost solitary affair.

I guess you need a good balance between logistics and creativity. We'd gone for the greenscreen approach on the principle that it's getting tougher to get people together. This seems to be a good balance - a couple of hours covering half a dozen sketches followed by shooting spread out over the coming weeks.

We're going to have proper rehearsals next. Yeah, us.

Danger Signs series 2 starts today

The new consumer-friendly series of The Danger Signs starts today as we join Jack Bauer in 1924 and investigate Streaker - the bacon-flavoured soft drink. All this and some some more on The Danger Signs - watching out for the consumer.

Watch on YouTube, or Blip.tv or subscribe using our iTunes feed.

Einstein-a-go-go

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Originally uploaded by missinghen

So, you're based in Birmingham, filming a sketch featuring Albert Einstein. Who do you turn to who can properly convey the serious/comic vibe of this scientific genius? None other than Stephen Jackson, Solihull's finest Einstein impersonator and cartoonist. Here's a link to his site, Chuckletown.

A special prize for anyone who can work out what he's up to with those Russian dolls...

New podcast, new danger

Tonight, as it says in our very exciting Twitter feed, we're recording our first podcast (I've described the shows as video podcasts in the past, but I don't think they really are).

I've held off from recording a podcast for Missing Hen before now because I wanted to make sure it did something different from the shows - I didn't want it to just be a radio version of The News@Then or The Danger Signs (mind you, there are plenty of unused sketches for TDS that have no visual component to the jokes).

No, instead I wanted to look at how we shift Missing Hen from being a body of work that's just distributed via the Internet into something that could only be produced by using the Internet. A big task with lots of possibilities and this podcast is just the first babysteps towards opening up a bit - publishing more than just the final product.

In practical terms, we're going to use the podcast as a kind of side channel. It might be funny, but that's not its main function. It'll have more of a behind the scenes/newsy role.

That's the plan anyway. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works. Which I guess is very appropriate for the Internet - being the start of the question, rather than the closed complete answer...

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