Well I’ve been really busy over the last three weeks as The John Daly Show gets underway. I got one day off in sixteen, tomorrow was meant to be my first weekend off in three weeks, but today I got asked to go down to Dublin to direct an interview with Sir Cliff Richard. I said yeh, sure, cos I wasn’t really going to be doing anything anyway. I’ve never driven in Dublin before, so I’m a bit nervous, and reckon I’ll head off really early. Give me something to do I suppose ! I’m probably gonna meet Christine and her fiance down there for lunch.

So, all I’ve been doing recently is working, working and working. My wee sister had her 18th birthday a couple of weeks ago – it’s really weird now that she’s all grown up and started uni ! I can remember seeing her in the hospital just after she’d been born, so it makes me feel old !

So, the first of the John Daly Shows we were recording was in Lisburn – I only went to the second day of recording, where the lovely Scarlett Johnson off EastEnders was one of the guests. She was really, really nice, and I totally fancied her ! Unfortunately she was there with her boyfriend, Jem, who was dead on as we say here as well – nice bloke. So after Lisburn, it was off filming inserts for the show. I seemed to get all the comedy animal routines to do – last Saturday I was filming a hamster race with some enthusiasts which was actually quite good fun, although getting the 10ft by 3ft track in the car was not particularly pleasant.

Then, Monday and Tuesday we were on location with the show at the Burnavon Theatre in Cookstown. The thing about guests on the show is that people at home only see the guests that we actually had on – not the brilliant ones that pull out at the last minute, but celebrity booker, Jill (in the pic on the left there), did a good job at pulling guests out of the hat. And I’m saying that even though she was in a foul mood today ! Anyway, we had David Dickinson from Bargain Hunt, who I’ve met a couple of times now, and is really nice. I reckon he does a good job of making something boring seem interesting. He told us this story about a guy who saw something in an auction, bid on it for £500, then went on to sell it for £750,000 ! All because he was the only person that realised it was a really ancient Chinese chess piece. I could do with some luck like that !

Other good guests were Leslie Philips (of the “he-e-e-llo !” / Carry on film fame), and Stan Collymore (pictured there with G – Fresh !). Now I didn’t know much about him, apart from the fact that he was a footballer who got caught doing something he shouldn’t have. Full credit to John though for asking him all about that. It was a very good interview.

It was unfortunate that I had to take Stan filming on Tuesday before the show and film him… milking a cow. Told you it was a week for comedy animal routines ! I really was ready for my day off yesterday – I went to bed and fell right asleep at 9.30pm and slept right through until 9am this morning.

I’m a bit bored cos I’ve given up going out and drinking for the last three weeks (four come Sunday) – I just seem to be stuck in a routine of working mad hours, and then going to the gym, watching telly then going to bed. Although, I must say, I’m feeling a bit better for it because I was able do to my 100 lengths swimming the other day non-stop, and in 40 minutes, which is the best I think I’ve done. So it’s probably doing me some good.

I’m going to Glasgow next week to catch up with Maj (she’s the 2nd Assistant Director on River City) and I’m gonna see my wee sis Ailse too, so I’m looking forward to that. I think she’s met more celebrities than anyone since she started at uni – she e-mailed me a picture of her and Dennis Quaid which I’ll put on here next time I post – which might be on Sunday when I’ll reveal how I got on with Sir Cliff !

***If you’re bored, check out this. These dudes always annoyed me for some reason, but the funniest thing has to be the comment from Tom Jones further down on the page. Bye for now !