Mark Watson the Comedian

Welcome to the latest in the occasional series of blogs I publish on this site, with the aim of letting you know what I’m up to. This is not to be confused with my football blog. There won’t be anything about football in it at all. Despite this being the week of the World Cup draw. Nope. Not thinking about it.

So, the main news is that today is the first day of Advent, and this December as well as carolling, shopping, remembering the time when Jesus arrived among us on earth, etc, you can participate in the less traditional celebration of ‘watching an offbeat BBC4 quiz’. The show in question is We Need Answers, which returns for a monstrously long 13-part series from December 1 onwards. It’s on at 10pm on Tuesdays, or sometimes 10.20 or something like that. And because it’s BBC4 it’s also repeated most other days of the week. And then there’s iPlayer and whatnot. So altogether, it’s difficult to imagine how you will avoid watching We Need Answers. If you saw the original series you’ll have some idea of what awaits you. I host it, Alex Horne does funny stuff on a screen, Tim Key whizzes around on a chair and asks questions. Oh, it’s all pretty fun.

And to whet your appetite, here is a little game Key and I invented, which we played a lot backstage at We Need Answers. It’s called No More Women and it’s a game of memory, strategy, nerve, luck and so on. Please give it a go with your friends/colleagues/nice strangers/man who comes round to read the meter. We believe it’s one of the greatest games yet devised, and should end up being at least as big as tennis or something like that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/comedy/2009/11/no-more-women.shtml

In other news, I’ve been planning my tour for next year, which you can find details of elsewhere on this site. We’re going all over the place. Middlesbrough, Chesterfield, even somewhere called Manchester. These gigs are still three or four hundred days away, I realise, so it’s a bit early to start jumping and down in excitement, but it’s nice to know at least that, in the foreseeable future, I will be saying funny things at you. If you buy tickets, that is. I can’t get round everyone in their homes. So please do come, otherwise I’ll get depressed. Ta.

Oh, also, I’ve now got a new publisher – Simon and Schuster. They’re going to bring out my new novel next Autumn. More news on that shortly but it’s all fairly exciting, I would say. And on the subject of next Autumn, as well as this gigantic tour and book, there should finally be a DVD out then too. Goodness. It’s no wonder Keats wrote all those complimentary things about Autumn; as seasons go, it’s going to be an absolute killer.

Lots more to talk about, but most of it is in the past already (Celebrity Mastermind, Something For The Weekend, This Week) and I’m very much about the future, as you know. If you’re interested in hearing my thoughts on an almost minute-by-minute basis, you could succumb to the temptation to follow me on Twitter (@watsoncomedian). Otherwise I’ll see you next time I decide to bang out one of these blogs. Thank you for reading!

M x