Now you might have expected that, like last week this blog would have been written by Jonathan Harvey (the writer of the show) but he has come up with an excuse which, as excuses go, is even better than "the dog ate my homework".

His excuse is - wait for it - "I broke my internet!" Purlease! Anyway, it means that you get the musings of the Exec Producer of Beautiful People, me. Before you ask, the answer to the question "what does an Executive Producer do exactly?" is "turn up at the location for lunch and laugh". Both of those things were easy on this show because we had fantastic catering from caterers who were very funny.

Anyway, on to the episode in which we got to recreate the Eurovision Song Contest of 1998 which was held in Birmingham and hosted by Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonson. Now I realise that the first broadcast of this episode is on Children in Need night so there may be quite a lot of Woganphobes in our audience, desperately trying to escape newspeople using charity as an excuse to do other peoples' jobs, badly.

Panic not - he only appears for a second near the end but it is quite an important second because at the songfest in question, the winner was Israeli man-become-woman Dana International and on that night in 1998 there was a big gap between the announcement of her winning and her appearance to reprise the winning song- (Viva La Diva, if you care). Jonathan (I broke my internet) Harvey has imagined what was going on backstage. Obviously it was to do with Simon and Kylie who had locked themselves in the disabled toilet backstage just as Ms International wanted to change frock. Obviously.

By the magic of brilliant Location Manager and a persistent Producer we recreated the Birmingham concert in an empty Wembley Arena with the real Dana International flown in from Israel for the shoot and not looking a day older. Empty Wembley was just plain spooky because the normal TV circus you need to shoot the show looked tiny in vastness of the Arena - the Arena that we kept being reminded has a swimming pool underneath, which made it feel spooky and slightly dangerous. Needless to say the ghosts of Cher and Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi and their audiences were kind and we got out unscathed and dry.

One of the other joys of this episode for me are the gay neighbours - or "gaybours" as Debbie would have them - played by Tom Paine and Rory Kinear. We were fantastically lucky to get them. Rory especially is one of the busiest and best actors on the planet who is going to play Hamlet next year at the National Theatre. If his portrayal of 'Ross Kemp' for us is anything to go by, the Dane will be magnificent. He and Tom just make brilliant choices about what they do with characters and with lines. Watch Rory trying to pick up Andy and see what he does with 'Sleepy Bunny'!

Thank you for reading, watching and being fabulous!

More Beautiful People

• Browse our behind-the-scenes gallery on Flickr
• Watch the making of the Doonan's Eurovision song on Comedy Extra

Jon Plowman is Executive Producer of Beautiful People, which continues tonight at 9.30pm on BBC Two.

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Richard Bacon writes...

In the same week that I interviewed Armando Iannucci on my real 5 live programme, my closest friend Marc spoke to him on XFM. As huge TV comedy fans in general (and Armando in particular), we met at the weekend to compare notes. I remember him saying, "When Armando's sitting opposite you, don't you wish he'd write you in to something?".

"Ha ha. Ha ha ha..." is how I started my call to Marc a month later. Not only had Armando stuck me in this show but elements of it are inspired by that late night trip to 5 live.

Marc, try harder next time. Perhaps you could try interrupting the interview at regular intervals to say, "coming next, are clowns funny?". He seemed to like that. Then, towards the end, have a clown in full regalia sit next to him. That's what I did.

The first script meeting was exciting. It had a fallen-down-the-rabbit-hole feel to it. Not only was I watching Peter Capaldi bring Malcolm Tucker to life in front of me but these fictional characters (that I love) were using my name. Oh my God I'm talking to Peter Mannion (pictured). And Terri. They're real. I can touch them (I didn't).

The toys in the toy cupboard had come to life.

I remember ringing a friend afterwards and saying I'd have been no less excited if somebody had given me a part in Fawlty Towers (actually that friend was Marc, felt like rubbing chilli salt into his jealousy wound).

Having never done any acting, I have nothing to compare this experience to - but the process was fascinating.

The first draft the cast saw was the fifth one. Everyone initially read word for word what was on the page. The next day we returned, only this time the script was more of a guide. Armando and the other writers took notes as everyone improvised (this meant I could hold sustained conversations with them when they were in character. Boss. I once did some thing similar with Jon Culshaw's Dale Winton impression in a pub. He didn't like it. I did).

The final script incorporated some of those adlibs and the process, as scripted, then looser, was repeated in front of the cameras.
 
Armando is very calm and laid back as he directs. All the cast are delightful. I spent so long interviewing Rebecca Front and Roger Alam (Murray and Mannion) that it became indistinguishable from a real radio programme.

Peter Capaldi is warm, mild mannered, courteous and charming. You really couldn't accuse him of playing himself. Unlikely anyone would send him a c*** cake.

In the scene where he bollocks my producer he came up with different terms of abuse for every take. Funny every time. Astonishing to watch.

And as with every episode of The Thick of It there's an awful lot of decent material that didn't make it: one of my favourite lines in the script involved Mannion and Phil talking about a "shit sandwich" and the reaction one might have upon tasting it. If anyone involved in the compilation of the DVD extras is reading this, please include it. Thanks.

For the record (grandly implying that anyone cares) my favourite characters are Terri and Glenn. Give them a spin off. But for God's sake make it better than Joey.
 
Richard Bacon will be interviewing The Thick of It's Chris Addison on his show tonight from 10.30pm on BBC Radio 5 live.

Out of The Thick of It
Another chance to see this week's Red Button bonus material:




Watch Peter Mannion and Nicola Murray's 5 live debate on The Thick of It this Saturday at 10.20pm on BBC Two. Read more about The Thick of It on the Comedy Blog.

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That's right. It's coming back. Head over to the Psychoville website for a special announcement.






The following contains spoilers, so don't read on if you haven't seen the final episode of series one...

Read the rest of this entry

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