Like I Need Another Song Called Unloveable

I've been asked a number of times where the name of this blog comes from. The short answer is: it was inspired by (that is to say, named after) a Smiths song.

And now Babybird have gone and recorded a song called Unloveable, too. This one is even more affecting (to me, personally), but then I suppose it would be.

The blog and domain name was chosen at a time when it reflected how I felt. Now this new one is doing the same, again. Here're are the lyrics, according to a fan site. I've modified them slightly because I think they got a few words wrong: 

I’ve tried
And you’ve tried
You’ve cried
And I’ve cried
I’ve lied
And you’ve lied
Together we’ve died
But sometimes
Sometimes it gotta stop
I’m cold when you’re cold
I’m warm when you’re warm
We were friends
We’re still friends
That’s all
That’s all
That’s all
You can’t love me
I’m unloveable
But baby you could try
It’s all good, it’s not bad
It’s all smiles, it’s not sad
There's just time to stop love
Love’s gone, move on
Life’s long
You can’t love me
I’m unloveable
But baby you could try
Sha la
Sha la la la la la la la
Sha la la
Sha la
Love’s so sweet it suffocates us
Like a sickly kindly gag
And we’re floating down the sewer pipe
Like kittens in a bag
And the mirror screams to both of us
That we are not alone
Then the metaphors explode
And suddenly we’re home
You can’t love me
I’m unloveable
But baby you could try
I can’t love you
You’re so loveable
But baby let me try
You can’t love me
I’m unloveable
But baby you could try
I can’t love you
You’re so loveable
But baby let me try

This one's going to be playing on my internal MP3 for quite some time. 

Do my job for me

Card sorters required!

As part of my new job, I am undertaking a complete overhaul of the Channel 4 corporate web site, to make it more user-friendly, more accessible, more useful and easier to search. In order to tailor it most closely to users' needs, I'd like to capture what you think about the way we should organise the site.

Can you please spare a few minutes to take part in our "card sorting" exercise? If so, click here:

http://websort.net/s/8ED871/

This site will ask you to log in by adding your email address. (This is purely so we can count the number of people who have taken part.)

There are instructions which will tell you what to do but, in short, the exercise involves grouping the contents of the press and publicity sites into sensible, similar group types. And that's it!

It shouldn't take you very long, and it will help me to make the very best possible press site for 2010.

More sad news

It seems like the only time I post here these days it's to share bad news.

My mum passed away on the morning of 2nd November at around 2.45am. She had been admitted to the hospital in Welwyn Garden City at about 1am after the workers at her care home felt her to be cold and clammy and called an ambulance.

My wife and I arrived shortly before she died, literally a matter of seconds. At the end, she wasn't suffering. She was calm from the time she was admitted. I believe that something inside her was holding on to give us the chance to say goodbye, or let her know that we were there with her. Given her long but inevitable deterioration over the past six years, I'm at a loss to understand what that something was but, nevertheless, she did not leave until I was by her side and that is some comfort to me. The chaplain was called to say some prayers and give her a blessing.

Although she was into the later stages of Alzheimer's, when we last visited her a couple of weekends ago she was relatively bright (and even said "Hello", not a regular occurrence). It was a Sunday and the Salvation Army held a service during which we sang hymns beside her and she seemed to enjoy it. She munched happily on the chocolate Minstrels we shared.

Unsurprisingly, her death has made me more determined than ever to complete the charity Doctor Who book. Please help if you can.

If you are unable to help with the book, then please find it in your heart to donate some money, however much you can afford, to the Alzheimer's Research Trust. You can do so online here: http://www.alzheimers-research.org.uk/howtohelp/donate/

Help (me) write a Dr Who book for charity

Are you a celebrity? Do you know someone who is?

Then will you please help me to write a Dr Who book for charity?

My mum has been ill, suffering from Alzheimer's, for about four years now. She recently moved into a retirement home where her nursing needs could be met more fully.

I don’t have many skills, but I have got something of a strong will. So I'm putting together a book, to help raise awareness of the effects of early onset dementia (particularly the fact that it is affecting more and younger people every year), where all the profits will go to research into Alzheimer's. I'm hoping you may be able to help.

The idea I've had is simple: to ask those in the public eye with a connection to or enthusiasm for Dr Who to write 200/300 words each on a particular favourite memory they have of the series.

"The public eye" means... either, fairly high profile fans (at least, ones who can be credited with something), or people in telly generally or who have worked on the show, or proper, honest-to-goodness celebrities (the kind who would get reported in the tabloids if they phoned Dr Who after the Dalek Invasion Of Earth to say "Hey, I f***ed your grand-daughter, Susan"), or journo types who make a living from writing and can cause a stir with their opinions.

Each contribution may be something from childhood, a particular favourite adventure or moment from the series, or something more recent. The story need not simply be a memory of watching the programme; perhaps it's the experience of working with an actor who played Dr Who, getting that elusive Target novelisation, or finding a Police Box outside Earl's Court tube station – heart-warming, entertaining or evocative memories that would make the book as enjoyable to read as I hope it will be to put together.

So, what I hope you reading this might do to help is either a) volunteer a piece for the pie, or b) forward this Word Document request to people who are more famous and/or more suited to having a crack at it.

I mean, surely between us - using that six degrees of separation rule that founded Jamie Oliver's Ministry Of Food, or got that guy a date with Drew Barrymore - we know enough famous people to make this the best Dr Who book ever.

If we can get one hundred big, big names to contribute, the whole thing would make a nice 200 page, albeit small size book. Then, if every Dr Who fan currently hoovering up merchandise bought just one copy - bingo! Loads of dosh for the Alzheimers Research Trust charity. Everyone's a winner.

However, I am in the very early stages of planning. I have yet to persuade the BBC to licence the Dr Who brand (although that is, in fairness, not a necessity), though they have indicated it is not entirely an impossibility. I also need to find the best publishing deal for it. I hope to avoid “self-publishing” because in order to make any significant contribution to charity, the book would need the widest distribution channels possible.

But let that not stop us.

To date, I've already had lovely submissions from Bill Oddie, Toby Young, Conor McNicholas, Marc Platt, Paul Cornell, Chris Chibnall, and Ian McMillan, plus promised contributions from many others.

"A man is the sum of his memories," a wise Time Lord once said. Hopefully, together, we can prove it's more than that.