New York Bound
Hello and welcome to a very special edition of Entertainment Tonight which this week is coming to you from the city that never sleeps, that's so good they named it twice or that's been dubbed "The Big Apple". Here I am live in Central Park with a full ninety minutes ahead exploring New York."
This is how I began the programme broadcast on Hospital Radio Bedford on Monday 14th November 2005.
It had always been my ambition to visit New York and I finally made my first trip in July 2004. I had such a good time that I followed it up with a two night stay at the beginning of May 2005. Whilst there I thought it would make an interesting twist if Entertainment Tonight were broadcast from Broadway. After all, the programme focuses on the performing arts and the Great White Way is a mecca for both performers and theatre-goers alike!
After my brief trip to NYC in May 2005 I began to plan a potential trip later in the year that would enable me to see a few more Broadway shows and try to secure some interesting guests who were either living or working in the city. I'd seen Avenue Q on my visit and was very impressed with the actor portraying Rod and Princeton in the show. I wrote to him at the theatre and was amazed a month later when I got a reply saying that he would be delighted to appear on the programme if he was still appearing in the show later in the year. Barrett Foa was my first potential guest for the Broadway Special and that was all I needed to get cracking on producing a programme that you would never expect to hear on a hospital radio station.
Then in the summer of 2005 I recorded an interview with Jill Paice who was appearing as Laura Fairlie in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Woman In White at the Palace Theatre in London. It had just been announced that the show would make its Broadway debut in November and the three leading actresses (and Michael Ball) would transfer with the show to New York. So at the end of the interview I suggested to Jill that we meet again in the Broadway Theatre for another chat. Jill was happy to talk to me in New York and we exchanged email addresses. Guest number Two was now sorted.
I remembered talking to an American actor back in the year 2000 when he was appearing in Dolly West's Kitchen at The Old Vic in London. Perry Ojeda had been a delight to interview and I thought it might be a nice touch to catch up with him since his last appearance on the programme. Another email across the ether and Perry was looking forward to renewing our acquaintance. He had been writing some shows and was making semiregular appearances on two of the US daily TV soaps. Three guests booked; I was a very happy chap!
However I wanted to make the most of my trip to New York so decided that part of the programme should be about bringing some of the landmarks of the city to the Entertainment Tonight audience. So as well as my three special guests we took the listener on a bus tour of New York, across to the Statue of Liberty, paid tribute to the ordinary people who lost their lives at Ground Zero and wandered across Brooklyn Bridge.
It was a fabulous experience and hard work too but I hope that it was worth it for the listeners to Entertainment Tonight who were able to share my experiences of New York.