Being entertained by long dead performers on television and radio. Drinking with my mates in London pubs (or pubs in any part of the world really!). Cuddles with my lady! My job...luckily!!
I've met nearly all of my living heroes and a lot of my dead ones (Oliver Reed, Frankie Howerd, Spike Milligan, Graham Chapman)...but I'm still waiting to meet Kelly Brook naked in my shower one day!
The Beatles. Eddie Cochran. The Who. Johnny Cash.
Jerry Lee: "I got music in my soul, rhythm in my veins and a lotta thunder in my left hand". Buddy Holly. Kris Kristofferson. Chuck Berry. Jimi Hendix. Little Richard. The Kinks. Elvis. Hoyt Axton. Sweet Gene Vincent!
60s, classic country and pure 50s American rock 'n' roll basically!
And, almost anything else, from Bessie Smith to Will Smith via Anthony Newley! Bowie, Bolan, Bill Oddie (how come 'Distinctly Oddie' and 'Nothing To Do With Us' are never in those top 100 album polls!).
Sinatra, Sex Pistols, Rolling Stones. The Doors, Neil Sedaka, Randy Newman, Alma Cogan, Solomon Burke, Oasis, Dean Martin, Carl Perkins, Don McLean, Bing Crosby, Pink Floyd, Ella Fitzgerald, Roger Miller, Queen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Clash, the Everly Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Scissor Sisters, Al Jolson, Bobby Darin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Roger Miller, Screamin' Jay Hawkins. My iPod shuffle is very eclectic!!
Carry On...of course! Hammer Films.
Universal horror.
Anything starring Errol Flynn, Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, James Cagney or Cary Grant.
The Third Man.
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. And, in no particular order, What A Carve Up!, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Murder Most Foul, The Arsenal Stadium Mystery, The Ladykillers (1955!), Duck Soup, Fantasia, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Italian Job (1969!), Hellzapoppin', Twelve Angry Men, Time Bandits, A Matter of Life and Death, Things to Come, A Shot in the Dark (1933 and 1964),
Dumbo, The Naked Truth, Some Like it Hot, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Final Test, The Jungle Book (1942 and 1967), Dead of Night, Fright Night,
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, Green For Danger, The Jolson Story, Hillbillys in a Haunted House, Sleuth, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Freddy Vs Jason, White Christmas, The Thin Man, The Big Job, Murder By Television, Carefree, Singin' in the Rain, Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Maltese Falcon (1941), Duck Amuck, Crooks Anonymous, The Wild Geese, Blue Skies, Orange County, The 39 Steps (1935, 1959 and 1978!), Dog Soldiers, School For Scoundrels, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Spider Baby, Ed Wood, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers,
Robin and the 7 Hoods, Psycho (1960!), House of the Long Shadows, Adventures of a Private Eye, Hue and Cry, Genevieve, Doctor in Trouble, The House That Dripped Blood, The Cat and the Canary (1939), Blue Murder at St. Trinian's, Bloodbath at the House of Death, Road to Morocco, Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, Around the World in 80 Days (1956 and 2004), Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl, An American Werewolf in London, Shadow of a Doubt, Sullivan's Travels, Mr Wong in Chinatown, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case, Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops, Mother Riley Meets the Vampire...and lots, lots more!!
Far too much to list...but Doctor Who, The Goodies, Hancock's Half Hour, Hancock, Steptoe and Son (and anything else by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson), The Sweeney, The Likely Lads, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Public Eye, The Saint, The Return of the Saint, The Persuaders!,
Porridge, Going Straight, The Munsters, Redcap (the John Thaw one!), Up Pompeii!, The Outer Limits, Minder, Jason King, The Avengers, The New Avengers, Columbo, Cribb, The Twilight Zone, The Phil Silvers Show, The Singing Detective (and anything else by Dennis Potter), Quatermass and the Pit (and anything else by Nigel Kneale), Rising Damp, It Ain't Half Hot, Mum, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Starsky and Hutch, Father Brown (with Kenneth More), Agatha Christie adaptations as long as they star Joan Hickson or David Suchet, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Hollywood UK (The best documentary series ever), Ripping Yarns, Blackadder (all incarnations), Bless This House, Man About the House, Doctor in the House... I learnt all the history I need from Richard Greene, Conrad Phillips, Terence Morgan, William Russell, Robert Shaw and Richard O'Sullivan.
Of more recent fare, Doctor Who (again!!), The Simpsons, Life on Mars, Later...with Jools Holland, The Smoking Room, Brainiac, The League of Gentlemen and anything with Peter Kay or Steve Coogan.
Well, I suppose I have to say all of mine, although my favourite 'babies' are my 'first born', The Carry On Companion, The Complete Sid James, the Monty Python Encyclopedia, The Carry On Story, Steptoe and Son, The Complete Terry-Thomas and my latest, The Goodies Rule OK. My favourite authors are those people you can read and re-read: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, Charles Dickens, Mark Gatiss. I have an obsession for books.
I love the smell of old books and new books. The feel of books. I have thousands: stored, shelved and stacked all over the place. Some I will probably never read (stand up, One Day at a Time by Bernie Winters) others I consult almost on a daily basis (hello, Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy by Mark Lewisohn). I usually have at least one fiction and one non-fiction on the go: currently Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation by Charles Dickens, Charmed Lives: The Fabulous World of the Korda Brothers by Michael Korda, Complete Short Stories by H.G. Wells, Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, Dying to Tell by Robert Goddard and Agatha Christie: An English Mystery by Laura Thompson.
Sid James, Lon Chaney Jnr., Charles Hawtrey, John Lennon, Tony Hancock, George Harrison, Max Miller, Peter Butterworth, Peter Sellers, Peter Cushing, Peter Cook and my Dad.