Friday was such a manic day I was too knackered to write this last night, so here goes. Better late than never.
It absolutely hurled it down all morning. I've never seen rain like it. It carried on, off and on, during the rest of the day. Had to happen one day, I suppose.
At lunchtime I went to see a one man show, written and performed by Alex Gwyther, called RIPPED. Alex is an LBC listener and had emailed me about his show some weeks ago wondering if I'd go along and see it. The subject matter was not easy - male rape and toxic masculinity. Anyway, it proved to be an absolute tour de force. Quite dark at times, but also with a lot of humour. Alex seemed to really live the whole thing and by the end you could tell he was both physically and mentally spent. Anyway, if you're in Edinburgh, do go and see this and I promise you'll enjoy it, even if you think that the subject matter means you might not. Promise.
Our 4pm show today featured Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London. Given the headlines we're generated with other politicians this week I think he was quite nervous about how this might pan out. At the end I don't think either of us felt that he had 'committed news', but the ensuing articles on knife crime and police numbers in the Mail and Standard proved otherwise.
It was a full house and I think the audience really enjoyed it, although not all of them were signed up Labour or Sadiq supporters by any means.
At 6pm it was time for Dr David Starkey. With David you know what you're going to get, but you always expect the unexpected, if you see what I mean. He was in great form and we mixed up the serious with the light right throughout the hour. He was enthralling and I think there were more laughs in this than in any other of the 20 shows I've done so far. He also talked very movingly at times, especially about the death of his partner James, and talked about the loneliness he experiences. You could hear a pin drop. At the end quite a few members of the audience gave him a standing ovation, and deservedly so.
Afterwards, I took him to dinner at the Hotel du Vin, which I can highly recommend. I then grabbed a cab to go to a show called MUSIK up at the Assembly Rooms on George Street. It is a one woman show starring Frances Barber, but also featuring new songs by the Pet Shop Boys. Her performance was quite astonishing in its variety and intensity. She played an ageing celebrity who left war torn Berlin for the delights of America in 1945, and then told the story of her life following that. Some of the humour was sometimes a little obvious and cringy, but the character she quickly developed was so captivating that it masked that. Her singing the new Pet Shop Boys songs was exemplary, especially in the disco-based songs, which is quite something to pull off for an actress not known for her singing. I imagine that after every performance she's a physical wreck and needs 12 hours sleep, so intense is her performance.
Just finally, we're launching a new 'Iain Dale All Talk' podcast this weekend in which we'll be uploading the audio from all 24 Edinburgh shows, one a week over the next six months. It will also feature bonus interviews from my LBC show and others too. You can subscribe via the Global Player App, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts from. Just search for All Talk or Iain Dale.
Today it's Christiane Amanpour, followed by Anne Diamond and Nick Owen.
