More 4. Tuesday. 10pm.

This is a picture of Frances and Dennis and their giant beagle shaped Bed & Breakfast. It's in Cottonwood, Idaho and in the unlikely event that you ever find yourself in that part of the world, I can recommend you stay there.

They're in the documentary that airs tomorrow night on More 4.

I've been really surprised by the amount of press coverage the film has received. And flattered too. Documentaries aren't exactly the most written about of genres and More 4 - brilliant as it is - isn't exactly the most written about channel so when you've got a documentary on More 4 you don't exactly expect a blitz of press. But there's been far more than I expected.

On Saturday the Times made it the cover of their TV coverage and had this feature written by the Reverend Billy, which I thought was a novel way of approaching it. The Independent on Sunday gave it the cover of their TV coverage also and the Daily Mail's Weeekend magazine gave it a prominent preview and four stars saying, "Is it possible to drive across the US without staying at a chain hotel, eating at a chain restaurant or refuelling at a chain gas station? We won't spoil Dave Gorman's film by saying. His route follows its own peculiar logic, free from the carefully choreographed quirkiness that would be present in a more thoroughly researched travelogue, and this produces some real moments of magic - especially the closing 'mom and pop' soda fountain store, and a beagle shaped hotel which is in a class of its own. At one point Gorman rather loses it when his director is forced to drop out with a bad back, marooning him in a dead-end town. Towards the end it gets a touch repetitive - but the sense of adventure, warmth and Gorman's charm makes it work."

I honestly wouldn't have expected the Daily Mail to have noticed it existed let alone reviewed it. Given that they have, I'm really glad they appreciated the subtlety and could see what the film wasn't as well as what it was. (I can live with them saying it's "a touch repetitive" towards the end.)

The Scotsman was nice too. Mind you, the Daily Record seem to think I'm a Scotsman. Which I'm not. Still, at least he liked the film.

I'll be popping in to The Geoff Show on Virgin Radio tonight, The Wright Stuff on Channel 5 Tuesday morning and Richard and Judy on Tuesday also. And just to prove that I do leave the house for other reasons I'm taking part in an episode of Radio 4's Banter on Sunday. It's recoded at The Drill Hall in central London and if you want to get hold of some free tickets to come along you can get them here.

But all this aside, there are two huge honours being bestowed on the film that no one could ever have predicted. Apparently, the people of Britain are going to celebrate the screening by devoting the whole day to eating that most American of foodstuffs: the pancake. Thanks guys. That's a pretty amazing gesture. I won't forget it.

In America things have gone even crazier. The film isn't even being screened on US TV and yet the media over there have dubbed the day 'Super Tuesday!' How nice is that? I mean documentaries aren't exactly the most written about of genres and More 4 - brilliant as it is - isn't exactly the most written about channel so when you've got a documentary on More 4 you don't expect the country the film is about to declare the day of the UK broadcast to be especially super.

Enjoy your pancakes. Have a super Tuesday. I hope you like the doc.

Last Night's Genius

The Genius recording was a lot of fun. The nature of TV means it was a longer recording than any of the radio shows but the audience were great and stayed with it all the way. Quite right too, with such an illustrious trophy at stake.


Stephen Mangan was a superb guest. (I knew he would be because we'd met recently (at a poker table) and it was obvious then that he'd be a really good fit for the show.) As we were taking the show into a new environment it was really reassuring to have a guest that inspired 100% confidence.

More importantly we had some brilliant ideas from some brilliant people. They were all supremely confident and very ready to defend their "genius" ideas and for me, that's always what makes the show come alive.

Telly Genius

Alley Telly, originally uploaded by Dave Gorman.

We're making a one off episode of Genius for the tellybox later this year.

It'll be towards the end of November... I'll let you know more about it and how to get tickets to come and be in the audience nearer the time. (If you want to be the first to know, sign up to the mailing list - the link is on the right)

But for now, all we know is that if we're making a new show we want to hear more of your ideas. If you've heard the show you'll know the kind of thing... although having said that, we don't want to have a load of ideas that are a-bit-like-the-ideas-we've-already-discussed... we want to hear your ideas that are brand spanking new and y'know, genius. Think outside the box and we might well ask you to appear on it.

Don't send your ideas directly to me mind... I'm an idiot with a book to write so I'll only go and lose them somewhere on the way to Genius HQ. Send them direct to Genius HQ instead:
e: genius@bbc.co.uk

Vision

When I was about twelve, I think I quite fancied the idea of wearing glasses. I thought they would suit me in the same way that I thought chess might be a suitable pastime for me. Learning to play chess properly was far too much hassle so I didn't bother but I did try to throw an eye test. The optician was having none of it and pronounced my vision to be 20/20 and I remained specless. Of course with the benefit of hindsight (which is also 20/20) I'm glad about that. What a self-conscious tit I was.

Ten or more years ago I had another eye test and was again told that I had 20/20 vision. I was also told that I had unusually strong eyelids... if only eyelid wrestling was a competitive sport the 26 year old me might have fulfilled his Olympic dreams. Heigh ho.

I didn't have another eye-test for years, my next being three or four years ago. I'm not sure it really counts as there was no optician present and I was in a New York bar at the time. It started when I read aloud a sign on the far wall that must have amused or confused me in some way. None of my companions believed I was really reading it. They assumed I'd read it in passing on a trip to the gents and was now pretending to read it. I insisted that I was really reading it and they proceeded to quiz me, asking me to read different bits of text that were dotted about the bar. I named obscure brands of spirits, read healthcode signs and vintage adverts and my vision was declared 23/20 - which is much better than 20/20 and makes me special although, like I say, there wasn't an optician present.

Recently I've been finding writing harder than normal. My concentration wanders and headaches have been more frequent. You know where this is going. I am now a glasses wearer. I had a test last week and have discovered that I am ever so slightly long sighted. I have glasses for reading only. ("You won't need them to look at a menu but if you're reading for an hour or so or working on a computer they'll make life more comfortable.") The twelve year old me would be delighted. The thirty six year old me is everso slightly pissed off.

In other news I played my best poker a couple of days ago. It was online which is very sad of me but there you go. I entered a $5 tournament and so did 367 others. With some good play and three amazing moments of good fortune I won it. I won just shy of $460 which at the current exchange rate is... oo... 11p. I'm sure that over all time my poker account would be in the red but I will use this moment of victory to convince myself otherwise. Self-delusion is the key to happy gambling.

The tournament lasted around 4 hours. That's a long time to look at a computer screen. I hadn't yet taken delivery of my specs and so ended the day with a horrible headache. Still, poker is cooler than chess isn't it? Isn't it?

Oh, by the way, the second series of Annually Retentive starts a six week run on BBC3 this coming Monday.

What's My Point?

I thoroughly enjoyed the retro-recordings on Tuesday night... I think a dinner suit rather suits me. The other panellists were Amanda Platell, Amy Lamé and the other-wordly Brian Sewell while proceedings were charmingly chaired by the charming Hugh Dennis.

As a panel we weren't exactly brilliant at playing the game - it really made you appreciate how good at it the likes of Gilbert Harding were as they'd get down to the nub of the issue in as few questions as possible compared with our flappy approach.

So now I'm concentrating on packing for the US tour. For someone who's travelled on the fly so much I'm terrible when I actually have some kind of plan to stick to. If I was going to Napa tomorrow and I didn't know how long I was going to be away or where I was going next I would be at the airport in the blink of an eye (or a cab ride) and on my cheerful way but because I know of my other destinations and that Seattle will be cold come December it forces me into thinking and it's always dangerous when I have to do that. And of course I have a job to do when I get there... how does the show go again?

Retro

I'm taking part in a recording for BBC4 this evening which celebrates some shows from the past by reviving What's My Line? and the lesser known The Name's The Same (the internet only seems to be aware of the US version of this show but the BBC did make it in the 50s.)

I really like these shows - they feel similar to Call My Bluff which I adore - and they come from the days when testosterone wasn't assumed to be a vital ingredient of panel games.

Go Eugene Go.

I was a guest on Big Brother's Little Brother this afternoon... largely arguing the case for Eugene. I'm surprised by how much I've been following Big Brother this series but somehow it's got to me and I really do hope that Eugene wins.

Sudoku.

Vorderman's Sudoku Live was surprisingly jolly all told. I've no idea what it looked like on the box but it seemed to flow properly on the day. My fears about what the format involved ("You've got control of the grid Dave" "Is it a 9 Carol?") turned out to be unfounded.

Oddly I was supposed to be the captain of a team representing the city of Belfast which seemed like a rather abstract decision but when I saw that Italian chef Aldo Zilli was representing Cardiff and Bradford born (and with the vowels to prove it) Linda Barker was representing Birmingham it became clear that there wasn't meant to be any logical geographical context to it anyway.

There were 9 teams all with 9 people and everyone was supposed to be trying to complete the puzzle individually. Viewers at home were also playing along and there were prizes available for one viewer, the fastest individual in the studio, the fastest team and the fastest team captain.

The fact that I've been doing several sudokus on the way to 6Music this last week proved to be good training and I ended up being the fastest of the team captains and with the fastest team too. All the team captains had agreed in advance that their prize would be donated to one of Richard Whiteley's charities so while it doesn't really matter which of us won, it does feel good knowing that the money went to the British Heart Foundation.

Most importantly it was a jolly night out with C.Vorderman, K.Adams, H.Lederer, R.Rivron, L.Barker, A.Zilli, J.Brambles, D.Stephenson and R. "Say his name baby he's da man" Blackwood.