This contains spoilers for episode two of Modern Life Is Goodish so if you haven't seen it yet this won't make a lot of sense. Why not go and watch it and come back later?
It won't be repeated again during this run, but it will be
on the Dave website for one more day. (Each show disappears from the On Demand service on Tuesday night when the next one is broadcast)
Anyway... I thought I'd write this because I've received a few hundred messages since episode two went out that all relate to the same thing
This, for example:
... and also this...
So it makes sense to me to try and add a bit of clarity.
Basically, a lot of people want to know about my "lookalike". A lot of people have seen that "he" is still on the
Susan Scott lookalike agency website and then assumed that means Susan Scott and her staff still don't realise and haven't seen the show.
It seems only fair to them to clear that up.
The production team only found out what was really going on about an hour or two before the recording. At which point, everyone was in a bit of a headspin as they dealt with the fact that the show wasn't going to end in the way
they had planned. But there wasn't any time for anger because everyone's focus was all about what we
were going to do instead. (From my point of view it wasn't a big concern because seeing their confusion unravel as they realised that what they'd been planning as a surprise
for me was actually even more weird and surprising for them was just making me laugh.)
The next day I got a bit of a telling off. But only a bit because we all knew that what
had happened was better than what they'd been expecting to happen.
It was a day or two later that I got in touch with the people at Susan Scott Lookalikes. I called to explain and apologise. And I sent them some flowers. And they were brilliant about it. They took the whole thing in good grace - it was only a gentle ribbing after all - and, as I explained in the show, they didn't actually put a foot wrong. They did
everything right. It wasn't as if anyone was playing a trick
on them.
They really have been absolutely fantastic about the whole thing. And they've left "Martin A" on the site, not out of ignorance, but because they think it's a funny thing to do.
I gather also that a lot of people have contacted them and asked about booking Martin A. The truth is that if a booking had come in
before the show had been broadcast I probably would have done it. Because being my own lookalike for punters who didn't know it was me would have made me laugh. But of course that didn't happen because
of course there is no market for a me-lookalike. That would be preposterous.
But, now that the show's been broadcast, and the only people who are going to try and book him know that he's me... and they're contacting an agent who knows that it's me and, of course,
I know that it's me too (I'm clever like that) there's not really anything to be gained by going through with it.
So despite his presence on the site, you'll find that Martin A has suddenly become strangely unavailable. After all, I can't afford to undercut
myself by that much.
