Over the past half decade, Foiled has grown from low budget fringe theatre actually staged in a hair salon to being the most popular comedy show ever broadcast by BBC Radio Wales, starring legends of stage and screen including Ralf Little, Miles Jupp, Felicity Montagu, Vicky Vox and Sir Derek Jacobi. That’s all well and … Continue reading How Long Does It Take To Write an Entire BBC Radio Sitcom?
In a year of tumult, it’s been a tumultuous week, all commotion and confusion. Everyone is dealing with their own personal bucket of uncertainty at the moment: for me, that bucket was dumped pretty much all on one day. A fingers-crossed job interview, a month in Bristol cancelled, an injection flooding my bloodstream. But, like … Continue reading BBC Radio Foiled: 2017-2021
Beth Granville and I started working on the scripts for Series 4 of our BBC Radio sitcom Foiled at the end of March, making use of the uncertainty of the first lockdown to produce first drafts of three of the four episodes. We worked remotely, of course, and although we shared script ideas and weekly … Continue reading How to write a BBC radio sitcom during a global pandemic
The scripts are in! We record tomorrow! In our third year of Foiled, I feel like I can say something about the rhythms of writing a radio sitcom. Settle in, this is a long read. Writing a sitcom episode is like building a house (kinda) In reality, Beth and I usually start laying bricks before … Continue reading What does it take to write a BBC radio sitcom?
This is mad, isn’t it? A year ago I was in the London Welsh Centre, watching rehearsals for a hair-based theatre comedy called ‘Foiled’. Being one of the writers, I loved every minute – but I never expected The Stage would call it ‘the perfect comedy’ in a 5-star review. That was dreamy enough, but … Continue reading Foiled Episode 1: Everything’s Kings (BBC Radio)
In January 2016, Beth Granville and I were commissioned to write four episodes of our sitcom Foiled for BBC Radio Wales. I still get goosebumps writing that sentence! Getting a comedy commission from the BBC really doesn’t happen very often in a writer’s life and I feel fantastically lucky. Earlier this week, Beth and I … Continue reading How to get a BBC Radio Comedy Commission
I always knew fame would come some day, but I never imagined it would come like this. After two very countable feature appearances on Iranian PressTV and Singaporean StarSports, and after countless featureless appearances in the background of Midsomer Murders, I’ve finally made it. The BBC has called. Tomorrow, at approximately 10:30am, I shall haul … Continue reading Me & Hitch-hiking on BBC Radio Scotland – Tomorrow!
1. Wave at people in SPACE Wherever you are on Earth, NASA will tell you where, when and how you can see the International Space Station flying through space above your head. The space station looks like an airplane or a very bright star moving across the sky, except it doesn’t have flashing lights or … Continue reading 4 Tiny Big Things At The End
And a warm welcome from various trains running north and south along the east coast of Britain. Today’s gargantuan story is Part One of a selection of titbits from the fullness of the year just gone. For easy digestion, I’ve divided the fifty-two into sections, with half of each section coming today and the other … Continue reading 52 Things I Learned In 2023 (Part 1)
A juice company dumps 12,000 metric tonnes of orange pulp and accidentally heals degraded forest in Costa Rica? (I had to check the date on this article — it’s legit.) I know the world is in need of deep systemic change in so many ways, but small wins can help. Join the revolution and sign … Continue reading Five Tiny Big Things #2 Juicy Forest Restoration / News Revolution / Natural Light At Dusk / Nature Therapy / Everything Is Going To Be Fine
And a warm welcome from Thessaloniki, named contemporaneously for the sister of Alexander the Great of Macedon, an etymology that hints at the long human history for culture and conflict at this crossroads of the world. But (in the words of The Tim Traveller) we’re not here to discuss any of that. Or maybe we … Continue reading A Midpoint 738km and 8,672m of climbing from Kotor to Thessaloniki in six and a half days
As a writer, I am — naturally enough — very deliberate about what I put out into the world for other humans to think about. I’d be INSANE if I wasn’t equally deliberate about I take in from the rest of the world. Insane. But somehow, a writer’s natural deliberation isn’t always mirrored by the … Continue reading Andy Murray’s Nice It takes effort to look deep into the worst of us and to share the ways that humans, out of the darkness, respond with energetic hope and creativity
Why This, Why Now On Wednesday night, there was a football game. But, if you live in the UK, you knew that already. You’re either: one of the 48 percent of the population who actively follow football; or one of the 99 percent of the population whose lives are in some way affected by results, … Continue reading What Would Salah Do? Or: Zen Fandom: Spectator Sports As Spiritual Practice
While discussing the relationship between my favourite Heraclitus quote and cycling around Britain for the second time, a two-time acquaintance suggested I read a short article by psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion. The four pages of Notes on memory and desire (1967) are clearly written for the psychoanalyst, but are fertile ground for anyone hoping to write … Continue reading Writing In Public: Memory & Desire However inconvenient the distortions of memory and desire may be for psychoanalysts, they are good things for the writers of bicycling memoirs
There’s train strikes this week: 40,000 rail workers united to protect their pay and working conditions against extraction by private shareholders. In January, rail minister Huw Merriman admitted that, not only would it have been cheaper to settle the dispute months ago, but that the negotiations were being used to suppress the pay of all … Continue reading Be The Miracle Fearful sceptics have bewitched us into believing that it’s absurd to believe in humanity, their perverted tyranny twisting our minds such that a show of solidarity from a stranger is ‘a miracle’
This is something that I actually drafted in an email to a developmental editor. It’s my attempt to describe what I’d like to achieve with a book tentatively titled Coasting: Cycling Around Britain (Twice). At the moment, I am strolling across an open field and I could yet turn this project in any direction. Please … Continue reading Writing In Public: Coasting My attempt to describe what I’d like to achieve with a book tentatively titled Coasting: Cycling Around Britain (Twice).
Conspiracy A couple of weeks ago, I met a young man who lived in a world of confusion, threat and mistrust. Within a couple of minutes of meeting, he was telling me that he felt like straight men ‘like us’ were on the bottom rung of society’s ladder. He followed this up with a story … Continue reading The End Of Doomspreading The world is complicated. I have so much empathy for people who find it too much — I do too sometimes. But, as much as we’d love to, we can’t ever fully control; we can only fully collaborate
It’s been a slow start for Days of Adventure 2023: I’ve been recovering from the traumatic combination of road and gravity on my knee cartilage. My usual vectors for adventure are out: no hiking, no cycling, no running, no skating, no surfing, no climbing. Or at least, I thought they were out until I read … Continue reading Adventure When You Can’t Adventure? The Nicaragua expedition included two in wheelchairs, one deaf, one blind, one double foot amputee, two arm amputees, one with spina bifida and three single leg amputees. We start from where we are
My friends know me well. This week, three people, independently, sent me the news that a high court judge had decided that wild camping was never permitted under the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985. As of last Friday, nights like this are no longer legal without permission from the landowner: My friends indeed know me well: … Continue reading 260,000 Year Winning Record For Team Human Cooperation on a local level — human to human, here and now — makes the relentless negativity of news media (and the power it represents) not only harmlessly avoidable, but ultimately irrelevant
I’d like to begin by saying thank you for having me. 2022 was a year of unprecedented growth for The David Charles Newsletter — there are 67 percent more of you here today than there were on this day a year ago. Hello! 👋 For this humble director of a one-person media empire, that’s pretty … Continue reading A Short Tour Of The Forgotten Elses AKA: 2022 shareholder review
Happy 2023! Or, for those of you still on the Byzantine or Roman calendar, I hope you’re all having a great 7531! My year started with dancing and Dancing Ledge, followed by an assault on a wardrobe, and then finally getting all the results back from my Zoe personalised nutrition experiment. Data! — what a … Continue reading PROOF: I’m Fine No wonder I’m completely broken as a human being — frankly, it’s a miracle that I’m even able to sit here and type these wor— Oh, wait. I’m fine
MIGRATION The Nationality and Borders Act of 2022 was passed in April after the Commons rejected a series of amendments proposed by the Lords that would have protected compliance with the Refugee Convention. Heavy. In January, with the help of paradox, I tried to understand our part in all this, because we all have a … Continue reading 52 Things I Learned In 2022 We shall not cease from exploration so don’t ask us to compromise our beliefs because we still have NO IDEA what wonders we’re capable of. And other lessons from 2022
This is so much fun. Watch what happens when I attempt to mindlessly browse the BBC Sport website yesterday 👇 Over the last month, I’ve been mulling restlessly over my consumption of sports news. As you know, I am a huge fan of No News Is Good News. But I also have the misfortune to … Continue reading Woolly Mammoths & Butterfly Wings Something frivolous and life-changing about how we can use redirects to break the palliative cycle of internet addiction and transform our most spirit-crushing micro-habits into a very silly game
That’s a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion! This week, prompted by an app called Zoe, I have been experimenting with my morning repast. On Tuesday, I ate a single bagel, then nothing for three hours. On Wednesday, I devoured a bowl of nothing but avocado. Thursday was … Continue reading On The Lip Of A Lion What does breakfast do to me?
This year, I have read 38 books — although, for some reason, 2022 has been the year of abandonment. A record six books have been picked up, started, and put down again, never to be troubled by my rigorous scoring system. Perhaps I was unlucky in my choices. Or perhaps I am beginning to value … Continue reading Dave’s 2022 Books Of The Year
Speak to silence, speak of fire and fire, to the zero future of ice light Future of fire and ice, with broken silence, speak to love Speak, broken country, of love and roses, cold wind, gifts and night Future of ice and fire, in broken night, speak to laugh Fire to ice, speak to silence … Continue reading Dylan, Eliot, Orwell, Rimbaud + Peterborough Swan carcasses, evensong, rotting sculptures, masked graffiti, community tree planting, heron flights and invisible medicine — all before leaving Peterborough
Last night I went to the second ever edition of Professional Amateur Story Time, hosted by The New Forest Off Road Club. The principle of the PAST Adventure Series is simple: three women stand up and tell stories of adventure to a rapt audience at a local bike shop. We heard about the Adventure Queen … Continue reading Never Dread The Road Ahead Everything I do for this bike ride is about finding the courage to connect. And it’s not just the bike ride. Cycling around Britain is a cypher for *everything* I do
This, as some of you will certainly know by now, is my second time cycling this way. Back in 2011, this section of my 58-day circumcycle of Britain took me six summer days. This time around I’ve been on the move three days already and I’m less than a third of the way to Inverness. … Continue reading Yes To Yes-vember! Selfless heroes of the journey: closest to the upspray from the wet road, toes to the wind, 60 times a minute pushing on the pedals, and with every pounding what warm blood remains further condensed
What are we really looking for when we’re really looking for something? That was the question I found myself asking as I tore onward through the sodden undergrowth, shredding myself on brambles and pulling myself up on slippery fern roots and inquisitive cables of rhododendron. I reached the top of the bank covered in liquid … Continue reading Seek And Ye Shall Find… But What? What are we really looking for when we’re really looking for something?
🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 Friday 9 September I’d spent a pretty sleepless night trying to discourage the local dogs from chewing up our cyclists’ helmets that’d been left scattered around camp after a long day’s ride. We were all still feeling pretty tender from our brush with some kind of Montenegrin lake-bourne vomiting bug. Considering that, only two … Continue reading Intrinsic Adventure The Days of Adventure project has made damn sure I protect time for my priorities. It’s taken me outdoors when outdoors seemed a long way distant
September 17, 30 degree heat, Akropolis in sight. The culmination of seven months’ hard preparation and two months’ hard riding. It was a spectacular summer, filled to the brim with vivid experiences and vital friendships. But, as I reluctantly turned my handlebars back northwest, I felt pretty empty. So, as our ferry chugged inexorably across … Continue reading Winter Wins And in one year’s time I’ll be opening the freakin Palladium! (Or maybe I’ll just have sustainable momentum in the direction I want to travel)
The Boring Bit Earlier this year, tediously, Virgin Mobile transferred all their customers (hi) from the EE network to Vodafone. (Did you know that there are only four actual mobile phone networks in the UK? All the other providers are just piggybacking.) For 99.99 percent of Virgin customers, this move made absolutely no difference. For … Continue reading Don’t Rush To Press Writing, creating and flourishing – without a phone connection
This is part of an accidental mini series on the psychological and ecological benefits of taking new perspectives on life, society, citizenship and the planet. The first part of the mini series looked at what I see as the organisational purpose of Thighs of Steel and took a new perspective to help me understand why … Continue reading Mycelial Contentment Fungi remind me that life is a simultaneous — and utterly entangled — act of personal exploration and collective creation
Last week I told you no lies. But perhaps I was sparing with the truth. I said that Thighs of Steel left Glasgow on 16 July and arrived in Athens on 17 September. Truth. I also said that 95 cyclists rode a cumulative 71,337km over the course of 49 days. Also truth. But there’s a … Continue reading Lies And The What What Now Now While livers and kidneys and stem cells do their surreptitious work, the rest of the world, friends, family and lovers from back home look on and ask of us the what what now now
Happy Friday! And greetings from Athens. It’s been quite the ride. Thighs of Steel, a rolling community of fundraising cyclists, left Glasgow on 16 July and arrived in Athens on 17 September. Over the course of 49 days, 95 cyclists rode a cumulative 71,337km and climbed up 757,975 metres of elevation, the equivalent of more … Continue reading Not A Charity Auction ‘Cycling together, reaching our destination and fundraising for refugees, brought everyone together and created a sense of intimacy that’s very difficult to find.’
We finished the first half of the story on the cusp of making the big mistake of blaming an ahistorical socioeconomic system for the sharp contrast between two hotels only five minutes and three decades apart: the Sheraton and the Pelegrin. More Like Communisn’t! At the end of the eighties, the story that many people … Continue reading More Like Commun-isn’t! A pirate in shining armour, capitalism rode to the rescue, camera crew and cruise ships in tow
I have a feeling that this story is going to be a difficult one to write. Not because I’m way out of my depth — I’m used to that feeling — but because, no matter how much I pull on the thread, I can’t seem to find the end. Writing this introduction, I look down … Continue reading Room Service and the End of the End of History After two millennia, a collapsed way of life feels humbling, but safe — like sitting on the edge of a high cliff at moonless midnight, looking over the ocean at the dance of the Milky Way
Lorenzo looks me in the eye, finger tips pressed together, and delivers his final verdict: Seriously, there’s no point. Why would you even do that? Why? Greetings from the portico-shaded streets of Bologna, where I’ve spent the past week relaxing — and, in peak moments, getting really, really bored. Hence my appearance in the tourist … Continue reading Boredom & The World Heritage Site
The second century followers of the gnostic Carpocrates believed that human souls must go through every possible earthly experience before they are released and return to god’s side in heaven. For most ordinary people, this means reincarnation after reincarnation as they labour through tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich, poor, beggar, thief. But the Carpocratians tried … Continue reading Carpocratian Touring
For the next couple of months I’m cycling to Athens, as part of Europe’s longest charity bike ride. 5,000km, a hundred people, through ten countries, over nine weeks gives me a lot of time to experience things, but not a lot of time to write things. Today I happened to wake up at 5am — … Continue reading Philoxenia and the Magic Cobbler
I’m writing this from the final day of a three-day introductory course in ecopsychology, led by Natural Academy. That wiggly red underlining indicates that my computer doesn’t recognise ecopsychology as a word, so let’s break it down. Eco- comes from the Greek oikos, meaning home or dwelling place — and, by extension, the household or … Continue reading The Dwelling Place Of The Soul
I’ve written about fractal patterns in nature before, about how restorative they are, and just how damn cute. The branching of a tree, for example, is a pattern repeated at every level, from the veins of its leaves to the mycorrhizal networks of the fungi among its roots. But my mind was pleasantly massaged earlier … Continue reading Nature Loves A Broccoli
We imagine responsibility as a weight. This imagined foe finds expression in the metaphorical language we all use. Responsibility is something we hold, bear, carry or shoulder. Responsibility is a heavy, weighty thing that can be handed over, dodged or ducked. Sometimes responsibility even falls on us. No wonder that, in our most solemn moments … Continue reading Responsibility Is Not Heavy It’s electromagnetic (metaphorically speaking)
I’ve spent the last six months working my ass off behind a computer screen to help make Thighs of Steel 2022 a sweat-n-spokes reality. Now it’s time for the easy bit: cycling 5,000km from Glasgow to Athens. SORRY WHAT?!? Oh yes. I’ll be part of the core team for six of the eight weeks: from … Continue reading How To Give Me Birthday Presents (And accidentally take positive action on something you really care about)
Nothing propinks like propinquity ~ Ian Fleming, Diamonds Are Forever Propinquity is the property of nearness. On an archaeological dig, the closer together artefacts are found, the more similar their likely provenance. These artefacts are said to have high propinquity and, most likely, nearness in space equals nearness in time. If beads from a lapis … Continue reading The Cataclysmic Event Hypothesis Nothing propinks like propinquity
Yesterday I finished reading The Men’s Group Manual by Clyde Henry. I’m not a member of a men’s group and I can’t really imagine joining, much less starting one right now, except perhaps in some kind of Temporary Autonomous Zone. Nevertheless, I got a lot out of reading the book because it explains, as if … Continue reading Dream Architecture
Language is fossil poetry. This is a story about scent, that strangest of our senses, which arises when a volatile chemical compound binds to a receptor in our nose and sends a signal through our olfactory system to the deepest seat of emotion, memory and learning in our brain. But because this is also a … Continue reading Towards A Dictionary Of Scent
I hold strong opinions. Dangerously strong opinions. The way that the human brain works, strong opinions like mine can lead to political breakdown, financial collapse and even death 💀 Most human beings hold at least a few strong opinions thanks to something called the confirmation bias. Duh, duh, DUH. Because of, I dunno, evolution or … Continue reading 27 Things I Used To Believe And Now Completely Don’t
In 58 days over the summer of 2011, I cycled 4,110 miles around the coast of Britain. A decade later, in the foreshortened world of 2020, what better time was there to set out on a journey I’d always promised myself I would one day retrace? But now, ten years older and wiser, instead of … Continue reading 58 Days In Memory’s Universal Flux Cycling around Britain Part IV
Day 1: Kings Lynn to Boston (66km) Resuming where I left off two years ago, today I rode from Kings Lynn to a canalside camp just the other side of the lovely market town of Boston. I’m dressed for Bournemouth, where it’s already summer, and today I froze in a biting northerly wind. Tomorrow I … Continue reading Round Britain IV: Cycling Diaries Kings Lynn to Ravenscar
