I decided to set up my own website or at least my writer & creator listenupnorth suggested I start one.  Apparently she’s been advised that it’s a good way to create ‘awareness’ and ‘make a buzz’ around what you’re doing.

So I thought I’d better get on with it, because if you wait for listenupnorth to make a start, you might as well wait for Christmas.  Honestly she needs poking with a stick, she really does.

I mean, it’s not really her thing – you know this ‘selling yourself’ – being all extrovert and arriving with a great flourish.  No, she’d rather just stay in her room every day, writing her films & plays in splendid isolation,  banana skins, apple cores & bits of chewing gum piling up between the numerous drafts of some masterpiece in the making.

It’s a good job Penny and Shirley came along when they did otherwise I might never have climbed off the page and come to life.

Penny – that’s Penny Lamport, the actor who plays me and Shirley – Shirley Anne Wood a digital media specialist who does all the highly skilled camerawork & editing.  And like listenupnorth, they’re all women who have all undergone career changes to go into the very precarious world of media.

I do admire them – I’ve never actually worked since my boys Julian & James were born – except of course my short story writing for genteel ladies’ magazines such as Twinset & Tweeds, Lady Lucinda’s Tales of Wisdom & The Afternoon Tea Companion. And I can hardly support the family on the proceeds from that.  No, the boys & I, we’re totally reliant on my ever dependable rock, Guy.

I suppose you could say I’m a team effort.  Thanks to Penny & Shirley,  I’ve become so much more than what my writer listenupnorth alone could have ever made me.  Not only that, everyone has worked gratis to put my pilot first episode together.   And we mustn’t forget listenupnorth‘s daughter, Rosie who prepared my props and also composed and played my theme tune; it sums me up so perfectly.

Celia  was shot in my bedroom and produced on an ultra low budget; if it was a grocery shop it would make Lidl look like Fortnum & Mason. But it was made with such passion and love that we hope our little film has no less integrity or enjoyment factor than those with much larger backing.  Any money spent went on lavish props: a mirror and new bedspread from Argos; my jeans, a top & fluffy dressing gown from M&S, and a 2 bedside cabinets and a stool from IKEA.  Of course the IKEA stuff all needed painting which caused a bit of a rumpus in the listenupnorth household with white undercoat dripping all over the place.  I bet they don’t have that trouble at Paramount.

So now we have our pilot first episode out for everyone to watch – the story of my life, as told by me, from my bedroom.  I’ll leave you to enjoy it – just click the YouTube image at the top of the right hand column or click HERE.  I’m off now to the Greenhouse & Garden’s Society down at our village hall.  I have a friend down there, Simon – I need to ask his advice about protecting my Poinsettas from the frost – catch you later!