Is this thing on?

 Yesterday, Friday, was a cold, dull day with rain and mist.  On days like this I like to make sure I go out because being alone in the house all day is very long and feel as if I am just waiting for the day to be over and tea time and evening to come round again.  It feels for me like a day of nothing.  So I try to go out.  On Wednesday I went to the first proper WI meeting when we had a speaker (the other meetings I had been to so far had been special occasions/Christmas and no speaker).   The speaker was a criminal lawyer and he talked us through a murder trial he had been involved in.  He went on too long and seemed a bit pleased with himself.  However, that is by the by.  The meeting had an hour of official business too which I found tedious and wanted to leave.  I met and talked to some people, the plus side of it.  I am glad it is only once a month because of well, what I described. 

Back to yesterday, the film, Is This Thing On?,  came out yesterday and was showing at a suitable time for me so after checking the trains were running ok I booked my ticket.  I had seen the trailer a few times so knew I wanted to see it at some point.  The show times next week are all later anyway so yesterday had to be the day. 

This is a story inspired by John Bishop's relationship with his wife when the relationship had broken down and they were filing for divorce.   John Bishop knows Will Arnett (he will star in the film)  and they had talked about the divorce story casually years ago and then it turned into this film. 

A little background,  John Bishop is a  comedian amongst other things.  I first and only came across him in a series called John Bishop In Conversation .. where Bishop would interview well known people, celebrities, politicians, often very unexpected people to appear in such a situation.   I liked the way Bishop conducted the interviews, slow and personal and yet one never felt he was being intrusive, or at least I didn't.   I don't know him as a stand-up comedian.   He is Liverpudlian with a strong accent, supports Liverpool F.C. and became a comedian by chance as the film will tell us.

The film is billed by Odeon as a comedy but is actually not a comedy.  Nor is it a film about stand-up comedians.  It is about relationships and divorce and  the effect on all those involved, the couple, the children, if there are any, in-laws and friends.   Will Arnett plays Alex Novak, the John Bishop based character, and Laura Dern, his wife.  The stand-up comedian bit comes in when Novak ends up doing an open-mic spot in a bar and finds it therapeutic in off-loading in a comedic way what is happening to his marriage.  This is what happened to Bishop in real life.  One night Novak's wife turns up unexpectedly with a date not knowing Novak was doing open-mic.  This also happened to Bishop.  

Arnett and Dern worked closely with John Bishop, and they get it right in my opinion, and in Bishop's too as he has been interviewed a lot about it and says so.    I enjoyed the film and I recommend it.  It will no doubt be streaming soon. 

Today the sun is shining and the sky is blue.  I have a day to myself and I need to catch up a bit with relaxing and chilling out. Saturdays at home are ok, it goes back to working, weekends are still weekends.  

I hope you enjoy reading this rather muddled post.