BP (OTUKOGBANI:) Gary Bellamy meets Graham Downes
Another blog-exclusive video you won't see in the show:
Hello. GB here again, only a few more weeks to go until BP (OTUKOGBANI) is launched into the world!
If my series was called Bellamy's Favourite People of the UKOGBANI (to give it its almost full acronym) then top of the list of my all time favourite people would be Graham Downes. Graham is one of the most regular callers to my radio phone-in show Down The Line. Of all the callers I have spoken to, and there must be thousands of them, Graham is tops and I couldn't wait to meet him. It was worth the transfer to TV itself just to see him in person and he was the first of my regular callers that I spoke to on BP (OTUKOGBANI).
Graham is morbidly obese and hardly ever leaves his bedroom. One of the downsides (if you'll pardon the pun) of this job (Downes and down, as it were) is that one occasionally meets people less fortunate than oneself who may not live until next Christmas. This is tough if you grow attached to that person and Graham is one such guy. He has almost become a friend. We don't go to the pub or anything (that is nigh on impossible as Graham needs three men and a boat to get him out of the front door) but we do poke each other on Facebook from time to time. Graham spends more time on there than me and keeps inviting me to play strange Facebook games that make no sense. Despite all of his problems, he is a happy man and beauty is skin deep - in Graham's case, deeper than most.
Before I embarked on this series, I arranged a meeting with legendary journalist and 999 presenter, Sir Michael Buerk. For those too young to remember, Michael was the first man to film the famine in Ethiopia. Without Mike's work, there would be no Live Aid, or Live Aid 2 (although Live Aid 2 was not bad, it's the most disappointing sequel I have seen since Fierce Creatures/Highlander 2), no Band Aid 1, Band Aid 2, Band Aid 3, no Comic Relief Night 1-12, and no Sports Aids (which I have never really liked).Ìý Ìý
Michael had met people the complete opposite to Graham Downes (who eats too much food) - he met people who didn't eat at all!Ìý He had also seen lots of suffering and had to make the catch-22 decision of a journalist: simply observe, report and do not get involved - or not. I wanted Mike's help. How could I deal with these situations should I meet people less fortunate than me on my trip?
Sadly he was unavailable the week I had free and we never met, but he did send this message: "good luck".
Gary Bellamy is presenter of Bellamy's People. Read more about the making of Bellamy's People on the Comedy Blog.
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Hello. GB here again, only a few more weeks to go until BP (OTUKOGBANI) is launched into the world!If my series was called Bellamy's Favourite People of the UKOGBANI (to give it its almost full acronym) then top of the list of my all time favourite people would be Graham Downes. Graham is one of the most regular callers to my radio phone-in show Down The Line. Of all the callers I have spoken to, and there must be thousands of them, Graham is tops and I couldn't wait to meet him. It was worth the transfer to TV itself just to see him in person and he was the first of my regular callers that I spoke to on BP (OTUKOGBANI).
Graham is morbidly obese and hardly ever leaves his bedroom. One of the downsides (if you'll pardon the pun) of this job (Downes and down, as it were) is that one occasionally meets people less fortunate than oneself who may not live until next Christmas. This is tough if you grow attached to that person and Graham is one such guy. He has almost become a friend. We don't go to the pub or anything (that is nigh on impossible as Graham needs three men and a boat to get him out of the front door) but we do poke each other on Facebook from time to time. Graham spends more time on there than me and keeps inviting me to play strange Facebook games that make no sense. Despite all of his problems, he is a happy man and beauty is skin deep - in Graham's case, deeper than most.
Before I embarked on this series, I arranged a meeting with legendary journalist and 999 presenter, Sir Michael Buerk. For those too young to remember, Michael was the first man to film the famine in Ethiopia. Without Mike's work, there would be no Live Aid, or Live Aid 2 (although Live Aid 2 was not bad, it's the most disappointing sequel I have seen since Fierce Creatures/Highlander 2), no Band Aid 1, Band Aid 2, Band Aid 3, no Comic Relief Night 1-12, and no Sports Aids (which I have never really liked).Ìý Ìý
Michael had met people the complete opposite to Graham Downes (who eats too much food) - he met people who didn't eat at all!Ìý He had also seen lots of suffering and had to make the catch-22 decision of a journalist: simply observe, report and do not get involved - or not. I wanted Mike's help. How could I deal with these situations should I meet people less fortunate than me on my trip?
Sadly he was unavailable the week I had free and we never met, but he did send this message: "good luck".
Gary Bellamy is presenter of Bellamy's People. Read more about the making of Bellamy's People on the Comedy Blog.
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