Severance (l-r): Claudie Blakley, Danny Dyer, Christopher Smith, Tim McInnerny, Andy Nyman and James Moran with Alan JonesThe charity premiere of Severance took place last Thursday at the Odeon West End in Leicester Square in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. Director Christopher Smith was on hand to introduce the screening along with actors Danny Dyer, Tim McInnerny, Andy Nyman and Claudie Blakley and writer James Moran - who deservedly got singled out by Chris for being a FrightFest regular. The audience really got the film, laughing and gasping in all the right places and it was a hugely enjoyable experience to see the film again with the enthusiastic Frightfest crowd. As the end credits rolled everyone came back on stage for a Q&A which was really laid back and funny - you could really see the camaraderie between the cast. Even James looked relaxed and cracked a few jokes - and you can read his account of the evening here!
Afterwards I met up with the Eat My Brains guys and we managed to get into the aftershow party at Ruby Blue. I still don't know who put my name on the list but I'm guessing it could have been FF organiser Paul McEvoy - so many thanks to whoever was responsible! We'd only planned to stay for a couple of drinks... needless to say, a couple of large glasses of wine later and I was feeling very sociable, so started looking around for familiar faces to go and say hello to. There was no sign of the Severance mob (apart from Andy Nyman) so I went and chatted to Simon Boyes and Nadja Brand (Broken), artist Graham Humphreys and then Jake West and the gorgeous Emily Booth (Evil Aliens), all lovely people - as I repeatedly told everyone in my drunken state. It's here that things start to get a little hazy... I remember meeting Steve and Payne outside at 11pm, but rather than doing the sensible thing and going home, I managed to get them into the party where we hung out with the FrightFest drunks™ and Chief Brody for a while. The next thing I remember is being on a dancefloor with Paul and the girls, but I have no memory of actually leaving Ruby Blue... or the fact that it was a karaoke bar and I kept staggering in front of the screen... or singing Comfortably Numb... or trying to use my umbrella as a microphone... or "bouncing off the walls" (Chief Brody). Luckily there were plenty of people who were only too happy to remind me of my drunken antics the following day. On the way to the bus stop I managed to whack a car with my umbrella which set off its alarm, and then I threw up and tried to sleep on the pavement once we reached Oxford Street... It's just as well Steve was around to get me home in one piece - thanks mate!
