Thanks for the love re the current Ben storyline on
#TheArchers
. Ironically/appropriately, my own mental health hasn't been tip-top of late, so I'm off social media for a bit, but just popped my head back in for the first time in a while and it's lovely to see such kind comments!
Yes. The truth will out. The car is orange. I'm so bored in lockdown I gathered all the things in my house that might be the colour of Ben's car and sat in them
#TheArchers
#cheesywotsit
Iโm finally allowed to say now that the first episode has aired...Iโve joined the cast of The Archers, playing Ben Archer! Hereโs an excited-dishevelled first day pic. Itโs a real honour to join such an amazing family (both the team and, yโknow, the actual family) ๐ป๐๐ณ๐๐ป
For all my mate's mums who are always telling me what should happen in
#TheArchers
, the show is genuinely looking for a new Story Producer, so apply...then you really can shape the future of Ambridge, not just text me, via your offspring, drunk, at 7:13pm every night...
So, apparently Ian McKellen came to see my play today. Would love to be cool about this but...absolutely can't. Sir Ian Sir Ian Sir Ian Sir Ian Sir Ian โค๏ธ๐ง๐ปโโ๏ธ
A star went out over Ambridge yesterday. Rest easy Ian. I'll be raising a glass to you this Christmas, hospitality king that you were, on and off air โค๏ธ
#TheArchers
If you're Archers-curious, or you fell away during lockdown, I'd encourage you to tune into the omnibus this Sunday at 10am on
@BBCRadio4
. I've only been involved in the show for 2 years, a mere blink, but it is one of the most moving and wonderful weeks I've heard.
#TheArchers
These were the first eps I recorded in the studio post-lockdown. What a joy to be back. I know
#TheArchers
in covid mode wasn't to everyone's taste but the team did a brill job to keep us on the air. On a cultural, emotional & personal-solvency level, I'm v glad they managed it!
I cried at the scripts, cried in the zoom read-thru, and am crying again now. Godamn this is so good. All the hats off to
@CarolineLennon_
@Arthur_Hughes1
& Angie for the performances, Katie for the writing, Kim for direction, Dave + the whole team for the story ๐ญ
#TheArchers
To respond to rife speculation, yes I did go to the
@OlivierAwards
dressed as a cow. The red carpet was green this year, and made of real grass, so I felt I had no choice. I also wanted to pay homage (/fromage?) to my dairy-farming
@BBCTheArchers
fam. No further questions please.
I wrote a wee poem about the different accents and dialects along the east coast line, cos I love accents and I love trains. (I know there are some places missing (soz P'boro); I wanted to include everywhere but the first draft was like 4 hours which apparently wasn't allowed!๐)
Iโm so happy to finally share
#TrackRecord
with you. Weโre celebrating all the brilliant dialects and accents out there along the
#LNER
east coast route. So proud to be involved with this
@LNER
!
#AD
Thanks to those complimenting my acting this week, in which I appeared in precisely 0 eps. I often find the best performance is no performance, where I'm concerned. Real talk: hats off to
#TheArchers
team. Big change but they've done an extraordinary job to get us back on the air
I ache in some seriously unusual places today. I either went hard on the after-party dancefloor or did a particularly overzealous Pina Colada in the matinee, even by my standards. What a day. What a run. What a time to be (barely) alive.
#choirofman
@choirofman
Welcome as this culture support package is (and it is), here's your friendly reminder that foodbanks should not be a part of normal life, the NHS should not be a charity, care home residents are humans too, and herd immunity was bullshit. Have a nice day & Fuck the Tories.
Really enjoyed
@RealBobMortimer
's Desert Island Discs chat with
@laurenlaverne
. Listened on the cycle in this morning, and what a gentle (in a good way!), funny and inspiring 40 minutes it was. Also gave me an apposite quote for the studio wall in these stressful workaholic times
Had a very fun afternoon recording
@BBCTheArchers
and now zipping down to Bristol to do poems tonight and the sun is out and I feel grateful to be alive and maybe even a little bit...happy? So that is nice. Thank you, world. See some of you there.
TONIGHT! Ben Norris is an actor and writer, a two-time national poetry slam winner, and provides the voice for a Ben Archer on BBC Radio 4's The Archers. Catch him live at Milk Poetry from 7.30pm
@MilkPoetry
@BenNorris7
@MalaikaKegode
So I've gone and founded a theatre company ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ๐ฅด She's called Bill's Mother, because what else, and she's very shy so please give her a follow and make her feel welcome here! Plus, she has something to announce very soon...
Hello world! We are Bill's Mother, a brand new production named for the curious Midlands phrase "It's a bit black over Bill's Mother's", meaning: it looks like rain. But it doesn't look like rain, it looks like theatre! Give us a follow for news of our *imminent* debut show...
So enjoyed being on
#BBCSaturdayLive
this morn. It's such a warm hug of a programme, brilliantly hosted. Now I'm off to buy some replacement jeans for
@choirofman
because my costume has been steadily shrinking since October and is now too tight even for my eclectic taste...
I'd like to share a tiny moment from a
@choirofman
show last week, because it jump-started the flat battery of my heart and reminded why I love theatre so much in what has been quite a difficult and knackering time, both for the industry and in my own head 1/
At the end of Friday night's
@choirofman
I shouted IT'S SATURDAY NIIIIIIGHT!!! and the audience briefly cheered and then someone was like wait no it's Friday and I was like oh shit yeah it's Friday and they cheered again but more pitifully. And that, THAT, is showbiz.
Imagine if all children were on an equal playing field. Imagine if we all started at the line equal instead of 20 yards behind. Imagine children waking up believing that their dreams could come true. Imagine what that belief could do for the future of this country...
I've received the call. The greatest honour in British Broadcasting. To not only be an Archer, but to be invited onto
@steve_lamacq
's
@BBCTheArchers
special Roundtable
@BBC6Music
. Nothing could simultaneously impress my mum's mates and my own mates more...
Gently dipping my toe back in to reading some poems again. At the venue where I did my first ever paid poetry gig, a decade ago! โค๏ธ Feels like the right place to step tentatively back outside (figurative outside ofc, the gig is in February). Join if you can,
@TongueFuShow
is lush
Here we go ๐ฅ๐คLess than one month until our next event at
@arnolfiniarts
. We're teaming up with
@boatpoets
to present a night of poetry and improvised music from the incredible
@tonguefushow
band.
Our first artist announcement is
@BenNorris7
! Ticketsโก๏ธ
.
@Rob_Madge_02
brought me to tears of joy yesterday with their beautiful, hilarious show My Son's A Queer But What Can You Do. For all the kids who played dress up, and for all the kids who wanted to but couldn't, this one's for you (us), and it's utterly utterly gorgeous.
Cashier asked me to lower my mask so she could ID me, then when she saw my full face she just laughed and said 'don't worry about it'. What an emotional rollercoaster.
At what stage of lockdown ending can one visit a lover? I know pubs won't re-open for another 100 years but there's been a shocking lack of guidance on what is *surely* the first stage. A little snog in the park? One state-sanctioned sleepover a week?
20001: A Spade Odyssey
Congratulations to everyone involved in the first 20,000 episodes of
#TheArchers
...not a bad innings by any standards! Twas an honour to appear in the sequel last night.
Here's to the next twenty thousand (and one) ๐ ๐ฅ๐๐๐ณ
Not been feeling too great lately. A colleague asked how old I am. '27,' I said. 'But that's a good age,' she replied.
Please don't tell me I should feel differently at 27 just because you felt differently. If I could choose to then I would. Any age is a good age if you're happy.
I started writing this play in 2017, when TVs were in black and white and dinosaurs roamed the earth. Tomorrow, it finally gets to meet an audience for the first time. I am simultaneously shitting myself and over the moon. If you're in Edinburgh this month, come say hi?
Johnson you coward. Insurers got you wrapped around their little fingers. Instead of actually closing the theatres and the museums and the schools, you're just telling people not to go, so it's the institutions (financially) and the people (literally) that'll die, not your mates.
Goddammit. If one more person asks me if I had to choose between writing and performing which would it be, I'm gonna write and perform a one man show about it.
I suspect you think
@ChoirofMan
isn't very rock n roll, but last week I bled on my accordion slightly and I am developing a modest callus on my right index finger from playing the bodhrรกn with such vim, so I hope that settles it for everyone?
#Wonderland
@NottmPlayhouse
is incredible. To see the space used to tell a story on that scale, yes, but to tell a Notts and working class story as the story of the nation.Incredible. I am shook. It resonates through to now so forcefully. I have seldom been so moved by anything.
Happy
#NationalPoetryDay
!! I have, wisely or otherwise, acquired this jacket and been given this microphone. Good luck to all the poets and poetry promoters up and down the country spreading the good word(s) today. May you feel as good as this jacket makes people think I feel!
Very excited to hurl this out into the world. Tickets on sale from this morn for the massivest thing I've ever done, a big National Poetry Day show in the main space
@NottmPlayhouse
feat some of my favourite artists on planet earth...
"How was your pandemic?" will be the new "How was your Christmas?" - we'll hate the smug fucks who had a good one, instantly give up trying to communicate the nuance of our misery and just say "Fine. Yours?"
My fam are a right bunch of landlords aren't they. First the evictions, and now some laminated 'FUCK OFF' signs (*laminated*...watch out!). I'd like to personally distance myself from this kind of behaviour.
#TheArchers
I've accidentally gone alone to what turns out to be the most romantic city in the world (Paris step aside), and I feel...totally fine about it. 6 people have got engaged around me in the time it took to write this tweet, and naturally I did a big whoop each time.
Deeply uncomfortable with the Luton fans chanting "you dirty Northern bastards" at Derby today. Not because it's unkind, but because, as my entire career is dedicated to emphasising, this is the Midlands.
Absolutely buzzing about this. Major Labia are amazing, very flattered to be in such company. NP is where I did youth theatre back when I were yay high, and I've seen more plays there than anywhere else on earth. Thrilled to be part of this exciting new chapter! ๐ฅณ
Finally caught up with the omnibi and my god it's all popping off isn't it ๐ฏ Bloody love the Horrobins so much. And amongst the Big Stuff and the amazing performances, Jim in the ball pit was a particular highlight. Society is inverted! The children are in charge!
#TheArchers
*warning contains pic* - not sure quite how offended I should be about this...! haha.
Benโs finally been released from the cupboard he was apparently trapped in, and Iโm going to be playing him. Really excited.
#TheArchers
Dreamt the other night that I watched a one man show. Clearly enjoyed it because, last night, in a completely separate dream, I wrote to the guy effusively telling him so. Looking forward to Saturday's dream in which I present him with his Olivier and Tuesday's in which we marry.
People talking about how good it is to be 'back', but I've never been on a stage like this before, covid or novid. God it's vibesy! Almost lost my voice from the sheer adrenaline yesterday and we're doing it all again in a few hours. Anyone got a fisherman's friend?
#WestEndLIVE
Jill and Leonard are absolute goals. Ben would be delighted to still be 'snuggling up' at their age - if only cos it means he finally got his turn in the caravan...
#TheArchers
Lots of talk about "respect" and "the right and proper way of doing things" over the last 10 days, but there is nothing respectful or proper about this. It's fucking September.
I was having a very dull, adminny week a while back, not really seeing other humans or leaving the house etc, then I got a message from Wendy in Dover to say she'd painted one of my poems onto the side of her shed! ๐Thank you, Wendy! Really lifted me. (
@hostaconsulting
, look!)
Just paid me tax bill. Instinct is to be like 'urgh' but I actually love taxes. Just hate what this govt spend them on. PPE that doesn't work/exist. Track n trace that doesn't work/exist. Expense claims for household bills while us plebs freeze to death. Love taxes. Hate Tories.
Happy weekend. Here's something delightful to roll around in bed with, or take on a nice wet walk. Liz Berry reading her sumptuous poem 'Highbury Park' at
@NottmPlayhouse
last year. Prepare to be transported...
There's a suited man in this cafe who's been unsuccessfully asking siri to open spotify on his phone for so long now that he could've learned an instrument, joined a band, recorded, mixed and released an album in the time it's taken him to still not put on one song.
It's a wonder and an alien joy to be able to say these words: I am doing a live performance! In a theatre! In front of real-life humans! Trying some new shit! In damn good company!
@NottmPlayhouse
#NPUnlocked
You can come in-person or online, as it were:
Bought an external harddrive and the 'customers who bought this also bought' algorithm recommended TWO DIFFERENT TYPES of lifesize Danny DeVito cardboard cut-out
I have accidentally dressed exactly like that wanker from the kapten advert, and I'm mortified they nailed me so hard, but at least I am reading better poetry
I fell in the canal on my bike AGAIN yesterday. (Different bit, same canal). Having now carried out extensive research of falling in canals on bikes in November and December I heartily don't recommend it.
I've written a play. And it's actually happening! And soon!! It's about self-driving cars but obviously really it's a love story, because what isn't. It's called 'Autopilot' and this is where you can buy tickets (and pls pls do) โ๏ธ๐งโ๐ป๐๐ซ๐๐จ
๐ฅDrumroll please๐ฅ
We are delighted to announce our debut production: 'Autopilot' by
@BenNorris7
, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022!
'Autopilot' is a gripping new play about class, power and self-driving cars.
๐ 3-29 Aug
โฒ๏ธ 13:35
๐๏ธ Book now!
I did something with
@BBCRadio4
yesterday but didn't tweet about it because I hadn't listened to it yet because I'm in Australia and didn't manage to stay awake, but now I've listened to it and I don't hate it so you can listen to it too if you want
Very excited to have birthed this weird thing into the world. Directed by
@LMargoRoe
, produced by
@izzyderosario
, supported by
@BBCFilm
and
@bfinetwork
, MONITOR is part sci-fi social commentary, part bizarre comedy. Hopefully coming to a film festival near you soon!