Rory Bremner's Diary

While my life has undoubtedly been a little duller and less colourful after my exit from

Getting back to the day job - writing and recording a topical comedy show for Radio 4 called Tonight - was a great tonic, especially working alongside Andy Zaltzman, Nick Doody and Kate O'Sullivan. I love the extraordinary bits of information that emerge from the research. For the last programme alone we started with 34 pages of condensed background reading. My favourite story recently was that a genuine advert was placed on the government website edisposals.com by the Disposal Services Authority (motto: 'All you need to know'). Check it out. There, on the government's equivalent of eBay, you can find the Ark Royal (light aircraft carrier, length 210m), together with dates and times for viewing and instructions to submit your request in writing 'no later than Wednesday 27th April, together with a brief outline of your intentions regarding the vessel'.

Something else I've been looking into for the show is the recent sentencing of three Pakistan cricketers for their involvement in match-fixing. I was reminded of stories of games played at Ford Open Prison, where it was allegedly common practice for some inmates to station themselves on the far reaches of the boundary before absconding. I have no idea whether Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have been sent to the same jail, but if they have, I can't help thinking that one of Her Majesty's Establishments is going to have a bloody good cricket team this year. I might even put some money on them.

As London gears up for the Olympics, I hope it'll be a chance to celebrate some of London's characters other than the (by then ex) Mayor Boris Johnson, who is listed in Wikipedia, harshly but correctly, as having 'no courtesy, title or style'. My nomination is the Singing Cabbie, who doubles his taxi-driving with his other job as a Frank Sinatra tribute act. 'Wanna hear some?' he asked as we travelled down Bloomsbury Street. Whereupon he closed the windows, locked the doors, put on a big band backing track and sang 'Ain't that a kick in the head'. Give the man a medal.

Last week featured another enjoyable evening with London jeweller Theo Fennell, this time a dinner in aid of the Terrence Higgins Trust. Theo always assembles a great crowd, including this time Ronni Ancona (Theo collects impressionists), Kathy Lette with her husband Geoffrey Robertson, who's been unsuccessfully trying to bail out Julian Assange, and the Phones4u founder and philanthropist John Caudwell, who could bail out Greece single-handedly. Some years ago Theo booked the comedy act Puppetry of the Penis (they do what it says on the tin) for his legendary Christmas dinner. They'd just come back from Tel Aviv. 'What do they make of you there?' Theo asked one of the ostentatiously uncircumcised puppeteers. 'No worries,' came the reply, 'we just get a local guy in to translate.'

When Scottish Opera's new production of Offenbach's comic opera Orpheus in the Underworld begins at the Young Vic next month, among those seeing it for the first time will be me. I only mention this because I wrote the script (or rather translated it from the 1860s French version). Under normal circumstances, I'd have been all over it, but summer holidays and the whole Strictly thing meant I only made a couple of rehearsals. The opera, a satirical romp sending up the original Greek myth, sees a reluctant Orpheus descend into the Underworld to reclaim his unfaithful and stroppy wife. Accompanying Orpheus is a coach party of bored and decadent gods who end up dancing the can-can (yes, the can-can: Offenbach wrote it as 'The Infernal Gallop' for his finale).

Director Oliver Mears has by all accounts embraced the bawdy, raunchier elements of Hell, and the cast go for it with gusto. So far it seems people have loved it. I'm sure the Young Vic's seen a few basques and kinky outfits in its time. I might even take Nancy Dell'Olio.
Orpheus in the Underworld opens at the Young Vic on 30 November (youngvic.org). Check Rory's remaining tour dates at lakinmccarthy.com