One of my infinitely minor claims to fame is that I was once, in some sense, “portrayed” on radio by Bill Nighty. He read my book first-person travel book Day Trips to the Desert on BBC Radio 4. Bill NIghy doesn’t sound remotely like me and yet I thought he got the tone of my “voice” and of the book, exactly right.
I met him very, very briefly in a studio in Broadcasting House and he was entirely the Bill Nighy you would want him to be.
Day Trips to the Desert isn’t exactly a walking book (whatever the heck that is) but there’s a reasonable amount of walking in it, walking that I did in Australia, the United States, Morocco and Egypt.
I can’t say how much of a walker Bill Nighy is but there are quite a few online pictures of him walking, such as this one in which he’s carrying a jar or Marmite, no I don't know why.
And sometimes he’s seen, in a professional capacity, with Helena Bonham Carter:
Beside Myself, with Bonham Carter as Daphne du Maurier and Nighy as “man”. To quote the publicity materials, the play allows the listener to “follow Du Maurier as she starts a conversation with a stranger while on an amble.”
Yes really, an amble!
“When a stranger approaches, Daphne … picks up her stiff stride, eager to get away. However, this one’s not to be deterred. As they walk along Daphne, to her own amazement, finds herself revealing much to the man about her life. Why is she compelled to divulge so much? Perhaps too much.” Why indeed. Perhaps it was the rambling.
This is Daphne du Maurier:
And this is Helena Bonham Carter, not walking.
She seems to be divulging quite a lot, but not too much, I’d say.
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