The only grey cloud on this otherwise perfect roll of azure bright is an developing situation in the world of advertising. It’s quite normal given my quite eclectic interests to occasionally attract the attention of people who just don’t understand me. My recent spat with the ex-pat Brits in Tunisia and various ongoing feuds with different people are just examples of how people ‘take me the wrong way’. In my recent trawls through the world of blogs, I came across what I thought were one or two interesting little haunts where creative types hang their boots and jaw about design and copywriting. Being a man known for his strong opinions on a well turned phrase and owning a perceptive eye for visual design, I felt right at home and began to give my uninformed insights into the business and to explain to these professionals where they are going so wrong.
My arrival prompted some scepticism among the regulars visitors and, this morning, the discussion descended to the point that it has left Judy crying.
Says one man with ink on his fingers:
By the way, if you click "Richard Madeley"'s name in the comments, you'll find it may not be quite the real Richard Madeley. I'm sorry to say.
Which I don’t understand at all. If you click the name, you come here to The Richard Madeley Appreciation Society as written by me, the real Richard Madeley. How much more real can a Richard Madeley get?
Another quote:
You know, just because that link goes to the Richard Madeley Appreciation Society doesn't mean it's not the real Richard Madeley. I wouldn't put it past him.
I make the same point. It means it is the real Richard Madeley, unless somebody is appropriating my identity as was recently the case here.
Here is perhaps the most disappointing of the comments:
But look on the bright side: whoever he is, between us we'll have increased his traffic quite substantially.
Increased my traffic? How dare they! My traffic has bloomed like a low yield ‘A’ bomb since the piece appeared in The Guardian the other week. I hardly need the traffic when Blogger are emailing with warnings about putting too much stress on their servers and begging me to reduce the amounts of hits I’m getting.
The final comment is a deeply philosophical one that I should really leave for the ages to answer.
The comment doesn't (quite) sound like a joke, but if you read any of the posts on his website it seems obvious he's either (a) not who he says he is on the site or (b) not who he pretends to be on the telly. I must say, it's not a question I predicted when I agreed to take over NDG for a week.
It wasn’t a joke because I was being quite serious. If you read the posts on my website, isn’t it obvious who I am? These doubters have a point (the only point, I grant you) in that I can’t really be myself on Channel 4. Judy runs the show and I’m lucky most days if I get handed a script. I make do with what limited resources I have and ad lib when and where I can.
But this whole incident has been hugely disappointing. I often wonder if I should blog anonymously under a fake name, just like my friend Bill 'Nige' Oddie does. I’ve tried it on the official Richard & Judy forum but I’ve been bullied off their when I was seen to have criticised myself. Should I no longer leave comments where I wish? Am I to become as much a pariah among bloggers as I am at the BBC? I’m going to mull this over and ask Stephen’s opinion about it in the morning. It is, however, a depressing subject for a Friday afternoon and I should really have spent my time telling you all about Clarkson’s escape from the law yesterday and how he joked about it when he came over last night. He ran in the house and took sanctuary in our linen closet. It took us fifteen minutes to find him. However, that tale's not for today. Perhaps another time when I'm feeling more like myself.
