Friday 9 November 1666

Up and to the office, where did a good deale of business, and then at noon to the Exchange and to my little goldsmith's, whose wife is very pretty and modest, that ever I saw any. Upon the 'Change, where I seldom have of late been, I find all people mightily at a losse what to expect, but confusion and fears in every man's head and heart. Whether war or peace, all fear the event will be bad. Thence home and with my brother to dinner, my wife being dressing herself against night; after dinner I to my closett all the afternoon, till the porter brought my vest back from the taylor's, and then to dress myself very fine, about 4 or 5 o'clock, and by that time comes Mr. Batelier and Mercer, and away by coach to Mrs. Pierces, by appointment, where we find good company: a fair lady, my Lady Prettyman, Mrs. Corbet, Knipp; and for men, Captain Downing, Mr. Lloyd, Sir W. Coventry's clerk, and one Mr. Tripp, who dances well. After some trifling discourse, we to dancing, and very good sport, and mightily pleased I was with the company. After our first bout of dancing, Knipp and I to sing, and Mercer and Captain Downing (who loves and understands musique) would by all means have my song of "Beauty, retire." which Knipp had spread abroad; and he extols it above any thing he ever heard, and, without flattery, I know it is good in its kind. This being done and going to dance again, comes news that White Hall was on fire; and presently more particulars, that the Horse-guard was on fire;¹ and so we run up to the garret, and find it so; a horrid great fire; and by and by we saw and heard part of it blown up with powder. The ladies begun presently to be afeard: one fell into fits. The whole town in an alarme. Drums beat and trumpets, and the guards every where spread, running up and down in the street. And I begun to have mighty apprehensions how things might be at home, and so was in mighty pain to get home, and that that encreased all is that we are in expectation, from common fame, this night, or to-morrow, to have a massacre, by the having so many fires one after another, as that in the City, and at same time begun in Westminster, by the Palace, but put out; and since in Southwarke, to the burning down some houses; and now this do make all people conclude there is something extraordinary in it; but nobody knows what. By and by comes news that the fire has slackened; so then we were a little cheered up again, and to supper, and pretty merry. But, above all, there comes in the dumb boy that I knew in Oliver's time, who is mightily acquainted here, and with Downing; and he made strange signs of the fire, and how the King was abroad, and many things they understood, but I could not, which I wondering at, and discoursing with Downing about it, "Why," says he, "it is only a little use, and you will understand him, and make him understand you with as much ease as may be." So I prayed him to tell him that I was afeard that my coach would be gone, and that he should go down and steal one of the seats out of the coach and keep it, and that would make the coachman to stay. He did this, so that the dumb boy did go down, and, like a cunning rogue, went into the coach, pretending to sleep; and, by and by, fell to his work, but finds the seats nailed to the coach. So he did all he could, but could not do it; however, stayed there, and stayed the coach till the coachman's patience was quite spent, and beat the dumb boy by force, and so went away. So the dumb boy come up and told him all the story, which they below did see all that passed, and knew it to be true. After supper, another dance or two, and then newes that the fire is as great as ever, which put us all to our wit's-end; and I mightily [anxious] to go home, but the coach being gone, and it being about ten at night, and rainy dirty weather, I knew not what to do; but to walk out with Mr. Batelier, myself resolving to go home on foot, and leave the women there. And so did; but at the Savoy got a coach, and come back and took up the women; and so, having, by people come from the fire, understood that the fire was overcome, and all well, we merrily parted, and home. Stopped by several guards and constables quite through the town, round the wall, as we went, all being in armes. We got well home ... Being come home, we to cards, till two in the morning, and drinking lamb's-wool. So to bed.

1. "Nov. 9th. Between seven and eight at night, there happened a fire in the Horse Guard House, in the Tilt Yard, over against Whitehall, which at first arising, it is supposed, from some snuff of a candle falling amongst the straw, broke out with so sudden a flame, that at once it seized the north-west part of that building; but being so close under His Majesty's own eye, it was, by the timely help His Majesty and His Royal Highness caused to be applied, immediately stopped, and by ten o'clock wholly mastered, with the loss only of that part of the building it had at first seized." -- The London Gazette, No. 103. -- B. ↩

Qs and As

Just a quickie to say that we still have a few tickets left for our upcoming Q&A sessions.

First up is Miranda Hart on Tuesday 10 November 2009, where she'll be chatting about her new series Miranda, which airs on BBC2 on Monday nights at 8:30pm

A week or so later, you can find Stephen Poliakoff and Jane Wright who'll be talking about Stephen's new film Glorious 39.

If you're desperate for some Q&A action in the meantime, you could do worse than check out the new interview with Jimmy McGovern.

Preview: "Collision"

The five part serial is a modern epic tale which explores how fragile our lives are. It focuses on how fate and the feeling of immortality behind the wheel play a part in our lives, where events are not always in our control.

Amid the tangle of twisted metal and emotional turmoil wrought by the tragedy of a crash of this scale, are the stories of the victims, and the impact of the accident on their families, friends and colleagues.

As the terrible task of investigating the cause of the carnage begins, a series of revelations emerge: from Government cover-ups and smuggling, to disturbing secrets and murder."

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INTERVIEW WITH ANTHONY HOROWITZ - CREATOR AND CO-WRITER


What was the inspiration for Collision?

I’ve always been interested in car accidents. In a sense, every car journey is a story and a car crash is, by its very nature, an extraordinary, unprecedented way for many stories to come together. The short answer to this question is that I travel a great deal between London and Orford, Suffolk so I am well acquainted with the A12.

When did you start writing this?

I had the idea about ten years ago, began work on it but then abandoned it as I couldn’t make it work. The problem was the structure which was always very complicated. Then, last year, my agent (Anthony Jones) mentioned it to ITV and suddenly I found myself revisiting my ideas.

I always knew it would be a five-part series. It just felt the right length. But I was thrilled when ITV decided to make it an “event drama” by scheduling it over one week. It’s a gripping story, I think, and will work very well in that format.

How would you describe it?

It is moving, tense, thrilling, compelling. I’d like to think it’s fairly unpredictable. I tried hard to make the stories move in unexpected directions so that often things aren’t quite what they seem. What is hidden in the Home 2 Bed van? What is Stanley really up to? I’m also interested in the metaphysical side of car accidents, the idea that the tiniest things can have huge, life-changing results. Cindy, the other waitress in the service station, doesn’t get involved in the car crash simply because she forgets her keys. How do we recognise these crucial moments in our lives? The answer is, of course, that we can’t – which is what makes them so compelling.

Collision is very much set in the real world and does hopefully connect with the way people live.

Does it show how the lives of people in a collision collide in the same way as the vehicles?

You could say that we’re all in a dance of death and we never know who we’re going to be waltzing with next. I love all the secret connections in Collision which the characters never discover. When Karen steals her secret files, she has them photocopied at the shop owned by Brian. Tsegga is on the run from an East African conflict which links in with Richard (who is on his way to an East African charity event). There’s almost a sort of inevitability that all the characters will somehow collide with each other.

What is the main focus?

The focus of Collision is the investigation carried out by the two police officers – John Tolin and Ann Stallwood, along with their own tangled relationship. That was the thread that allowed me to tie everything together. But of course it’s the car crash itself that lies at the very heart of the series. That’s what every story and every incident keeps on coming back to.

Does it explore how events cannot always be in our control?

I think we already know that events are often out of our control. But perhaps what Collision shows is the way that we are often at the control of events. You have to wait for the very last shot of the series to get the point. I do sometimes get the feeling that we’re being shuffled around by an invisible hand.

I am extremely proud of this programme. It’s certainly massively different to anything I’ve ever done before and I’m proud of the fact that the scripts managed to attract such a fantastic cast and such a talented director. In a sense, I’ve already achieved what I wanted. Now I just hope that the general public find the show intriguing and enjoyable.

Do you think it will be thought provoking?

The few people who have seen Collision so far have found it thought provoking. Certainly, there’s been a lot of discussion about what might happen to the characters next – some of the stories are left purposefully open-ended

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