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Notable jobs I've had recently.

THE CULTURE SHOW - MICHELANGELO

To coincide with the Michelangelo exhibition at the British Museum this year, the BBC's Culture Show wanted to film a sequence of artists working from the model at the Prince of Wales Drawing Studio in Shoreditch. They filmed two different poses based on Michelangelo's sketches and as I struggled to get into something like the correct positions it quickly became obvious that he'd used a lot of artistic license with his models' anatomy! The second pose involved standing on one leg, with my knee propped on a wobbly polystyrene block, one arm reaching up to a wire way above my head. The students in the class were told to treat it as a normal life-drawing session - which meant I found my self in this tricky postition for a good long time! By the time the great Andrew Graham Dixon arrived to do his piece to camera I was becoming a little shaky - luckily this didn't show in the finished programme. Despite the difficult poses, this was a fun job and the TV crew were very easy and positive to work for. There are a couple of screengrabs from the programme on the Gallery page.

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

"You're going to be an Elizabethan wizard in a crystal ball," said my agent, "And can you cope with a line of dialogue?". Well, on arriving at Leavesden studios, my fellow wizards and I were each presented with our own mini-soliloquies a paragraph long - to be learned right away and delivered straight to camera. Just as well they sprang this on us on the day as I'd have had a sleepless night if I'd known what was really expected of us. We all stood around feverishly trying to memorise our lines and testing each other, and by the time it was my turn to go in front of the cameras I felt pretty much word-perfect. I did the first couple of takes fine, then I dried a few times. Luckily, the director was patient and encouraged me to keep going until they had several good takes in the can. Whether or not I'll make it to the final cut is anyone's guess, but it was a great experience and a good one for the CV.

MINI ADVENTURES ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

Photographed against a green-screen, my fellow models and I had to pretend we were in a nudist colony, doing various comical poses with gardening impliments, playing swingball and getting up to all kinds of silly (but wholesome) larks. Being a public advertising campaign, they had to be careful not to show any private parts, so various props (shrubs, pineapples, etc.) were carefully positioned in front of us to hide the naughty bits. For some shots I had to wear special flesh-coloured pants, which for some reason they only make for women so they were a little on the close-fitting side! The photographer encouraged us to improvise with props, expressions, etc. and I don't think I've ever had a job where everyone has laughed so much. The campaign will take the unusual form of postcards left on peoples' car windscreens, so if you find one let me know - I'd like a copy.