16. Spin Off Shows - the character of Doris Shades builds as stars join as guests.

As we speed into 2016, Doris Shades now has two spin off series to Shades Of Bad, each have their own playlists on the TV Channel SHADES OF BAD TV, which is now on 5 platforms and with over 11,000 views in just 6 months on YouTube alone; ASK DORIS and DORIS VISITS. Having spent 26 years as a creative head of department on Emmerdale I realise how long it takes to build such a platform and fill it with product.

The veiwing numbers are a study in themselves, and sure if we made an abusive Christmas record we would get a larger viral response, but social media is changing as fast as methods and habits of viewing, so we are building a product base in a style for a third phase of social media use and future watching habits. The plan maybe risky but it is aimed at longevity. Shades Of Bad is designed to be edited into broadcast lengths and the first will be tested on YouTube soon.

We love it when we get great reviews so please tell us when you see something in print. Here is the Comedy Cake review.  We also enjoy being on the radio, here is a link to the James Whale Radio Show which has a very informative interview.  Here is a link to the USA We Love Soaps review.

As well as the spin off series and diversions to the main web soap Shades Of Bad, there is a great love for compilations, but one can only have a compilation if you have a wealth of product. Shades Of Bad has 35 episodes up (Jan 2016) and has not missed a week. Some of our episodes are fantastic works while one or two fall short and that is something else a series has to learn from. With a tiny crew of people who all have other lives and other filming and personality commitments the scheduling and the shot reservoir is something that has to be manned and watched. Now dealing with our biggest star yet, though we say

that every time we move up a notch, just finding the time when we can all meet to shoot is hard. Derek Redmond is a world star, athlete and olympian, so him joining the series for episodes just prior to the Rio Olympics is one of the many planning goals we try and achieve. Future planning is way in front of that and the day Shades Of Bad cannot improve is probably the day is takes a rest from filming.

The spin off series are there to build on, they are there to be added to in this timeless medium of download media and changing viewing habits. As we return from Courchevel where we shot the latest travel show, the ski lift map was an app and your position was tracked on your phone. The world is changing fast and we can only build ready for it.

The first is a PLAYLIST where Doris Shades fixes stuff. ASK DORIS. The first three very

different films made in 2015 to start the Ask Doris playlist is of fixing stuff. It is an experiment in itself and one we will continue and have plans for these films take time, they are by design and nature all very different and deliberately not obvious but are there to help people with problems, but are also amusing and short enough to be watchable media.
ASK DORIS, she can do anything, and does, is a good line. Obviously not true but the idea is to encourage, to look for answers and save money before being ripped off. That, as a message is in line with much of the underlining political message in Shades Of Bad.

It started when Doris mends her Health Rider exorciser. Then the second was by design when the Vacuum broke. The third, closer to home is how to hide a body microphone which the actors had problems with until they discovered this method from experimentation. Now getting good sound means post dubbing and they hated that.

The second spin off PLAYLIST is a travel site, simple and informal. It has t's own style and DORIS VISITS. The travel show should have been started years ago, we have talked about it at length as we genuinely travel. 2014 we were in Hungary, Slovenia and Austria working for HBO on the major show Strike Back, and if only we had shot some travel footage. 2015 we were on a world tour as celebrity guests for a cruise operator and travelled China,

Vietnam and Cambodia across to the Mediterranean up to Venice.  It was a cruise to Norway that we shot the first drama episodes of Shades Of Bad abroad. The Behind The Scenes Video shows glimpses of the filming and Norway and Barcelona. Now the playlist sits for itself as a list of travel films with many more planned this year. However the best laid plans are often changed and who knows where our stars and crew will be taken.

We also have other playlists on the Shades Of Bad TV channel which take you off to our previous films. The Bula Quo playlist is an example. We do have material to pull a new series together on that adventure in FIJI but again, time is our enemy.

We think we have nailed a format that the audience understands is our style. Shades Of Bad TV is beginning to have a style. In 2016 we should tackle the subscription to the channel. It is a misleading word as it implies details and fees, but all we ask is a subscription on YouTube which is no more than a follow. Then you get an email overtime we post a new video. Please subscribe to the channel and watch us grow.

We hope you find something in our blogs which is of interest.

Author biog here.

12. The Christmas calendar: From Matt Damon to Status Quo at the 02, Seth Rogen etc..

It is easy for the diary to fill with dates over Christmas without being invited to multiple cinema screenings each and every night some with huge stars attending, mixing, mingling and doing questions and answers after the film. - Or in Tarantino's case for Hateful 8, before and after the 3 hour plus movie. He was fun and it was great to hear Kurt Russell because he is quite amazing in the picture, though my vote for best supporting actor still sits with Seth Rogan who shocked me in how good he was in Steve Jobs. That was a night to remember because as a writer I was honoured to be in the same room as Aaron Sorkin as well as Seth and the other cast. However, my favourite film is still Spotlight amongst a good crop of movies. The BAFTA votes have become important as they position results just prior to the Oscars and the influence is taken seriously.

From all the many film screenings vying for our votes with wine receptions, to balls, to dance functions there is another event which has been annual for many years: to visit Status Quo, normally at the 02. The arena was packed with a faithful audience dancing and singing their hearts out. The band were on good form. I have been watching them again since we re-met in 2005 on Coronation Street and I proposed making a film together.

Rick then fell ill, we then changed the script to be far less action, changed Vinnie Jones for my daughter Laura Aikman as the film became less hard, violent and more Radio 2 family fun, party in the park. The script and schedule were polished over Christmas 2011 for approval. We left for Fiji as 2012 started. As we head to 2016 I am pleased that The Job Jot has been re-commissioned for her and her love interest in the show Russell Tovey.


I was at the O2 with Jean, who now plays Doris Shades in Shades Of Bad for which she won best actress this year.

In Bula Quo she played Reiko Best the TV news anchor. Also at the Quo concert was our daughter Laura Aikman and partner Matt Kennard who were also both in Fiji with us in Bula Quo, Laura played Caroline and Matt played the reporter, Dave.

Caroline is my favourite Quo song and one I can remember playing as a radio DJ way back when, so making the girl character Caroline meant we could look at a new Caroline song .... The film Bula Quo is still available worldwide and we are just closing a sales deal with Metrodome for it's TV sales as well as the (possible) sequel Namaste Quo which is still muted to film 2017 or 2018. The Fijian mash up brought a Hawaiian / Fijian feel to the classical score with acoustic versions of some of their great hits including Down Down and Whatever You Want. That spurned the Acoustic period. The plan for Namaste Quo is to fuse with Bollywood and introduce sitar rock fusion. You should always have dreams to stretch the future even when some feel safer in the past and that will be fun if it ever happens. It was fun writing the first script, touring India and doing the recce! I watched the concert last night thinking I can see two really hot rock chics playing electric violins and singing backing vocals adding to that line up. We will see, they sometimes listen to my crazy ideas.

I first met Quo and many of the old record industry people in the backstage 02 bar when I was a radio DJ back in the 1970's and spent a time working at EMI in marketing and promotion. It meant another

night of festive fun was with the Knordoff Robbins boxing night at
the Hilton. Jean (Doris) has never been to a boxing night, but her friend Grace Kennedy was there with her partner Nigel Angel the media lawyer and they chatted and talked with other celebs like John Conteh and Ian Wright rather than watching the fights. I should just say here that another night this Christmas week is a gig with the Mick Flinn Band, he the lead singer of the Mixtures who had a hit with The Pushbike Song etc .. and his wife Donna Flinn (who plays Elsie in Shades Of Bad) will no doubt sing. As they both joined The New Seekers (I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing etc) for many years with original band members Marty Kristain and Paul Leyton, I expect to see them there. When as a DJ on Metro Radio in 1978 with James Whale (who appears in Shades Of Bad on Boxing Day) I introduced The New Seekers on stage at the Tyneside Summer Exhibition. I later met Mick at parties where myself, Colin Cook and Davey Jones of the Monkees would site on the work surface in the kitchen, probably as that brought us up to the same height as the others... almost.

A second boxing night appears in the calendar this week at the Troxy in Limehouse, when one of the lads who grew up with my (our) son Luke Aikman and daughter Laura Aikman, a Mr Ryan DaRocha is 'white collar boxing'. This is where members of the public train and have a three round bought (organised Fight Club). He is a tough rugby player who has been in training so I wish him luck at Bethnal Green on the 17th, but Jean (Doris) has said she cannot watch that though she did get John Conteh to sign his a set of gloves as good luck.

We managed to shoot 5 episodes with our new star Derek Redmond over the Christmas period, then went to Courchevel to shoot another travel movie with Doris for the series Doris Visits.

 Episode 30 to 35 are now live, episode 32 stars James Whale.

In between we have Christmas and Laura's birthday but no more filming though the edit suit is chocker clogged with work that will never be completed, and then there is the tax returns to file before the end of January. Sorry, this turned into a little reminisce, but then you do at Christmas....

Here is our Christmas message ... merry Christmas -  Happy Holidays

11. Old Movie Stars, New Web Stars, Rio Olympics and Doris takes over the world in SHADES OF BAD 2016

Old stars and news stars, Rio Olympics... .... read on...

Episode 29 went up in December, a little early and we sighed relief.... but we loaded the wrong one. To be fair Buster is doing it while working nearly 16 hour days on a feature film so he can be excused and as we pulled Lynn who plays Wilma away from her Christmas Stage Show to film the left hand angles of our Christmas card, she watched the newly posted episode 29 in her car on the way to the shoot and said .... 'there's no music!'

Shades Of Bad is certainly credited for the full score and the title music and that is down to Mark Blackledge a long time collaborator. We first met when I was to shoot a musical version of Macbeth which started and had the art and production teams working in Liverpool, then stopped when the tax financier found a deal he could trust a little bit more. We went on to shoot Devil's Gate and have since done a few projects including the Status Quo rock film Bula Quo. So, whilst I love getting composers reels it is unlikely I will change. Mark is a genius. Seen here Bula Quo stars Jon Lovitz and my real life daughter Laura Aikman. Great behind the scenes material on YouTube playlist on the Shades Of Bad Channel all worth watching!  That is also meant to be done as a web series, we just need time.

Episode 29 is loaded with music..... Episode 32 is now up with James Whale, Christmas is behind us.

So the left hand side of the christmas greeting is shot, see the picture !  The right hand side of our Shades Of Bad Christmas card gets shot next week which is the only day our new star can join us. He will stand between Doris (played by Jean Heard) and Elsie (played by Donna Flinn). But we won't have Reg and Wilma. He is tall and dark and we can now reveal having shot 5 episodes with him, and he is great, that it is Derek Redmond.

His episodes will be out just before the Rio Olympics.... I can see availability challenging us next year, but it will be worth it. The Christmas card will be out about the 16th so watch out Idris, we have discovered a developing talent from a well known world sports star. I will alter this blog when the film goes live and the secret is released ... this is going to be a fun start to 2016. I can now report, our Idris was unwell and did not make the shoot, so we changed the script and shot it with the invisible man... you will get to see him next year.

The run up to Christmas has been great, with Doris having a great idea in episode 27, pick it up there and run with it to Christmas. She has started a 'service' for the elderly, to ensure their sexual needs are met, and calls a radio station. I play the DJ, but a real DJ joins us in episode 32, which reminds me I have an interview to cut to go with that. James Whale, the James Whale plays Detective Inspector James Whale and comes to arrest someone, well you will see on Boxing Day. James and I were both on the same radio station in 1978, Metro Radio in Newcastle. I was then transferred to take over Steve Wright's show at Orwell when he went to Radio 1, where I had come from a year earlier but never got off the bench ... long story.

We have been re-editing in the edit suit, we have cut episodes 1 to 5 together, and 5 to 10 together, and at just over 10 minutes each they make a perfect ITV ? Commercial TV half hour and we have 150 minutes shot (not all edited) and the rest where Doris does take over the world is shooting next. All good attacks on the world are sauced from a kitchen!!!  As well, Shades Of Bad has travel films in the edit, you must see the one on the beautiful island of Bequia and share it, this island is wonderful. There are series episodes in the edit, Behind The Scenes and the Christmas Card. Plus we have old movies to revisit and recut as web series, so please subscribe to our YOUTUBE channel if you do nothing else today. But, I see our first pressure hitting home hard next year as I have to go skiing, and that means more travel films!

If you are wondering what to get someone for Christmas as a little stocking filler, there is still time to get the Shades OF Bad book, WHO DIES TODAY from Amazon.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from me, Stuart St Paul, and the cast and other two crew members.... click here for our Christmas message film....

Check out our Christmas blog