Another Edinburgh Fringe Run Comes to an End

Iain Dale's Diary · 2 hrs ago · 9 views

I’m writing this on the train back to London from Edinburgh. I always feel rather melancholy at the end of a Fringe run in the city I have grown to love. Appearing at the Fringe is something I never though I would ever do, but when I look back on my 64 years I think it’s one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done. The feedback this year has been absolutely excellent. People have made a point of coming up to me and telling me that they love my conversational style and that they have been to several shows. One gentleman said he had bought tickets to all fourteen! It’s been quite a test to do three shows a day, but nothing good was ever easy. It’s not that I do any prep for them – I don’t, because I want them to be conversations, not interviews. But with only a short time between the end of one show and the beginning of the next, there’s not much time to talk to the guest before we go on stage. Ticket sales were up more than ten per cent on average per show, which tells its own story. We only had two shows where I would describe the ticket sales as disappointing, but that’s inevitable when you do fourteen. The top five sellers were 1. Kemi Badenoch 2. Nicola Sturgeon 3. Zack Polanski 4. Sir John Curtice, Michael Crick, Brian Taylor 5. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe & Richard Ratcliffe Many people asked which was my favourite show. I should probably say it’s an invidious question to answer, but will say it was the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe & Richard Ratcliffe show. It was quite an emotional moment for me because whenever I used to interview Richard on LBC I’d always end the interview saying the next time I would interview him I hoped it would be with Nazanin too. And so it came to pass. At times, you could hear a pin drop in the room. It was absolutely spellbinding. A final thanks to the Seabright Live team (below) who do all the work behind the scenes to put the shows on. James, Andrei, Ollie, Kate, Gaby, Reuban, Luke and Benji all did a fantastic job in getting all the guests there, handling their demands and making it look and sound good on stage. I never forget that without them all, it wouldn’t happen at all. And so the prep begins for next year’s shows. Who should I invite? Email me suggestions or leave a comment here.