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I've Never Seen Star Wars is a new show where Marcus Brigstocke asks his guest to embrace some experiences that they've perhaps always meant to try but haven't had the time, the courage or possibly the inclination.

Marcus writes of his experience in making the series....

Mark Steel outside a barbersI’'ve Never Seen Star Wars is where I get to gently cajole my guests to try things they’ve never tried before. Since recording the series I’ve discovered that the quickest way to get to know a person is to have a list of things that most people have done, and then ask them if they have or haven’t done the things on the list. It’s really simple, but in an hour I got to know more about Paul Daniels [pictured below] than Debbie McGee probably does. For example, since the Sixties, he has owned an original Beatles LP of Revolver, and not only has he never played it, he has never listened to any album of any kind, ever. Hard to believe. Almost as hard to believe, is that Tim Brook Taylor, who turned twenty in 1960, and was in the most psychedelic comedy show ever, has never tried any drug, and has never eaten a fish. And bizarrely, the culturally well-endowed comedian Mark Steel [pictured, top, outside a barbers] had never seen or read Hamlet, and Eve Pollard, despite working in Fleet Street for decades, had never had a pint of beer. That would be like Phill Jupitus admitting that he’s never tried a Findus Crispy Pancake. Actually, he hadn’t, until he appeared on the show.

I’m interested in why people have avoided certain quite ordinary activities, because it an be so revealing. And then I get their take on what the experience feels like for the first time.

I also think the show taps into something that has been a recurring theme in my life – the need to explore new things, have new experiences, turn over every stone because, even if all you find is a dead woodlouse, at least your curiosity has been satisfied. I’m the sort of person who, if I see an exotic morsel, and I don’t know what it is, I’ll pop it in my mouth and asks questions later. Often in bed with a high temperature.

The show really came about because me and Bill Dare, the producer/devisor, were looking for something to do that wasn’t political, just fun. (Not that politics can’t be fun – my career rather depends on proving that it can be just that.) If I were my own publicist I’d be saying ‘we wanted to show that Marcus has a softer, gentler, side’ or some nonsense like that.

Paul Daniels has a swimming lessonBut what I’m quite keen to get across is that this show is not about challenges or doing exotic things like paragliding over the Taj Mahal naked. I certainly don’t want to see another celebrity in tears of joy or pain because they have or haven’t managed to dance/sing/play-the-spoons better than some other celebrity. And it’s not some sort of Jim’ll Fix It either, because my guests don’t get to choose all the experiences. Tim Brook Taylor wasn’t very keen on having to buy his first ever porn magazine, and Paul Daniels’ first attempt at reading some feminist literature wasn’t something he’s ever likely to repeat (although he did claim that he might write a feminist tome himself, which we all look forward to). No, this show is about asking people to try things that are neither especially unusual or difficult. (Although Mark Steel’s first attempt at constructing a stool from Ikea did prove quite a challenge.)

This may sound pretentious, but a lot of poetry is about seeing the very familiar as if for the first time – seeing something fresh about something ostensibly banal. At its best I think I’ve Never Seen Star Wars can show us ordinary experiences through the eyes of those who’ve never tried them before, and that’s rather interesting, a little bit inspiring, but mostly good fun. Source BBC News