Tom MacRae – Favourite Things

Tom MacRae is a British television writer, author, lyricist, producer and screenwriter. MacRae has written episodes of Doctor Who, created the Comedy Central television series Threesome and is the book writer and lyricist behind the Olivier nominated musical, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which has sold-out over 1,000 shows on the West End. He has published three children’s picture books and is currently adapting MG Leonard’s Beetle Boy books for a live-action stage show.

These are a few of Tom MacRae’s favourite things…

Bob Bob Ricard 

I don’t live in London full-time anymore but Bob Bob Ricard is somewhere I always try and go to when I am back. It is an extraordinary place, every table is a booth with a press for champagne button (which just means call for service but is great branding). The restaurant looks like the interior of the Orient Express and serves sort-of comfort-luxury 80s food and the service is always great. I have had many special occasions there, including when I proposed to my husband. We went for lunch and they gave us a little celebration cheesecake that was covered in pink glitter. The next day all the pink glitter came out of the other end of my soon-to-be-husband, which we thought was a good metaphor for a gay wedding. 

Hi-de-Hi!

Hi-de-Hi! is an 80s sitcom from the writers of Dad’s Army, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum and Are You Being Served. It is set at a holiday camp in 1959 and 1960, and the characters were written by two very talented writers who had both worked in holiday camps themselves. It is one of those British sitcoms that doesn’t have jokes but is very character-led; they have a comic, a ballroom dance couple and a man who hates children. About ten years ago, I remembered my Nan had liked it and decided to watch it thinking it would be this clunky old 80s show; then I completely fell in love with it. Now that I live in Los Angeles, which is the opposite of a British holiday camp, I watch it on Britbox to keep me grounded. 

The work of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken 

Howard Ashman and Alan Menken wrote Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and half of Aladdin before Ashman died very tragically of AIDS, and Menken continued to work with different writers. Ashman was an absolute firebrand who I wish dearly I could have met because of the profound impact he had on me as a child. When I was about 14, I was a gay kid living near Northampton; I didn’t fit in and I wasn’t happy. The few friends I did have were always listening to very angry music but I thought, I don’t want to be angry because everything is bad anyway. Then, I saw Beauty and the Beast; a film about a girl who was from a quiet, tiny village like me, and in the end, she wins. I was transported by the music because it felt so optimistic and suggested there was a happy ending for me.

Howard Ashman, the visionary behind so much of the Disney renaissance of the 90s, was slowly dying of this awful disease whilst creating the most beautiful fairy stories and tales of optimism that inspired a whole generation. I try to model so much of what I do on Ashman and his legacy. 

Magic

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Paul Daniels and David Copperfield and for my 13th birthday, I went to a proper magic shop in London with my parents. After that, instead of doing a paper round, I did magic shows at parties. I officially retired at 18, when I didn’t have a car anymore and couldn’t drive around with my tricks. I still love it though and I have been lucky enough to work with some amazing magicians on stage. If I hit a wall when I’m working on a script, rather than battling it, I walk away and often just search magic on YouTube and try to figure out how a trick is done. Then I can go back to my work — it is sort of a brain unblocking thing. Still mental exercise but completely different to my work.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Everyone should have something they are obsessed with and for me, that is He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which was my favourite toy when I was a kid. I love Star Wars because I grew up with it and I love Doctor Who because it was my favourite show as a kid and then I got to write it, but the thing I am truly obsessed with is He-Man. I have a huge collection, continually growing and I am a proper, proper fan. It is a very good time to be a fan too, as there is lots of new content for the 40th anniversary. I have the old figures, the new figures and very valuable and rare ones. It is silly but it is something that brings me more pleasure than anything else. I have an intellectual job and have to use my brain a lot so I love having this thing that makes me feel like a child again whenever I unwind into the world of He-Man.

Enjoyed Tom MacRae’s favourites? Explore last week’s Favourite Things here.