Hello and welcome to the first edition of Reel Life, which includes an appearance by Ricky Gervais. Kind of.

In Reel Life you will be presented with a series of potentially interesting accounts about television programmes, commercials and films which have shot in Ealing recently. There may be the odd tale about filming in Harrow too because Ealing’s film office take care of shoots there and why reject a terrific filming story just because it’s a bit too far north?

Here we go then…

Derek drops by

…lots of people seem to like the contemporary humour of Ricky Gervais (pictured), so they may like to know that he filmed some of the new special edition of Derek in Ealing Town Hall. All we can tell you is there’s a scene in a registry office with some swearing. We assume it all went to plan. Mr Gervais kindly posed for a photo with a member of staff during the shoot, but to see the photo you would have to become her friend on Facebook. Sorry.

Scary flats

The Enfield Haunting tells the story of a poltergeist which supposedly terrorised a family in the area in the late 1970s. The crew used a flat in the Green Man Lane Estate in west Ealing (pictured) to recapture the spooky events. Well, the events may have been spooky, or someone might just have been throwing the plates around themselves when nobody was looking. That’s not spooky. It’s dangerous.

Oldie but a goodie

From what we can tell about the hidden camera show Off Their Rockers, it takes Harry Enfield’s Wibbly Wobbly Old Ladies idea to newer, brassier heights. You remember them. “Oooo young maaan” etc. In one sketch women of grandmotherly age approach unsuspecting young men in the streets of Ealing and ask if they can charge a special kind of new mobile phone by rubbing it on their biceps. In another, they walk around wearing t-shirts adorned with the words “Granny Magnet” and arrows drawn on to point at members of the public standing next to them. Outrageous.

Ad break

Ealing also had its fair share of advert shoots at the end of last year, but we have no product placement agreement with any of them so we’re not going to mention names here. Sufficed to say, please go out now and buy a car and some food, then when you get home watch some sport on the TV and insure your pet.