Five Questions from Quarantine: Rich Denney

What's your self-isolation set-up at the moment?

Routine is important for me, and although I’m not having to get on a train daily, I still prep the night before and in the morning as though I am boarding one. However, my dress code is the coronavirus equivalent of a Minotaur. The top half looks just like a normal day at work but the bottom half is more Andy Pipkin from Little Britain with tracksuit bottoms, loud socks and slippers. 

Then I commute downstairs to the large kitchen table where mission control is all set and ready to go. I Didn’t fancy using the home office space. The walls are dark and moody and I want to avoid that feeling right now.

It's lockdown; aside from your family, which four people, past or present, would you most like to be quarantined with? 

I have had an incredible few weeks of telephone and Zoom chats with my mate Malcolm Venville, who directed our SHN film. Such a beautiful, warm hearted man, full of wonderful stories. He also has the most infectious laugh that would brighten up the darkest of moods, which means after dinner we could vacate to the dark home office space for coffee and the lockdown stash of KitKat’s and Crunchie bars. 

Speaking of dinner, I’d invite John Williams MBE, Executive Chef of The Ritz London. Not only would he serve up the most incredible cooking masterclass, he could source the ingredients too, some of which are pretty hard to come by currently. I would love to see him trying to get an Ocado delivery slot!

So, we’re well fed and have laughs a plenty, so some music might be in order too. I loved seeing David Guetta stream his United at Home event in Miami, so he’d be more than welcome to join this set here. Lockdown possie make some fucking noise...finally!

I would also have to invite Chris Yates, angler and author. Some of you will know I am passionate about fishing. Surprisingly, I am not missing it at the moment and maybe some enchanting angling and outdoor tails from this wonderful storyteller would offer an audio book experience like no other, and get me dreaming fishy tails once more.

We need entertainment, what's your favourite short film?

We are currently in production on an exciting new animated film and brand world for one of our clients so, as you can imagine, myself and the project team at St Luke's have been looking at tons of animation the last few months. With that in mind I’m going to pick the incredibly moving Dear Basketball by Kobe Bryant. Based on the letter he wrote for The Players’ Tribune on his retirement, and narrated by the legend himself, the direction and animation from Glen Keane is brought to life so sensitively it won an Oscar, and rightly so.