Super mares

We're in Weston-Super-Mare, at Nathan's father and wicked step mother's charming new house. We've all eaten too much. Liz fed us a beautiful meal - macaroni cheese and a tricolore salad - and now all I want to do is sleep. It's amazing how tired a certain type of food will make you feel! It's also the end of a very stressful week, which would have wiped anyone out, I suspect.

We did a morning of frantic work... I had to send a bunch of emails and do a shed-load of admin. One of the things we've been asked to do, as part of research for a major project, was list what we consider to be the world's five most successful musicals. "Successful" is, of course, a hugely subjective word, and we've been told that we can judge success either from a commercial or a creative perspective.

So my five musicals were Les Mis, West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, Wicked and Oliver. Nathan went for Les Mis, Grease, Merrily We Roll Along, London Road and Matilda.

The tendency, of course, is to write down all of your favourite musicals, which for me would have included Sweany Todd, Nine and Oh! What a Lovely War, but because artistic merit is more difficult to prove than commercial success, I stuck to a list of financially successful shows, and chose my favourite from those.

So come on then... If you're reading this, and you're partial to the odd musical, what would you have as your top five most successful musicals ever? Remember, you can judge a show creatively or commercially... Your lists will plainly make me realise I've missed half a tonne of brilliant musicals off my own!

The journey down here was pleasant enough. I drove, and we stopped at Chieveley services.

I don't know the West of England at all. It's Nathan's homeland, and he instantly broke into a peculiar Somerset accent when we stopped at the local Morrisons! The people in these parts, he says, are his people. I know exactly what he means. When I hit certain parts of the Midlands, or North Wales, I instantly recognise my own tribe.

I don't recognise the people down here in the same way, however. They all have slightly funny mouths, if I'm honest, which I think comes from the peculiar accent they have in these parts. Nathan says they're the nicest people in Britain. He's wrong. The nicest people in Britain come from Coventry... Where people's mouths are slightly less strangely shaped!