I am a stranger travelling from the west

For each of my major fandoms, I do a short writeup talking about how it fits into my fandom history. A fandom qualifies as 'major' if I've written five fics for it, or ten thousand words across at least three fics.

I don't think the latest addition is going to be a surprise to anyone.


The Goes Wrong Show

I can pinpoint exactly when The Goes Wrong Show first happened to me. It was the sixth of December, 2025; I was thirty-seven. I was at my parents' house to see some relatives who were visiting.

My fifteen-year-old cousin, H, had removed himself from the socialisation and was watching a Minecraft video on the television in the sitting room. I asked if I could read in the room while he watched television; I thought that'd be a nice, low-pressure way for us to hang out. He switched from Minecraft videos to an episode of The Goes Wrong Show: "You'd probably like this more."

I've been aware of the existence of The Play That Goes Wrong for a long time; it's hard not to be if you're a Londoner! If you've lived in London at any point in the last decade, or if a visit has ever brought you to the West End, chances are that you've seen posters for it at Tube stations. I remember the evocative name caught my eye when it first started showing up.

My friend RD had seen The Play That Goes Wrong years ago and said it was hilarious, so it had stuck in my mind as something that was probably good fun, even if I had no actual plans to see it. I'd never heard of The Goes Wrong Show, but I realised instantly, from the style of the logo, that it was related to The Play That Goes Wrong, so I was interested to see what it was like!

The episode H put on was 'The Lodge'. As I had anticipated, it showed actors putting on a play - in this case a ghost story - and that play going wrong in every possible way. My main initial impressions:

a) this is very silly
b) this is pretty fun
c) there's a lot of genuinely impressive effort and skill on display; this is an actual stage play being filmed in front of a live audience, and it must take such precise timing to make things 'go wrong' correctly
d) who is that man?????

The man in question was the creepy owner of the haunted lodge. He was compelling! He was hot! He was loud and weird and ridiculous! At one point he got knocked out by a vase falling on his head, and somehow that only made him more attractive to me; it was such a well-done piece of physical comedy.

At one point H's mother, S, came into the room and saw we were watching The Goes Wrong Show. 'Oh, it's Robert,' she commented, when the man I was so fascinated by happened to be on screen.

S explained that the character of Robert had also been in Peter Pan Goes Wrong, which she had seen on stage. I'd originally assumed that the concept of this show was just 'a play goes wrong' without any kind of story behind it, and I was surprised and interested to discover that the 'actors' involved were actually consistent characters across the different plays.

'He's very good,' I said, enraptured.

After 'The Lodge' had finished, we also watched the episode '90 Degrees', at S's request. It had less screentime for Robert, alas, but it was an absolutely extraordinary technical achievement, improved even further by the fact that S's mother had now joined us and was absolutely losing it laughing.

So I'd now seen two episodes of The Goes Wrong Show! I'd enjoyed them, but I didn't carry on with the show straight away. Shamefully, what drove me to watch more wasn't actually the comedy; it was the fact that I found myself idly thinking about Robert while I walked down the street. I just wanted to see more of that bizarre handsome weirdo.

The show is on BBC iPlayer, and I couldn't watch it at home because we don't have a television licence, so I tried out another episode when I next visited my parents. And then another. And another, and another. And then I ordered every Goes Wrong DVD I could get my hands on, and then I started buying theatre tickets, and that's how we've ended up here. I'm so sorry.

Favourite character: who could it beeeeeeee (it's Robert, of course it's Robert, why do I have such a weakness for a large man with a loud and aggressive persona) (shut the FUCK up, Freud, I don't want to hear your opinion)
Favourite pairing: Robert/Chris. Their dynamic is just so fascinatingly weird. They're friends! They're enemies! They're bizarrely obsessed with each other! Robert has slept with Chris's mother! Chris has kissed Robert's sister! Robert has repeatedly attempted to incapacitate Chris in an effort to steal a role from him! Robert wrote Chris a role specifically designed to humiliate him, but also included a scene in which his own character and Chris's connect and find common ground! What's wrong with them?? I have no idea, but it's great.
Number of words written: 9,763 on my main AO3 account, plus about 3,000 words' worth of fills for the Three-Sentence Ficathon.

Snippet: I've finished most of the things I've started for the Goes Wrong series, but here's a silly little snippet that probably won't go anywhere.

( The Goes Wrong Show unfinished snippet, Chris and Annie, 2026. )

When I was looking through my many threesentenceficathon fills for The Goes Wrong Show, it occurred to me that I could probably use my 'unethical sexuality experimentation' fill as the first scene of a longer fic, perhaps incorporating a couple of my other fills.

Here's the result! Some of the scenes may feel familiar if you've read my Three-Sentence Ficathon fills, but the vast majority of this fic is brand new.


Title: Performance Notes
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show
Rating: 14
Pairing: Robert/Chris by way of Robert/everyone
Wordcount: 3,000
Summary: The script Robert has written for the society to perform is, to say the least, extremely worrying.


( Performance Notes )

AO3 may be down, but never fear; I've brought a third batch of threesentenceficathon fills!

Are they for fandoms you're in? W... well, no. They're still almost exclusively for the Goes Wrong Show, with one short and spoilery Silent Hill 2 fill. But they are fanfiction nonetheless.


( Silent Hill 2, James, 40 words, prompt: 'I love you. I'm sorry.' )

( Assorted ficlets for the Goes Wrong Show, mainly Chris and Robert, 1,400 words total. )


I was doing so well at keeping to three sentences to begin with! But here we are now.

After seeing Christmas Carol Goes Wrong on stage, I bought the official script; I thought it would be a nice way to remind myself of my evening at the theatre. And it is! But it's also interesting to see how many things had been changed or added by the time I saw it in performance.

Flicking through, here are some of the more interesting differences I've noticed between the script version and the actual performance I saw on the fourteenth of January!


( Some differences between the script and the actual staged version of Christmas Carol Goes Wrong. )


Finally, a delightful little exchange from the script that I don't remember being in the show itself:

Sandra: Listen, we all know the Cornley Gazette's official policy has been not to review our shows since our immersive production of Dracula.
Robert: The small print on the ticket clearly said I would enter his house and bite him.