We challenge our contributor to reply to ten devilishly probing questions about their London and we don’t take “Sorry Gov” for an answer. Everyone sitting in the hot seat will face the same questions that range from their favourite way to spend a day out in the capital to their most hated building on London’s skyline to find out just what Londoners really think about their city. The questions might be the same but the answers vary wildly.

[M]ick Ford is an actor and screenwriter best known to cabbies probably for playing Chris in Jack Rosenthal’s The Knowledge. He was also Archer, the vegetarian rebel, in Scum, and worked at the RSC and The National. These days Mick’s a script writer and has been responsible for three series of William and Mary, episodes of Ashes to Ashes and George Gently, as well as Single Father with David Tennant and more recently, The Last Weekend. Mick is married to Rudi Davies.

What’s your secret London tip?
For LSO concerts at the Barbican, children under 16 get in for £4 – whatever the seat: buy a top price one, and they sit next to you – for £4.

What’s your secret London place?
Bird Cage Walk on any Armistice Day from 10:10 to 10:50. I take my children each year – there are very few people there but you get to see all the Military Bands marching by, playing – and every member of the royal family attending the ceremony.

What’s your biggest gripe about London?
Too expensive – everything’s too expensive – especially for a family.

What’s your favourite building?
Westminster Abbey – surround yourself with history – feel the past.

What’s your most hated building?
City of London Boys School, opposite Tate modern – hideous bunker.

What’s the best view in London?
Waterloo Bridge: the view from the south side just past the National Theatre, both ways, up and down the river, is so beautiful at night.

What’s your personal London landmark?
Sadler’s Wells rehearsal room – it’s where I first set eyes on Rudi Davies in 1986.

What’s London’s best film, book or documentary?
London: The Biography, by Peter Ackroyd

What’s your favourite bar, pub or restaurant?
The Lord Stanley – Camden Park Road. Good beer – good wine – good food – no TV – a garden – just round the corner…..

How would you spend your ideal day off in London?
Walk my dog on the Heath, watch the Cricket at Lords for a couple of hours, then it’s Arsenal v Man U at the Emirates, (don’t ask who I’m supporting), and a loud concert at the Hammersmith Apollo.

This ‘Grill’ was first posted on the Radio Taxis blog.