Damian Lewis on Wolf Hall: Going to school at Eton helped me play a king
“I think there’s no question it helps having had the kind of schooling that I’ve had to play a king," says the Homeland actor
Nineteen British prime ministers and numerous princes have passed through the hallowed halls of Eton, but no king of our country has been an alumnus of the ancient college. Yet Damian Lewis believes his time at the elite public school was the perfect training for his role as Henry VIII in Wolf Hall. Lewis, who’s previously admitted keeping his education secret to avoid typecasting, says that his experience of his alma mater has given him a deep understanding of aristocratic life. “I think there’s no question it helps having had the kind of schooling that I’ve had to play a king. Just the sort of court structure, hierarchies, the way they’re set up. It’s something I feel I implicitly understand.” The former Band of Brothers and Homeland star admits that, aside from the nature of his own education, there are other areas in which he felt a close affinity with the Tudor monarch. “The more I read about Henry, the more I was happy — and alarmed — to find that I did share character traits with him,” he says. “I suppose everyone else will be the judge of it, but certainly sitting in the clothes, it feels like a canny piece of casting, because I do find similarities between myself and him.” View oEmbed on the source website While the average viewer’s knowledge of Henry may extend no further than a vague recollection of a yearning for a male progeny and a propensity for uxoricide, Lewis is keen to dispel the stereotype of the king as a “womanising, syphilitic, bloated, genocidal Elvis character. “Actually the truth is, though it might be an odd thing to mention, that Henry had a 32-inch waist — and he remained that way for quite a long time. He was the pre-eminent sportsman in his court. He was much taller than anyone else. His beautiful, pale complexion was often remarked upon by commentators. “And so I think what I’ve found is that the grandiose, more paranoid, self-indulgent, self-pitying, cruel Henry emerged in the period after this series. What we’re trying to concentrate on is just to give a more varied portrait of Henry, and that’s really how this is written." “Henry craves the normality of that kind of interpersonal relationship with other people, while at the same time wanting to be the greatest man, the greatest king, a God-like king presiding over the greatest court of all time.”
Dara O Briain and Ed Byrne reveal the best bits of their Great Big Adventure
When Dara and Ed's Great Big Adventure was first shown last year, the comic duo told us about the highlights of their Arizona to Panama road trip...
MEXICO CITY DARA O BRIAIN If you’re in the city, you’ve got to attend a night at the Mexican wrestling. It’s in this fantastic stadium and you really get into it. It’s like panto, essentially, but an incredibly sporty panto. Your ironic defences are down – I mean, we were wearing wrestling masks – and you’ve got a tray of beer and popcorn in front of you. ED BYRNE What’s great is the cross section of people. You’ve got older people who used to watch that Big Daddy kind of wrestling, then you’ve got the fans like you’d see at a WWE match, and young hipsters who look at the whole thing in a very ironic way. We had masks on our heads and kids were looking at us, like, what are those two doing? I bought four masks. One for me, one for my wife, and two for my kids. I’ve told my wife that I want to do the photo for our Christmas cards with them on. OAXACA AND MONTE ALBÁN, MEXICO DARA Oaxaca is the jewel of the Meso-American cities in Mexico. It’s a spectacularly beautiful, well-preserved city, and a centre of culture. Just outside Oaxaca is Monte Albán, which is an ancient Zapotec city. It’s on a levelled-off mountaintop, and large areas of it are still to be investigated. It was a city of 15,000 people, which at the time would have placed it among the largest cities in Europe, let alone in the Americas. ED It’s like Macchu Picchu, but you can get there easily from the city. It’s incredible to look at. It’s pretty touristy, but it doesn’t feel too busy. It’s not like there are people all over it like ants; you can still imagine what it was like. FINCA HAMBURGO, MEXICO DARA This German-owned coffee plantation is at the top of a mountain, on the border with Guatemala. It’s a long and treacherous drive up. Coffee grows better than anything else does at those altitudes, so they stick it on the side of mountains. ED They have a hotel there, built so that the families of the workers could find work in the hotel. It’s been run by five generations of the same German family. They were asked by the Mexican government to build it, to give people jobs. Then in World War Two the Germans were interned, and the family’s farm was taken from them. After the war they had to buy it back, but just as they made the last mortgage payment, in 1957, a storm destroyed it and they had to start again. View oEmbed on the source website Radio Times Travel offer: Prefer to leave the car at home? Save up to 65% in our cruise sale ANTIGUA GUATEMALA, GUATEMALA DARA Antigua is a beautiful colonial town that was built in an age of beautiful cities, like Venice, that hit their economic peak 400 years ago and remain dipped in aspic. The landscape is lush beyond belief, because the soil is peppered with the sulphurous exhalations of many volcanos, which means it has very rich soil. There are live volcanos you can walk up and visit. ED It’s like an open-air museum. It’s also a bit like Amsterdam in that people go there with the intention of travelling all around the country, but they love it so much they stay. CENTRO DE RESCATE LAS PUMAS, CAÑAS, COSTA RICA DARA Some 25 per cent of Costa Rica is national park, and while tourism from nature is a massive part of the economy, they’re still building a six-lane highway through northern Costa Rica that carves through the habitats of all the animals. ED This wildlife sanctuary is for animals that have been discombobulated by the building of the new highway. For people who have an issue with zoos, this is a place where the animals are not in cages for us to gawk at them, but they’re there because they’re being rehabilitated. I got to feed a baby anteater, which was awesome. View oEmbed on the source website PANAMA CITY, PANAMA DARA Arriving at Panama City is like arriving at Dubai. Dubai appears out of the desert, but with Panama City it’s the jungle. When you travel through the rest of this landmass, it’s all Spanish old colonial cities, and then you get to the economic powerhouse that is Panama City. There are not just skyscrapers, but two or three separate areas of skyscrapers. It’s a tall, shiny, glassy city. ED The canal has a visitor centre and it’s fascinating. You just don’t even consider the fact that ships are built to fit the canal. Cruise ships are Panama Canal-sized. DARA Panamax is the boat-building measurement. If you build your boat to that specification, it can pass through the canal with about a six-inch gap on each side. Dara and Ed's Great Big Adventure is repeated on BBC2 on Sundays from 5th June Read more: How to follow in Dara and Ed's footsteps on a Pam Am adventure Radio Times Travel offer Save up to 65% on cruises to Central American and Cuba, Iceland, Norway, the Baltic cities, the Canaries and Madeira, Canada, the Arctic and Sydney to Hong Kong. Click here to view all cruises on sale
ITV poised to poach Robert Peston from BBC
The BBC economics editor is close to completing a shock switch to political editor for ITV News
ITV is close to pulling off an incredible coup by luring the BBC’s economics editor Robert Peston into a role as the commercial broadcaster's new political editor. Peston, famed for his staccato delivery, has been offered the post of political editor of ITV News, with the channel’s chiefs hoping to unveil him later this week, Radio Times understands. The vacancy at ITV News arose after Tom Bradby moved to become the new presenter of News at Ten. A host of top TV political journalists applied for the role, including Channel 4 News host Cathy Newman, but ITV are understood to have been keen to land a big BBC name. Talks between Peston and the channel have been going on for a number of weeks, and the presenter is expected to decide whether or not to make the move by the end of this week. In an interview with Radio Times earlier this year, Peston said he was looking for "another big challenge", but added: "I haven't the faintest idea of what it would be." He said: "I mean, I love the BBC. I genuinely don’t know. It is true that I sort of feel that it would be fun to do… I mean, going from print journalism to the BBC was a big change, and I sort of feel that I wouldn’t mind another big change, but I haven’t the faintest idea what it would be. "I don’t feel under any great pressure, because I do love what I do, and I’m quite lucky that I don’t just have the economics ed job, but I have the joy of doing other things."
Radio Times poll shows massive public support for BBC
91% come out in favour of the licence fee in survey of 9,000 readers
The debate over whether to save or change the BBC has so far been limited to politicians and programme-makers, but Radio Times wants to make sure that the voice of the viewers is heard. In the 1st August issue of RadioTimes we launched a extensive survey to ask readers your views on the future of the BBC. It echoed the questions raised in the Government’s public consultation on the corporation, so we can ensure your views shape the debate. Nearly 9,000 of you responded, including 3,000 who sent back their meticulously compiled questionnaires through the post, putting a heavy strain on the RT mailroom! Our data-crunchers have worked around the clock to analyse your responses. Here are the results: RT readers back the BBC as a bastion of quality broadcasting. A staggering 96 per cent of you support the principle of a publicly funded broadcaster, with 91 per cent saying that the licence fee is the best way of funnelling public cash to the corporation. Huge numbers say that the BBC provides high-quality programming that is distinctive from other broadcasters and, as a result, the vast majority of you – regardless of your age – would even be happy to forgo a free licence when you’re 75 rather than see the BBC lose out. Three out of four of you say that the BBC should not have its services cut back, even if it means a cheaper licence fee. As for the Government’s suggestion that a portion of licence-fee income should go to other broadcasters to make public-service news or children’s programming, 80 per cent of you disagree. But it’s not a blank cheque of unwavering support for the Corporation, and we’ve had some passionate views, powerfully expressed. You’re not sure whether the BBC should do as many shiny-floor entertainment shows as it does now, and many of you would like it to avoid high-profile scheduling clashes, such as putting Strictly Come Dancing up against ITV’s The X Factor. Whether the BBC needs three mainstream popular music stations – Radios 1, 2 and 6 Music – is also a subject of discussion. But on the big questions, the corporation has massive support. In a message to RT readers, BBC director-general Tony Hall says, “It’s great to hear that readers of Radio Times so emphatically endorse and back the BBC. That backing rests on the quality and breadth of what we do. I want to thank every reader who responded.” As we promised when we launched the survey, RT will pass on all your responses to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. A DCMS spokesperson tells RT: “The BBC is one of this nation’s most treasured institutions, playing a role in almost all our lives. We are committed to a thorough and open Charter Review, and want to hear everyone’s views. We welcome the contribution from Radio Times readers.” The consultation ends on 8 October, but it will be weeks before we know whether they’ve been listening. [Click to enlarge] View Green Video on the source website David Attenborough will be at the Radio Times Festival, taking us from the poles to the tropics as part of a sweeping tour of his six decades in broadcasting. The only man to have won Baftas for programmes made in black and white, colour, HD and 3D, Sir David will also become the inaugural member of the Radio Times Hall of Fame.
Miles Jupp begins his reign of The News Quiz - and he's hoping to tweak the guest list
The Rev star will replace Sandi Toksvig as the host of the topical Radio 4 panel show, now in its 88th series
With his donnish demeanour, ecclesiastical upbringing and background in children’s television, Miles Jupp is a some￼what unlikely comedian. “I went to an audition the other day,” he says. “I needed to do a North West accent for it. The accent I did was really good, mainly because it sounded nothing like me. And the reason it sounded nothing like me was that I had attempted to drive my car into the NCP car park in Newport, forgetting that I still had a rooftop box on. “Of course it got caught, and then I wanted to reverse, but then I was blocking a bus that wanted to turn left immediately before the car park. I got so cross that I ruined my vocal cords for about 48 hours. In the middle of that I had the audition. If I do get the job I’m going to have to get the roof box back on and drive up to Newport.” Fortunately for Radio 4 listeners, Jupp’s voice has returned to its slightly nasal, über-middle-class drawl, just in time for him to begin his stint as the host of The News Quiz, becoming the fifth chair in the show’s 38-year history. Sandi Toksvig, the previous incumbent, managed nine years and 28 series, and Jupp is only too aware that he has been given the keys to one of the jewels in the BBC’s radio schedule. “You’ve got the big shows on Radio 4,” he says, rather breathlessly. “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, Just a Minute and The News Quiz. It’s iconic, and that is what is both frightening and exciting. It’s like being told, ‘Here’s this beautiful thing we made – it’s your turn to hold it, don’t break it.’ Miles Jupp in Rev “I think it matters. It has the potential to talk about news items that are otherwise discussed in a more reverential way. An item can go out on the Six o’Clock News and a decision might have been made that is blatantly harmful, but they have to say, ‘Some commentators wonder if this is in fact a very clever move.’ Whereas on The News Quiz you can say, ‘These people are definitely idiots.’ You can say the things that people think when they’re listening to the news.” While he promises that any changes to the show – now entering its 88th series – will be gradual, he hopes to gently tweak the guest list, in a manner that would be likely to see the mix of contributors mirror Have I Got News for You. “I would like to get some politicians on, particularly those who are capable of actual thought and speech. I want to make sure we keep having journalists on, too. They really go for the stories, whereas comedians tend to pick around the periphery of a news item and make jokes in the margin, which is valid. But journalists talk about news stories in a way that makes them more accessible.” The son of a clergyman, Jupp studied divinity at Edinburgh University and had a regular part in Rev, the hit BBC2 sitcom, as hapless lay reader Nigel. Despite this triumvirate of ecclesiastical qualifications, he says he would not really describe himself as a person of faith, adding, “I’m quite pro-church really, as long as they’re sensible. We go to church on Sundays, because that’s when other people are about.” He says he “very much doubts” that Rev, which starred Tom Hollander and Olivia Colman, will return, despite public demand. “It seemed to me to be finished, although I thought the same after series two. I would be very surprised if there was more. I don’t see it.” View oEmbed on the source website Having spent time in north London, home is now the Welsh valley town of Monmouth, with his wife and five children. A fixture on the comedy circuit, his showbiz breakthrough came via the short-lived but wildly popular children’s show, Balamory, which he joined as a 22-year-old undergraduate. A generation of children know him as Archie (above), a slightly rotund inventor who crafts his creations from yogurt pots and milk bottles. But not his own brood. “I used to be worried about showing it to them because I thought that they would find it very odd. But I guess now children film themselves on an iPad and watch it back, so probably now being on screen, there’s nothing magic about it.” He says that his children have seen bits of Balamory, but it isn’t a fixture in the Jupp household. “There’s lots of other stuff out there,” he says, sarcastically. “I’m not like, ‘Guys, why are you watching Despicable Me? Here’s some DVDs from ten years ago. This one’s got the Highway Code in it.’” At 36, Jupp is a good deal younger than most Radio 4 listeners, and he is well aware that he is stepping into the kind of BBC radio job where tenure is measured in decades rather than years. “It’s open-ended,” he says, when asked how long he plans to stick around on The News Quiz. “Nicholas Parsons is what, 91? I’m just thinking about my first series, and doing the best job I can do. The news is different every week, so there’s no reason why it can’t feel fresh for quite a long time.” The News Quiz returns tonight (Friday 18th September) at 6.30pm
Two-thirds of viewers opposed to the licence fee changed their minds after just nine days without BBC services
"Being without the BBC was absolutely dreadful, just awful," said one man involved in the 'deprivation study'. "I just didn’t realised how much we watched it...”
More than two-thirds of those originally opposed to paying the £145.50 licence fee changed their minds after being cut off from BBC services for a nine-day period, according to a study commissioned by the corporation. Seventy families across the country agreed to have their access to the BBC’s television, radio and online services suspended, as part of a “deprivation study” designed to test the reactions of those who said they would prefer not to pay the licence fee. Of the seventy households, 48 had initially said that they would prefer either to pay no licence fee and have no BBC access, or pay a reduced licence fee. After nine days without any access to the corporation, however, 33 of the 48 families, or 69 per cent, declared that they were now happy to pay. Mike O’Donnell, a retired sales manager, and his wife, Pat, were among the families who were initially opposed to paying for the BBC. “I just thought the licence fee was another tax, and not good value for money,” said Mr O’Donnell, who admits to being a fan of EastEnders and 5 Live. “But being without the BBC was absolutely dreadful, just awful. I just didn’t realised how much we watched it.” Many of those who took part in the trial said that they became frustrated by having to watch adverts on commercial TV channels, and the O’Donnells were no different. “The adverts just drove me nuts,” said Mr O’Donnell. “I lost track of what I was watching.” A perceived lack of quality from the BBC’s rivals was also a common complaint. Mr O’Donnell said: “The weather on ITV is Mickey Mouse. You can tell that the person who’s reading it doesn’t understand it. Whereas when you watch it on the BBC they clearly know what they’re talking about and put the script together from the research they’ve done. It’s quite a profound difference. I now think the BBC is incredibly good value. I’d probably willingly pay even more. I’m actually quite a good ambassador for the BBC now.” The BBC commissioned the study to dig deeper into existing research that suggests that around 30 per cent of people are opposed to paying the licence fee. It would appear to confirm suspicions held at a high level in the corporation that many viewers do not realise how much they depend on the broadcaster’s output. Sonia, a local government worker in Bristol, who did not want to give her surname, was a case in point. Before the study she was opposed to paying the licence fee and said she “found it hard to imagine what as a family the BBC gave us that we can’t get anywhere else”. After nine days without the BBC, she had changed her mind. “It was shocking in that we realised how much we did watch BBC programmes,” she said. “I think we just took it for granted.” A further 22 of the 70 households had initially said that they were happy paying the licence fee. After the study, 21 said that their views were unchanged. At the conclusion of the experiment, families were given £3.60, a rebate for the nine days of BBC access they had foregone. For many, that was a watershed moment. “That’s what, £12 a month,” said one unnamed participant, who was initially against the licence fee. “And we pay £70-odd a month for Sky. That’s a bit of a shock to be honest.” Read further details of the report in the new issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale from Tuesday 25th August
Meet the man who is saving Yazidi women from Isis
Thousands of women and girls have been kidnapped by Islamic extremists - lawyer Khaleel al-Dakhi is trying to free them
Nearly a year has passed since Islamic State fighters pushed their way through northern Iraq, massacring thousands of the local Yazidis, and forcing tens of thousands more to flee into the mountains. A rescue operation led by Kurdish troops eventually cleared a path for many to escape, but not before some 3,000 women and girls had been kidnapped by IS fighters, and spirited away to the Islamic extremists’ heartlands. There, according to the UN, they have been sold into slavery and forced to marry militants, with girls as young as 11 subjected to brutal sexual assaults. But one man – a modern- day Oscar Schindler – has been leading a covert campaign to rescue the women, sending emissaries to extract them from Islamic State-controlled areas under cover of darkness, many from the militants’ stronghold of Raqqa. Khaleel al-Dakhi, a Yazidi lawyer who himself fled the IS advance, says he and his small group have so far managed to free 522 women and girls. The Yazidi are regarded as infidels and devil-worshippers by the Islamists, as their esoteric religion involves worshipping a Peacock Angel, whose banishment to hell and subsequent reinstatement has echoes of the biblical tale of Lucifer. As a result IS has designated the captured women as “spoils of war”, and human rights organisations have documented their “systematic rape”. “The conditions over there are appalling,” says Al-Dakhi (above), speaking to RT via Skype from Duhok, in Iraqi Kurdistan. “They treat our women and girls as goods that can be traded. They give them to each other as gifts, and they can be raped by as many as nine or ten fighters. They are not allowed to treat Muslim girls like this, but their clerics tell them they can treat Yazidi women like slaves.” Women in the area of northern Iraq and Syria under the control of IS face a brutal daily life, in which they are required to have their faces hidden by double veils, and don black gloves and figure-obscuring robes. While there is often nothing physically restraining the captured women from escape, they are held miles into IS territory, and face brutal punishment if caught. Al-Dakhi says he arranges rescue missions after being alerted by family members still in covert contact with the missing girls. He says: “If the women manage to call their families, they will bring their phone number to me. I will keep in contact with them, and work out where they are. I have some Arab friends who are living in the IS areas, and we arrange for them to meet the girls at a particular time and location. They usually wait until the IS fighters are asleep, and then try to escape. View oEmbed on the source website “We give our contacts a secret password, like the girl’s mother’s name, and when they give that word to the girl, they know they can trust them. After we get them, we have a number of safe houses within the IS areas. We move the women from house to house. If there is no fighting going on, we transport them to a safe area, but if there is a battle on, they hide in the safe houses until it subsides.” Members of Al-Dakhi’s group face incredible risks when trying to extract the women, and he says one friend was killed four days before we speak, in a botched rescue attempt. But despite the danger, Al-Dakhi says nothing will deter him. “I will keep doing this for ever,” he says. “Until I release all the Yazidi women and girls.” Escape from Isis is on Channel 4 tonight (Wednesday 15th July) at 10.00pm
Meet the new Dragons: Sarah Willingham, Touker Suleyman and Nick Jenkins
Everything you need to know about the entrepreneurs making and breaking people's business dreams in the new series of Dragons' Den...
Meet the Dragons joining Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones in the new series... Sarah Willingham Age: 41 Day job: Creator of restaurant chain the Bombay Bicycle Club and co-founder of the London Cocktail Club Family: She has four children with husband/ business partner Michael Toxvaerd Education: Newcastle High School, an independent school in Newcastle-under-Lyme, followed by degrees at Oxford Brookes and La Rochelle Business School, and an MBA at Cranfield How much are you worth? "I’m not telling you. I think it’s vulgar to discuss actual figures. Enough to be free to make the decisions to control my life." How did you get to where you are today? "I’ve always worked very hard, and I love it. I’ve never deviated from the need to be a mum and to work, and because of that I’ve had a real drive to do what I love doing, but to do it as efficiently as possible." Best business success? "The Bombay Bicycle Club. I loved that business. I started out with the goal of creating the largest chain of Indian restaurants. I managed that, sold it and made a large profit." [She led a consortium that bought Bombay Bicycle Club in 2004. She added 11 restaurants to its original six, making it the largest Indian restaurant chain in the UK, before selling it in 2008 for £4.4m.] Worst business failure? "I wonder whether I sold Bombay way too soon. I could have opened another 50. But it would have been a real compromise at home, one I wasn’t willing to take. My website, Letssavemoney.com is profitable but it’s been a slog and taken longer than I wanted." What kind of business are you looking to invest in? "Before we started filming, I had a clear view. But now we’ve started, there really isn’t a particular kind." What kind of person are you looking for? "People who are straight. I can’t do disrespect, rudeness or indifference. How much money are you looking to spend? I never put a finite number on it. Some people might want more cash, and less time, some the opposite. I’ve got four young kids, so sometimes I’d rather spend more money and less time. I have to weigh it up." PETER JONES’S VERDICT: "She’s got a broad understanding of business, going from restaurants to retail. She just says it how it is." DEBORAH MEADEN’S VERDICT: "She’s got the consumer touch. She thinks like the customer." Touker Suleyman Age: 61 Day job: Owner of fashion brands Hawes & Curtis and Ghost Family: Divorced with two daughters Education: “All my life I’ve been in London state schools. Then I went to become an articled clerk in a chartered accountants, but I had the blood of an entrepreneur so I didn’t finish that, but went out into the world." How much are you worth? "I don’t know. The Sunday Times Rich List says £150m. It depends how they value it. It changes every day." How did you get to where you are now? "Hard work, passion, drive, vision. I’ve picked the right people. You need the right team, singing from the same hymn sheet." Best business success? "Hawes & Curtis. I bought it for a pound, it’s approaching £30 million this year. It’s got a new strategy to move from being a shirt brand to a global lifestyle brand. I love it." Worst business failure? "In the early 1980s I bought a business called Bamber Stores. Let’s just say that all the accounts were fraudulent. I didn’t do my proper due diligence, but it was my decision and I take responsibility." What kind of business are you looking to invest in? "Any that I can add value to and make money on! A business with synergies with ones I’ve already got does appeal, but I’m open-minded." What kind of person are you looking for? "An honest person. Someone I can look in the eye, and feel the chemistry that tells me I can do business with them." Are you a non-dom? "Yes. But all my income is in the UK and I pay my taxes." Would you support Labour’s policy to scrap non-dom status? "No. I know how important people who come in and bring a lot of money with them are. They do buy property but they invest huge amounts on interiors, woodwork, cabinets, which all goes back to small workshops across the country. But I don’t think people see that. The Government gets money in VAT and stamp duty, and small companies get it by making all sorts of products. PETER JONES’S VERDICT: "He is driven by passion and led by his heart." DEBORAH MEADEN’S VERDICT: "He’s a very instinctive entrepreneur. Sometimes his brain works faster than his mouth can keep up with." Nick Jenkins Age: 48 Day job: Founder of Moonpig.com, the personalised greetings card website Family: Unmarried, no children Education: Adams’ Grammar, a state boarding school in Shropshire, followed by a degree in Russian at Birmingham University and an MBA at Cranfield University How much are you worth? "Quite enough." [The Sunday Times Rich List says £45m.] How did you get to where you are today? "Being decisive is fairly important. I’ve followed the things that I enjoy. Lots of opportunities come your way, but you do actually have to choose between them." Biggest business success? "Without a doubt, Moonpig.com. I set it up on my own, after my MBA. I had a clear idea about what I wanted to do – [a website] producing single personalised greetings cards. At the point when I sold it [for £120m, in 2011, after 11 years], it had five million customers across the world." Worst business failure? "A pay-by-the-hour car-hire firm that I bought out of administration in 2008, called Whizzgo. I sold it on at a loss in 2009, to City Car Club, who have since made a success of it. I lost £900,000." What kind of business are you looking to invest in? "Scalable, consumer businesses. If you asked me to invest in a visitor centre somewhere, that can only get so big. It has to be scalable." What kind of person are you looking for? "I like working with people who’d like the world to be a better place, who create a great working environment for staff, who are fair in business and are fun." PETER JONES’S VERDICT: "He’s very clear, eloquent, and I get on really well with him." DEBORAH MEADEN’S VERDICT: "He’s very analytical. If I think that everything that needs to be asked has been asked, he’ll find something I hadn’t even thought of." Dragons’ Den begins on Sunday 12th July at 8.15pm on BBC2
Yvette Fielding on Celebrity Masterchef, her Blue Peter days and that pancake-tossing incident
The former children's presenter wants Blue Peter back on BBC1 and can't bear the thought of Downton Abbey ending...
Radio Times readers once voted you their favourite Blue Peter presenter of all time. How did that feel? When I heard the results I actually cried! I just couldn’t believe it, I thought it must have been a joke. Why do you think you beat such legends of children’s TV as John Noakes and Anthea Turner? My dad always told me to keep my feet on the ground and remember where I’m from. I’ve always tried to act in that way, and maybe that has something to do with it. Do you still watch Blue Peter these days? I don’t have the time, but I am angry that it has been moved from BBC1 to CBBC. It deserves to be on mainstream television, not on the digital channel. People seem to forget that it’s not just a kids’ show, it’s a family show, and a generation of children and their parents are missing out because it’s less accessible. It should be on BBC1, just before Pointless. You’re on Celebrity MasterChef. Are you in charge of the kitchen at home? Yes. I try to be a little bit experimental, but that can go disastrously wrong. I just can’t keep my fingers out of the spice dish. Concoctions can go either way. They can either be fantastic, or make my family run to the bin! Do you have a particular speciality? I like my baked salmon, with watercress sauce, asparagus and garlic-crushed potatoes. The worst thing I’ve ever done was a vegetable pie. Don’t even ask! You, of course, once had a culinary disaster live on Blue Peter... Ah, the famous pancake. It was horrific. It looked like one of my pets had been ill. It was so bad I started laughing. It was the first episode in which we ever wore earpieces, and they were screaming at me from the gallery, telling me to toss it. I almost forgot I was on air and started replying out loud, saying, “I can’t toss it,” because it was stuck to the pan. There was far too much talk of tossing. People still come up and talk to me about it. View oEmbed on the source website Who controls the remote in your house? Me. My husband lets me watch what I want, really. He loves The Simpsons and South Park. He and my son, William, who’s 21, watch it when I’m not there. They do South Park impressions and talk to each other in the voices. What makes you reach for the off switch? Adverts. I have to turn over as soon as they come on. I record things and watch them on catch-up, so you can fast-forward through the adverts, or I get them on DVD. Celebrity MasterChef begins on Thursday 18th June at 9pm on BBC1 Meet the Celebrity Masterchef contestants What the Celebrity MasterChef winners did next
Meet the 100-year-old fan singing at the FA Cup Final
Lifelong Newcastle fan Jim Errington will take to the field today to sing traditional pre-match anthem Abide with Me
When Arsenal face Aston Villa at Wembley today there will be one 100-year-old fan who can’t lose, whatever the result. Because Jim Errington, who turned 100 earlier this month, will have fulfilled a lifelong dream by walking onto the Wembley turf to sing his heart out. More to the point, he will have done so while dressed in his beloved Newcastle United’s famous black and white stripes – certainly the only outing that classic strip will get at Wembley in 2015 after the club was knocked out by Leicester in the third round. A Newcastle fan for decades, Errington is the oldest member of a fans’ choir, made up of supporters from 64 different teams, who will lead the singing of the Cup final’s traditional pre-match anthem – the hymn Abide with Me. The group has been put together by the BBC’s Songs of Praise, to represent all 64 clubs that reached the third round of this year’s competition. As a Methodist minister who still preaches today, Errington is no stranger to Henry Lyte’s 19th-century hymn. “The BBC have offered people an internet tutorial, but I know all the words,” he says. “I have lived through three editions of the Methodist hymnbook, and we Methodists are noted for our fervent singing.” Errington, the eldest of ten children, went to his first Newcastle game 86 years ago, taken by a teacher as a reward for playing for the school football team. His favourite player of all time is Hughie Gallacher, a Scottish striker who scored 143 goals in 174 games for the club in the late 1920s. “He was my boyhood favourite, and he was absolutely marvellous,” he says. “I got to know him well, before he died. There was a charity match during the war, and he was captaining one of the teams. He said he’d only organise it if Jim Errington could play up front. We lost 7–0!” Leona Lewis singing Abide with Me at last year's final While the club has clinched the FA Cup on six occasions, including three times in the 1950s, Errington was based elsewhere during that period, and missed the games. He did manage to get to the 1974 final against Liverpool, only to see future Newcastle idol Kevin Keegan score twice for the Reds to sink the Magpies 3–0. “Recently the FA Cup has been a thorn in the flesh of the supporters, because we’ve not made any progress,” he says. Errington has been ever present at St James’ Park since buying a season ticket when they were first introduced, in the 1980s. But this year has been a painful one for Newcastle fans, with the club slipping down the league table and narrowly avoiding relegation, something that Errington blames on a lack of investment by the club’s owner, Mike Ashley. “Others are spending millions but it hasn’t happened at Newcastle,” he says. “But the support is still there. There’s a football fervour on Tyneside and you’ve got to capture that.” He spent the Second World War in the Navy, and sat his exams to join the Methodist church while based in Sri Lanka. After being demobilised he attended a Methodist college in Manchester, where he met his wife Nora, whom he married in 1949. “We worshipped at the same church,” he says. “And that was that.” Nora died in 2007 on Christmas Day, and Errington has lived alone ever since, but says he has “very good neighbours, very good friends, and a very loving family”. He marked his century by going out for a meal with his two children and three grandchildren, but only after being treated to a tour of St James’ Park by former captain Bobby Moncur. On Saturday he will represent the club out on the Wembley turf. Does he have any fears about stepping out in front of a crowd of nearly 90,000? “I’m not a bit nervous,” he answers confidently. “I have a high sense of privilege at being there, and that will melt away any fear.” The FA Cup Final begins on BBC1 today (Saturday 30th May) at 5.15pm Your TV guide to Aston Villa v Arsenal and all the build-up Gary Lineker on the allure of the FA Cup - even if it once made him cry
Nicole Cooke: Kick out the doping cyclists
The Tour de France winner won drug-free and now she wants to clean up the sport
Nicole Cooke was 19 when she was summoned to her cycling team’s camper van and told her Tour de France performance wasn’t up to scratch. “It was a pretty open conversation,” she says. “I was told, ‘We expect more results from you’ and a big box of needles and potions was put in front of me. They asked me, ‘What do you want to do?’” For Cooke, who had promised herself and her parents that she would never take performance- enhancing drugs, the answer was easy. “‘Get stuffed,’ I thought. ‘I’m going to do my best, naturally’.” She went on to ride, drug-free, to victory in the women’s Tour in 2006 and 2007 (six years before Bradley Wiggins won the men’s race) and to win Olympic and Commonwealth gold medals. As cycling’s finest prepare to test themselves on the road in the first big races of the 2015 season, she remains one of the most outspoken critics of cycling’s reluctance to confront its historic doping culture. It is a culture that still persists today, according to an independent report commissioned by the sport’s governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), in the wake of the Lance Armstrong scandal, and released last week. It tells how riders trick drug testers by taking frequent micro-doses of banned substances. Most controversially, it quotes one “respected cycling professional” who suggests that 90 per cent of professional riders are still doping today. That statistic doesn’t surprise Cooke. “I can totally believe that,” she says. “The management and the race organisers are still the same as before. It would need a massive change in staff, in terms of changing the mentality of the teams, before the sport is cleaned up.” View oEmbed on the source website Cooke’s 2014 autobiography, The Breakaway, describes how she walked in on team-mates hooked up to drips and cleared doping paraphernalia from her team’s living quarters. The rider has lost prize money to drugs cheats and had her wages docked for refusing to dope. “After refusing to take drugs I didn’t get paid my wages for the rest of the season,” she says. “In terms of the messages the management were sending out, it couldn’t have been clearer.” The UCI, under its new British president Brian Cookson, has slowly begun to address the sport’s drugs problem – but Cooke wants to see the governing body go further. “Doping should be criminalised worldwide, as it is in Italy,” she says. She would also like to see a clampdown on Therapeutic Use Exemptions – effectively sick notes from the UCI that authorise riders to take certain medications. “I’ve seen riders going into tests with folders of exemptions, covering every possible positive drug test,” she says. “I’ve reported it to UK Sport and others. But there’s never been a proper investigation into this.” There is hope, though. “We’ve gone from ‘Cycling doesn’t have a problem, it’s clean’, to an admission that we do have a problem. Realising there’s a problem is the first step to solving it.” Having retired in 2013 at the age of 29 and since completed an MBA at Cardiff University, Cooke says, “I’m in the process of looking for my first step in a new career. I want to do something outside the sphere of cycling. I’m quite happy to move on, out of the sport, and not have everything else that comes with it.” Cycling: Tour of Catalunya begins today (Monday 23rd March) on British Eurosport from 2.30pm
Latest leg of Top Gear Live tour postponed as Jeremy Clarkson's BBC future remains uncertain
Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were due to appear in four shows over two days at the end of the month in Norway which are thought to be almost sold out
The latest leg of the Top Gear Live tour has been postponed as Jeremy Clarkson's future at the BBC remains uncertain. Clarkson, along with co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond, were due to appear in live events in Stavanger, Norway, on March 27 and 28. But the shows have now been postponed as Clarkson's disciplinary inquiry into allegedly punching a Top Gear producer remains unfinished. It is understood that a final decision on the matter – and Clarkson's future at the BBC – will be taken in the coming week. The presenters were set to put on four shows over two days, in Stavanger’s Somarka Arena, which has a capacity of about 6,500 seats. More than 20,000 of the 26,000 available tickets are understood to have been sold. "Top Gear Live regrets to inform ticket holders for next week’s shows in Stavanger, Norway that we will be postponing all four performances, with rescheduled dates for later this year to be confirmed within the next fortnight," read a statement. "We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this will cause fans and we will endeavour to contact all ticket holders directly to inform them of the change of dates. At present, all other Top Gear Live dates will run as scheduled.” The Corporation will hope to have a decision on Clarkson’s future in time for the next leg of the live tour, which is due to visit Sydney on April 18 and 19. The Australian city is due to host what has been billed as a “massive” Top Gear festival, including drag racing and a motorcross stunt show. In a statement last week the BBC said the inquiry’s findings would not be published until next week. “Once this has been considered, we will set out any further steps,” the Corporation added. The story so far... Clarkson inquiry to report to BBC director-general next week Final Top Gear of series pulled after delays to Clarkson inquiry Clarkson hints at BBC exit Clarkson "considering quitting" BBC Top Gear postponed after Jeremy Clarkson "punches" producer
BBC executive who oversaw Newsnight McAlpine inquiry to decide Jeremy Clarkson’s fate
EXCLUSIVE: Ken MacQuarrie, Director of BBC Scotland, to chair disciplinary panel to examine claims that Top Gear host punched producer
The BBC executive who conducted the investigation into Newsnight’s botched expose of Lord McAlpine is to decide the fate of Jeremy Clarkson. Ken MacQuarrie, the head of BBC Scotland, is to chair the disciplinary panel that will assess claims that the Top Gear presenter punched producer Oisin Tymon last week, RadioTimes.com understands. Mr MacQuarrie, who has led the corporation’s Scottish arm since 2009, oversaw the investigation into the disastrous Newsnight edition that falsely accused the late Conservative peer of being involved in the North Wales child abuse scandal. The fiasco led to the resignation of BBC director-general George Entwistle, while the corporation also paid Lord McAlpine damages of £185,000. Mr MacQuarrie, who is paid £185,000 a year, is understood to be preparing to call witnesses by the end of the week. A formal disciplinary letter, summoning Clarkson to appear at the hearing, which is expected to be held at a London hotel, is set to be posted tomorrow. Mr MacQuarrie will be assisted on the panel by Orla Tierney, a non-practising barrister who joined the BBC earlier this year, with the lengthy title of “human resources director, employee relations and reward”. A senior BBC source said that the panel is not expected to reach a verdict before the weekend. Sources close to Clarkson suggested earlier today that Clarkson is considering quitting the corporation whatever the outcome of the disciplinary process. He is alleged to have punched Mr Tymon at the Simonstone Hall Hotel in Hawes, North Yorkshire, last week, after the producer told him the hotel had finished serving hot food. Clarkson is understood to have told friends that he did not punch Tymon, but that there had been some “handbags and pushing” over the incident. “The last three episodes of this series have been pulled,” the source said. “Can I see him going back to film another BBC series? I don’t think so. But he’ll be fine. The other broadcasters will bite his arm off.” THE STORY SO FAR * Clarkson "considering quitting BBC" * Jeremy Clarkson "punch" not being investigated by police * Petition to reinstate Clarkson passes 250,000 signatures * Clarkson accused of punching producer * See the Clarkson newspaper front pages
Jeremy Clarkson “considering quitting the BBC”
EXCLUSIVE: Source close to presenter tells RadioTimes.com he may leave the Corporation, even if he's cleared of punch allegations
Jeremy Clarkson is considering quitting the BBC, even if he is cleared of allegations he punched a Top Gear producer, a source close to the presenter has told RadioTimes.com. Clarkson is currently suspended from the corporation, after allegedly punching producer Oisin Tymon while filming on location last week. The BBC has postponed the final three episodes of the current Top Gear series. Sources close to the show told RadioTimes.com that the presenter, who is already on his “final warning” at the BBC, swung a punch after being told there was no hot food available after a day’s filming. Clarkson is understood to have told friends that he did not punch Tymon, but that there had been some “handbags and pushing” over the incident. A source close to the presenter said that his relationship with key BBC executives has sunk so low that he is considering quitting the corporation, even if he is cleared of the disciplinary charge against him. “The last three episodes of this series have been pulled,” the source said. “Can I see him going back to film another BBC series? I don’t think so. But he’ll be fine. The other broadcasters will bite his arm off.” The development comes as a petition to reinstate Clarkson passed 330,000 signatures, with Top Gear fans rushing to support the presenter. Clarkson joined Top Gear in 1988, and leaving the corporation would pose huge challenges for the show. Additionally, it is not clear whether the presenter has any non-compete clauses in his contract, which would restrict him entering into agreements with other broadcasters. The BBC has still not finalised the arrangements for Clarkson’s disciplinary hearing, but it is understood to want to move quickly. The corporation is expected to set the wheels in motion before the weekend, as the presenter has a weekly column in the Sunday Times, which he has used to address previous Top Gear controversies. MORE ON THIS STORY: * Jeremy Clarkson "punch" not being investigated by police * Petition to reinstate Clarkson passes 250,000 signatures * See the Clarkson newspaper front pages
Broadcasters fear Prime Minister will ditch election debates for five-way YouTube contest
Video streaming giant has partnered with Daily Telegraph and Guardian to offer early debate
The Conservatives are considering ditching the televised election debates in favour of a five-way digital contest to be streamed on YouTube, Radio Times understands. The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky News have announced plans to hold three televised leaders’ debates. But the broadcasters are becoming increasingly fearful that David Cameron, who has not yet committed to attend, may boycott the contests and instead agree to participate in a YouTube debate. While the broadcasters have proposed two seven-way debates, including the SNP and Plaid Cymru, YouTube has put together proposals for a contest featuring only the leaders of the three main parties, together with Nigel Farage and Green leader Natalie Bennett. The Google-owned website is working in partnership with the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian. Unlike the broadcasters, who have announced three dates in April, the consortium is prepared to accede to a key Tory demand to hold the debate before the election campaign gets fully under way. It has pencilled in a date towards the end of March. The proposed debate will have no time limit, but will instead feature ten questions for the leaders to answer. It will have both a male and a female host – one from the Daily Telegraph and one from the Guardian - an audience of around 100 people, and could be held in either London or Manchester. One source close to the YouTube plans said that the fact that the three companies had adopted a flexible negotiating position, in contrast to the broadcasters’ threats to “empty-chair” leaders who did not turn up, had “kept us in the game”. The traditional broadcasters, however, are increasingly pessimistic about the chances of Mr Cameron taking part in their debates. A senior figure at one broadcaster said: “We have been totally outplayed by the politicians and it is not looking good.” Mentorn, the makers of Question Time, have signed up to produce the YouTube debate. If it goes ahead, as those at the heart of the project believe it will, the traditional broadcasters will be allowed to carry the debate live at no cost, with Sky News and the BBC News Channel expected to take up the offer. Parenting website Mumsnet and Cosmopolitan magazine have also signed up as partner organisations.
House of Fools: Vic and Bob reveal their finest pranks
The surreal double-act reminiscence about playing dead in front of children and pigs...
“We don’t really do pranks,” says Bob Mortimer, as he and Vic Reeves sit down with Radio Times, at BBC comedy HQ. It is not a particularly encouraging start, given that the meeting has been set up to discuss exactly that subject. But over the course of the next half an hour it rapidly becomes clear that the comedy duo have been practical jokers all their lives. From classroom japes, to terrifying their own children, the pair have dredged their memories of a lifetime of comedy capers to bring you their favourite practical jokes. “We’re actually quite a couple of pranksters,” says Bob, as the interview comes to an end. “When you think about it, we are, yeah!” replies Vic. Pretending that you’re dead Bob Mortimer: Have you ever pretended to be dead, in front of your kids? I’ve done that. In an everyday situation when I know they’re coming into the room, to watch Sponge Bob or whatever. Because they’re young, they do have to poke you at some point. They do get worried. Vic Reeves: It’s quite a demonic prank. BM: Well there you go, but it makes them all the happier to see you… VR: When you rise from the grave? BM: I know that as a responsible parent, if it ever felt like it was getting out of hand… VR: If they were on the phone dialing 999? BM: I would’ve said, “Surprise!” I can remember them starting not to bother to check if I was dead or not, because they realised it was just a prank. VR: I pretended to be dead in front of a pig once, because I heard that they snuffle you, they try and wake you up, to check if you really are dead. And if you are dead, they eat you, but they like having a little prod first. And they do. But I rose up, before it could eat me. Pretending that other people are dead VR: When I was at art school we used to make films, and we had a really very realistic manikin that we threw off a bridge, and a car nearly crashed. We all had to clear off really quickly. BM: We did the one at school, did anyone do this? Where you get into the classroom above and then you hang some trousers and shoes down so it looks like someone’s hung themselves from the classroom above. VR: We did that off the top of a silo of a farm I worked at. We got another manikin and stood him at the top of a silo and when the old fellow came back we went, “I’m gonna kill myself,” and threw the manikin off. He thought someone had…these are quite awful pranks, aren’t they! In the car BM: One I’ve occasionally done is one where you pull over to someone who’s clearly nice, in your car, and in a very nice voice say, “Excuse me, you wouldn’t know how we could get to, whatever, the Bell Inn, from here, do you?” And then as soon as they start giving you directions, you start smacking them with a newspaper. I’m lying, of course. But pulling ropes across roads, did that one. Not imaginary ropes, real ones. Radio Times: Wire or rope? BM: No, rope, on Tollesby Road [where Mortimer grew up, in Middlesborough]. RT: What happened? BM: Car crash, what do you think’s gonna happen. RT: I don’t believe you BM: It’s the absolute truth. Messing around with food BM: If you put mashed potato in your kids’ custard, it’s not the most terrible taste, but it’s the most surprising and unacceptable sensation when you don’t know. It would make them be sick. It’s guaranteed. It’s the surprise of it as much of anything. VR: It sounds quite nice. BM: Aw man, it’s awful. If you knew it was there it’s fine, it’s nothing, but it’s… VR: Well in that case I play a prank on my kids every day. BM: What, do you put mashed potato in everything? VR: No, just the look on their faces when they eat anything I’ve cooked. They’re trying to get tissues and go like that, and spit it out. In the school classroom BM: At school we got a tape recorder and we recorded 20 minutes of silence, then we had the sound of a fly, and then Tourettes-style swearing. We put it in the polystyrene tiles above, and the teacher hadn’t a clue where it was coming from, you’d just suddenly hear it. The teacher’s name was Bill Whittingham, and he was nice. He gave us the chance to climb up and he left the classroom. He said: “I need this to stop, and I’m going out. I hope it’s stopped by the time I get back.” VR: I got the slipper once. At the bottom of your desk there was a little hole… BM: Oh, you did ‘look at my penis’? VR: No, I just put my finger through it. I painted a little face on it, and made a nest. It was like a little bird, and I said to my mate, “Here, look at that,” and he was laughing his head off. And the teacher said, “Something’s obviously very funny in here, would you like to share it.” I said, “If everyone wants to gather round, they can have a look, but I have to do it here.” And they did all have a look, and he’s going, “You all, back to your positions!” He said, “This is not funny at all.” And everyone said, “Yeah it is, it’s really funny.” And he went, “Well see how funny you think this is, then,” and whacked me. The second series of House of Fools begins tonight on BBC2 at 10pm
Mike Tindall on his nose, his royal in-laws and The Jump
The former England captain and Zara Phillips' husband on why he's risking all for a reality TV show...
It’s only once you get up close to Mike Tindall that the full glory of the former England rugby captain’s nose is revealed. Like some sort of Cubist experiment, there is an angle – about 45 degrees from face-on – at which it appears vaguely natural, but from every other approach it is pure Picasso. Tindall, 36, the husband of Princess Anne’s daughter Zara Phillips, first broke it in a dodgem accident, aged five, but has since smashed it more times than he can count, including three times on the rugby field. The result is that, these days, he can only breathe out of his mouth. “Snoring does happen,” he chuckles. Poor Zara. Having retired from professional rugby last year, the Yorkshireman found himself with few opportunities to break his nose, or any other part of his body, and signed up for The Jump, the Channel 4 show in which celebrities compete in a variety of winter sports, including flinging themselves off an Austrian ski jump. Last year’s debut run was given a kicking by the critics, but was a ratings hit, drawing an average of 2.2 million viewers, nearly 20 per cent higher than other shows in its slot on Channel 4. It stands alone as a reality show that is genuinely dangerous. Sally Bercow, wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons, has already gone home with two broken ribs; Ola Jordan, the Strictly Come Dancing pro dancer, has put her career in jeopardy by smashing her leg. When we meet on the slopes of Innsbruck in Austria, it’s Tindall’s first day of jump training. He confidently plops off the beginner’s ramp multiple times, before being ushered by the coaches – who rate him as one of the favourites – onto the intermediate jump. In the flesh, it looks terrifying. He tries it twice, and twice ends in a crumpled heap, but unscathed. A natural competitor, he confesses it “would be great” to win, but at 16 stone he isn’t built for flight. “That’s life, unfortunately,” he shrugs. Our interview comes with an advance warning that any questions about the royal family, including Prince Andrew, will lead to it being called to an abrupt halt. When asked how Zara, Andrew’s niece, is holding up amid the row, the shutters come down with a firm, “Let’s not go there,” and “I don’t want to talk about that.” In person he’s quiet, considered and courteous. Questions about his finances lead to the only moment during our 45-minute chat when his passions are roused. The suggestion that life is a bit easier for him than it is for other players leaving the game, given whom he’s married to, elicits the tetchy response, “Why in any way am I lucky with my in-laws?” Well, you know, your extended family aren’t exactly short of a bob or two... “They don’t give us any money. We look after ourselves – we don’t get anything for free.” Which presumably means he and Zara pay rent on the Bothy, their home with one-year-old daughter Mia. It's part of 730-acre Gatcombe Park, the Gloucestershire manor bought by the Queen in 1976 as a present for Princess Anne and her first husband, Mark Phillips. Her Majesty picked up the tab for the nearby Aston Farm, with 600 acres, in 1977, where Captain Phillips has lived since the couple’s 1992 divorce. Land Registry documents show that, since 2010, Aston Farm has actually been co-owned by ex-racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart (married to one of Zara’s godmothers), Andrew Parker-Bowles (ex-husband of Camilla) and Lord Stafford. It’s thought the trio act as trustees on behalf of Zara and her brother Peter. But professional sportsmen need to do something when they retire, so perhaps it’s understandable that Tindall might have to tout himself around reality shows like The Jump. He has already filmed a two-week ITV survival show with Bear Grylls, but how far into the reality TV mire is the husband of the 15th in line to the throne prepared to wade? Strictly? “Never say never.” I’m A Celebrity? “I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t find me in the jungle.” Celebrity Big Brother? “Another show you probably wouldn’t get me on.” Does he have to get permission from the royals to do this kind of thing? “No, another lie. They’re separate from us; we run our own life.” Do you think about how things might reflect on them? “That would always come up, yes, of course, but ultimately it’s what we want to do first.” That independent spirit was evident in their decision to sell the first pictures of their daughter to Hello! magazine. Tindall reveals that he and Zara won’t be following Prince William and Kate in having a second child quickly, due to Zara’s equestrian career. “We’ve got an Olympics in Rio to deal with first,” he says. The Mia photographs sold for a reported £150,000, provoking a predictable outcry from some sections of the press. “Zara faces a dilemma,” pondered the Daily Mail. “Is she a royal or a B-list celebrity?” Tindall is unrepentant. “We had those photos done for ourselves, and decided to release them instead of having people camped outside our house. What’s the big deal? Should we just let people follow us around in cars? It was an easy way of solving it.” Maybe it was the cash people found grubby? “Everyone has their own opinion.” Quite understandably, he radiates distaste for the opinions of the newspapers. Of all this year’s Jump contestants, only Heather Mills, ex-wife of Sir Paul McCartney, appears to have a less charitable view of the fourth estate, telling anyone who’ll listen how “delighted” she is that journalists from Murdoch titles have been locked up after the phone-hacking scandal. Tindall claims to ignore what he calls “the s**t” from the press, but admits: “It’s annoying that people assume that just because Zara works hard for her living and I worked hard for mine, we’re sweet and lovely. It’s not like that. Horses cost a lot of money, and what you read about her sponsorships is very far off the point.” So that £500,000 from Rolex? “Way off the mark.” He also blames the media for fanning the flames ignited by his antics at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, when he capped a raucous night out by being pictured smooching a woman who was not his new wife. He was in such an inebriated state that he later claimed to have no memory of the incident. He was eventually fined £15,000 by the Rugby Football Union, and never played for England again. Any regrets? “No, not really. It’s easy to look back and say you wish it hadn’t happened. If you’d asked me do I regret going out and having a good time with the fans and all the boys – no. But obviously if I had known the spin-off from it all, I wouldn’t want that.” He adds: “Quite a big mountain was made out of a fairly small molehill.” Despite his antipathy towards the media, joining its ranks is his goal. “The dream would be a contract with a sports TV network, doing rugby,” he says. “But that’s not easy to get. It’s a big year with the World Cup, and trying to get something through that, that’s where I’d like to see myself going.” He’s certainly got the most authentic rugby nose, I venture. “Definitely! So maybe it’s on radio that I’m destined to be.” The Jump begins on Sunday 1st February at 7pm on Channel 4, and continues Monday to Friday at 8pm Companion series The Jump: On the Piste begins on E4 on Monday at 7.30pm
Warwick Davis on Planet's Got Talent, turning down I'm a Celeb and travelling with Karl Pilkington
"It's human nature to want to get up on a stage and show off your talent, even if it isn't really a talent"
What can’t you miss on television? Gogglebox. I love that. I’m a real latecomer to it, and I think Sandra and Sandy are brilliant. I just wish I’d thought of the idea. It’s so simple; you can sell it all over the world. What has you reaching for the off switch? I don’t like Newsnight. I’ve never been into politics, so I don’t understand what’s going on. It’s all a bit of a circus! You're hosting Planet's Got Talent – what's the weirdest act you've seen? There's this guy in India who does an act where nobody can pull his shirt out of his trousers. he does it and then someone else has a go. How do you discover that you can do that? It's bizarre but entertaining. It shows that wherever you live in the world, whatever your background, it's human nature for you to want to get up on a stage and show off your talent, even if it isn't really a talent. What would your talent be? I can juggle a little bit, but I’m very good at balancing, because in life I’ve had to do a lot of it. If I’m in the kitchen I have to traverse the worktops to get to cereals and stuff like that. Maybe I’d do some sort of balancing act. Who is the least talented person you know? Karl Pilkington has popped into my head for some reason. But he is quite a good dancer. It’s quite unorthodox but it’s entertaining and it is a talent. But that’s where it stops. View oEmbed on the source website You did a series of An Idiot Abroad with him (above). Did you genuinely get annoyed with him or was that put on for the cameras? It was more frustration than anything else. We’d go to these places and I’d keep thinking, “If only you would let yourself enjoy this...” I got frustrated and that sometimes did move into annoyance, but more often than not I just found him amusing. I wish the camera had been rolling the entire time, because the journey was often better than the destination. Wherever we were, whether it was in the hire car, on a plane, at customs, he’d always be talking and moaning about stuff. You’ve done a documentary about your theatre company for reduced-height actors. What made you do that? I love theatre and I’ve always wanted to do a straight play. The trouble is, more often than not casting directors and producers can’t see past somebody’s physical appearance. They can’t see the skill and the performance that the actor brings. So it was about levelling the playing field. We reduced the height of the set so that when you see the show, you forget that we’re short performers and you see the play for the performance itself. It worked. What was the last job you turned down? I’m a Celebrity... I just didn’t fancy it, not because of the challenge of going into the jungle, but because I only choose to do stuff that I think will help move me forward. Who’d play you in a biopic of your life? Someone short. Maybe Ronnie Corbett... or Tom Cruise. Planet's Got Talent is on ITV tonight (Saturday 31st January) at 7.30pm; Warwick Davis' Big Night Out is on BBC2 on Thursday 5th February at 9.00pm
Dermot O'Leary on politics, mudslinging and X Factor
The host of the National Television Awards reveals what makes him reach for the 'off' switch...
What can’t you miss? Question Time – it’s probably my favourite show. I love politics, and QT is everything that PMQs isn’t. I get so excited at PMQs, but as soon as it starts, you just get mudslinging, or sycophancy. But with QT you just have members of the public with varying degrees of political intelligence going hell for leather at politicians. I’ve got a bit more respect for politicians than most. You did Young Voters’ Question Time at the last general election, will you do that again? I’d like to do more political stuff, but I’m not in my 30s any more, so I’m probably not the right person to be doing it. Also, I’m a light entertainment presenter and it’s incredible that people don’t think you can do more than one thing! What makes you reach for the “off ” switch? I’ve never got into MasterChef. I feel bad because I love cookery programmes. I think it’s because I’m not a massive fan of very exact food. I’m far more Jamie Oliver in my tastes. It’s the, “Oh that wasn’t cooked at the right temperature, so you’re getting marked down for it” – I’m not a big fan of that. What do you tend to watch with your wife, Dee? Films or dramas. But she’s been away, so I’ve had to put quite a bit of stuff on hold. I texted her the other night asking if I could watch Broadchurch. Despite the fact that I had texted her five or six times that day, asking how she was and hadn’t heard anything back, she came back within 15 seconds with: “No, you cannot.” Have you signed up for the next series of X Factor yet? Not yet. Usually we talk in about mid-February. Of course I love doing it, and it’s a huge part of my life, but it’s eight years now. I haven’t made up my mind yet... If a new challenge came up that meant I couldn’t do both, then... But while I’m still enjoying it, I want to carry on doing it. The viewing figures have slipped a bit, why do you think that is? The way people watch X Factor is very different to the way people watch Strictly. A lot of our audience know that they can go out on a Saturday night and watch it on catch-up, or the kids go to bed and they watch it as a family the following morning. It’s a very long show, and to ask people to watch two-and-a-half hours is never easy. Does it annoy you when the Beeb schedules Strictly at the same time? A little. I don’t lose sleep over it. We’re still doing really, really well. I don’t know if the two audiences overlap as much as we all think they do. The competition’s healthy. Well done to Strictly, they’ve got a successful show. It’s rated really well, and it’s beaten us for the past couple of years. But then again, Bake Off ’s probably beating both of us! Dermot O'Leary presents The National Television Awards tonight (Wednesday 21st January) at 7.30pm
Alan Davies: "There is no one more detestable in life than Piers Morgan"
He’s a fan of Arsenal, Homeland and anything with Sandra Bullock in - but he won't watch EastEnders
What are you watching at the moment? My wife and I try to watch programmes we can talk through. We have two small children, so by the time we’ve put them to bed and sat down, it’s our time to catch up with each other. We like Homeland but we have to do our talking first, then put that on,because you have to concentrate. If it’s Gogglebox, which I find addictive, you can talk all the way through. What makes you switch off ? Jeremy Kyle. I can’t abide it. It’s appallingly exploitative. Talk about airing your dirty laundry in public. Any soap gets turned off. Just the theme tune of EastEnders is enough. I hold soaps responsible for the death of the sitcom. All the best slots have been taken by the soaps. The actors are doing their best in an impossible situation, with so many lines to learn in not enough time. They have my professional sympathy. It’s just a factory turning out not very good drama. I get why people get hooked on them, but like anything mass-produced, you’re not going to get as nice a meal in a fast food place as when a chef has time to prepare it properly. Your show As Yet Untitled is basically you chatting to your comedy mates. Aren’t they worried you’ll blurt out their secrets? I suppose that’s possible. Many of the guests are people I’ve known a long time. My favourite anecdotes are Ben Miller going to the Cannes Film Festival and being mistakenly given Ben Stiller’s hotel suite. Or Patrick Kielty nearly dying in a helicopter crash with Neil Armstrong. Do you and your wife ever disagree about what to watch? I’ll watch anything with Sandra Bullock in, and that just makes her laugh. Normally, if a film’s not very good she’ll lean over and say, “Do you wish Sandra was in this?”And I’ll say,“Yes, that would improve it.” You’ve been on Top Gear a few times. What do you think of Jeremy Clarkson? I like Jeremy. He really takes it hard when he cocks up and people are after him. He’s really good fun, but he does represent a bit of an old-fashioned view of the world, slightly unreconstructed. But what do you want? Do you want everyone to be like Ed Miliband, to be “on message” and PC? No, you don’t. You’re an Arsenal fan. Are you in the Arsène Wenger or the Piers Morgan camp? There is no one more detestable in life than Piers Morgan. He is one of the great embarrassments to Arsenal fans. What does he know about football? I’ve met Wenger and he’s hugely impressive. Alan Davies: as Yet Untitled is on Tuesday at 10pm on Dave
Graham Linehan: "I'd really love to do a Douglas spin-off of The IT Crowd"
The creator of the cult comedy would like to give Matt Berry's vile boss his own show
Reynholm Industries boss Douglas Reynholm could return in an IT Crowd spin-off, if the show’s creator Graham Linehan has his way. Linehan has told RadioTimes.com that he would never revive The IT Crowd, but said that he wants to make the foulmouthed company boss, played by Toast star Matt Berry, the central character of a new show. “I’d really love to do a Douglas spin-off of The IT Crowd,” said Linehan. “I could easily spend an hour, or half an hour, with Douglas. He’s my favourite way of making fun of people that I really loathe, like Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump. “I basically just have happen to him all the things that I’d love to happen to them, and it’s basically a really enjoyable process.” Berry has most recently starred in fellow Channel 4 show Toast of London, which he created with Arthur Mathews, who also co-wrote Father Ted, with Linehan. “Matt is one of my favourite people to work with,” Linehan said. “He’s just got funny bones, and he’s got the most extraordinary voice. This is just a half-formed thing at the moment, and also I’ve got to wait and see if Matt would be interested in revisiting the character. “At the moment I’m happy to watch him in Toast and he’s obviously carving out a new role for himself as a writer and star as well, so I’ll stay out of the way at the moment and pounce when he’s taking a rest.” The IT Crowd came to a close with a one-hour special, in 2013, which ended with Berry’s character being consigned to the basement of Reynholm Industries, after swapping jobs with IT geeks Jen, Moss and Roy. Linehan said that making the final episode was “really, really tough to do,” and that he would never bring the show back. He added: “Everyone seems to be going their own ways. One thing I’ve always hated is finishing a show and then just bringing it back for just one more, and then bringing it back again for just one more. Then suddenly they’re all millionaires, and all that sort of stuff. I just don’t like that.” Linehan’s latest project is Count Arthur Strong, a television version of the Radio 4 show about an ageing music hall performer, which makes the leap from BBC2 to BBC1 this week. The Irish writer called on BBC bosses to give the programme – which was nominated for a Bafta last year – time to amass an audience. He said: “I think in the past my shows have always been slow-burners. Father Ted and The IT Crowd took a while to build up audiences, and The IT Crowd only really came to life after we finished. We got a cult audience but never a huge one. “These days you can’t do that slow build any more, people just don’t seem to have the patience for it. Commissioners are understandably nervous because they need to see the figures, they think there’s something wrong, when usually all the audience is saying is that they didn’t know it was on. They need to hold their nerve because figures these days are so much lower than they used to be." Series two of Count Arthur Strong begins on BBC1 on Tuesday 6th January at 10.35pm
Gareth Malone on beards, Christmas - and being so 2005
"I think I’m in a nice position because I do television about something I really love," says the choirmaster
As a new two-part run of The Choir: Military Wives comes to BBC2, we talk to everyone's favourite choirmaster Gareth Malone about his TV viewing habits and the Malone family Christmas... What can’t you miss on TV? I’m catching up with Game of Thrones. I’ve just finished season three, and anyone who’s seen that knows it’s quite a shock. I love it, and you see this in The Wire, too, when no one is safe. I hate predictability in dramas; that drives me mental, and I like scheming and political machinations. What makes you switch off ? I don’t watch I’m a Celebrity, I’ve stopped watching The X Factor and I don’t watch The Voice. They ought to be right up my street, and I did watch them when they started. But I’ve reached my limit with them, maybe because I’ve been working in television for too long. I’m not interested any more, once you’ve seen 10 or 15 years of it. What do you watch with your wife? Our guilty pleasure is Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. I quite admire Gordon and his on-screen presence. He fills the screen with his enormous energy. What did you grow up watching? I used to absolutely love Star Trek: the Next Generation, particularly Patrick Stewart. When I was about 14 or 15, Neighbours would finish at 6pm and I would turn over to BBC2 and watch that. Yes, I was a Trekkie, and I still love sci-fi. Who was your first TV crush? Janet Ellis on Blue Peter. I was next to her on a table in a restaurant recently, but I didn’t dare go over. I used to like Jemima (yes, the rag doll) from Play School, too, but I was only three then. What happens in the Malone household at Christmas? There are no rules, but there is a lot of family. There’s also a lot of taping things, rather than watching them. Television doesn’t feature that heavily – it’s more big family walks and trying to entertain the children. Any Christmas traditions? I always really enjoy opening the door to carol singers and listening to the whole thing, even if it’s only a few teenagers. I’m always entertained when they sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas and they don’t know the second verse. I just stand there expectantly, waiting to see if they can see any irony in them singing to someone who works with television choirs, and them not knowing the words. Is there any chance your beard might make a comeback? Never say never. It might be a bit white now, but there were so many anti-ginger comments last year. I find it ridiculous that newspapers wrote stories about the beard. I even jointly won Beard of the Year. Forget the Bafta, it’s all about that. It might come back around Christmas as I’m not filming anything. Do you worry you’ll get typecast as a choirmaster? Is there another side of you you’d like the public to see?But I am a choirmaster! Everyone worries about their next job. Nobody in the public eye thinks they’re totally secure. Even if you’re Judi Dench you probably worry. I do have that worry of the phone call when people say, “No thanks, thingy, whatever, was so 2005”. But I’ve no immediate desires to do anything else. I think I’m in a nice position because I do television about something I really love. If I wasn’t on I’d be doing it anyway, it’s not like television came first. It would be a bit odd to totally change tack. I’m not planning on revealing my dancing talents, especially not since I had Craig Revel Horwood in one of my choirs. I’m not sure I’d want to put myself on the other side of the table to him. The Choir - Military Wives returns to BBC Two tonight (16th December) at 9.00pm
Band Aid 30 single is “cringeworthy” and “culturally ignorant" says British Ebola nurse
Will Pooley, who survived the disease and is now back in Sierra Leone, told Radio Times that some relief workers think the lyrics of the fundraising single are “a bit much”
The Band Aid 30 single is “cringeworthy” and its lyrics display “cultural ignorance”, according to the British nurse who survived Ebola. Will Pooley, who has returned to Sierra Leone to treat victims of the disease, told Radio Times that he and other relief workers in the West African nation think the words to the fundraising single are “a bit much”. Pooley, who made a full recovery after being treated in London with the experimental drug ZMapp, said he heard the first half of the song on the way to work, at the Connaught Hospital in Freetown. “It’s definitely being talked about here among my colleagues,” he says in the Christmas edition of Radio Times. “But stuff about ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’ – it’s just like, actually people live normal lives here and do normal things. It’s Africa, not another planet. That sort of cultural ignorance is a bit cringeworthy. There’s a lyric about ‘death in every tear’. It’s just a bit much.” A number of artists have criticised Band Aid as patronising. Emeli Sande said that “a whole new song is required”, while rapper Fuse ODG refused to take part, saying that he was “shocked and appalled” by the lyrics. Bob Geldof (pictured), however, told critics of the song to “f*** off”. Asked by the Daily Telegraph about Pooley’s comments, he said: “Please. It’s a pop song. Relax.” In stark contrast to the rhetorical question asked by the song, Pooley said that even the majority Muslim population in Sierra Leone’s capital will celebrate Christmas. “The amazing thing about Sierra Leone is that it’s slightly more Muslim here, but all of the religious holidays are celebrated by everyone. Muslims will celebrate Christmas here. This year will be a bit subdued, obviously. “Normally at Christmas in Sierra Leone everyone disappears from Freetown and goes off to spend a few weeks with family, having big parties. That won’t be the case this year. Public gatherings are not allowed.” Pooley, who is volunteering with the King’s Sierra Leone Partnership, is hoping to go “somewhere nice to eat and have a few beers” after his shift on Christmas Day. Asked if he would be able to find anywhere serving turkey, he said: “God, no. There might be some goat.” The nurse urged people to give money to charities “that are setting up treatment centres, that have isolation units and are working directly with patient care”. Had the West acted earlier, he said, many lives could have been saved. “With an injection of will and resources six months ago, this whole thing could have been avoided and thousands of deaths with it. “But of more interest back home is the risk of a perpetual threat of viral haemorrhagic fever to the UK. If it rumbles on here for years, then that constant threat, that’s going to have economic costs back home.” Pooley, who comes from Eyke in Suffolk, said he wanted some “nice coffee” for Christmas, but that postal constraints made it difficult for his parents to send him gifts. “Otherwise, there’s nothing I need. I don’t have a lot of possessions – they were all incinerated after I caught Ebola. You don’t really need much, providing you have the basics.” Will Pooley is volunteering with the King’s Sierra Leone Partnership. Donate at kslp.org.uk/donate or to give £10 text FightEbola to 70111 Read the full interview in the Christmas issue of Radio Times, on sale now
Olympics 2012: Pick of the day - Open Water Swimming Women's 10km
Keri-Anne Payne won Britain a silver in Beijing - now she's aiming for gold in the potentially punishing event
Competitors in the 10km open water race are used to dodging sharks and jellyfish. So for Keri-Anne Payne, six laps of the Serpentine will seem relatively sedate. The open water swim is a bit like the Tour de France. You try to get directly behind someone's feet, or next to their hip, and get swept along in their slipstream, using less energy yourself. Payne, 24, won silver in this event in Beijing, but is tipped for gold this year after becoming the first athlete to qualify for Team GB, by winning her second world title — in the searing heat of Shanghai, last year. “I had to swim past dead dogs,” she tells RT. “You need to get your head around it, but it is horrible.” While Hyde Park’s only peril will come from agitated cormorants, there is another danger. The effect of 25 swimmers in such close proximity is a frothing mass of elbows and ankles that’s led to the sport being dubbed “underwater boxing”. Black eyes, broken noses and cracked ribs are an occupational hazard. The women's 10km begins today at 12 Noon on BBC1, BBC Olympics 9 Keri-Anne Payne - "You have to be hard in Open Water Swimming"