Here’s an exclusive look at brand new E4 comedy drama Gap Year. Centred on British lads Dylan (Anders Hayward) and Sean (Ade Oyefeso), who are childhood friends that initially set out to backpack through China, but end up taking on the whole continent.
The drama takes in ancient rainforests, full-moon beach parties, futuristic Asian mega-cities and remote monasteries in the foothills of the Himalayas. In the first episode, Sean is horrified to discover that his best mate Dylan has a secret plan that threatens to derail their ‘lads holiday’ to China. Things start looking up when they meet two American girls, Ashley (Brittney Wilson) and May (Alice Lee), and middle-aged hanger-on Greg (Tim Key). But, when old tensions resurface and create carnage at a music festival on the Great Wall, Sean suddenly finds himself way out of his depth.
Told by his parents when he was only five years of age that he was the reincarnation of his deceased older brother, he would believe this for the rest of his life. In 1934 he married the Russian-born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, also known as Gala. She was the muse for and subject of his sculpture, Gala in the Window, from 1933.
He was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in August 1931. Dalí’s expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media.
Anthony Hamilton, the sports management entrepreneur who guided his son Lewis to Formula One World Champion, has turned his hand to football, and launched a device which allows children and adults of all ages to develop their football skills and control techniques while in the comfort of their own home – great for those dark nights and wet days.
He spoke to Jason McCrossan on 106.9 SFM about his KickTrix™ system – as well as discussing his earlier life and that of Lewis Hamilton.
A newly-formed choir of 300 patients, families, staff and volunteers from 18 hospices are aiming for this year’s Christmas number 1 with a cover of “The Living Years” alongside Paul Carrack, who was also lead vocalist on the original 1991 hit – taking on the might of X Factor.
The aim of the single is to raise awareness of the hospice movement and amongst the numbers within the London Hospices Choir are twenty seven singers from Children’s charity Demelza who recorded their new take on the classic track at the world famous Abbey Road Studios and shot the moving music video at Clapham’s Royal Trinity Hospice, under the direction of top Hollywood film director Annabel Jankel (Super Mario Bros, Live from Abbey Road).
The choir was brought together to mark the 125th anniversary of Royal Trinity Hospice in Clapham Common.
Volunteer Maggie Allen explained why she wanted to take part: “I was so excited when Victoria our music therapist told us about the London Hospices Choir and so thrilled to be taking part in this wonderful project to promote the hospices movement, its achievements and of course to sing together with other hospices. I volunteer at Demelza Kent because I really feel I make a difference to families by offering them massage, reflexology and giving them time for themselves in a caring, safe space.”
Lead vocalist Paul Carrack said, “The Living Years has been an important song for me for many years, but this is the version that means the most. Recording it with this incredibly special group of people for such a worthwhile cause has created some kind of magic. It’s a powerful and inspiring track, and I hope that everyone gets behind it this Christmas.”
Music producer James Hawkins said, “The idea of recording ‘The Living Years’ with this wonderful choir came to me as I was walking around the pond at Royal Trinity Hospice. The song’s message was reflected so strongly as I watched generations come together at a place of such serenity and life to share important conversations. It couldn’t be a better message for everyone to hear this Christmas.”
All profits from the sale of the single will be divided between the 18 hospices involved, helping them to support those reaching the end of their lives, and their families. The hospices include; Demelza Hospice Care for Children, Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice, Harlington Hosice, Haven House, Marie Curie (Hampstead), Noah’s Ark, North London Hospice, Pembridge Palliative Care Centre, Princess Alice Hospice, Richard House, Royal Trinity Hospice, Shooting Star Chase, St Christopher’s, Saint Francis Hospice (Romford), The Hospice of St Francis (Berkhamsted), St Joseph’s Hospice, St Luke’s Hospice and St Raphael’s Hospice.
‘The Living Years’ by The London Hospices Choir and Paul Carrack is being released on December 16th. It’s available to pre-order now from:
Comedy comes in all shapes and sizes and nothing comes bigger and bolder than Marc Wootton’s character Shirley Ghostman.
Shirley, who is not gay, just a tad camp, is as outrageous as she is a spectacular failure at all things psychic – but she does make for good comedy, even if sometimes very uncomfortable!
The news broke late last night that the nation lost yet another veteran broadcaster in 2016.
Sir Jimmy Young has died peacefully at home aged 95.
He was one of the original Radio 1 DJs at its launch in 1967. He then cross channels to Radio 2 in 1973 and filled the early afternoon slot until he retired in December 2002, spending 3 decades at channel 2.
Jimmy was one of the reasons why I loved radio so much. He had wit, knowledge and timing which took him to the top of broadcasting. I still remember being in a car driven by my father listening to Jimmy – and although I didn’t always understand the content – it was the voice and the style that I was interested in.
Here is a clip of two radio greats – no longer with us – the late Sir Terry Wogan in conversation with the late Sir Jimmy Young in 1978.
To coincide with the 80th anniversary of the launch of the first British television service by the BBC on 2 November 1936, BBC History has today launched a new microsite that provides the public with access to archive material from the early days of television.
The archive, which can be viewed at here contains a wealth of video and audio footage which tells the story of television – including, the invention of television, the opening night at Alexandra Palace in 1936, TV closure during the war and its resurrection in 1946, TV’s milestone moments such the Olympics and the Coronations of 1937 and 1953.
Some highlights of the history archive include:
Technology battle: Early TV was a battle between two companies, the Marconi-EMI partnership and the Baird Company, each developing different technologies. Idiosyncratically, the press favoured the Baird Company technology, mainly because there was a 60-second delay in the image appearing on screen. At a special demo for the press this enabled journalists to run round and see themselves on the screen. In 1934 the Government asked the BBC to formally launch a regular service testing both systems.
Two Coronations: The Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on 12 May 1937 gave the BBC Television Service its first major outside broadcasting challenge, which was a huge technological leap forward. Despite the equipment failing just as the procession approached, the BBC’s Tony Bridgwater recalls EMI engineer Bernard Greenhead giving the equipment “an almighty biff with his fist” – which managed to restart the unit just in time.
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 was a far more complex operation using more than 20 cameras in multiple locations. It was a seminal moment not just in British history, but in the development and popularity of television as a medium. BBC Director-General, Ian Jacob, said the Coronation “was the thing that made the Television Service take off… everybody from that moment on wanted to have television”.
Speaking about the archive, Robert Seatter, Head of BBC History, says: “We are delighted to mark this momentous occasion by sharing much never-before-seen material from the BBC archives. The anecdotes, images and recordings offer today’s audiences a fascinating behind-the-scenes insight into the early days of television.
“It is also great to be doing this in partnership with media history experts from the University of Sussex and other UK research centres, who set our BBC story in the wider context of what was happening in communications and society.”
Professor David Hendy, Professor of Media and Cultural History at the University of Sussex, says: “These fascinating accounts, from the BBC’s own collection of oral history interviews, take us straight back to a time when the future of TV wasn’t yet known, when everything was new and uncertain. They offer us as never before the real inside story of those who set television going on its now 80 year-long journey. And a very human story it is: a tale of risk-taking, pioneering spirit, rivalry, hope, anxiety – and, of course, the slow working out of how to make popular art out of an obscure bit of rather cumbersome technology.”
Dave Cash was one of Radio 1 and Capital Radio’s original DJs who later reinvented himself as a bestselling novelist. Although he originally intended to apply to Radio Caroline, fate intervened and he began working for Caroline’s biggest rival Radio London.
It was during his early days on Radio London that Cash struck up an on-air partnership with a then 19-year-old trainee DJ called Maurice Cole, who became better known to millions as Kenny Everett. After the Government outlawed pirate radio stations Cash joined Radio Luxembourg, then in 1967 he became one of the founding DJs on BBC Radio 1 alongside the likes of Tony Blackburn, Pete Murray and Alan “Fluff” Freeman.
In the late 1960s Cash hosted episodes of Top of the Pops on BBC Television. He supplied the voice-over in The Who’s cult film hit Quadrophenia in 1979 and took a cameo role alongside Dennis Hopper in the sci-fi comedy The American Way (1986). By then he had become programme controller of Radio West, the commercial station based in Bristol, when it was launched in 1981.
In 1999 Cash returned to the BBC, working in local radio across the south of England, broadcasting weekend shows of rock classics and country and western tracks on Radios Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Solent, Berkshire and Oxford. His recollections of life aboard a pirate radio ship, He Sounds Much Taller, appeared as an audio book in 2012.
Jason McCrossan spoke to radio commentator and former colleague Paul Chantler.
Jason McCrossan 