December 2009 Archives

Well we know he's not fond of some of the comments made about his partner's dancing on Strictly.
But "bad boy of ballroom" Brendan Cole has asked to be judged kindly for his singing when he comes to the Empire with his "Live and Unjudged" tour next week.

Two of the three big Boxing Day offerings opening today have strong Liverpool connections.
One is Nowhere Boy and if you don't know about that yet, then where have you been?!
The other is Sherlock Holmes which used the city's Stanley Dock as a location.

THE Echo's Winkler Watch - where readers call or email in with their sightings of the Happy Days star - has got a namecheck in the New York Times.
The American paper did an intereview with our own Captain Hook - very amusing to see how panto is explained to non-Brits.

LANTERNS, fireaters and minstrels will be led by a donkey in a Christmas Eve parade in Aigburth tomorrow.
The Babe in the Wood event starts in Priory Wood next to St Michael's station.

Willy Russell's Our Day Out is coming back to the Royal Court for an incredible SIX WEEKS next year.
I was at a party over the weekend where someone told me they hadn't enjoyed the show at all, but I thought it was one of the best things I'd seen in 2009.

So naughty (did you see his "promise" in my arts pages last Friday to strip off if he wins the live show at the Echo arena next month?) Austin Healey was right.
Chris Hollins and Ola Chops did lift the Strictly crown on Saturday night and the 'entertainer' beat the 'dancer'.

I took part in an interesting debate on the legacy of Capital of Culture at Radio Merseyside at lunchtime.
They'd managed to gather a goodly number of leading members of the city's arts community together for a chat about 2008, 2009 and how we see things moving forward in 2010.

Some of you may recall Austin Healey telling me if Chris Hollins and Ola Jordan survived the Strictly quarter finals last weekend he reckoned they would lift the trophy.
Lo and behold, the "hobbit" and Ola Chops were voted through and are now, apparently, the bookies' favourites to win.

The Bootleg Beatles are 30 years old - that's three times the life of the original group - and they're playing the Philharmonic Hall tonight.
I had a chat with Neil Harrison, who has played John Lennon since the start, a while ago for my arts page and he was telling me about the Christmas he and his friends went carol singing outside the McCartney home in Wirral.

Natasha Hamilton has revealed that learning her swashbuckling swordfights with Henry "Captain Hook" Winkler has been great fun - but potentially rather painful.
I caught up with the 27-year-old at the Empire yesterday to talk about how pregnancy has grounded her from any flying scenes.