The Lowdown on: Leslie Ash
A cheeky, south London girl that has literally lived her life in the spotlight, Leslie Ash has been the fodder of first pin ups and then tabloids for many years.
Born on 19th February 1960, she plopped straight from her mother’s womb and into a TV commercial. Ok so maybe it was four years later in 1964, but still it was pretty quick if you see what I’m saying. This first star turn was as the cute little kid asking her mum the famous phrase ‘mummy why are your hands so soft?’
For better or worse this gave Ash a taste for the limelight and it wasn’t long before she had popped on a uniform and got herself into the Italia Conti Academy. Famous for such alumni as Noel Coward, Kelly Brook, Sadie Frost, Louise Redknapp, Patsy Kensit, Leona Lewis and Martine McCutcheon, the Italia Conti Academy has given us generations of B list celebrities, wag wannabes and soapie actors.
Leslie Ash in the SunSilk ad from 1978 (it is the 6th out of 9 ads).
She appeared on the cover of several magazines and a couple of ads (including this one for SunSilk hairspray that you can watch above) however her big break came when she got the lead in Quadrophenia, the classic Mod movie released in 1979. In this film she stepped up the ante, playing across from such illustrious types as Sting and Ray Winstone. Her easy grin and relaxed beauty made her an instant pin up of the ‘girl next door’ type.
Is she happy or crazy…? Ash stars in Quadrophenia
She played a few roles TV roles after this including Nancy in the ITV sitcom The Happy Apple and the computer whizz Frederica Smith in the action crime show C.A.T.S Eyes.
The hilarious intro for C.A.T.S. Eyes
In 1988 she married Sheffield Wednesday striker Lee Chapman, making her a footballer’s wife but not, importantly, a wag. The difference being that a wife of a footballer does what needs to be done and cares more about her husbands career than being an IT girl: whether being barred from seeing your husband on New Years to moving wherever they need to go. As Ash said in an interview with the Observer ‘I moved five times in three years. Footballers need to concentrate on what they are doing. It’d be a shame if players didn’t move to certain places just because of the shopping.’ She should have a word with Posh.
Look, she’s a total hottie!
In 1992 she nabbed the role of Deborah in Men Behaving Badly, however this did not bode well for her marriage for as her acting career was taking off again, Chapman’s career as a footballer was ending. In 1995 News of The World published a photo of Chapman in bed with another woman; however in time honoured footballer tradition Chapman held up his hands and said ‘Eh? What? Me? No I never!’ Ash chose to trust his word that nothing had happened. Echoes of Ashley and Cheryl Cole anyone?
There was a series of very public bust ups that Ash later attributed to their drunken partying. Some of these hilarious party stories include the time he locked her outside of their flat in her underwear, or the time she threw a phone at his head and knocked out some of his teeth. In one argument Ash retreated to her friend and co-star Caroline Quentin’s house after a row. Chapman turned up drunk and furious and tried to kick down her door. While Chapman and Ash quickly made their peace, Quentin and Ash’s relationship never recovered.
Ash and Quentin were friends - until Chapman broke Quentin’s door. That’s not a metaphor.
Ash took on several roles after Men Behaving Badly, including Where the Heart is in 2000 and Mersey Beat as Inspector Charlie Eden.
However it was in 2003 after Ash went for a simple cosmetic procedure to inject collagen into her lips that things took a tragic and very public turn. The treatment was a disaster, leaving her top lip huge and swelling the area between her nose and mouth. The injection was a cocktail of collagen and silicon and other substances that became entwined with the muscle and hardened, meaning it would never be able to be removed.
The media attention was enormous. Ash’s private vanity quickly became a very public one and she was harshly judged for it. At the time she was still very visible, both in the adverts she was doing with Neil Morrissey for Homebase but also in Mersey Beat. People smacked their lips with fear and schadenfreude as she became a figure of comedy and mockery. Let’s be honest, she did look like she could eat you.
Some people have said Leslie Ash looks like a trout. We wouldn’t dream of making such a comparison.
As if this was not bad enough, it was not long after in 2004 that Ash contracted MSSI (Methicillin Sensitive Staph Aureus) which nearly killed her and after what happened with the botched op, that doesn’t seem right. Give the girl a break already *shake fist at god*.
Again it was after a night on the lash with her husband. Coming home at 7 am they started having sex when she fell off the bed and Chapman (who weighed 14 st) landed on top of her, breaking her ribs and puncturing a lung.
It was while she was being treated in hospital that she contracted MSSI through an abscess in her spine. Having been discharged from hospital it wasn’t until she woke up unable to move that she realised something was very wrong.
The doctors said there were three options: she could recover, she could be paralysed or she could die. We made that bit bold because it was a dramatic moment.
Ash survived the illness but it left her body profoundly damaged and she spent years in physiotherapy learning to walk again.
Today, Ash is able to walk, although she has to use a cane, and she remains happily married to Lee Chapman. Tonight on ITV, she returns to our screens in the documentary Leslie Ash: Face to Face, which takes a frank look at her disastrous lip job and the lack of regulation in the cosmetic industry. The very likeable, slightly fragile Ash definitely gives you a deeply personal glimpse at her life.
If you want to know more about Leslie Ash you can read her biography ‘My Life Behaving Badly’ or watch Leslie Ash: Face to Face tonight on ITV 1 at 9pm.
Review: Leslie Ash Gets Lippy
Leslie Ash: Face to Face, ITV 1, Tuesday 23rd September, 9pm
It’s fascinating to see how Leslie Ash went from lad totty to media freak in the space of one botched lip job. Collagen that should have gone into her lips was injected into her muscles and then hardened. As she says herself in this documentary, it was devastating. Not long after this a superbug infection left her unable to walk (even now she has to use a cane). These misfortunes have meant that Leslie Ash has become a sort of modern celebrity bogeyman- ‘Girls, watch out! look what happens when…’
In tonight’s revealing documentary Leslie Ash: Face to Face, Ash returns to our screens to investigate the cosmetic industry and its lack of regulation in the UK.
What she uncovers is really quite scary: you need not be a doctor or even a registered nurse to inject Botox. Jim McGrath runs a clinic in Doncaster which can train anyone in a mere day- all you need is a NVQ Level 3 certificate in Beauty therapy- so as long as you can bikini wax you can also inject vials of highly toxic poison into someone’s face. Hurrah.
Despite the genuinely scary results of the investigation you cannot help but feel torn as to whether this a frank, courageous response to the public’s horror and the media’s cruelty over Ash’s face, or something more self indulgent which allows Ash to remain in the limelight. She is sincerely happy in the role of storyteller and attention centre, not in a loud or slimy way, but almost like a little girl whose parents have been away for ages and now she has lots to tell them. As she leaps from behind walls to scare naive ‘Botox’ party goers, there is something tragi-comic about her.
Ultimately though, you cannot walk away from this documentary feeling anything but a little bit sad for this woman, who is really very likeable, for the devastating result of a fairly common vanity, and the public judgement she received for it.
By McGee Noble
Pick of The Week: Monday 22nd September
THE SECRET MILLIONAIRE CHANGED MY LIFE
Channel 4, Tuesday 23rd September, 10pm Alert Me
Over three award-winning series, 19 of Britain’s richest people have taken on an extraordinary challenge: leaving behind their luxurious lives to live and work undercover in some of the most deprived parts of the country; each on a personal mission to give something back. Now a special one-off programme sees six of the millionaires return to find out the difference made by their donations. The programme is preceded by the last in the current series of The Secret Millionaire.
SUPERNANNY
Channel 4, Wednesday 24th September, 8pm Alert Me!
Naughty children beware! Supernanny is back! Her first port of call is Liverpool, home to the Hancox Smith family. Parents Jenny and Simon are fighting a losing battle with all three of their children. The baby of the family, Madison (3), still demands breast milk on tap, morning, noon and night. Cameron (8) and Flynn (5) have declared a state of constant war. They’ve been kicking, punching and swearing their way into mum and dad’s bad books for years. Sleepless and worn down, this family are at breaking point. Enter Jo Frost. Supernanny: Beyond the Naughty Step follows on E4.
LOST IN AUSTEN
Wednesday, 24th September 2008, 9pm Alert Me!
Darcy (Elliot Cowan) announces his engagement to Caroline Bingley (Christina Cole), leaving Amanda (Jemima Rooper) feeling utterly bereft. This is coupled with the news that Bingley (Tom Mison) has run off with Lydia (Perdita Weeks). This is all wrong - in the book Lydia runs away with Wickham.
The party rush to London where Bingley and Lydia are found staying at an inn in Hammersmith. In an attempt to defend the honour of his daughter, Mr Bennet (Hugh Bonneville) charges Bingley to a duel and is left critically injured.
As panic breaks out with the need to find Mr Bennet a doctor, Amanda rushes through a door and finds herself back in modern day London.
ANN WIDDECOMBE VERSUS THE DIET INDUSTRY
Thursday, 25th September 2008, 9pm Alert Me!
Britons spend billions of pounds a year on trying to slim but studies have shown that more than four out of five people who start a diet end up piling the weight back on – and some put on even more besides.
Ann Widdecombe is no stranger to trying to lose weight, but she is adamant the best way to shift the pounds and stay slim is to eat less and move more.
She tells the programme: “At London fashion week…the girls with bodies to diet for are everywhere. But let’s face it – 99 per cent of us have no chance of looking like this.
“So why do we spend billions of pounds a year trying to achieve it? Why do we put our health, happiness and sense of well being at risk?
“And why – when it all fails – do we try it all over again?
“Never before has the nation been so obsessed by slimming. It’s the one subject guaranteed to keep tills ringing, and the sales of glossy magazines soaring.
“The message is loud and clear - to fit in, we must be thin.”
TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE
Film Four, Friday 26th September, 9pm, Alert Me!
Trey Parker’s film (co-written with Matt Stone) moves on from the animation of South Park to marionette puppets playing characters who save the world. Team America: World Police, led by Spottswoode (voiced by Daran Norris), recruit actor Gary Johnston (Trey Parker) to join their team and use his thespian skills to infiltrate a terrorist group led by North Korean leader Kim Jong II. Can TAWP save the world without destroying national monuments, killing innocent bystanders and getting distracted by the chance of kinky sex?
Review: Art and Money- The Mona Lisa Curse as told by a Grief-stricken Art Critic
Channel 4, Sunday 21st September, 6.30pm Alert me
Despair pervades Channel 4’s gripping start to their new Art and Money season. The Mona Lisa Curse deftly explores how art as commodity has bleakly taken over from art as art. Set against a historical backdrop of a suffocating mounting dread, the programme leaves you at a desperate loss.
The Mona Lisa Curse is presented by Robert Hughes, renowned for his heavy involvement in the heady sixties art scene as art critic of TIME magazine. He grouchily tells the tale of how art came to be valued more monetarily than ever before. Hughes charts the historical event that began the bastardization of art as 1963 when the Mona Lisa was exhibited in New York. People flocked not to look at the painting but for the experience of having seen it. As galleries caught on to this fetishism, he argues that they became commercialized under the guise of popularising their institutions for the common good, actually forming brands to be bought into by visitors. Consequently, the art collector and schmoozing art advisor emerged and suddenly prices were going gaga and taking artists with them.
The show, essentially an essay on film, uses the medium to impressive ends, demonstrating the hollow, money-driven people of the monetized art world. Spliced shots of the various well-to-do cackling raucously while trading artwork in return for status and money are interspersed with an urgently building soundtrack as Hughes bitterly describes them as a “plague”. The effect is an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness - kind of as if you’re tied up and being forced to listen to a villain’s evil plan as he presents you with his crystal ball showing it’s all unfolding and the world’s collapsing.
Much is so intertwined with Hughe’s own career that it is difficult not to see The Mona Lisa Curse as just a cranky old man, who, nostalgic of the sixties, has aged and become disenchanted thus, spouting spurious accusations all over the place. However, it is this very personal touch that renders the line of reasoning behind The Mona Lisa Curse meaningful. Once so inspired by the wonder of art, he has now come to a point where he can solemnly stand unimpressed next to a piece (Damian Hirst’s preserved shark) declaring it “the world’s most overrated marine organism.” His passion has died and this is sad.
No doubt about it, The Mona Lisa Curse is a vehicle for a grief-stricken, Hughes to mourn the loss of his life-long love affair with art. But because of this genuine distress, his argument is all the more compelling. Art lovers and money lovers alike should not miss The Mona Lisa Curse and the chance to decide for themselves.
By Susan Allen
Review: Merlin
The producers of this show cite both Smallville and Dr Who as inspirations and you can definately tell.
Like Smallville it has the same carefree attitude towards traditionally important things like ‘the original story’ and ‘historical accuracy’, and like Dr Who it has the same slightly goofy effects and over acted supporting roles.
But it works, somehow. I mean we clearly like the goofy effects and over acting- we as a public go nuts for Dr Who, and here it is combined with an engaging character who we know and love but reinterpreted from a different angle.
Merlin is a young ‘un come to Camelot to find use for his special (magical) talents. The problem? Old King Uther is not such a fan of the magical arts and no sooner has Merlin entered the city than someone is executed for it.
Lucky for Merlin he has a family friend, physician Gaius to help him out.
In this version of the tale, Arthur is a bit of a prat, as Merlin says, kind of like the good looking popular kid at school. Condescending, bullying but not nessarily all bad. Merlin clashes with him immediately, being an all round good fella.
The reinvisioning is entertaining, if fast and loose with anachronisms (I swear that at one point in the last scene you see Arthur mouth ‘for f***s sake’ under his breath- seriously)and at times more than a little bit clunky. Still it more than fills that sunday TV gap and is sure to settle into a family institution.
Feature: The Making of Merlin
The legend of Merlin and King Arthur has long held film makers under its spell, inspiring works from Camelot to Lancelot, Excalibur to Monty Python & The Holy Grail.
So when producers Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps came up with the idea of re-telling the legend for a new audience they faced a daunting task: finding a fresh approach to a story that is inextricably woven into British culture.
“It was a challenge. This is a story that’s been rewritten throughout history. Every generation has wanted to tell its own version,” says Murphy.
The duo, the leading creative lights at the independent production company Shine, had just finished working on Sky’s hit teen horror show Hex when the idea first took shape.
“We had enjoyed doing a high concept show and it cemented our feeling that we wanted to do more of them,” says Capps.
“We started looking at different worlds and mythologies and were soon looking at Merlin. Nobody had attempted it for a while. The last version starred Sam Neill as Merlin, a decade or so ago.”
The pair were clear from the outset that theirs would be a fantastical Camelot that would stir the imagination.
“We didn’t want to make a 15th century version of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. We wanted to produce something that merged the legend with big, family entertainment.
“We wanted to set it in the past but in a fantasy period, the world of Narnia, Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings,” says Murphy.
After watching the success of the American series Smallville, about the early years of Superman, Murphy, Capps and writer Jake Michie began imagining a series which set Arthur and Merlin in a Camelot that existed before its golden age.
This approach allowed the team to present seemingly familiar characters in an unfamiliar setting.
“Just as in Smallville we wanted to subvert expectations. So Camelot is a land where magic is banned. Merlin, rather than being an unbelievably old and wise wizard is a young boy who works as Arthur’s manservant and has to hide his abilities. He saves Arthur on a regular basis but always has to keep his magic a secret,” explains Capps.
“We also wanted to subvert the expectations of Arthur. He is not the heroic king of legend. He is a young man, rather like Prince Harry, who likes to party, enjoys his status but who also shows kingly qualities,” he adds.
“That then gave us great possibilities for taking the story on. We could follow the two of them to see how Arthur unites the land of Albion and Merlin becomes the great wizard.”
With a youthful audience in mind, Murphy, Capps and their colleagues were keen to create characters with which their young audience could identify easily.
“Being 18 feels the same in this world as it does in our world. We have tried to make it accessible. There are moments when Arthur and Merlin are adolescents,” explains Murphy.
And at the heart of the drama is the relationship between Arthur and Merlin, two boys from very different backgrounds.
“Arthur is boorish but brave and he is the son of Uther, so he is going to be king one day. Merlin is a more working-class boy. At first they don’t like each other but then Merlin becomes Arthur’s servant and they develop an odd couple relationship.”
For all the original twists to the familiar stories, the series remains true to the spirit of the Arthurian legend, however, with storylines that foreshadow its timeless characters and imagery.
“We’ve kept certain things from the legend, Mordred and Excalibur, Guinevere and Lancelot and elements of Uther,” Murphy says.
The team spent a year developing scripts before showing them to the BBC. Excited by what she saw, the BBC’s Julie Gardner, the producer widely credited with Russell T Davies for reviving Doctor Who, agreed to develop the scripts further.
If Gardner has learnt anything from Doctor Who it is to give Saturday night shows an epic scale – both visually and emotionally.
“Drama on BBC One at seven o’clock on Saturdays needs to be fun and it needs to be entertaining and engaging which means you need characters that you can empathise with. Not necessarily characters who are nice all the time but ones whose trials and tribulations you want to follow,” she says.
“It also needs a scale that is largely achieved through the emotions of the characters. It’s really important that they are written large, that every big decision characters make really really count, that the consequences of the choices they make are significant.”
Gardner drew on the support and advice of Russell T Davies during the development of Merlin.
“I learnt so much about the seven o’clock slot from Russell T Davies’ Doctor Who scripts and from his approach as an executive producer to that particular slot.
“It’s not just about the scripts or production process, it’s about thinking about the audience’s viewing experience at that particular time.
“Russell’s been a huge supporter of Merlin. He immediately saw its potential and proved invaluable in early discussions about how to shape the series for Saturday night,” she explains.
When the show was given the go-ahead early this year, Capps and Murphy, along with director James Hawes, were immediately faced with a race to meet the deadline for transmission in September.
“The biggest challenge was having to turn the show around so quickly. We had a small window of opportunity and had to go for it. Julian and I had a very short timescale and we were making huge decisions very quickly,” explains Capps.
“Everything had to be designed. You can’t just walk down the street and find every costume, insignia, prop and piece of armour. We had to have everything made.
“For three months we were making massive decisions which we knew we would be stuck with for as long as the show lasts,” explains Capps.
“What is the crest of Camelot? How big is it? What should this world look like? Can you be historically accurate in a period where you also have talking dragons? It was a tough time, but because we had been working on it for so long we responded to these creative challenges instinctively.”
Casting was an epic production in its own right. “We saw hundreds for all the parts, especially the younger roles,” says Capps.
“We were looking for actors who were larger than life rather than naturalistic. This is an epic show, with epic dialogue which sounds ridiculous if you do it like EastEnders. We were looking for young actors who could carry it off.”
The key piece of casting was Colin Morgan, as Merlin. “You need Merlin to have intelligence, charm and humour. There is lots of humour in the show and that comes from Merlin,” Capps says.
“You are also asking people to believe that he becomes this extraordinary wizard. Colin has all the qualities we needed.”
The casting of experienced stars Anthony Head and Richard Wilson added gravitas and experience to the young cast.
“Having starred in Buffy, Anthony totally understands the high concept shows. He knows how to handle dialogue and emotions that are epic in scale. He also brings a great sense of threat to the drama as Uther,” says Capps.
“Richard Wilson brings a huge breadth of experience and great warmth and vulnerability to Gaius,” he adds.
As well as the established cast, Merlin will feature guest appearances by star names from both sides of the Atlantic including Santiago Cabrera, from Heroes, Michelle Ryan from EastEnders and the Bionic Woman, Julian Rhind-Tutt from Green Wing and Eve Myles from Torchwood.
Perhaps the hardest part of all to cast, however, was that of Camelot. The production team scoured castles all over Britain and Europe for a building that evoked the right atmosphere and look.
“We looked all over Scotland, Wales, England and Eastern Europe, everywhere in fact. But we couldn’t find the right place,” explains Murphy.
“We didn’t want a main location where we would need to add CGI all the time. We wanted something that looked unbelievably photogenic and vast already. We were looking for something in line with the Disney imagination.”
Eventually, however, they were led to the stunning Chateau de Pierrefonds, an hour or so north of Paris. “It’s not easy to secure a French national monument. It was an interesting negotiation,” smiles Murphy.
“But they have let us do all sorts of things. The other day we rode a horse into one of the great halls.”
With filming now near completion, the fruits of Murphy and Capps’ three years’ labour are about to be unveiled to the demanding Saturday night BBC One audience.
Competing in the slot that Doctor Who has made its own is daunting, they admit.
“We are in a very difficult spot. We will have a very large magnifying glass put on us. Some people who love the legend of Merlin will be horrified when they see that he and Arthur are contemporaries in this.
“But this is an epic family show. It’s Raiders Of The Lost Ark. We’ve got big stories; we’ve got Lancelot fighting griffins, a talking dragon. But within that you also have to have small human stories and universal emotions. We want it to appeal to mums, dads, brothers, sisters, there is something in it for everyone. Hopefully we’ve created that,” says Capps.
The series has been sold to NBC in the United States who are planning to air it on one of their prime weekend evening slots.
The future is bright for Shine – provided, that is, viewers tune in and like what they see.
“We have big plans for Merlin but you never know,” says Capps philosophically.
“There is huge expectation and if it touches people’s hearts then it will be a success. But it will in the end be in the hands of the audience.”
Sold?: Hovis Go All Epic on their 122nd Birthday
Hovis have pulled out all the stops for their tremendous new ad. Celebrating 122 years of Hovis’ history in 122 seconds, it chronologically charts the loaf’s lifetime as a young boy runs from a pre-war Britain through subsequent decades to the present day. This one definitely gets you all ensnared in Hovis’ bready dream.
Filmed in Liverpool with a cast of over 750 extras, many of whom were cast off the streets and with acute attention to detail to costume and setting across over a century of British history, just some of the sights shown include Victorian horse and carts, a street devastated by WW2 bombings and the famous miner’s strike of the mid eighties. The advert, like the pinnacle of any classic movie, fills its unsuspecting viewer with this fuzzy wave of something like perspective, a fleeting moment where you, like, totally realise the enormity of what’s gone on before you, man, just as the message “As good today as it’s always been” appears.
As with any high point, you’re soon back down to earth and actually feeling kind of embarrassed as the next ad flicks on and you remember that it is just part of the two minute break in between the programme you’re watching. But despite the mild shame and resentment for Hovis at drawing you in, this is the crème de la crème of campaigns out at the moment doing its job of setting emotive traps all over the shop pretty well and besides, it’s damn enjoyable.
To see the intensive making of the Hovis advert, click here.
Review: The Family is Worth your Time
Channel 4, Wednesday 17th September, 9pm Alert me
When you’ve got real substance, there’s actually no need for smoke and mirrors. The refreshing new documentary from Channel 4 directed by Jonathan Smith is proof of this. Offering a harmonious combination of compelling subject matter and an intuitive format, The Family modestly shows a family in their home environment and promises to steal an hour away from you in the most pleasant way possible.
Deriving its name from Paul Watson’s celebrated 1970s documentary of them working class folks, The Family is a modern day eight part fly-on-the-wall portraying the lives of the Hughes household, Simon, Jane and their four children. Within the first five minutes of watching, you suddenly feel like you’ve been transported to your childhood home again. Opening as the family sit down to dinner, an oh-too-familiar tea-time row ensues. Emily, nineteen yet still living at home, obnoxiously accuses her younger sister Charlotte of burping in her face and this escalades into an argument over whether she will attend her mum’s 40th birthday at the weekend. This is the overarching theme of the first episode, a mother turning forty and dealing with a changing family while her husband tries his hardest to help.
Beyond reminding you how repulsive teenagers are, the show gives you a wonderful glimpse into the various roles within every household- the troublemaker, the peacemaker and the one just trying to stay out of everyone’s way (here this is youngest, Tom, who endearingly skulks around the empty and substantially quieter rooms but clumsily manages to break two glasses and draw attention to himself). It urges you to remember those things that people share in their everyday existence.
Unobtrusive, there is no crew. The house is fitted with twenty-one cameras and sixteen microphones and makes for what feels like a genuinely un-staged interaction. It’s kind of like BB in the old days, not how it’s become now with endless hours of live footage and contrived manipulation of media-conscious wannabes, but the carefully crafted weekly episodes that were put together to build up a particular story within a house full of vaguely normal people.
Drawn in by the delightfully absorbing parts of ordinariness, you’ll find yourself lost in The Family. There will be no boredom, or need for suspicion of artificiality as a load of irritating people self-consciously open their so-called hearts to the camera, just a regular family who are certainly worth your time.
By Susan Allen
The Lowdown on: Tess Daly and Bruce Forsyth
One’s a prehistoric TV legend, the other’s a blonde stunner. Together they make up the cringe-worthy yet kind of charming co-presenting team of ITV’s Strictly Come Dancing, back for its sixth series this Saturday. With all the hype surrounding the show’s forthcoming celeb contestants, OntheBox thought it was only fair to take a look at the careers of its hosting couple, Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly.
Tess
Tess Daly (born Helen Elizabeth Tess Daly in 1971) is a northern lass with an affable straight-talking demeanour. Married to DJ and presenter Vernon Kay since 2003, the beautiful couple won Cosmopolitan’s Couple of the Year award last year. Notoriously laid back together, they have no qualms mixing business with pleasure co-presenting the offspring of Strictly Come Dancing, Just the Two of Us (where instead of dancing with professional dancers, celebrities, um, sing with professional, er, singers).
Back in the early days…
Tess didn’t have too much trouble working out that with her skyscraper pins and generally fabulous bodily attributes she’d do pretty well as a model. In 1990 she appeared in two Duran Duran videos for the songs ‘Serious’ and ‘Violence of Summer’. She was also in The Beloved’s video ‘Sweet Harmony’ in 1992 in which she looked to be starkers. A hippy type call for peace with everyone sitting around naked together in a pure white studio, this one was a little more tasteful, if far more bizarre, than Holly Valance’s nude exploits…
Her break into television came in 1999 when she hosted the ‘Find Me a Model’ competition on Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast. She then went on to present Singled Out, Smash Hits TV, SMTV Live, Back to Reality and make Me a Supermodel.Her most recent presenting role comes in the form of Strictly Come Dancing. Although placed firmly to one side of Bruce and into the ‘eye-candy female co-presenter’ box, her sharp comments and quirky expressions show not only that the lights are shining upstairs beneath her blonde locks but also that she’s not afraid to look a bit silly.
Bruce
The grandfather of entertainment, Bruce Forsyth CBE was born all the way back in 1928 as Bruce Joseph Forsyth Johnson. Growing up in London he watched the likes of Fred Astaire in films as a child and inspiration having struck, thus trained as a dancer first starring in the song, dance and accordion group “Boy Bruce and the Mighty Atom.” His very first appearance on TV was in 1939 singing and dancing on a talent show.
Starting out…
During the war, Bruce continued to perform with the aim of joining Moss Empires Theatres, the largest chain of British music halls to no avail and travelled around appearing in pantomimes and the circus- he was well known for his strong man act!
The year 1958 was golden for Bruce. He appeared with comedian Dickie Henderson which led to him being offered the job of compère of Val Parnell’s weekly variety show, Sunday Night at the London Palladium.
Game-show Greatness
Soon came the real high point in Bruce’s career- his game-show greatness. With a talent for charming his audience, Bruce Forsyth’s Generation Game was loved by many in 1971 and continued for a six year stint only to become popular all over again and make a comeback thirteen years later (1990-1994) along with his card game-related show, The Price is Right (1995-2001).
One would be only slightly unhealthily cynical to believe that he largely used these shows as part of an egotistical plan to ingrain his catchphrases into the consciousness of the British nation and therefore ensure his legendary status- mwahahaha… Some of the phrases that you will, no doubt, intuitively know (because of Bruce’s mind-control!) include:
“Nice to see you, to see you- nice!”
“Didn’t they do well?”
“You win a Brucie bonus”
“Remember, Bruce’s price is always right”
TV Legend
Bruce has worked over in America and in various aspects of show business more generally, including writing a song for his daughter to sing at the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest which came second to Celine Dion! He presented many lesser known shows- Takeover Bid, Hollywood or Bust, Bruce’s Guest Night and Bruce Forsyth’s Big Night. Over the years he has acquired a legendary status for himself, celebrating his 70th birthday in 1998 by appearing in a week long run of his one man show at the London palladium and concluding with Sunday Night at the London Palladium aired live in ITV.
He has more recently appeared in Have I Got News For You (2003) gladly mocking his own catchphrase-filled presenting style and now, of course, Strictly Come Dancing. The man has many accolades to his name, some of the most recentbeing his CBE in 2006 and his Bafta Academy Fellowship Award this year. The BBC marked his 80th birthday with an 85 minute long programme, Happy Birthday Brucie!
He has always liked to be surrounded by youthful pretty ladies, famously having dated two Miss. Worlds (what a stud!) and has almost always had a female co-presenter on his arm. Bruce himself attributes his own youthful vigour to his strict routine of half hourly Tibetan stretches each day. Take note aging people- young, pretty things and stretching.
This Saturday, Tess and Bruce will be back with another star-studded line up ready for the floor in the latest series of Strictly Come Dancing
To get a sneak preview before it all starts, click here.
By Susan Allen
Pick of the Week: Monday 15th September
AMAZON
BBC 2 Mon 15th Sept 9pm Alert Me
Bruce Parry (Tribe) returns for his most ambitious series yet as he journeys from the source of the mighty Amazon river to its mouth in Amazon. His epic journey takes him along the world’s greatest river, starting high up on the Peruvian mountain Nevado Mismi. He travels through the world’s largest forest – the most bio-diverse habitat on the planet, and home to some of the last uncontacted tribes left on Earth – and finally to the port of Belem, where the tiny trickle that started as glacial melt water finally meets the Atlantic Ocean.
THE FAMILY
Channel 4, Wed 17th Sept, 9pm Alert Me
A British family opens its doors to viewers in a major new eight-part observational series, documenting universal themes of family life. For nearly four months the Hughes family was filmed around the clock: dad Simon, 44; mum Jane, about to turn 40, and their four children: Jessica, 22, who lives nearby with her fianc? Pat and 10 month-old baby Ruby; Emily, 19; Charlotte, 17; and the youngest, 14-year-old Tom. In this week’s episode, Jane’s 40th birthday is approaching and the tension is building in the Hughes household.
NO HEROICS
ITV 2, Thurs 18th Sept, 10:30PM Alert Me
This six-part series is brand new for 2008 and sees a group of British off-duty superheroes living their day to day life, which for supposed saviours of the world is actually rather normal – as they just can’t be arsed. Instead this group of b-listers would rather get drunk in their local superheroes-only pub The Fortress and commiserate at their lack of superiority.
RICKY GERVAIS FAME
Channel 4, Fri 19th Sept, 10pm Alert Me
Ricky Gervais’s stand-up show tackles the weird world of fame, blurring the line between the acceptable and the outrageous, with a balancing act that had audiences across the country in stitches in what was the fastest-selling live comedy tour in UK history.
ALIEN
Film Four, Sat 20th Sept, 9pm Alert Me
One of cinema’s all-time sci-fi horror classics, Ridley Scott’s film stars Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt and Ian Holm as the crew of the Nostromo, a deep-space tow-craft that intercepts a distress call from a deserted planet. On landing, they find a crashed spaceship and some strange eggs. And then John Hurt leans over one… Spellbinding, edge-of-seat horror follows as the alien begins to hunt down the crew until there’s just one survivor (and a cat) left to face its terrible appetite.
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