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Rewind: October 2018

Showbiz Newswrap

Rewind: October 2018

Welcome to another Monthly ‘Rewind’ editorial with Mike Watkins as he looks back over the good, the bad and the ugly of October 2018. As usual we’ve Katie Price featured, so happy Halloween.


EastEnders to finally get DVD release

After Emmerdale Farm, Crossroads, General Hospital, Coronation Street, Brookside and Emergency Ward 10, EastEnders fans are finally getting a DVD of classic ‘Ender storylines.

In what is titled as “The Best of EastEnders” – so it won’t contain much past 1998 – sees Adam Woodyatt – longest serving actor on the show as character Ian Beale – present to Walford lovers ‘over two hours’ of memorable moments from nearly 35 years of Albert Square dramas. Unlike the other releases this isn’t classic episodes, which most fans of the saga want on DVD. Instead it is and we quote the 2 Entertain/BBC DVD blurb; “In this feature length special, Adam re-lives the very best of the drama: the bust-ups and shocks, the cliffhangers (or “duff-duffs” as Adam calls them), the moments that made us laugh and the ones that made us cry.” The DVD is released in late November, just in time for Christmas.

Those who want the actual EastEnders story, when it really was worth watching, can tune to UKTV channel Drama where currently 1980s episodes air as a double-bill at noon.

Down at the old Queen Victoria, EastEnders 1980s style.

The one-off episode of the soap, produced at the ITV Yorkshire studios in Leeds, has two female producers and a female executive producer and will for the ‘one off‘ see women in all the key roles. In what is thought to be a first in soap opera production the idea is being put together for International Women’s Day 2019, the episode will air on the 8th of March.

“We’re really excited about this and really proud to be doing it, and to recognise International Women’s Day… I think it’s the first time a soap has had an all-women team. What we want to do for that episode is to have it produced by a female, written by a female, directed by a female, and the entire cast will be female, including all the background artists.” – executive producer Jane Hudson

Emmerdale began life as daytime serial Emmerdale Farm, back in 1972. In those days it was lead by Sheila Mercier as the matriarch of the farm, and much admired member of the Beckindale Village community.


Strictly Come Dancing won’t be waltzed off due to Brexit.

Downing Street has reassured fans, the BBC reported, that Strictly Come Dancing is not at risk from Brexit. The announcement concerning the hit BBC One weekend ratings winner was made following claims by Sir Vince Cable.

Cable, who appeared on the the Strictly Christmas special eight years ago spoke about the programme when referencing how a “cack-handed” immigration policy could stop dancers from the EU being able to perform on the series. Currently a large number of the professional dancers on Strictly Come Dancing come from countries in the European Union. In a comment to the Beeb a spokesperson for Downing Street said ‘I think Strictly will be fine.’

The show itself has been cause for tabloid tittle-tattle over the past few weeks thanks to contestant Seann Walsh and his professional dance partner Katya Jones who were pictured kissing down an alleyway after going out for a drink together. Funnyman Seann was, at the time, in a relationship while Katya is married to fellow Strictly pro Neil Jones. Seann’s betrayed girlfriend, the actress Rebecca Humphries, took to Twitter to reveal that she had suspected something had been going on between the pair but was called a psycho by Seann over her suspicions, she further noted that the pictures were taken on her birthday. 

To tabloid delight Seann was voted out of the ballroom dance this weekend, although many felt he should have gone the week previous – being the worst dancer –  however the judges saved him.

Strictly speaking, Brexit won’t stop the sequins of celebrity dancing appearing on BBC One.

Sheridan Smith documentary for ITV

ITV has been given an intimate insight into the life of the award-winning singer and actress Sheridan Smith for a one-off TV documentary. Sheridan Smith: Coming Home gives viewers a revealing look into the person behind the headlines. 

For the first time and in her own words, Sheridan talks about her life addressing personal battles, revealing her love for her family, and lifelong passion for music with the launch of her brand new album.    

Following the success of Sheridan’s debut album, the new album sees Sheridan delve into her own life experiences to co-write a heartfelt and deeply personal collection of songs.  “A Northern Soul” will be released later this year. Shot by renowned director, Tim Pope the film follows the star as she embarks on some of her toughest personal and professional challenges. 

The cameras will capture intimate moments, well apart from shaggin’ and shittin’, as the award-winning actress heads back to her hometown of Doncaster for the first time since losing her father where she performs a very special emotional one-off homecoming gig back on the stage where she sang with her parents as a child.


Mark Jordon to remain on Emmerdale despite being charged GBH for allegedly biting an OAP

That was the headline The Sun ran with, surprised by the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ attitude taken by ITV Yorkshire bosses – and a rare decision too in the TV world, but one I welcome – take people out of their income only when something is proven. I mean if that had been the case way back we’d still have John Leslie presenting This Morning instead of ego-Phil.

Anyway, the tabloid reported that Mark Jordon, best known probably for his role in other Yorkshire Telly saga Heartbeat, had been charged with GBH after allegedly biting a pensioner. An ‘insider’ at ITV told the paper “[his character of] Daz has a key part on the Emmerdale farm and they’re hoping he can carry on appearing on the show.” This insider stuck in the early 1990s obviously – the last time Emmerdale farm appeared.

[Updated August 2019] Mark was cleared of any violence at a hearing.

Not being chewed-up and spat out, Jordon remains with ITV Yorkshire’s Emmerdale.

Eamonn talks panic attack nightmares

Former UTV personality Eamonn Holmes revealed this month he thought he was going to die during panic attack. 58-year-old Holmes spoke on October 25th how events nearly 30-years-ago made him believe he may die.

Talking on This Morning, which he regularly hosts with wife Ruth Langsford, he observed ‘I’ve had a number of panic attacks. Thank goodness all 27 or something years ago now. I thought I was going to die.” He added that the events took place while working as a presenter for the BBC. “It happened once on air and it doesn’t get much worse than that, trying to cover it up. Both times I was hospitalised from it, but yet it’s never come back.”

In the 1980s, fresh from a stint with UTV – ITV’s Northern Ireland broadcaster, Eamonn was the lead host of BBC One’s daytime magazine series Open Air.

“I think looking back at it, it was the result of the sudden death of my father and not being able to say goodbye to him.”


Catherine Tyldesley makes milk boob on Lorraine Kelly

It sounds like some sort of filth, but it really isn’t. Corrie actress Catherine Tyldesley appeared on ITV’s Lorraine show to present a segment on food, when she made a milk blunder, noting to viewers who are lactose intolerant they could swap cow’s milk for sheep’s milk.

All mammal milks are classified as dairy, The Sun noted, adding that ‘people at home were not impressed with the ex-Coronation Street star’s mistake when she made a salmon curry from scratch on the ITV show.’ Viewers noted the programme used to have ‘professional chefs’ hosting the cookery segements, not actresses.


Rewind Quickies

> Ill feelings over at This Morning that Dr Chris Steele just can’t fix? As the long-running magazine series celebrated its 30th anniversary at the start of this month it was celebrations all the way at the This Morning studios, however, viewers felt all wasn’t quite as happy as it should be with two observations; both focusing on silver fox Phillip Schofield. On the anniversary show (Oct 3rd) people took to social media to ask if there was a rift between Eamonn Holmes, the Friday host, and Phil when they failed to greet each other. Then later with a live link up to former main presenter Fern Britton again Phil seemed to throw shade at his one-time co-star. It transpired that her agent hadn’t passed on an invite to a BAFTA event for the show, and Phil had assumed she’d just declined. The programme then ‘lost’ the live link to Fern. ITV Daytime certainly seems quite the place to work – or avoid.

> Have you ever wondered how much it would cost to buy Ken Barlow’s home in Salford? No, neither have I. But for those who like that kind of thing you can find out with The Real Cost of Film and TV Homes – a property guide that provides realistic market values for some of the best-known fictional homes. Created by property expert Good Move, the interactive guide takes iconic locations from popular TV shows and films and uses equivalent market data to suggest the average house price, factoring in property type and number of bedrooms. Ken Barlow’s three-bed terraced home in Manchester would cost £187,000 – so now you know whether you wanted to or not.

> Lovely smiley Good Morning Britain and Smooth Radio presenter Kate Garraway spoke at the start of the month about a recent health scare. ITV viewers had noticed the absence from screens of the breakfast regular over a couple of weeks, with Kate finally returning on October 4th, and explaining the reason why she’d not been on the air. “I couldn’t look at light and I was very ill had a temperature over 40,” Sent from TVC to hospital Kate later thanked the staff of the Whittington Hospital for getting her back on her feet.

> STV News introduced a new-look evening news show for its STV Central areas, covering the West and East of Scotland. STV North, the old Grampian region, carries on doing its own thing. The new dual presented STV News at Six sees the hosts spit between Glasgow and Edinburgh, which is nice – but a little pointless. I’m not sure how its saving money, but will people in Edinburgh really be bothered if the news came from Glasgow? I mean the Scots voted to be controlled from London, and then furthermore from Brussels, so I don’t think they really care much where STV News at Six comes from.

> Only Fools And Horses actress Sue Holderness believes the BBC One sitcom wouldn’t get commissioned by the Beeb these days due to ‘snowflakes’ and political correctness. “A lot of people on social media are saying Only Fools is racist and there are lots of things you couldn’t have and I think it’s a pity that we’ve gone quite as politically correct as that. An awful lot of that stuff is funny and I find that very few people are actually offended, because if the joke’s good enough. It was really very innocent. And you absolutely knew Del and Rodney were not racist people, they were good eggs — none of it was offensive.” – the 69-year-old performer, who played Marlene in the comedy, told The Sun

Media Movers: This month BBC World Service welcomes Joe Tidy as a Cyber Security Specialist. Joe joins the beeb at the end of this month having spent the past five years with Sky News as a reporter. BBC Radio 2 has confirmed that Zoe Ball will replace Chris Evans in the breakfast show slot from 2019 and Bloomberg has appointed John Authers to the role of Senior Editor, starting this month. STV News has welcomed Polly Bartlett as a Production Journalist. She previously worked on Lorraine and This Morning for ITV. BBC News’ Gabriella O’Donnell is now Senior Producer for Religious Affairs while BBC Scotland News (Online) has recruited Andrew Picken as a Journalist.

BBC News has appointed Andrew Silke as Social Lead for BBC Politics while This Morning has named Deena Rahman as Demo Producer. Deena was previously Assistant Producer on the ITV Studios series. Sky News has appointed Michael Blair as Senior News Editor (Business). Michael previously served as a Broadcast Journalist at BBC News and prior to this as Producer, Hong Kong at Bloomberg. BBC Scotland has chosen Chris McLaughlin as Sports News Correspondent for their TV offerings. STV News welcomes a new boss, more on that here while Sky News has appointed Joe O’Brien as a News Editor working on the home desk, he previously served as a Deputy News Editor.

 > Take That lead singer Gary Barlow has revealed that he can no longer travel on the London Underground after the 7/7 bombings, Digital Spy reported. The Mancs songwriter was on a tube train that just avoided being part of the terrorist attack just over a decade ago. Having being stuck down a tunnel for 60 minutes, on a carriage, he noted ‘It was really terrifying.’ The Rule the World singeradded his train felt ‘the most unbelievable force’ as the effects of the bomb travelled down the underground Edgware Road tunnel.

> Radio 2, the channel that defiantly live in the world of ‘Beeb knows best’ have once again fiddle with their schedules, fondled their formats and in the process pissed off thousands of listeners. And, the ultimate end result is Simon Mayo has decided to bugger off. I’m not sure who Radio 2 is supposed to appeal to currently it’s like a Radio 1 for people who might be just a bit too old for it, but not quite ready for Radio 4. So this is currently where we stand, Chris Evans leaves for Virgin, Zoe Ball is to replace him. Simon Mayo is leaving his revamped drive time show where he was teamed up with Jo Whiley and everyone turned off. Jo is to host a new evening show, Sara Cox is moving from late evening to drive time and Trevor Nelson is taking over her slot. While I’m moving my dial to Smooth Radio.

> Amy Winehouse hologram to embark on a world tour reported RTÉ. Following in the jumpsuits of Elvis Presley, Amy will be projected onto stages, while being accompanied by a live band along with her voice-track. The late singer’s father, Mitch Winehouse, said the idea would give new generations a chance to see Amy in all her glory.

> Channel 4 deleted a tweet after they mistook comments made by singer Michael Buble as part of their Stand up to Cancer proceedings. The network’s social media team incorrectly told Twitter followers that Buble had spoke about “the death” of his son during a special edition of  Carpool Karaoke, hosted by James Corden. Noah, 5, was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2016 but has made a full recovery. In a previous statement Buble said ‘grateful to report that our son Noah has been progressing well during his treatment and the doctors are very optimistic about the future for our little boy.’

> I’m a Celebrity bosses apparently have been ‘in a row’ down under with local authorities. Tweed Shire Council slapped a £100,000 fine on ITV Studios after locals complained about the huge telly operation and trucks rumbling in and out of Murwillumbah in New South Wales. An agreement was previously reached between the production company and the authority, however, The Daily Star noted ‘in the last 12 months they reportedly breached the agreement 36 times’. ITV negotated with the town powers, threatening the council with relocating the I’m a Celebrity production site. The council reduced the fine to £3,000. ITV decided to stay at the site.

Phil and Holly, Ruth and Eamonn, Judy and Richard celebrate This Morning’s 25th anniversary in Liverpool five years ago.

Barbara’s Carrying On to promote Dementia Research

Carry On personality and EastEnders actress Barbara Windsor spoke this month for the first time since publicly announcing she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2014. Babs, best known for her cheeky-parts in the big screen Carry On movies and later as Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders, called on people to run next year’s London Marathon in support of raising awareness of her condition.

Wearing a blue Dementia Revolution T-shirt the 81-year-old says: “I’m asking you to make a stand against dementia, support groundbreaking research to find a cure for a condition that affects so many people, like me. With your help we can and will end dementia with research”.

Dame Barbara’s husband Scott will run the London Marathon for the cause next year. The video can be seen on Twitter here.


What’s Happening With Katie Price This Month?

We’ve had Antony Cotton, we’ve had Roxanne Pallett, but no one can top Katie Price as the zelebrity gift that keeps on giving. This month alone there has been endless stories on her life, so much so its proved difficult to choose which one to reflect upon. We put the articles in a hat and pulled out her return to music. Please, don’t laugh too hard.

The Metro Paper reported ‘Katie Price is apparently gearing up to relaunch her music career in a bid to save herself from bankruptcy.’ A deadline to sort out her significant debts ends tonight, so the paper believes, and part of helping to get her finances back in order is a return to the recording studio.

‘She’s telling her team to find new ways to make money from the brand and is even restarting her pop career and is getting a song written for her.’ the paper quoted an insider speaking to The Sun.

I hope she can afford the autotune, after all last years performance on Loose Women – where she sung ‘live’ – made my pussy throw itself at the window in a suicide attempt.

 


Quote of the Month

I know she’s apologised to the snowflakes that live in a society thanks to the brave soilders who can’t be ‘offended’; but I say sod that. Well done Babs, its a shame more people don’t stand up to “political correctness” or as I call it “utter bollocks” and say it how it is.

Speaking on Sky News last week about the importance of supporting the Armed Forces, she noted;

“What would we do without them looking after us?”

When asked by the Sky reporter what she would say to those who choose not to wear a poppy, she simply pursed her lips and said:

“They can go and sod off for all I care.”

The question came after some students *spits* at Cambridge University apparently thought it is somehow a bad thing to remember our fallen. These people gave this country, and others, freedom. Yes, if anyone finds it offensive you can ‘sod off’.

Dame Barbara Windsor, yes they can sod off.

Inside Soap Awards 2018

On Monday 22nd October the ISA’s took place once again. Worthy winners included Emma Atkins who took the best actress gong for Charity Dingle in Emmerdale while fellow ITV soapy Jack P. Shepheard took the best male actor award for his Coronation Street role of David Platt. Ash Palmisciano who portrays Matty Barton on Emmerdale took the best newcomer prize while unsurprisingly Connor McIntyre took the best villian gong for his role as the now late Pat Phelan of Coronation Street.

Danny Dyer and Kellie Bright took the gong for best partnership for their roles as Mick and Linda Carter in EastEnders. Rightly so Doctors was awarded best daytime soap while equally deserved was Coronation Street as best soap.


Rewind RIP

It was goodbye to Ray Galton, aged 88, who along with his comedy writing partner, Alan Simpson, gave us Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe and Son. Z Cars and Rainbow personality Geoffrey Hayes passed away at 76 (at the end of last month) and American actor Scott Wilson, aged 76, best known in the UK in recent years for his appearances in The Walking Dead. We also said farewell to the beautiful sound of singer Montserrat Cabellé who passed away aged 85, former Albion FC director and head of ITV Sport Jeff Farmer aged 79 and actress Sheila White, aged 69, possibly best known to soap fans as Sharon Watts’ birth mother. Beatles recording engineer Geoff Emerick died at 72 and Boyzone’s first manager John Reynolds passed aged 52.


Picture of the Month: Corrie’s Certificate of Commendation

Coronation Street cast and crew gathered on October 4th to receive a unique and prestigious award. The Queen’s Representative and High Sheriff of Greater Manchester, Dr Robina Shah, presented the programme with a Certificate of Commendation in recognition of services to humanity through Coronation Street’s narrative of the lived experience of ordinary people living extraordinary lives.  Particularly around promoting issues of mental health. 

The prestigious High Sheriffs Certificate of Commendation is awarded to a very small number of individuals and organisations that are deserving of recognition. This is the first time it has ever been awarded to a television programme. 

“For almost 60 years, Coronation Street has served us well by creating and producing innovative story lines that powerfully reflect profound and often unspoken real life social issues that influence the dynamics of the society in which we live. Through the lens of Coronation Street cameras, viewers have learnt about the impact on individuals and on families experiencing personal trauma, social exclusion, domestic violence, drug addiction, sexual, physical and emotional abuse, the list goes on.  In real life these challenging issues are often faced alone and in isolation, slowly eroding self-esteem and self-value, affecting mental health and overall wellbeing.” – The Queen’s Representative and High Sheriff of Greater Manchester, Dr Robina Shah

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