If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
So here we are: I'm going to be flying the flag for the United Kingdom at the 58th Eurovision Song Contest this year in Malmo, Sweden. And what's more - I am completely honoured to do it! I have to be honest, I wasn't sure at first - but then it suddenly dawned on me that this is an incredible thing. It's an amazing opportunity to represent your country for doing something you love. In actual fact my husband Robert had represented the UK in the Olympic Games at judo in 1972. So we are two halves of a couple who have both done something for their country. Now that can't be bad!
I am so proud of The Ricky Gervais Show. Not just because of how well it turned out or how successful it was, or the awards, or even how much fun I had producing it. I'm proudest of the fact that it was just another experiment that got out of hand - The Ricky Gervais Show Series Three was released on DVD this week. To celebrate this final chapter I thought I'd tell the lovely readers of The Huffington Post the story of how we got here...
Created by Channel 4's in house creative agency, 4creative, a series of trails, from the eyes of Arthur, will follow him on his emotional journey to find love in the 21st century as well as an accompanying musical score from Orbital's Paul Hartnoll.
I would argue that too many businesses are reluctant to take the risk on a young person without any experience. Turned on its head, that small risk could actually be a life-changing opportunity to set a young person on course for a truly bright future. So, I think every business needs to consider whether they are doing enough to support young people in their communities to first gain work experience, and then to move into employment. We cannot expect schools or parents alone to support a young person into work. In my view, businesses are a vital part of the equation.
With bold colours, figure-hugging silhouettes and a lot of skin on show, the girls from the popular reality series put their differences aside to make sure they stood out on the red carpet with some outfit choices that won't be quickly forgotten.
Sadly, there are millions of humans who want to see rhinos dead. Most of them are in the Far East. Humans who think the horn of the white or black rhino can be ground down and ingested to improve their sex lives, cure cancer or ward off evil spirits. Humans who are prepared to pay heavily-armed poachers to shoot and maim these animals, hack off their horn and ship it half way around the world to China. It's the new drug trade in Africa, a multi-million dollar industry that commands $65,000 a kilo for rhino horn. An average rhino horn is about 5kg. It's not hard to do the maths.
As the prime minister's only black, working-class advisor moves to a part-time role, amid suggestions he was pushed out by the Etonian clique with which David Cameron has chosen to populate Downing Street, the charges of elitism are only going to get worse. You can be celebrated for writing a hit TV show like Girls even if you get your ethnic mix off-kilter, especially if you take the criticism on the chin and don't duck the issue, but it's far harder when you're running the country.
I was giving a lift to one of the greatest Bollywood legends of all time, Indian cinema's legendary heartthrob, the man we called our Gregory Peck. Dev Anand needed a lift to his hotel and I was the only one who could easily and quickly get my car our of the rammed, snow filled car park, (damn why hadn't I worn my nice sari?)
If two of a nation's biggest cultural icons are face-changing aliens it should be considered more than a coincidence. Born in the public imagination within six years of each other David Bowie and Doctor Who have taken strangely similar journeys.
Britain's 300,000 Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are cited by Travellers' Times (Britain's only national magazine for the community) as the 'most misunderstood and misrepresented community in the UK'. So we decided to dedicate a season of films to try to redress the imbalance, and give our Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities a platform from which they can tell their own stories.
The two-part storyline featured on BBC's Casualty, which concluded this weekend, is a welcomed move towards shedding much needed light on this appalling and illegal practice, and has started a much-needed conversation about how to better protect girls in the UK.
Our education system needs to prepare young people leaving school, not just with a varied CV that might help them get a job working for someone else, but to recognise and realise that some young people leaving school could actually start their own business and be the entrepreneurs of the future.
Sheriffs are back. It's official. The popularity of two current shows, Longmire and Vegas, prove that, if we ever tired of the authoritative figure with slow stride and wide hat, he's having a renaissance. But what does he represent in modern TV and film? One real-life Sheriff tells all.
One of the most eagerly anticipated tournaments in the Masters 77-year history is nearly upon us. There are so many storylines coming into this year's event; Tiger's return to world number one, Rory's struggles before finding form, memories of the former Champions in the field and the teenage prodigies playing for the very first time.
Die-hard book fans will be squirming at the sight of Theon Greyjoy, who doesn't even appear until much later in the books. The sheer amount of activity going on in this episode felt like a visual binge of narratives and characters. I was too scared to take my eyes off the TV screen in fear of missing something important.
In short, Tony is a major turn-around guy. But he knows better than most of us that he really has his work cut out for him now. He may disagree with me, but the truth is that the BBC is another country.
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