Royal & Derngate "thrilled" to open Brian Cox one man show
The tour will also see Cox perform at the Corn Exchange in Ipswich on 3 October and the Cliffs Pavilion in Southend-on-Sea on 20 October.
The Scottish actor trained at Dundee Rep Theatre before moving on to perform with the Royal Lyceum Theatre, the Royal National Theatre and the RSC, where he gained acclaim for playing King Lear.He said: "I am looking forward to this tour as it marks something a little different for me – sharing the stage with myself. "As the title indicates, the show will focus more than ever on my life and career. It should be a lot of fun."Ms Gladwell added: "We're delighted to have this prestigious tour opening here at Royal & Derngate. "Brian Cox is such an iconic and well-loved actor. "I'm sure he will have some fascinating tales to tell from his life on stage and screen."
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Times
13 minutes ago
- Times
Biddy Baxter obituary: the brains behind Blue Peter
For the best part of 26 years Biddy Baxter was the guiding force behind the children's television programme, Blue Peter, stamping her formidable authority on a series that drew audiences of 12 million with its pet animals, charity appeals and ability to come up with ingenious new uses for discarded toilet rolls. Baxter's Blue Peter was high-minded. She was a firm admirer of the BBC's first director-general, John Reith, and thought broadcasting should have a strong element of education and moral purpose. The show taught children about the Great Fire of London, Florence Nightingale and Scott of the Antarctic, while encouraging them to think of others less fortunate. The Blue Peter appeals became legendary. In one of the early ones, children were asked to send in silver paper to buy a guide dog for the blind. Seven and a half tons arrived. Another featured milk bottle tops. Baxter insisted that the children donated rubbish, not money. A bring and buy sale for refugee children in Cambodia raised £7.7 million and inspired the BBC to start the annual Children in Need appeal. Baxter was a disciplinarian and could be frightening. One of the presenters said she 'came to dread the click of high heels on the metal staircase' as Baxter descended from the gallery to the studio floor. Baxter's retort was that running a live programme twice a week, with items changing almost up to transmission, meant that she had to be tough. This extended to her superiors, against whom she fiercely defended her patch, using what she called a form of Chinese water torture to get her way. However, her reputation for sacking presenters for unacceptable behaviour owed more to tabloid embroidery than fact. Michael Sundin was reported to have lost his job because he was gay. Baxter said it was because he was unpopular. When the unmarried Janet Ellis was revealed to be having a baby she was condemned by the Mothers' Union and the press whipped up a storm. But Baxter supported Ellis and the decision to leave the programme was Ellis's own. The programme had some notable scoops. Baxter was particularly proud of an interview with Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank, in which for the first time in public he showed some of the original pages from his daughter's diary. Simon Groom was one of the first British reporters to get into Cambodia after the fall of Pol Pot and Princess Anne took part in a safari in Kenya with the Blue Peter stalwart, Valerie Singleton. There was fun as well, some of it unscripted. The best remembered episode in the show's entire history, and frequently repeated, concerned a young elephant called Lulu. She had a minder called Smithy, 'a tiny, rotund gentleman. He came with this absolutely horrendous stick with a sharp metal spike like a spear. I said I'm, sorry Mr Smithy but you just can't have that'. Without Smithy to keep her in check, however, Lulu stepped on presenter John Noakes' foot, urinated, and emptied her bowels over the studio. Unusually, for what was usually a live show, the item was recorded. Baxter decided to keep the cameras rolling: 'The defecation', she said, 'was too compelling.' In time Blue Peter was criticised for being too middle-class and comfortable but Baxter would have none of it. She retorted that nobody was compelled to watch and middle-class children alone would never have accounted for the large viewing figures. Moreover, young children, at which the programme was aimed, needed something secure in their lives. Ironically for someone who made a successful career in children's broadcasting, and seemed instinctively to understand what children wanted, Baxter had no children of her own. She insisted it was not a handicap, recalling that some of her best teachers at school had been spinsters. An only child, she was born Joan Maureen Baxter in Leicester in 1933. Her father ran a sportswear company and played rugby for Leicester, while her mother was a talented amateur pianist whose life was blighted by premature deafness. Joan found war exciting, rather than frightening, and showed early sings of tenacity when she organised a raffle for a doll she owned. She attended Wyggeston Girls' Grammar School in the town, where she was hopeless in maths but shone in English, and she also joined the Little Theatre, a venue for amateur dramatic productions. Such was her height that in one production she was cast as Britannia, complete with trident, helmet, breastplate and union flag shirt. She was not however allowed to wear her spectacles, and narrowly avoided falling off stage. Baxter went on to the all-women St Mary's College at Durham University, where she studied social sciences. Graduating in 1955 she decided to reject both of the main careers then open to educated women, secretary or teacher. She spotted an advertisement for a BBC radio studio manager but was told by the university appointments officer that nobody from Durham had ever gone to the BBC. In what she called 'a fit of pique' she applied for the job and got it, joining the corporation as a 22-year-old in October 1955. Being a studio manager turned out to be less glamorous than it sounded, consisting of chores such as balancing microphones and creating sound effects. She was determined to be a producer and got her chance three years later, working on programmes such as Listen With Mother and Junior Schools English. In 1961 she moved into television for the first time, after successfully applying for an attachment to the children's department, where she worked with the naturalist Johnny Morris and the ventriloquist Ray Allan. When the attachment ended she was about to go back to radio when she was offered the job of producing Blue Peter. Contrary to a wide popular perception, Baxter did not create Blue Peter, which had been running for four years when she took it over. It originally went out for 15 minutes once a week, with an emphasis on model trains for boys and dolls for girls. By 1962 John Hunter Blair, who had run the programme from the start, was too ill to continue and Baxter, still in her twenties, got her chance over more senior candidates. She soon made Blue Peter her own. She decided it must have a logo and commissioned the galleon design from a young artist, Tony Hart. In 1963 the Blue Peter badge was born, awarded to children who sent in letters, poems and stories. Baxter was determined to involve the viewers and make it their programme. The first special Christmas stamps, issued in 1966, were based on designs by two six-year-old winners of a Blue Peter competition. Another way of encouraging children to do things for themselves was showing how discarded toilet rolls, squeezy bottles and yoghurt pots could, with a bit of imagination and liberal use of sticky-backed plastic, be turned into something useful, such as a pen holder or desk tidy. The phrase, 'here's one I made earlier', entered the language. Realising that many children, particularly those living in tower blocks, were unable to have pets Baxter decided that Blue Peter should feature animals. One of the early ones was a puppy called Petra. The dog died a few days after one brief appearance and was replaced by a lookalike. Nobody seemed to notice and the substitution was only revealed years later. As Blue Peter expanded to 25 minutes and was broadcast twice a week, the original two presenters became three, with John Noakes joining Singleton and Christopher Trace. The eternally cheery Noakes became a star in his own right, celebrated for potentially dangerous stunts such as climbing Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square or becoming the first civilian to do a five-mile high freefall parachute jump with the RAF. Probably Blue Peter's best presenter, Noakes left amid some acrimony in 1978 after a 12-year stint. He was allowed to keep one of the show's pets, a border collie called Shep with whom he had bonded, and intended to use him in television commercials. Baxter was dead-set against the idea. 'I think it would have been immoral' she said. 'How can you have a Blue Peter presenter on commercial television advertising dog food so children think 'I must buy this'?' The show received some 7,000 letters a week, a postbag which required the BBC take on extra help, and each got an individual reply. When Baxter was a child she wrote to Enid Blyton and was delighted to get an answer. She wrote again and was dismayed to receive the same answer. To ensure this would not happen on Blue Peter she had every letter logged. Baxter left Blue Peter in 1988. There were reports of a falling-out with the new head of children's television, though she said her departure was because her husband John Hosier had been offered a job in Hong Kong. She was presented with a gold version of the famous badge. She returned to the BBC as a freelance consultant, serving two Directors-General, Michael Checkland and John Birt. She left the corporation in 2000. Shortly before his death from cancer that year, her husband asked her to set up a charity to support aspiring musicians. In 2003 she set up the John Hosier Music Trust, a cause which she described as 'terribly rewarding. It will be much better when I die. The trust will benefit from my will.' In 2018 she said, somewhat baselessly: 'I have two great failings in life — laziness and procrastination. I'm longing to do absolutely nothing.' Joan Maureen 'Biddy' Baxter MBE, television producer, was born on May 25, 1933. She died on August 10, 2025, aged 92
The Sun
15 minutes ago
- The Sun
Pete Wicks admits he ‘disliked' Sam Thompson's ex girlfriend insisting ‘I prefer him single' after Zara McDermott split
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The Sun
15 minutes ago
- The Sun
ITV confirms air date of Jodie Whittaker drama – a year after it was dropped
ITV has finally confirmed the air date for Jodie Whittaker's new drama — a year after it was mysteriously dropped from schedules. The former Doctor Who star will front the long-awaited series, which is now set to hit screens later this month. 5 One Night follows Jodie Whittaker alongside Yael Stone and Nicole da Silva as three friends bound by a dark secret that resurfaces years later, threatening to tear their lives apart. The gritty drama promises twists, tension, and powerhouse performances from its all-star cast. A month after Aussie drama One Night dropped in the UK last November, it vanished from Paramount+ without warning — just three months after landing on the platform. At the time, bosses blamed a shift towards ' Hollywood -style' content with mass appeal, alongside cost-cutting moves. Now ITV has swooped in to bring the series back, giving fans the chance to watch — or discover it for the first time. The full drama will stream from Saturday, August 16, with the first episode also airing on ITV1 that night. One Night marked Jodie's first TV role since making history as Doctor Who's first female Time Lord. The 41-year-old star said she was drawn to the project because it tackled a story about sexual assault in a way she found 'completely unique' — offering a fresh and powerful perspective on a difficult subject. She told the Metro: "'What made this completely unique to me and completely engrossing was the change of POV. "Very often it's told from outside in – there's an investigation, there's detectives, there's people working things out. Jodie Whittaker speaks out on Doctor Who future "This is about the decimation something like that can have. "It's also about how the event – whether it happened a minute ago or 20 years ago – is defining for a group of women that it affects, particularly this friendship group. "But also what it's about is how we all survive something like that and who owns memory, who has the right to tell stories, and especially if that story is true." The Sun revealed in April how Doctor Who could be facing the axe - with lead Ncuti Gatwa poised to quit and crew claiming to be laid off. Jodie - who played the Thirteenth Doctor - spoke out about the show's future. During an interview with Off Air with Jane and Fi, Jodie was asked whether the programme could "come back bigger and brighter." She replied: "Every time there's a Doctor Who, I think there's some comment. "I don't necessarily read anything to do with it now, but I watch it and I'm a huge fan of Ncuti [Gatwa]. "There is nothing more loyal and more beautiful than the Whovian community." Jodie added: "So I don't think necessarily its fandom's reducing any way. "So on a grown up basis of statistics, I've no idea, I'm completely unqualified." The Sun previously told how show bosses have postponed any decision until Ncuti's second season has aired later this year. His first series, which began last May, attracted between 2.25million and 3.18million viewers. The actor is already believed to have filmed his regeneration exit scene — and crew fear the BBC will shelve the show after 62 years. Meanwhile, Jodie has also teamed up with Suranne Jones for a thrilling new heist drama called Frauds. The two queens of the small screen star as duo Bert and Sam, whose intertwined past resurfaces in the setting of Southern Spain after a decade of separation. Bert, played by Suranne, is fresh from a spell in a Spanish prison but hellbent on one final, multi-million-pound art heist so calls on old pal Sam (Whittaker). The six-parter, which will air later this year on ITV, was filmed in Spain in January and also stars Karan Gill, Christian Cooke and Talisa Garcia. One Night is streaming on ITVX from Saturday August 16 and will air that night at 9.30pm on ITV1. 5 5 5
