Latest news with #AlexanderArmstrong
Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
‘Remember what it's like to fall in love – with a book, a song or a band'
Anita Rani's new podcast, Bright Ideas with Anita Rani, is all about uncovering different ways to live your best life, and this week's guest, Alexander Armstrong, is brimming with ideas. The host of Pointless, half of comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, musician and author shares his top tips for learning another language – he's currently using Duolingo to brush up on his French – why he's so passionate about children's reading and how to introduce someone when you can't remember their name. 'If you're lucky enough to fall in love with reading when you're seven or eight, you carry this great world full of colour and flavour around in your head,' he tells Rani as they discuss the Read It Forward initiative, which works to provide life-changing books and literacy education to children who need it most. Armstrong is also a fervent music-lover, having grown up as a chorister, and is using his show on Classic FM to spread the joy of classical music. He shares his advice for getting out of creative ruts: 'You've got to be on the balls of your feet. Remember what it's like falling in love – with a book or a piece of music or a band. All those times you did that, you were doing it because you were out there, ready to be receptive to new ideas.' Listen to the full episode – where the pair cover nicknames, why high altitude makes you cry and the importance of the right kind of tea – to get all of Alexander Armstrong's bright ideas for how every day can be a little happier. For more tips, life hacks, insights and stories, listen to Bright Ideas with Anita Rani on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Top Gear star James May spotted filming new TV show this week
James May has been spotted filming a new TV show with Alexander Armstrong. The presenter is known for starring alongside Oxfordshire farmer Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond on BBC's Top Gear and The Grand Tour on Prime Video for the past two decades. Alexander Armstrong, who lives on the Oxfordshire border, is the host of the BBC One game show Pointless as well as a comedian, singer and actor. The pair were spotted filming a new pub TV show at The Famous Hare & Hounds in Hebden Bridge. READ MORE: Opening announcement for Cotswolds Designer Outlet this year The celebrity pair inside the watering hole. (Image: The Famous Hare & Hounds) Posting several photographs on social media of the celebrity pair with drinks and food in the venue, the pub said: "Big, big news! "We can finally reveal filming has officially taken place tonight at the famous Hare & Hounds, Hebden Bridge for the upcoming BBC programme 'Perfect Pub Walks'. "[This is] hosted by the brilliant Alexander Armstrong with special guest James May who was a real champ. "The atmosphere was absolutely electric, and while the stars and crew were fantastic, it was our incredible locals and customers who truly stole the show. "Alexander and James even took on our legendary 42oz mixed grill challenge made famous by Beard Meats Food and Leah Shutkever. READ MORE: Jeremy Clarkson wants Top Gear to return for BBC comeback Readers can subscribe for just £5 for 5 months in this flash sale — Oxford Mail (@TheOxfordMail) April 29, 2025 "They also sank several pints of Timothy Taylor's Landlord pints, both commenting on the epic flavour. "The Famous Hare & Hounds Hebden Bridge was specially selected out of all the pubs in the area to host this amazing evening of filming. "What an honour! Keep your eyes peeled as the episode will air this autumn or winter. "A huge thank you to everyone involved and to all our amazing guests who made this such an unforgettable night."
Daily Mirror
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
ITV Who Wants To Be A Millionaire announces return date after fans left 'fuming'
Fans of the ITV game show has just been given a major update ITV has officially announced the return date for the iconic late-night quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The series, which first hit screens in 1998, concluded its 40th series on March 23 this year after beginning on January 26. The show's loyal followers were informed via their official Instagram account: "That's it for tonight and the current series! Join us again, later in the year for more #WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire... Good night!" The announcement left many fans surprised to discover that the 40th series had been divided into two parts, with the second half set to grace our screens in just a few weeks. Viewers can expect the quiz to return to ITV1 on Sunday, May 4, at 8pm, with Jeremy Clarkson hosting once again after he took over from Chris Tarrant in 2018. After a production pause in 2014, the rebooted show swung back into action four years later and has been a fixture on our TVs ever since. Over 27 years, the show has aired 690 episodes. This news follows a recent celebrity special of the show, which aired at the end of March and caused quite a stir among viewers due to a noticeable mistake. BBC Pointless host Alexander Armstrong featured in this episode, trying his luck at answering questions to raise funds for a charitable cause, reports the Express. At the beginning of the programme, Jeremy, aged 64, went over the game rules and mentioned that there was no audience present. This particular episode originated from 2021, when COVID-19 restrictions were still affecting live events during the global health crisis. He explained to the host: "You've got four lifelines. You've got 50/50, two Phone a Friends, no Ask the Audience because there isn't one, and then Ask the Host, which is when, if you're in real trouble, you ask me. Is that all clear?" However, as the game kicked off, an applause track was heard, causing viewers at home to be thoroughly puzzled. Baffled viewers rushed to X – previously known as Twitter – to voice their confusion. One user queried: "Is there a clapping machine off camera or is the clapping added when the show is edited later?" Another viewer criticising the production commented: "I guess the clapping must be put on afterwards which is pretty lousy. Not heard canned laughter since Scooby-Doo!" Meanwhile, another user probed: "Who's doing all the clapping???" And yet another tweeter expressed their bewilderment, writing: "Watching Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionare right now. Jeremy Clarkson announced that there are 2 'phone a friend' lives and no 'ask the audience' because there is no audience. So who on earth is applauding every time Alexander Armstrong gets a correct answer?" Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is available to watch on ITVX.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
The mayor who closed the only road in town – to repair his manor
'It is quite remarkable how quickly the situation in Fordwich has changed since news of our road closure started making national headlines,' says Alexander Armstrong. The 66-year-old garden designer – and chair of Fordwich Friendly Garden Society – is talking about the news that the road through the centre of 'The Smallest Town in Britain' (four miles north east of Canterbury) is about to be closed so that the town mayor's 17th century, Grade II listed Manor House can be repaired. 'Before we hit the headlines, our road was going to be closed for six months,' he says. 'Within 24 hours of the press arriving in the town, it turned out the work could be completed in half that time. They've magically reduced the road closure to three months.' He shakes his head. 'Since negotiations have been going on between the mayor and the council for the past year, I'm not sure why this compromise couldn't have been made sooner.' Admittedly, the headlines did make for fun reading. 'Only road through UK's smallest town shut to repair mayor's £1m home' was how The Telegraph reported the story. The Sun went a step further: 'ROAD RAGE We live in UK's smallest town where our only road is shut for 6 MONTHS because 'selfish' mayor needs £1m house repairs'. Predictions of traffic mayhem throughout the entirety of summer were posited, and quickly, the narrative of a wealthy mayor inconveniencing the locals for his own vain whims started to take shape. (No matter that the Manor House is listed and can only be repaired by craftspeople practising time-consuming and labour-intensive trades.) With a population of just 381, Fordwich is a picture postcard of an English market town on the banks of the River Stour. The well-pruned wisteria twisting its way up the walls of the old post office is just coming into bud, and the weathervane atop the medieval oast house pivots lazily in the spring sunshine. But Mr Armstong and his wife, Joyce (a retired psychotherapist) are among very few pedestrians because Fordwich is 'dominated by traffic'. 'Six thousand cars a day come through here,' says Joyce Armstrong, 'because our narrow high street forms part of the outer ring road around Canterbury. It's a rat run.' The High Street and King Street can take cars travelling in either direction, but only just. The area around the Manor House has double yellow lines for exactly this reason, but further along the streets where there's more space, drivers trying to navigate a Canterbury commute also have to contend with parked cars. The Manor House inhabited by Mayor Barney Riggs (a policy advisor for the government) and his wife is located on a 90-degree bend in the road in the centre of the town. He bought it for £865,000 in 2018 and it's now estimated to be worth £1 million, although a flat-capped local, wishing to be known only as 'Jim', chuckles that 'I wouldn't want to shell out that kind of money for a house with all this traffic rattling the walls and windows all day'. I meet Jim outside the Manor House's pretty, primrose lime and wattle plaster, which overhangs a recently extended pavement installed after the building had been repeatedly hit by passing lorries. 'There are signs ahead of the little bridge you cross to come into Fordwich, warning HGV drivers the road isn't suitable for them, but they pay it no heed,' says Jim. Behind him, a van is forced to back up into the road opposite the corner to allow a long line of cars to pass. The drone of engines – punctuated by the crunch of reverse gears locking in – is relentless. 'We have endless prangs,' he says. 'But we've not had a fatality since 1933, when a police sergeant walked out in front of a coach. I guess it was so quiet then it didn't even occur to him to look.' Down by the Stour a few minutes earlier, I'd enjoyed the merry song of chaffinches and blackbirds with retired accountant John Hayley and his wife Joanna, who point out that 'medieval towns were designed for horses, not cars, and our cars keep on getting bigger. Standard parking spaces in this country are 1.8 metres and most SUVs are now two metres.' He says that 'there were discussions about putting in temporary traffic lights around the works on the Manor House. But Kent County Council decided drivers couldn't be trusted to follow them sensibly. Somebody driving a large vehicle would ignore the signs and get stuck, causing congestion to build up for ages.' Jim, a retired advertising executive, says that older people like him, the Armstrongs and the Hayleys, make up the bulk of the town's population. 'There aren't many families,' he says. 'Often, it's people coming up to retirement whose parents have died and left them a bit of cash.' He was first drawn to visit Fordwich in 1972. 'Egon Ronay had recommended The George & Dragon pub so I brought out some of the girls from the office in Canterbury for a day out,' he says. 'We had a cup of coffee, and it was 35 pence each! This was just after decimalisation, so I remember thinking: seven shillings for a cup of coffee! Bloody dear!' Now, he tells me the same pub 'will serve you a good £20-a-head job'. Gourmet visitors prefer the Michelin-starred Fordwich Arms, opposite the 16th-century town hall (where visitors can see Fordwich's ducking stool for 'termagant wives'). 'The Fordwich has an £85 per head tasting menu,' says Jim. 'I amuse myself by reading reviews on Tripadvisor from people coming 200 miles for the 'superb bread and dripping',' he says. However, he has sympathy for both the town's hostelries because, while the road is closed, 'visitors will have to travel up to an extra four to seven miles to reach us,' using the already congested A28. Although staff in the George & Dragon have been asked not to speak to the press, they make faces to show me what they think of the closures while 67-year-old John Williams, sinking a lunchtime pint while his black labrador, Duncan snoozes at his feet, tells me 'the mayor won't get elected again!' Riggs politely declined to be interviewed when I rang his ring doorbell beside the blue plaque on the wall of his house commemorating former resident British artist (and World War I secret service agent) Alfred Palmer. But opinion was divided among his neighbours living in the two-bedroom terraces opposite (the last of which sold for £230,000 in 2018). Katie Boulding – a teaching assistant – rents one of the properties with her school-age daughter, Amelie. As a woman 'with a busy job and childcare responsibilities and without the kind of money the mayor has', she's worried about the time and money it will cost her to drive an extra eight miles a day to get around the road closure. 'It's not such an issue for the older, retired people in the town who have a slower pace of life. 'I don't think the mayor has handled this with any empathy,' says Boulding. 'We didn't get a knock on the door and a friendly conversation with the man who lives - what? – 10 metres across the street. We just got a letter through the door thanking us for our cooperation. Somebody has to ask you to cooperate before thanking you for it, don't they? I just feel that if there had been a little more engagement, it would have been easier to stomach. At the moment, it feels like he's flexing his status and money.' Boulding also feels that 'comments criticising the way this has been done on the local residents group seem to get deleted. I'm not talking about abusive, unkind comments. I'm talking about reasonable and articulate objections. I genuinely don't want to come across as somebody being unkind. But I saw somebody posting on the town group that 'this should bring the community together' and I thought: that is the sentiment that should have come from the mayor.' She says if he wants to make amends, Mr Riggs should consider 'using the road closure as an opportunity to throw a little street party. If he put his hand in his pocket for some sausage rolls and a few bottles of prosecco, the mood might change.' But Boulding's cheerful Geordie neighbour, Robert Lindsay, defends the 'very friendly, funny' mayor to the hilt. 'The Manor House is a beautiful, prestigious, historic building and we can't just let it crumble.' He points out that the house features in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's classic 1944 film, A Canterbury Tale, 'because they wanted to show England at its most picturesque.' He believes the mayor is performing 'an act of public service, at his own expense, to preserve our heritage. It's not cheap, paying the kind of specialist craftsmen you're required to use on a listed building. I also believe the poor fella is now shelling out extra to halve the time the work will take. I'm really shocked at the way people are talking about him behind his back. He's got no choice but to fix the house and it would cause far more delays – and pose a real danger – if it fell into the street. He can't do right for doing wrong!' Lindsay tells me that townsfolk living further up the street 'are looking forward to being able to get their front windows painted, because their houses are so close to the road that it's usually impossible to get anything done with all the traffic whizzing past.' While inconvenienced by the temporary detours to their gym and GP surgery, the Armstrongs also tell me they're keen to use the closure to get the town cleaned up. 'Even during brief road closures, you'll see people rushing out to pick up litter that it would be too dangerous to collect at any other time,' says Alexander. 'It'll feel like our own little lockdown!' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
12-04-2025
- Climate
- Telegraph
The mayor who closed the only road in town – to repair his manor
'It is quite remarkable how quickly the situation in Fordwich has changed since news of our road closure started making national headlines,' says Alexander Armstrong. The 66-year-old garden designer – and chair of Fordwich Friendly Garden Society – is talking about the news that the road through the centre of 'The Smallest Town in Britain' (four miles north east of Canterbury) is about to be closed so that the town mayor's 17th century, Grade II listed Manor House can be repaired. 'Before we hit the headlines, our road was going to be closed forsix months,' he says. 'Within 24 hours of the press arriving in the town, it turned out the work could be completed in half that time. They've magically reduced the road closure to three months.' He shakes his head. 'Since negotiations have been going on between the mayor and the council for the past year, I'm not sure why this compromise couldn't have been made sooner.' Admittedly, the headlines did make for fun reading. 'Only road through UK's smallest town shut to repair mayor's £1m home' was how The Telegraph reported the story. The Sun went a step further: 'ROAD RAGE We live in UK's smallest town where our only road is shut for 6 MONTHS because 'selfish' mayor needs £1m house repairs'. Predictions of traffic mayhem throughout the entirety of summer were posited, and quickly, the narrative of a wealthy mayor inconveniencing the locals for his own vain whims started to take shape. (No matter that the Manor House is listed and can only be repaired by craftspeople practising time-consuming and labour-intensive trades.) With a population of just 381, Fordwich is a picture postcard of an English market town on the banks of the River Stour. The well-pruned wisteria twisting its way up the walls of the old post office is just coming into bud, and the weathervane atop the medieval oast house pivots lazily in the spring sunshine. But Mr Armstong and his wife, Joyce (a retired psychotherapist) are among very few pedestrians because Fordwich is 'dominated by traffic'. 'Six thousand cars a day come through here,' says Joyce Armstrong, 'because our narrow high street forms part of the outer ring road around Canterbury. It's a rat run.' The High Street and King Street can take cars travelling in either direction, but only just. The area around the Manor House has double yellow lines for exactly this reason, but further along the streets where there's more space, drivers trying to navigate a Canterbury commute also have to contend with parked cars. The Manor House inhabited by Mayor Barney Riggs (a policy advisor for the government) and his wife is located on a 90-degree bend in the road in the centre of the town. He bought it for £865,000 in 2018 and it's now estimated to be worth £1 million, although a flat-capped local, wishing to be known only as 'Jim', chuckles that 'I wouldn't want to shell out that kind of money for a house with all this traffic rattling the walls and windows all day'. I meet Jim outside the Manor House's pretty, primrose lime and wattle plaster, which overhangs a recently extended pavement installed after the building had been repeatedly hit by passing lorries. 'There are signs ahead of the little bridge you cross to come into Fordwich, warning HGV drivers the road isn't suitable for them, but they pay it no heed,' says Jim. Behind him, a van is forced to back up into the road opposite the corner to allow a long line of cars to pass. The drone of engines – punctuated by the crunch of reverse gears locking in – is relentless. 'We have endless prangs,' he says. 'But we've not had a fatality since 1933, when a police sergeant walked out in front of a coach. I guess it was so quiet then it didn't even occur to him to look.' Down by the Stour a few minutes earlier, I'd enjoyed the merry song of chaffinches and blackbirds with retired accountant John Hayley and his wife Joanna, who point out that 'medieval towns were designed for horses, not cars, and our cars keep on getting bigger. Standard parking spaces in this country are 1.8 metres and most SUVs are now two metres.' He says that 'there were discussions about putting in temporary traffic lights around the works on the Manor House. But Kent County Council decided drivers couldn't be trusted to follow them sensibly. Somebody driving a large vehicle would ignore the signs and get stuck, causing congestion to build up for ages.' Jim, a retired advertising executive, says that older people like him, the Armstrongs and the Hayleys, make up the bulk of the town's population. 'There aren't many families,' he says. 'Often, it's people coming up to retirement whose parents have died and left them a bit of cash.' He was first drawn to visit Fordwich in 1972. 'Egon Ronay had recommended The George & Dragon pub so I brought out some of the girls from the office in Canterbury for a day out,' he says. 'We had a cup of coffee, and it was 35 pence each! This was just after decimalisation, so I remember thinking: seven shillings for a cup of coffee! Bloody dear!' Now, he tells me the same pub 'will serve you a good £20-a-head job'. Gourmet visitors prefer the Michelin-starred Fordwich Arms, opposite the 16th-century town hall (where visitors can see Fordwich's ducking stool for 'termagant wives'). 'The Fordwich has an £85 per head tasting menu,' says Jim. 'I amuse myself by reading reviews on Tripadvisor from people coming 200 miles for the 'superb bread and dripping',' he says. However, he has sympathy for both the town's hostelries because, while the road is closed, 'visitors will have to travel up to an extra four to seven miles to reach us,' using the already congested A28. Although staff in the George & Dragon have been asked not to speak to the press, they make faces to show me what they think of the closures while 67-year-old John Williams, sinking a lunchtime pint while his black labrador, Duncan snoozes at his feet, tells me 'the mayor won't get elected again!' Riggs politely declined to be interviewed when I rang his ring doorbell beside the blue plaque on the wall of his house commemorating former resident British artist (and World War I secret service agent) Alfred Palmer. But opinion was divided among his neighbours living in the two-bedroom terraces opposite (the last of which sold for £230,000 in 2018). Katie Boulding – a teaching assistant – rents one of the properties with her school-age daughter, Amelie. As a woman 'with a busy job and childcare responsibilities and without the kind of money the mayor has', she's worried about the time and money it will cost her to drive an extra eight miles a day to get around the road closure. 'It's not such an issue for the older, retired people in the town who have a slower pace of life. 'I don't think the mayor has handled this with any empathy,' says Boulding. 'We didn't get a knock on the door and a friendly conversation with the man who lives - what? – 10 metres across the street. We just got a letter through the door thanking us for our cooperation. Somebody has to ask you to cooperate before thanking you for it, don't they? I just feel that if there had been a little more engagement, it would have been easier to stomach. At the moment, it feels like he's flexing his status and money.' Boulding also feels that 'comments criticising the way this has been done on the local residents group seem to get deleted. I'm not talking about abusive, unkind comments. I'm talking about reasonable and articulate objections. I genuinely don't want to come across as somebody being unkind. But I saw somebody posting on the town group that 'this should bring the community together' and I thought: that is the sentiment that should have come from the mayor.' She says if he wants to make amends, Mr Riggs should consider 'using the road closure as an opportunity to throw a little street party. If he put his hand in his pocket for some sausage rolls and a few bottles of prosecco, the mood might change.' But Boulding's cheerful Geordie neighbour, Robert Lindsay, defends the 'very friendly, funny' mayor to the hilt. 'The Manor House is a beautiful, prestigious, historic building and we can't just let it crumble.' He points out that the house features in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's classic 1944 film, A Canterbury Tale, 'because they wanted to show England at its most picturesque.' He believes the mayor is performing 'an act of public service, at his own expense, to preserve our heritage. It's not cheap, paying the kind of specialist craftsmen you're required to use on a listed building. I also believe the poor fella is now shelling out extra to halve the time the work will take. I'm really shocked at the way people are talking about him behind his back. He's got no choice but to fix the house and it would cause far more delays – and pose a real danger – if it fell into the street. He can't do right for doing wrong!' Lindsay tells me that townsfolk living further up the street 'are looking forward to being able to get their front windows painted, because their houses are so close to the road that it's usually impossible to get anything done with all the traffic whizzing past.' While inconvenienced by the temporary detours to their gym and GP surgery, the Armstrongs also tell me they're keen to use the closure to get the town cleaned up. 'Even during brief road closures, you'll see people rushing out to pick up litter that it would be too dangerous to collect at any other time,' says Alexander. 'It'll feel like our own little lockdown!'
