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Wales Online
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
John Virgo gave Alex Higgins response when asked about working with Jim Davidson on Big Break
John Virgo gave Alex Higgins response when asked about working with Jim Davidson on Big Break John Virgo and Jim Davidson worked together for more than a decade on snooker-themed gameshow Big Break, which was one of the BBC's biggest hits of the 1990s Jim Davidson and John Virgo with a young Stephen Hendry on Big Break (Image: BBC ) John Virgo has admitted he didn't think joining forces with comedian Jim Davidson on Big Break would work. The popular snooker-themed gameshow, which ran on the BBC between 1991 and 2002, saw Conservative-supporting comic Davidson and Virgo - in his words, a 'dour northern socialist' - thrown together. With Davidson having little knowledge of snooker, there were obvious question marks about the show's shelf life. Virgo had some early doubts himself but soaring viewing figures ensured it ran for more than a decade. The 1979 UK Championship winner, who was a close friend of snooker hell-raiser Alex Higgins, has fond memories of working with Davidson. 'I always remember, Jim had a bit of a reputation in the business for being hard work,' recalled Virgo, who was renowned for his 'pot as many balls as you can' and 'goodnight JV' catchphrases on Big Break. 'A few people asked me, 'How are you getting on working with Jim Davidson?' I said, 'He doesn't bother me, I worked with Higgins for 20 years!' I wasn't daunted by working with Jim. Article continues below 'It's a funny thing about life. He's your crafty Conservative comedian and I'm your dour northern socialist. How do you come up with that? But obviously the chemistry worked. The pair had undeniable chemistry (Image: BBC ) 'Although Jim didn't know much about snooker, what a funny man and a very generous man to work with. We really got on well.' The show came at the right time for Virgo, whose professional career was winding down. He said: 'The '79 UK [Championship] was the highlight of mine. I'd got to a few semi-finals but you could see I was slightly on the wane. 'I still had the commentary and I still had exhibitions, where I'd do impersonations of other players, which was very popular. Then, all of a sudden, I get this phone call, 'Would you be interested in doing this TV show, a quiz show with snooker, with his this comedian, Jim Davidson'. 'In all honesty, after doing the first couple of shows, I was thinking, 'I don't see how this works'. Anyway, we did eight. 'We took over the slot from A Question of Sport on a Tuesday night [before Big Break moved to its early Saturday evening slot] and the viewing figures were better! That shows you the popularity of snooker at the time. 'Then they wanted us to go back into the studio to do another 18! We ran for 10 years and peaked at nearly 14million viewers. It was remarkable.' Virgo's relationship with Davidson didn't end when the show was cancelled, with the pair performing in pantomime together. Article continues below 'It was certainly a different way of life for me, from being a snooker player to getting into show business,' reflected Virgo. 'I'd previously done panto with Timmy Mallet. He'd chase me off the stage trying to hit me with his mallet. I was thinking, 'what am I doing here!?' 'I did another at the Ashcroft Theatre [in Croydon] and Jim came to watch with his wife and kids. The next year, he asked me to do pantomime with him.' Virgo is currently commentating for the BBC at the World Championship in Sheffield.
The Independent
22-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
No, Mr Gove, Keir Starmer is not a Tory in disguise
Is Keir Starmer a Tory?', The Spectator asked this week. Its editor, Michael Gove, gave Starmer 'two cheers' for his shift to the right, saying most Tories would be 'gasping in admiration' if they could throw off their partisan blinkers. Gove also joked that the prime minister clearly decided to impress the Conservative-supporting magazine as soon as he became its editor. However, for some Labour MPs, including ministers, Starmer's rightward tilt is no joke. They judge correctly that cuts to welfare, overseas aid and bureaucracy and tough rhetoric on immigration are designed to appeal to working-class voters in the red wall tempted by Nigel Farage's Reform UK. I think the rightward lurch has been a little overstated. True, Starmer is adopting more Tory policies than Tony Blair ever did. Yet Starmer's government has increased public spending by £70bn, raised taxes by £40bn, enhanced workers' and renters' rights, set up state-owned GB Energy, and is taking the railways back into public ownership. That hardly makes him a Tory. 'We are a soft-left government with right-wing rhetoric,' one senior Labour figure told me. On welfare, Starmer is under fire from the left, who want no cuts, and the right, as the Tories claim he has not gone far enough. He is bang in the middle, in a piece of triangulation Blair would approve of, and probably where most voters are. To me, Starmer looks like a leader energised and emboldened by his daunting challenges at home and abroad. His handling of Donald Trump and Ukraine has given him more confidence on the domestic front. When he makes the 'moral case' to reduce the spiralling welfare bill, it is not a soundbite; he really believes it and wants to ensure young people escape a life on benefits. The PM once declared: 'There is no such thing as Starmerism and there never will be.' He is interested in 'what works' rather than left/right labels. Yet Starmerism is now being moulded in the heat of his current battles. Morgan McSweeney, the architect of Labour's remarkable election victory and now Starmer's chief of staff, has persuaded his boss the government needs to act as 'insurgents' and 'disruptors' to head off the populists' threat. It was always going to be hard to preserve the wide voter coalition McSweeney assembled last year. There is now growing tension inside Labour over how to do so, and which voters to prioritise. The debate has been heightened by the £5bn cuts to disability and incapacity benefits and the further cuts to come in Rachel Reeves's spring statement on Wednesday. I'm told some Downing Street policy advisers are uneasy about the rightish spin put on their proposals, while some senior civil servants worry the political messaging makes it harder to implement the government's strategy. They point to a disconnect between hostile rhetoric on immigration and closer EU links and the government's number one priority to boost economic growth. Labour's next internal battle may be over climate change. Some in No 10 want to dilute net zero targets and funding and move Ed Miliband from his post as energy secretary in the next cabinet reshuffle. The chances of such a dilution increased when Kemi Badenoch claimed it is 'impossible' to hit the UK's 2025 net zero target, ending the 40-year cross-party consensus on the issue. Yet a retreat from the target, and focusing instead on climate adaptation and energy security, would be more expensive than sticking to it. Warning to Starmer: Miliband has the highest favourability rating of any cabinet minister among Labour Party members, according to a new survey. And more members (49 per cent) think Labour is heading in the wrong direction than the right one (40 per cent). Keeping Miliband in his current job sends a reassuring signal to green voters. McSweeney's internal critics point to polling by More in Common for UCL's Policy Lab, which suggests Labour could lose two in five of its 2024 voters to the Liberal Democrats or Greens if it dropped progressive policies – for example, slowing action on climate change. A 1.5 per cent swing from Labour to the Lib Dems could hand 80 Labour-held seats to the Tories. Starmer's shift could also stall Labour's revival in Scotland and its hopes of ousting the SNP from power in next year's Scottish parliament elections. In contrast, Labour's 'soft populist' appeal to Reform-inclined voters would net fewer votes, the polling suggests. Playing the 'insurgent' and hints of admiration of Trump's approach to governing risk alienating progressive voters. The only UK voters who want to smash up the state are those already committed to Reform. Labour can't be blamed for trying to repeat last year's victory. But the next election will be different. Last year, people wanted to boot the Tories out; next time, they will pass judgement on Labour so there will surely be less anti-Tory (or anti-Reform) tactical voting. There's a danger that, in trying to protect its right flank, Labour leaves its left one exposed.
