Latest news with #quizshow
The Sun
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
The Chase airs ‘worst final ever' as player is caught in 20 SECONDS – but could you get the right answers in time?
THE Chase has aired its 'worst final ever' which saw a singular player caught in just twenty seconds. It took The Beast quizzer Mark Labbett just five questions to knock out player Nicola but could you have answered all five in just twenty seconds? 3 3 During the episode, three of the four players found themselves knocked out by The Beast. Bradley Walsh watched on as the players were whittled off one-by-one. In the end, only Nicola remained to take on the final chase but it was clear from the get-go she was out of her depth. Nicola getting to the final chase had already beaten the odds after she actually performed the worst in her cash builder round. She managed to accumulate just £2,000 in comparison to Casey's £5k and Ian's £8,000. However, both were eliminated before making it to the end. Determined to beat Mark, Nicola spent two minutes answering general knowledge questions but only managed to get a total of four right. This left her with a grand total of five including her one point head start. Admitting she had a "feeling she'd be caught", she was indeed thanks to Mark needing just twenty seconds to knock her out. Mark got all five questions right straight away - but would you have fared just as well? The Chase's Jenny Ryan gobsmacked as she wins Celebrity Catchphrase in record time Firstly, Bradley asked the star: "What type of fashion acceseroy is a trilby?" He answered correctly with "hat" before the star host moved onto the second question. Bradley asked him: "Eric 'Butterbean' Esch has 58 KOs in what sport?" The correct answer was boxing. For Mark's third question, he was asked: "Zodiac and Consul were brands by which carmaker?" Mark shot back quickly with the correct answer of "Ford" before Bradley asked him: "James Collinson was a member of which artistic brotherhood?" Whizzing through in just 15 seconds, Mark correctly identified the answer to be: "Pre-Raphelite." His final question to catch hapless Nicola was: "'Frosch' is the German word for what amphibian?" Hardest Quiz Show Questions Would you know the answers to some of quizzing TV's hardest questions Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Earlier this year, fans were left outraged after what they described as the "worst" question in the show's history. Host Jeremy Clarkson asked: 'From the 2000 awards ceremony onwards, the Best Actress Oscar has never been won by a woman whose surname begins with which one of these letters?' The multiple choice answers were between G, K, M and W. In the end, and with the £32,000 safe, player Glen had to make a guess and went for G. It turned out to be correct as Nicole Kidman, Frances McDormand and Kate Winslet are among the stars who have won the Best Actress gong since 2000. The 1% Club - Viewers of Lee Mack's popular ITV show were left dumbfounded by a question that also left the players perplexed. The query went as follows: "Edna's birthday is on the 6th of April and Jen's birthday falls on the 15th of October, therefore Amir's birthday must be the 'X' of January." It turns out the conundrum links the numbers with its position in the sentence, so 6th is the sixth word and 15th is the fifteenth word. Therefore, Amir's birthday is January 24th, corresponding to the 24th word in the sentence. The Chase - The ITV daytime favourite left fans scratching their heads when it threw up one of the most bizarre questions to ever grace the programme. One of the questions asked the player: "Someone with a nightshade intolerance should avoid eating what?" The options were - sweetcorn, potatoes, carrots - with Steve selecting sweetcorn but the correct answer was potatoes. Claiming the title with more than one minute and forty seconds left on the clock, Mark affirmed: "Frog." Nicola's disaster performance led many viewers to quip that it was the show's "worst final ever". Commenting after the episode aired online, one viewer said: "I actually feel dumber from watching that episode [face palm emoji]." Another added: "That was the worst team I've ever seen." "Done in 20 seconds! Shocking" As someone else echoed: "Shocking final chase." 3
Daily Mail
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Hollywood star hosting 'new game show which has become a global success is set to come to ITV'
ITV is reportedly lining up a brand-new quiz show for its Saturday night schedule - and it's already a global hit. Titled The Floor, it has taken television by storm in more than 20 countries, with Hollywood actor Rob Lowe fronting the American edition. The UK will become the format's 25th stop when it launches next year, according to The Sun. Producers are staying tight-lipped about who will present the British version, but ITV bosses promise it will be a high-energy addition to their entertainment slate. 'The Floor, with its compelling gameplay, is an excellent addition to our roster of popular quiz shows across ITV and ITVX,' Katie Rawcliffe, the network's Director of Entertainment told the publication. DailyMail has approached ITV for further comment. Originally created in the Netherlands, The Floor pits 81 trivia enthusiasts against one another in head-to-head battles on a massive LED floor. Each of its 81 squares represents a unique category of knowledge, making every duel a test of both brains and nerve. The format has already proved a smash hit in countries such as Australia, Poland, and Spain, with recent launches in Estonia and Latvia further expanding its reach. Over in the US, it has enjoyed three successful seasons, with Rob's star power signalling the network's early faith in the concept. That gamble paid off as broadcaster Fox has now commissioned two additional seasons, securing the American edition through 2027. Rob rose to fame in the 1980s as part of the 'Brat Pack,' starring in films like The Outsiders and St. Elmo's Fire. He has since built a long career in TV, with notable roles in The West Wing and 9-1-1: Lone Star. More recently, Rob has been busy hosting the podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe, where he regularly welcomes A-list guests including Adam Scott, Jason Isaac, and Kristin Davis. In June, Rob shared vivid memories of his grandmother Mim's battle with breast cancer. The actor shared a close bond with his grandmother during his childhood, and has said his grandma's health fight became a pivotal experience that would shape his life and the way he approaches cancer awareness today. He told People: 'My memory of it is like it happened yesterday because of this sort of uproar it caused in our family. In those days, the odds were not good. I 100 percent remember our family feeling lost, wishing that there was more that could be done.' Rob affectionately refers to his grandmother as 'my beloved,' and recounts the profound impact her illness had on their family. As Mim's condition worsened, doctors told her to 'get her affairs in order' in a grim diagnosis that devastated the family. But just as it seemed there were no options left, Mim's fate took a dramatic turn when she was accepted into a clinical trial for breast cancer treatments. Rob also explained how the clinical trial changed everything for his grandmother, saying: 'There were multiple times where she had run out of options and just at that moment there was a clinical trial (that) changed the course of her cancer journey.' Mim's survival story became a beacon of hope for Rob and his family. The actor said: 'She survived and thrived longer than anyone with her type of cancer in those days.' He added Mim's success in the trial not only defied the odds but also paved the way for treatments that would later become standard care. Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and affects more than two MILLION women a year Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what causes it and how can it be treated? What is breast cancer? It comes from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts. When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding tissue it is called 'invasive'. Some people are diagnosed with 'carcinoma in situ', where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule. Most cases develop in those over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men, though this is rare. Staging indicates how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body. The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast-growing. High-grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated. What causes breast cancer? A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply 'out of control'. Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance, such as genetics. What are the symptoms of breast cancer? The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign. The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit. How is breast cancer diagnosed? Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammography, a special x-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumours. Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under a microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer. If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest X-ray. How is breast cancer treated? Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used. Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour. Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focused on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops them from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery. Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying. Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the 'female' hormone oestrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer. How successful is treatment? The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure. The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 71 means more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The Wheel contestant leaves BBC show with ZERO pounds after everyone fails to answer jackpot question in 'rare' result - but could you have guessed it right?
A contestant on The Wheel went home with zero pounds after every celebrity failed to guess a jackpot prize question on an episode of the BBC show. The popular programme sees members of the public try to win cash prizes by answering quiz questions in specific categories, with the help of a number of celebrity experts. As The Wheel spins, contestants hope they will land on the celebrity who has the right knowledge to help with their question. However, one episode has gone viral after a contestant walked away empty-handed leaving host Michael McIntyre stunned. The show started off smoothly, with each hopeful sailing through the rounds up until the end of the game. Could you have done better than these participants? Fans watched as contestant Jonathan took on a question for a prize of £52,000 with help from YouTube star Harry Pinero. He was asked: 'When fully grown, which of these species of shark is typically the largest? Great hammerhead shark, Great white shark, Tiger shark or Basking shark.' Unfortunately for Jonathan, Harry confessed he had 'no clue' but answered Hammerhead Shark - but the correct answer was a Basking Shark. Gillian was up next and faced a £26,000 question with Mark Wright. They were asked: 'Which country is the world's largest producer of coffee? Brazil, Colombia, India or Kenya.' While they were both drawn to Columbia, they were gutted to learn the right answer was in fact Brazil. Luckily for Gillian, she had another shot at cracking The Wheel, with comedian Katherine Ryan stepping in to help her with a £13,000 question. They were asked: 'Of these restaurants, which opened in the UK first? KFC, McDonald's, Domino's or Wagamamas.' Katherine, 42, admitted she hadn't been in the UK that many years to know for sure, but noted that McDonald's is long in business. Gillian agreed, sharing how she remembers having birthday parties there as a child. Have you guessed it? In a shock to them both, it was revealed KFC was the oldest restaurant chain from the list. While Gillian was devastated at the result, funnyman Michael, 49, called the episode a 'heartbreaker' and pointed out how it's 'rare' contestants leave the show empty-handed. Closing the show, he told viewers: 'We have no winner tonight, but thank you to all our experts. We'll see you next time - and hopefully we'll have a winner then - on The Wheel.' The Wheel airs on BBC One and is available now on iPlayer.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Axed Channel Nine quiz heads for reboot at rival network - but will host Eddie McGuire be back?
The long-running Eddie McGuire-hosted quiz show Millionaire Hot Set is headed for a reboot at Channel Ten. Originally airing on Nine, the network gave the fan favourite the axe in 2024 after 25,00 episodes. Now, producers of the reboot have announced a casting call with entries closing on September 15. And in an added twist, there is strong speculation among TV insiders that the new host will be a woman. According to a report in the Herald Sun on Sunday, network rumours have been 'bubbling for months' that plans are well underway to snare a female for the prized role. The producers, Curio Pictures - the makers of Shark Tank and the streaming drama The Artful Dodger - announced to hopefuls that the show will begin filming next month in Melbourne. 'Come and show off your smarts for the chance to win big,' the call for entries announced on the producer's website. 'We're casting energetic, confident trivia lovers from all walks of trivia obsession could be your ticket to serious cash – if you've got what it takes!' Channel Ten has not confirmed when the quiz reboot will air. 'We look forward to making the 2026 content announcements for both 10 and Paramount+, at our Upfront presentation in the next few months,' the network said in a statement. Fans were deeply disappointed when Nine announced it was putting Millionaire Hot Seat on hiatus back in 2023. The longest-running game show on Australian television has given away millions over the years to contestants. 'It's with great pride and joy and also sadness that I announce this morning Millionaire Hot Seat will go into hiatus at the end of January next year,' Eddie said on 3AW at the time. 'There will be a replacement show at 5pm on the Nine Network after we will hit our 25th anniversary as we go into 2024.' Eddie said he loved being the host of the show because he got to meet people from all walks of life across Australia 'I love the fact so many people would come and say, I sat there with my grandparents and we did these things together [watched the show].' 'There were four millionaires in total, two from each show… But so many people won $250,000 and $500,000,' Eddie added. Eddie said he loved being the host of the show because he got to meet people from all walks of life across Australia. 'What I love about it is I've seen multicultural Australia, people who have come out in their sexuality, coming on the show and feeling really free to do so. I've seen a snapshot of Australia,' he said. 'Every person's got a story, they've got battles in their life, they don't want a big handout, they just want a bit of sunshine come their way.' Who Wants to be a Millionaire switched to the Hot Seat version in 2009. Eddie had hosted Who Wants to be a Millionaire since its premiere in 1999. The show returned with reruns in January 2024 and was ultimately replaced by Tipping Point.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Alison Spittle: ‘I'm treated more like a human being now I've lost weight'
Alison Spittle is so competitive, she's had to apologise to people after board games. It's one of her worst traits, but she's also 'kind of proud of it' and knows that 'if you're not competitive, you don't win as much'. When she won the trophy on quiz show Pointless Celebrities , her family took pictures of her with it 'like it was the Sam Maguire'. An official BBC clip shows Spittle explaining she's a superfan, then screaming as one of her early-round answers is revealed to be pointless (the best outcome). Her elation is pure. But the episode, which aired in January, was filmed two years earlier, and Spittle now feels deeply protective of the person she was then, which is to say the same person, only 'significantly fatter'. READ MORE 'When Pointless came out, I watched it with people who were like: 'Oh my god, you are half the size you were then, look at you there.' And I'm looking at myself and I'm thinking, 'That was the happiest day of my life.'' What she regretted about her appearance on the show was that she and fellow comedian Fern Brady didn't win the elusive charity jackpot, not her size. Now the feelings elicited by this encounter with her past self are at the crux of Spittle's new stand-up show, BIG, which comes to the Dublin Fringe Festival in September after its current, month-long run in Edinburgh. 'I really don't like the idea of denouncing myself,' she says. 'I liked the person I was. I did, and I know I f**king did, and that's the annoying thing about losing weight. You're expected to denounce the person you were.' Being a 'public fat person' has taught her that there are others who will do the denouncing for her anyway and she's sad that poster rules at the Edinburgh fringe mean she couldn't use her original title: Fat Bitch. Alison Spittle was eight when her family settled in Ballymore, Co Westmeath. Photograph: Karla Gowlett 'If I have a bad interaction with a stranger, there's always a 'fat bitch' in it, and sometimes I see it as a trophy. Like, 'You've resorted to that, I've won'.' Whenever she went on television, the online comments would either be women – mostly thin women – declaring 'go girl, you're an inspiration', or they would be men harassing her by demanding to know what she was putting on her bread and accusing her of glorifying obesity simply by being on TV. 'When I got messages like that I would wake up over a toaster and be like, 'Little do they know, the more they attack, the bigger I become'.' In the show, she talks about how she started 'roaring and shouting' at one man who called her a fat bitch on a train, embarrassing him in front of other passengers. He hadn't been anticipating a confrontation. 'He thought he could just dismiss me with 'fat bitch',' she says. ''Fat bitch' is like 'goodbye' for a lot of people.' The worst part about losing weight is noticing how strangers are nicer to her: 'People treat me more like a human being now, which is messed up.' A lot of thin people who have a go at me about being fat, they think they're better than me She never wanted to change for the benefit of 'a**holes' who would only afford her dignity if she was a certain weight. 'People would keep telling me I was not conventionally attractive, and, like, it wasn't an interest of mine to be conventionally attractive. So that was kind of my process. My process? I don't know, I've been fat since I was eight years old.' She hung on to an 'element of defiance', she thinks, in order to reject the validation of the sexist, classist comedy culture she came of age in – one in which women were there to laugh, not make others laugh. 'That's what I loved about being on telly. Men would get angry with me because they weren't being titillated. Their erection wasn't being catered for on mainstream TV.' Recently she was crying on the couch to a fat female friend about the emotional fallout of weight loss. 'She goes to me, 'I hate to break it to you, Alison, but you're still fat'. And I said, 'Thank you'. I was delighted.' But she has lost a lot – with the aid of Mounjaro injections – since the trigger of a health crisis. She contracted cellulitis, which led to septicaemia, hospitalising her. 'Ireland's too small a country to have a women's weekly gossip magazine.' Photograph: Karla Gowlett 'The doctors were like, 'You do have to lose weight now'. And when you're attached to a drip and you're not able to move for weeks, you're like, 'Okay, fair enough, yeah'.' Our interview takes place over a pot of late-afternoon tea in the top-floor bar of the Aloft hotel in Dublin 8. It's her first caffeine on a day that has so far involved a missed flight, rebooking drama and two podcast recordings and will end with a gig at Iveagh Gardens. 'It's been a mad one, a mad one!' She's snacking on popcorn – 'which is funny' – but only because she's hungry. Before, her eating would go beyond hunger, beyond comfort; she would eat until she was uncomfortable. 'I would eat until I couldn't feel anything any more, because I didn't like feeling the way I felt about stuff, so the feeling of being overly full overtook everything else. It was like a comfort blanket, an anxiety blanket.' [ Alison Spittle's Spotify playlist: 'I love Kanye. He's an idiot, but I'm overwhelmed by his talent' Opens in new window ] Mounjaro has suppressed her appetite, meaning food is just fuel now, and she does sometimes miss the dopamine aspect. 'It's like doing your laundry, you're not eating for pleasure any more.' She has no time for celebrities who 'suddenly found willpower' just as medicines such as Ozempic and Mounjaro came to the fore. 'They go, 'Oh, it's the power of walking'. You're on the jabs, just say you're on the jabs,' she says. 'I tried losing weight without the jabs and couldn't do it, so I'm on the jabs, and if you are the same, you shouldn't feel ashamed. 'This whole idea of attaching morality to the size of your body absolutely disgusts me and now the idea of morality attached to the way you lose weight as well, it makes me so, so angry.' She knows she has a 'full-on addiction to food', and it's still there, unfixed, even if the self-injections are preventing her from acting upon it, but she had to sort her health out before it got any worse, she says, and she's scathing about people who insist weight should be lost the 'natural' way. 'They're just telling a fat person they should be in pain as punishment for being fat in the first place. Why do they want that off a person? It's very Calvinist or something. It's very Opus Dei, like whipping yourself on the back. I'm like, no, I'm not going to do that for you. I don't you owe you pain.' BIG is at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, September 16th-20th, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival. Photograph: Karla Gowlett It's not hard to understand why Spittle was compelled to devote a show to this subject yet is wary of the personal risk it carries. 'It is very vulnerable putting your wares on display and saying, 'Consume this, review this!' I'm very scared about that aspect,' she says. 'Even when I'm talking to you, I can feel myself getting animated. I can feel myself get emotional about stuff, and that's only with us chatting.' There are, she stresses, 'loads of jokes' in the show. Our conversation is joyously soundtracked by the bar's penchant for Noughties classics. Identifying them – which music fan and trivia-master Spittle can do within seconds – becomes her occasional side-quest as she tries to explain how she feels. Her sense is that stand-up is the 'one and only medium' where she can truly do that. People mistake her choice of 'loud' clothes for confidence, but she doesn't feel confident most of the time; she just likes colour. With stand-up, that's when she's at her most powerful. She has the microphone, she has the control. 'I can never get across how I feel about stuff, properly, unless it's through stand-up.' It would be mad to say I'm happy with my life, because I don't think anybody is happy with their life She has 'built a whole career', she tells me, out of being the funny friend. Born in London in June 1989, Spittle moved around a lot when she was kid, including a nine-month spell in Germany, as her father, a builder, sought work. It meant she was never the 'established friend' in a friend group, which prompted the discovery that making people laugh was the quickest way to befriend them. 'A lot of thin people who have a go at me about being fat, they think they're better than me, but the thing is I had to develop a personality when I was younger. 'They're f**ked! They have absolutely nothing now. And I feel sorry for them, because there's going to be so many fat people getting thinner, they won't know what to do with themselves.' She was eight when her family – she has four siblings – settled in Ballymore, Co Westmeath, where there was 'a definite pecking order' on her council estate. Being 'fat and eccentric' was her way of removing herself from it. To be 'valuable', she became 'the nice one, the people-pleaser'. She felt she didn't have the option of any other identity. [ 'My motto for life is, be sound' Opens in new window ] She 'fecked up' her Leaving Cert, but this turned out to be serendipitous. During a media course at Ballyfermot College she did work experience at Athlone-based iRadio, where comedian Bernard O'Shea was DJing. He told her she should try stand-up and booked her a gig, giving her two weeks to prepare. 'He said do your funniest joke at the start, so people trust you, and do your second-funniest joke at the end, so that's what I did, and I loved it. I had this massive rush coming off stage. I had so much adrenaline, I felt like I was in love.' 'So I moved to Dublin then, and ... Aw, I love this song! Sorry. It's Nelly Furtado, Turn Off the Light!' In Dublin, not far from the Noughties-loving bar where we meet, Spittle rented a box room for a cheap rent from a non-gouging landlord, making it possible for her to live in the city while she performed stand-up and wrote plays. After encouragement from a producer who saw her at the International Bar, she and her boyfriend, Simon Mulholland, wrote a script for what became Nowhere Fast , a sitcom that aired for one season on RTÉ in 2017. 'I was a baba. A little baba. I had people coming up saying, 'Oh my god, you're making this and you're this age'. When you're young, you don't realise that you're young. Nobody's going to say that to me now!' In 2018 she and Mulholland moved to London, from where she has developed her stand-up career and scratched her old radio itch through podcasting. A BBC-commissioned podcast, Wheel of Misfortune – she presented it first with 'best pal' Brady, then with 'icon' Kerry Katona – means people in the UK sometimes recognise her when they hear her voice. It's over now, but she has a new one called Magazine Party, where she and co-host Poppy Hillstead dissect the wild stories contained in That's Life!-style magazines and compile their own 'Women's Bleakly'. 'Ireland's too small a country to have a women's weekly gossip magazine. You'd read a story that goes, 'I slept with the ghost of my husband,' and you'd be like, 'That's Mary from down the road, I knew that'.' [ Alison Spittle's Christmas: I'll explode if I get another bath bomb Opens in new window ] She would 'totally love' to emulate Brady and star in a series of Channel 4's comedy gameshow Taskmaster – 'I would kick a child to get on Taskmaster' – but Pointless Celebrities hasn't been the only TV outlet for her competitive spirit. She also flew to Glasgow to film five episodes of Richard Osman's House of Games in one day. 'I fell down the stairs at one point, out of excitement, and made my shin bleed. We had to pause filming for 10 minutes while we found another pair of tights for me.' Swooning reviews for BIG have since poured in, but as we speak she's still a week away from the start of Edinburgh and so conscious of her desire to do her show justice, she's waking up every morning with a pain in her chest telling her to get out her Post-it notes and work on finessing it. [ Women in comedy: 'We're not allowed to be okay... It has to be good' Opens in new window ] 'My problem is structure. I have several bits of the puzzle that I'm still working out now, and I'm moving house as well, so it's ... Dido, Thank You.' We listen to the mildly depressive first verse of the singer's 2000 hit. 'Very chill. Very pre-September 11th, an innocent time,' is her verdict. She wasn't 'a learned scholar of the craft' of stand-up. Her approach used to be 'just be as funny as possible with what you can remember'. Being around other comedians, and their love for the art of comedy, has inspired her to distil what she wants to say into a narrative and hone her onstage persona. 'My persona is I am becoming less of a people-pleaser, and I think I need to become even less people-pleasey, because it doesn't do my comedy any favours. Likeability can only get you so far.' I compliment her on a photo shoot for BIG in which her head emerges from a triangular cloud of multicoloured netting. She made it herself by ripping apart shower puffs and attaching them to a bridal petticoat using a stapler and hot glue. 'There is a part of me that just wishes everyone was like a floating head,' she says. She sings along to Kids by MGMT as she checks what time she's meant to be at Iveagh Gardens, then we talk more about her show – her walk-on playlist will be entirely women artists who have been labelled fat – before leaving the bar. The hotel wasn't open in her Dublin 8 days, though as we look down Mill Street, she gets a nostalgic thrill when she sees one stretch of wall is still home to the painted outline of a bear asking for a hug. 'It would be mad to say I'm happy with my life, because I don't think anybody is happy with their life,' she had said in the bar. 'But I really like the turns my life has taken. I couldn't really imagine it happening before.' Alison Spittle's show BIG is at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, September 16th-20th, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2025. Details at .
