Showbiz Newswrap
Showbiz 5: Chris Rea’s Mini, Charlie Lawson’s freezing and Corrie’s careless kidney
Another newswrap as Judi Dentures casts her views over recent entertainment news…
Adam Thomas on arthritis
Waterloo Road actor Adam Thomas joined Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley recently on This Morning and opened up on his debilitating psoriatic arthritis diagnosis and why he wants to raise awareness of how arthritis can affect anyone at any age.
Adam spoke about his initial symptoms and what finally led him to a diagnosis: “I used to think that I was invincible, and it turns out that I’m not – it’s been a long journey. My journey with arthritis started when I had an impact injury on my knees. I got an injury on my knees and I just couldn’t walk for weeks… I thought I must have pulled something. A couple of weeks after that, I woke up one morning and my wrists were in so much pain, I genuinely felt like I’d broken my wrists.”
After the results from the X-ray and an MRI came back clear, it wasn’t until Adam got his bloods checked that inflammation was found within his joints: “That was the most challenging bit for me because I was in so much pain, and nobody was really giving me any answers… Not only physically, but mentally, that was draining.”
Discussing the impact the condition has had on him, he explained: “You have good days and bad days. But as well as having psoriatic arthritis, you also get psoriasis as well, which is a skin condition. At the time, I had it all over my body and mainly my scalp as well, which is quite tough when you work in the television industry.”
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV, ITVX, STV and STV Player
A right Charlie
Charlie Lawson is freezing, so he is, so he is. The regular contributor to GB News and one-time Coronation Street regular who appeared as Jim McDonald has claimed he’s so skint he can’t afford to heat his home. Lawson suggests having shared his views on social media and the gossip channel he’s now been ‘cancelled’ and can’t get any work. 2024 was his career low thanks, he thinks, to his controversial personal and political views.
Lawson joined The Street in 1989 and remained as a regular for eleven years, as Jim McDonald, and has made a number of brief returns since. But those days seem to be over, not just with ITV, but acting in general.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Charlie said: “2024 is the most unsuccessful year I’ve had in 44 years. And there are a lot of issues to do with that. I’ve got lots of white hair, I’m 64 and there are less parts around… I work for GB News at the moment, and I’ve got to renegotiate that contract next year… You have lean times, I mean last year the heat was on all the time in the winter, this year it will not be.”
Chris Rea / Iconic Auctions / Refuge
Given up driving home for Christmas
Chris Rea has given up any attempts at festive travel. Well, maybe. A tailor-made ‘Recharged/Heritage’ Mini Thirty commissioned by BMW Mini for rock legend, Rea, is to go up for sale with Iconic Auctioneers for an estimate of £30,000 – £35,000 at Race Retro, Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire.
Chris is donating all the proceeds from the sale of the car to Refuge, the country’s largest specialist provider of domestic abuse services, which is deeply grateful for the singer’s support. Iconic Auctioneers will also be donating all its associated fees to the cause.
Abigail Ampofo, Interim Chief Executive of Refuge: “Chris Rea’s generous donation, alongside the support of Iconic Auctioneers, is a truly heartwarming gesture that will make a significant impact in helping us continue our vital work to provide life-saving support to those experiencing domestic abuse.
“The lucky buyer will not only be purchasing a beautiful and unique car, but they will also be offering hope to the thousands of women and children we support every day, through our emergency accommodation, community services and National Domestic Abuse Helpline. We’re incredibly excited to see how well the auction goes and hope that people are encouraged to dig deep for this important cause.”
A delightful addition to any Mini or music collector’s stable, this is in many ways a unique Mini, with a real story to tell. It was unveiled and presented to Chris at the Abbey Road Studios in February 2023, bringing the story full circle and underlining the profound connection between this car, its heritage and the pop culture that it celebrates.
Most people will know the Yuletide song Driving Home for Christmas, but what they might not knowwas that Chris Rea penned it on Christmas Eve 1978 during a memorable journey home in a different earlier Mini, from Abbey Road Studios in London to their, then, home in Middlesbrough with his wife Joan at the wheel. A difficult five-hour journey that was accompanied by heavy snow and ‘top to toe’ tailbacks but was to result in one of the most memorable Christmas hits ever to grace the airwaves and a staple on almost everyone’s festive playlist.
This special little Mini will be auctioned at a dedicated Collections’ & Competition Car Sale at Race Retro on the 22nd February at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire: www.iconicauctioneers.com
Kidney Concerns
I suppose it could be said ITV can’t have it both ways, promoting a programme as the bastion of social conscience and wanting to get topical plots accurate and factual one minute then flying into a flight of fancy the next. This week Coronation Street was criticised for its Carla kidney storyline by Kidney Care UK. Many soaps have covered kidney issues over the years, and while there has been some past criticsim none has been as scathing as KCUK’s rebuke of The Street.
‘Soap storylines are a really important opportunity to raise awareness of the issues, conditions and illnesses affecting people in the UK, especially those there is less awareness of, like kidney disease.’ The organisation noted, adding, ‘That is why we’ve been happy to speak to Coronation Street both times they have featured character Carla Connor’s experience of kidney disease and transplantation.’
They add, ‘In the UK, 8 out of 10 people waiting for a transplant are waiting for a kidney. By presenting kidney disease and kidney transplantation storylines on prime time TV there is a real opportunity to have an impact on the transplant waiting list, which is at a ten-year high.’
Fiona Loud, Policy Director at Kidney Care UK, continues: “We advised the writers of Coronation Street in 2018, when Carla’s original transplantation storyline aired, and even took them to a transplant unit to learn how amazing organ donation can be.
“We understand that soaps do have to reduce timelines in order to tell stories, but in the UK the wait for a kidney transplant is currently 2-3 years, and for some it can be much longer. It upset our community to see Carla’s transplant happen so quickly in 2018. When they approached us again in the summer of 2024 we provided advice as to different types of dialysis and the timelines involved between being told you would need dialysis treatment and when you might start this at home.
“We made it clear that the expedited timeline in 2018 was not realistic, and urged them to really take care with the storytelling this time to repair some of this distress in the kidney community. However this advice was not followed.”
“We are concerned that there are opportunities to make a difference in the awareness of kidney disease that may have been missed, and this could have a detrimental effect on the public understanding of just how serious kidney disease really is. We have written to the writers again to explain our concerns. It is not too late to put this right, and we hope we can work together to help tell the true story of living with kidney disease.”
It is certainly true that right back to the earliest days of serial in this country social plots have been introduced into storylines, however in the old days it was more than the TV company patting themselves on the back and saying ‘aren’t we looking good with this’ and they were far less frequent, so the saga didn’t appear to be one long endless Public Service Announcement. Maybe ITV would like to make a donation to Kidney Care UK, whether they take their advice or not. As I can tell you in the ‘old days’ that is exactly what used to happen.
In 1977, for example, ATV helped fund a kidney facility at a Birmingham hospital, along with supporting additional fundraising, following a storyline in Crossroads which a child of main characters Jim (John Forgeham) and Muriel Baines (Anne Rutter) had to undergo a kidney transplant. So come on ITV, put your hand in your very deep socially aware pockets after all Corrie is sponsored and well-funded, isn’t it? So surely it can afford it…
BBC years: Birds of a Feather with Linda Robson, Leslie Joseph and Pauline Quirke
Pauline Quirke
Sad news this week with the announcement Pauline Quirke – best known for sitcom Birds of a Feather, has made the difficult decision to retire from acting following being diagnosed with dementia. The news was issued by her husband, Steve Sheen, who in a statement said: “It is with a heavy heart that I announce my wife Pauline’s decision to step back from all professional and commercial duties due to her diagnosis of dementia in 2021.”
“Pauline has been an inspiration through her work in the film and TV industry, her charity endeavours and as the founder of the very successful Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts (PQA),”
Quirke was first seen on television in small roles before becoming a face of ITV children’s output with a number of series produced by Thames Television for the network including Pauline’s Quirke’s comedy show. There were a number of serious roles over the years too including in ATV‘s horror Beasts, YTV‘s Emmerdale, and BBC dramas The Sculptress, Our Boy and The Witness.
Co-star from her Thames children’s days was life-long pal Linda Robson who also featured alongside Quirke on Central Television’s comedy drama Shine on Harvey Moon, before the pair went on to huge success with BBC, and later ITV, sitcom Birds of a Feather. In the 1990s the pair also presented Jobs for the Girls that saw them take on different roles of employment.
In the showbiz departure lounge this week…
We said goodbye to BBC regional television and radio presenter Peter Grant who passed at the weekend after a cancer diagnosis in 2024. Peter was best-known to viewers and listeners in the North East of England.
At 84, and after living with Alzheimer’s disease, Scottish footballer Denis Law. Denis played for teams including Manchester United and the Scotland squad.
Also it was farewell to broadcaster John Crosse who died at the age of 85. From pirate radio to BBC Radio 4 John switched ‘the wireless’ for television with work as a continuity announcer and presenter on stations including Southern Television in the sixties, Tyne Tees TV in the 1990s and a three-decade stint with Yorkshire Television from the early 1970s.
The views expressed are of Judi Dentures and not ATV Today. Penelope Teeth, Judi Dentures and Joanna Gumley are ATV’s exclusive showbiz drag queens with bite.
