Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Blind date by Ilse Spall Your view. I was pleased to see opposing points of view regarding alternative therapies in your doctors feature. This interesting and informative read is a good reminder that one doctor's opinion is not gospel. Ebonee Gregory Bromley. Max Pemberton is right about the need to ensure that counsellors are properly trained and qualified, but it's not true to suggest that only those working in the NHS are trained to a high standard. Many graduates of courses we accredit go on to work in the NHS, but many do not. There is no difference in their training. Gary Fereday Chief executive, British Psychoanalytic Council, London N19. Multiple symptoms are not a "sure" sign of hypochondria, as doctors with a basic acquaintance with the protean manifestations of autoimmune diseases should know. But thanks for explaining why it's taken more than five years for me to get a diagnosis. Name and address withheld. I chose not to let my asthmatic daughter have the flu jab for the same reason as Stephen Leslie, and was made to feel a useless mother for it by the medical profession. She is now 17 and applying to medical school. I wonder what her view will be after five years of training. Deborah Carson Rochester, Kent. I was appalled to see you publicise the well-known YouTube/Oprah case of Jani Schofield and so contribute to the violation of this child's rights. In printing an extract from her father's book, you also feed into the myths and stereotypes surrounding symptoms of this disorder. Did it not occur to you to point out that many of Jani's behaviours may stem from the cocktail of powerful drugs and constant (negative) attention she has received from an early age? Mary Burgess Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Decca Aitkenhead says chemical castration has "been practised all over the world for more than 50 years", but omits to mention that, in the early days, it was used to "treat" homosexuality, most notably in the case of computing pioneer Alan Turing, who suffered many of the side-effects highlighted in the article. Neil Macehiter Cambridge. A cold, dark January weekend was really brightened by the piece on chemical castration followed by one on child onset schizophrenia. Thanks for that ray of sunshine. Roll on spring. Christopher Aird Glasgow. I'm a happily married, heterosexual, Labour-supporting, Guardian-reading, cricket-watching family man aged 67. May I please have a blind date with Rafe Spall? Failing which, Sue Johnston? Ross Jones Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey. Sue Johnston sealed it for me with Pride And Prejudice as her favourite book. I live in hope of a Mr Darcy taking me away from a life of disappointment. I shall never give up. Name and address supplied. Please cast the net more widely for Blind Date. How about "scaffolder meets hairdresser"? Just send a reporter up here on a Friday or Saturday evening and wander round the pubs – the promise of a free meal and drinks will be enough incentive, but a bodyguard might be advisable. Reporter meets bouncer? Kelvin Appleton Beverley, East Yorkshire. Thanks to Ben Miller for explaining light years, which I now realise I never properly understood. I shall now look at the stars with different eyes. Linda Jones Southampton. The London Fiver – Five London Romantic Comedies. In troubling and lonely times, a good romantic comedy can help you feel better about life. London has been the setting of dozens of romantic comedy films over the years, and we have covered some others in the past. If you’ve already gotten through the previous ten, have a look at these five romantic comedies set in one of the world’s biggest cities. Each of these films presents a different relationship that is full of love and laughter. If you think there is something that we might have left off, you can share that film with us in the comments. Man Up. This 2015 StudioCanal film features Lake Bell as a single woman in her 30s who gets confused for 40s divorcee Simon Pegg’s blind date. Their fake relationship eventually gives way to a real one but is threatened when the real blind date shows up. London’s Waterloo Station provides the real kick-off to the plot where Bell’s Nancy first meets Pegg’s Jack. Other places appearing in the movie include Southbank, Bloomsbury Lanes bowling, and the Golden Jubilee Bridges. I Give It a Year. When Nat (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Rafe Spall) decide to get married seven months after they met at a party, no one thinks it’s going to work. Not long after, the realities and issues of being married hit them in hilarious ways, and they make some surprising realizations about their future. St. Pancras Station, Spice of Life in Soho, and numerous London streets appear throughout the film. Wrotham Park is the location for Nat and Josh’s wedding reception at the beginning of the film. Besides Byrne and Spall, the movie also features Anna Faris, Olivia Colman, Stephen Merchant, Minnie Driver, Jason Flemyng, and Simon Baker. Imagine Me & You. And speaking of couples that may not be right for each other, imagine meeting the love of your life on your wedding day. Piper Perabo plays Rachel, who meets florist Luce (Lena Headey) on her wedding day to Hector (Matthew Goode). As the attraction grows between Rachel and Luce, the rift grows between Rachel and Hector, though things end well for everyone involved with plenty of witty dialogue throughout. As for locations, Hector works in the Riverside office building with a view of Tower Bridge, Luce’s flower shop can be found at 38 Chalcot Road, and the site of Rachel and Hector’s wedding at the beginning is All Saints’ Putney. Last Chance Harvey. Featuring Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson as Harvey Shine and Kate Walker, Last Chance Harvey finds American divorcee Harvey meets statistician Kate on his way to his daughter’s wedding in London, an event he’s been all-but-excluded from by his ex-wife. He meets up again with Kate later, and their conversation turns into a burgeoning relationship. Harvey’s daughter’s reception takes place at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Heathrow Airport is where Harvey and Kate first meet, and their relationship grows in many beautiful parts of the city such as Maida Vale and South Bank. Four Weddings and a Funeral. The movie that put Hugh Grant on the map as a star and made Richard Curtis famous as a rom-com writer, Four Weddings and a Funeral sees Grant’s Charles attending all of his friends’ weddings while still searching for his own love. At each wedding, he keeps running into Carrie (Andie McDowell) and the two eventually fall in love. The events of the film feature several London locations including St. Bartholomew the Great Church, the Old Royal Naval College Chapel, and the National Film Theater in South Bank. Charles’s flat can be found at 22 Highbury Terrace in Highbury Fields. Share this: About John Rabon. John is a regular writer for Anglotopia and its sister websites. He is currently engaged in finding a way to move books slightly to the left without the embarrassment of being walked in on by Eddie Izzard. For any comments, questions, or complaints, please contact the Lord Mayor of London, Boris Johnson's haircut. Sheridan Smith to Reprise Role of Cilla Black in 2020 UK Tour of Cilla The Musical. After much speculation, producers have confirmed that Sheridan Smith will revisit her award-wining portrayal of the late Cilla Black to star in Bill Kenwright ’s stage production, Cilla The Musical , written by BAFTA award-winning writer Jeff Pope . The musical will open at the Liverpool Empire for a 4 week residency commencing 23rd September 2020 , ahead of a UK tour to Aylesbury , Edinburgh , Birmingham and Leeds . Sheridan wowed fans and critics alike with her portrayal of the nation’s favorite singer and TV personality in Jeff Pope ’s BAFTA award-winning ITV series. “Mesmerising… a joy to watch… she really does embody the young Cilla perfectly…” (Independent). Her acclaimed portrayal of the British icon won Sheridan both a 2015 National TV Award and a 2015 TV Choice Award, and went on to see her nominated for a BAFTA (2015) and a second international EMMY Award (2015). Hailed “ The Greatest Theatre Star of her Generation ” by The Evening Standard and with nearly two decades of television, film and theatre success, Sheridan Smith is widely considered Britain’s favourite actress. After starting a career in such sitcoms as The Royle Family, Two Pints of Lager, Gavin & Stacey and Benidorm , she starred in Jonathan Creek (2013) and went on to receive acclaim for a succession of television dramas such as Mrs Biggs (2012), Cilla (2014), The C Word (2015), Black Work (2015) and The Moorside (2017). Sheridan was named Best Actress at the 2013 BAFTA TV Awards for Mrs. Biggs . Sheridan Smith reprise role of Cilla Black in the 2020 UK Tour of Cilla The Musical. Theatre credits include her first Olivier Award nomination for Little Shop of Horrors at the Menier Chocolate Factory and her first Olivier Award and WhatsOnStage Award for her role as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde . Following this, she won an Olivier Award and an Evening Standard Theatre Award for her role of Doris in Flare Path . Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler at The Old Vic gave her another WhatsOnStage Best Actress Award. She also enjoyed a hugely celebrated run in the West End as Fanny Bryce in Funny Girl . Cilla The Musical is a spectacular and heart-warming musical adaptation of the TV series. The 2017 debut tour was met with five-star reviews and standing ovations up and down the UK and was nominated Best New Musical in the WhatsOnStage Awards . The story follows the extraordinary life of an ordinary teenage girl from Liverpool, Priscilla White, and her rocky, yet incredible, rise to fame. By the age of just 25 she was recognized as international singing star Cilla Black. By 30 she had become Britain’s favorite television entertainer headlining series of Blind Date , Surprise Surprise and many more. The musical score features the ultimate soundtrack to the 60’s including Cilla’s greatest hits Anyone Who Had a Heart, Alfie and Something Tells Me, alongside a backdrop of the legendary “Liverpool Sound”. Jeff Pope is an award-winning writer for film and television. Film credits include Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman (Timothy Spall); Essex Boys (Sean Bean, Tom Wilkinson); Philomena (Judi Dench, Steve Coogan) for which Jeff picked up a Golden Globe, BIFA and London Critics Circle nominations and BAFTA and Venice Film Festival wins for Best Adapted Screenplay and most recently the critically acclaimed Stan & Ollie (Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly). TV work includes the BAFTA winning ITV drama Mrs Biggs (starring Sheridan Smith), the multi-award winning Dirty, Filthy Love ; Cilla (starring Sheridan Smith) and Lucan (starring Rory Kinnear). As a producer, Jeff has helmed a number of award-winning dramas including Mo , a bio-pic based on the life of politician Mo Mowlam, the BAFTA winning See No Evil – The Moors Murders ; Appropriate Adult (Starring Dominic West and Emily Watson), which earned five BAFTA awards; as well as a Golden Globe nomination in the acclaimed BBC One drama The Moorside and more recently A Confession (starring Martin Freeman). Blind date by Ilse Spall. By Rebecca Hardy for MailOnline 22:31 BST 01 Feb 2013 , updated 23:36 BST 01 Feb 2013. Facebook Twitter e-mail e-mail e-mail WhatsApp flipboard fbmessenger native. 'My dad's one of the funniest men in the world,' says Rafe Spall. 'I grew up with him making me laugh so much I'd beg him to stop. To this day, he makes me crack up.' Rafe chuckles as he says this, revealing a wide, fleshy grin that's weirdly familiar. Weirdly, in fact, like his brilliant father Timothy Spall's, one of the best-loved character actors on the planet. Rafe, 29, now a father himself to 21- month-old Lena and 12-week-old Rex, is 'very close' to his dad and speaks to him daily. There was a time, though, he'd have sooner stuck his pants over his head and run down Oxford Street than talk about his dad in an interview. Rafe Spall and his father Timothy Rafe Spall. 'Perhaps earlier in my career I was driven by wanting to prove I wasn't just Timothy Spall's son and that I had something to offer in my own right,' he says. 'When I was young I'd be seen by certain casting directors because I was his son. If you've got a list of actors and you've got Timothy Spall's son on it, they'd be interested just to see what he's like so you got through the door. 'But you're not going to get hired because of who you are. If anything you've got more to prove, but I think I've gone some way to doing that now.' Make that the whole nine yards. After appearing as The Writer in the Oscar-nominated film Life Of Pi, Rafe is about to star in romantic comedy I Give It A Year as novelist Josh, newly wed to the gorgeous Nat (Rose Byrne). The film follows the couple's struggles to hold their marriage together with the help of a deranged marriage guidance counsellor (Olivia Colman) after a disastrous honeymoon, while the reasons they ended up drifting so far apart are presented through flashbacks. It's Rafe's first film as a leading man and is potentially huge, produced as it is by Working Title, makers of Four Weddings And A Funeral and Love Actually. 'I had three or four auditions as I had to prove I was able to lead a Working Title romantic comedy because the last person to do that was that bloke Hugh Grant - although we're very different, obviously.' Rafe and Timothy Spall in a 2007 ITV remake of EM Forster's A Room With A View. They are. Rafe's easy-going, thoughtful and brilliant in various roles from the hapless cop in Hot Fuzz to drippy Ian in One Day. He's also drop- dead gorgeous, having had to 'work on being handsome' for I Give It A Year, and very happily married to 'the woman of my dreams', ex- Hollyoaks actress Elize du Toit. Related Articles. Monty Halls: With 44 million British birds lost in a generation, the Great Escapes star says it time we all did our bit for sparrows 'My Tiger Mum made me a roaring success': Chinese chef Ken Hom says his mother's tough love spurred him on, and tells the moving tale of their battles with cancer The midwife called. to Brazil! Call The Midwife's Chummy heads to Africa, just as one real-life midwife endured poisonous snakes and 2ft rats in the Amazon Basin. Rafe has only ever had two ambitions in life. Firstly, 'to find someone to spend my life with'. Tick. Secondly, 'to make a career out of being an actor playing a varied range of parts'. Tick. He's had to work at it though. Rewind less than a decade and Rafe, having flunked his drama GCSE and failed to get into RADA was, as he says, 'a fat kid'. He was 18½ stone and insecure. More character actor than romantic lead material. Make that fat character actor. 'I was a glutton,' he says. 'I loved food. I still do. But I didn't have a thing in my mind that told me when to stop eating. There's something of a chunky gene in the Spall side of the family. I was always chubby, then I got fat.' Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall in I Give It A Year. He continues: 'When I was in my early 20s I was 18½ stone. You don't control it. I think you get to a certain point where you think, “Sod it. There's no point doing anything about it because I'm fat now and it's going to take a massive revolution in order to face this, so I may as well carry on the way I am.” 'It hurts your feelings if people call you fat. I didn't feel good about myself. Perhaps eating was something to make me feel better. Who knows? 'If you get to a certain level of fatness and you carry on eating the same amount of food, you'll only get bigger. That's what I was doing. I wasn't exercising. I wasn't active, but I wasn't happy being fat. It didn't feel nice. You can't walk up escalators on the Tube without being out of breath and you're insecure. 'It hurts your feelings if people call you fat. I didn't feel good about myself. Perhaps eating was something to make me feel better. Who knows? I'm sure that my father becoming seriously ill when I was 14 had a lot to do with my going from chubby to fat.' Rafe Spall, right, with Orlando Bloom in 2004's The Calcium Kid. Rafe is the middle of three children, sandwiched between two sisters, who enjoyed a 'golden childhood' until it was rocked in his early teens when his father was suddenly diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukaemia and given days to live. 'Dad was ill for about two years, but he was so worried about us that whenever we went to see him he'd always be in a good mood and make us feel good about it. He kept his sense of humour the whole way through' 'To be told your dad might not get better when you're a young boy with two young sisters. ' His voice trails off for a moment. 'I don't want to be flippant in saying it was incredibly painful, but it really was.' So painful, in fact, that Rafe rarely talks openly about his dad's frightening illness. He stopped trying at school. Mucked about, pigged out - anything to live in the moment and not dwell upon thoughts of losing his father. 'He'd had a few courses of chemotherapy and then we were told he might not get better,' he says. 'He was ill for about two years and in hospital for a long time. But he was so worried about us that whenever we went to see him he'd always be in a good mood and make us feel good about it. He kept his sense of humour the whole way through. With Jennie Jaques in Desperate Romantics on BBC Two in 2009. 'Then my mother [Shane] was trying to hold the whole family together. My mum and dad have got an extraordinary marriage. It's an amazing thing and just the thought of one of them being without the other is enough to make me upset. They're swans. They've mated for life and they're very, very close.' He looks upset now. 'Anyway,' he shakes himself. 'Kids have this extraordinary way of coping. You can't just be maudlin and lie around thinking about it. You've got to get on with it, which we did. Although that was a very difficult thing to go through as a child, he got better so I got off lightly and I'm very lucky. This luck has been the thing that's punctuated my life.' Losing weight was another life-changer. Rafe was in his early 20s when he decided he no longer wanted to be the fat kid. 'I remember getting sent a script and it said, “Bosey - I think it was Bosey - an extremely fat man enters the room.” I thought, “I don't want to be an extremely fat man.” I didn't really know I was extremely fat. I thought I'd better sort this out. With Susannah Fielding In Pete Versus Life on Channel 4 in 2010. 'After I got that script I thought, “God, I'm going to go for a run.” I ran round the park once and my lungs were burning for three or four hours afterwards, but I made myself go and do it every day, just carried on and on through the pain. That's when it started.' He lost the bulk of his weight in the first six months by eating less and exercising more. The rest disappeared gradually over the next three years. 'It took a lot of hard work but I did it and I'm proud I did it,' he says. 'I completely revolutionised the way I went about my health. I'm all the better for it. It changed my life.' Rafe Spall and his wife Elize Du Toit attending the European premiere of I Give It A Year in London last week. Rafe was less fat boy, more dashing leading man when he met his wife on a blind date five years ago. 'We were set up by some friends of mine who knew Elize,' he says. 'I was newly single. We went out to a bar in London. Elize arrived with my friend. It was midnight. I don't know if love at first sight exists, but Elize is the only person I've ever met whose exact expression I can remember the moment I saw her. Then we kissed.' That was 1 February five years ago. 'They say the thing that will break you up in a relationship is the thing you know within the first week of meeting someone. You try to ignore it, but along the line it will break you up and I don't think you're a full grown-up until you've had your heart broken and you've broken someone else's. 'I've been through that. But the great thing about my relationship with Elize is I've never once questioned it from the day I met her. That's why I married her and that remains so to this day. I just knew.' The need to prove himself beyond being his father's son has, he says, disappeared with the weight, the hefty roles - and fatherhood. 'When I had my girl - a honeymoon baby - I felt immediately grown up,' he says. 'It's like somebody had pushed a button because within three years of meeting Elize, we snogged on the first date, then we were going out, then we got married and got pregnant on our honeymoon and had our baby. 'Then we bought a new house and renovated it. It's like waking up and finding you're a full-grown adult. Then I had my boy. When I had him I was more worried. For a man, there's a big responsibility that comes with having a boy because men are made by their fathers. If you've got a good productive man around it's better. I have such a close relationship with my dad and that responsibility to produce a good man is something I think about. 'I had such a golden childhood. My anxiety would be wanting to reproduce that which is something of a responsibility to live up to. My parents instilled a few things in me. One of the biggest gifts you can give a child is confidence because confidence will take you miles - more than talent, more than anything else. So yes, I want my children to have confidence and to be kind.' Which, given this brilliant young actor's iron will and genuine like- ability, I'm sure he'll pull off. Nice and not very nice celebrities who you have met. It must have been 15 years ago at the height of Blind Date when she came into the restaurant I was working in. She demanded to have a private room which wasn't possible and proceeded to be a pain and nuisance. An elderly lady approached her table and Cilla snapped 'No autographs.' Quick as a flash the lady replied, 'I was just coming to tell you how much I despise your music, television shows and behaiour to staff.' Cilla and her people stormed out absolutely furious. We later received a letter of complaint from her PA which caused great mirth among staff. Vile, shrill, shrieking old hag. With regards to my earlier message re. Cilla Black. It must have been 15 years ago at the height of Blind Date when she came into the restaurant I was working in. She demanded to have a private room which wasn't possible and proceeded to be a pain and nuisance. An elderly lady approached her table and Cilla snapped 'No autographs.' Quick as a flash the lady replied, 'I was just coming to tell you how much I despise your music, television shows and behaiour to staff.' Cilla and her people stormed out absolutely furious. We later received a letter of complaint from her PA which caused great mirth among staff. Vile, shrill, shrieking old hag. She came across as quite a narcissist who traded under the label of being a down-to-earth Liverpuddlian lass. I remember how she used to segue into interviews, under the guise of humility, remarks such as 'Oh I was so surprised when so-and-so told me that I was the best-selling singer of such-and-such a time.' She did it often. The mask slipped when she did an appearance on This Morning, when it appeared as though she'd had a few glasses of something the night before and was a bit hung over. She was less 'on performance' than usual and was supposed to be participating in the cookery section. All the time she was on air she was cynical, couldn't-care-less and acting as if she couldn't be bothered and that the whole thing was beneath her. I cannot remember if she had something to promote at the time but remember thinking, 'Is this just me or am I getting a glimpse of what she's really like, without all the persona?'. It really struck me. I believe that she did think very highly of herself and had a ruthless streak. There are some performers who are confident and get accused of being in love with themselves but they're not necessarily narcissists. They are just happy and comfortable in their own skin. Although there's nothing wrong with that- it's a good thing- we don't, in this culture, like to see people seeming as if they're getting above themselves and we seem to take pleasure in ripping them off a shred. Then there are the genuine narcissists and I think she did, to some extent, fall into that latter category. That isn't to say that in her prime she wasn't a good entertainer with popular appeal. She was all that, I suppose. I think she got worse as she grew older, including her singing voice which went from being warm and clear to (as the years went by) harsh and shrill. From my personal POV, I still don't think she could have ever topped the uniqueness of some of her contemporaries, a prime example being Dusty Springfield. Having said all the above, I actually feel quite sorry for her in terms of the few years leading up to her death. She seemed bitter and unable to cope with the ageing process. I know many 70-plus year olds who are dealing with severe arthritis, memory wobbles and other long term conditions and, although they rightfully moan and groan a bit, they get on with their lives and keep occupied. Cilla really seemed to resent it all and not cope with it all, mentally. She didn't want to suffer like her mother had but, with all her resources, didn't seem to find the value in living as well as you can with the aches and pains. She seemed to rail against it. It was alien to the popular image that she created and believed in herself. She did not want to make old bones and her ultimate death seemed lonely, an almost angry ''F-U' to old age.