Let’s do this together
BBC1, 7.35pm
It’s a double celebration today – The Dark Lord turns 12 and it’s the last day of homeschooling.
While she’s blowing her candles out, I’ll be in the garden setting light to the endless worksheets and Zoom lesson links that never work the first time.
I almost thought about getting her a “host has another meeting in progress” Zoom themed birthday cake, but in the end I settled on something that was more suited to her… er… personality.
In fact, The Dark Lord’s birthday cakes can tell you a lot about her life. Aged one, her late dad made her a cake, and we have a little video of her smearing her first chocolate round her face until it was mainly snot.
At two years old, we had a Gruffalo cake and her little friends came to play, but she was too busy having a meltdown because I gave her the wrong spoon, or something. At three we celebrated with a pink pwincess cake, then a Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom one when she turned four.
Then at five, we had the Frozen years when everyone wished Elsa would just let it go – permanently! We celebrated her sixth with a very unappetising green and black Minecraft sponge, and her seventh with a brilliant Boris the pug cake (which was about the last time she walked him).
She turned eight with a beautiful Secret Garden Party strawberry sponge, and a Star Wars-themed ninth with a BB8 cake.
Things started going downhill with her laser-tag birthday and gun cake at 10, and then a Japanese anime theme for her 11th.
And now finally – what did I choose this year?
A skull and rose on an ombré (two-toned) cake – for the Goth kid who likes everything, as long as it comes in black. She’s just your average girl-nextdoor… if next door is a graveyard. Happy Birthday, Bobble xxx
■ Email me at siobhan.mcnally@mirror.co.uk or write to Community Corner, PO Box 791, Winchester SO23 3RP.
And just like that, a whole century has gone by…
It’s been 100 years since the birth of comedy legend Tommy Cooper. So what better time to take a look back over some of the great man’s finest and funnier moments?
In this nostalgic clip show, Sir Lenny Henry – one of Tommy’s biggest fans – is on hand to guide us through the cream of the crop.
And there is plenty of material from the fez-wearing comic, who famously died live on stage from a heart attack in April 1984, at the age of 63.
This collection features some of Tommy’s most famous routines, and shows that his reputation for terrible tricks that inevitably went wrong was all based on an act.
He was a master magician, perfectly suited to television’s golden age.
It’s all part of the BBC’s Festival of Funny, which showcases the best comedy talent as well as profiles of British icons.