& Patsy in basket case
It looks like Martin Kemp and Patsy Kensit have teamed up for the front of an album cover. But they’re together for acting purposes – not music – in the new series of ITV’s McDonald & Dodds.
They play pals Mick and Barbara who find themselves caught up in a hot air balloon incident which sees their friend Frankie go missing.
Cue detectives McDonald (Tala Gouveia) and Dodds (Jason Watkins) getting on the case.
Patsy says: “I have known Martin for years. I met him when I was 14. I think I was doing a drama at the BBC when Spandau Ballet used to do Top of the Pops there. I would be there in period costume, running into various pop stars in the corridors.
“Martin and I have wanted to work together for ages. He is a great guy and hopefully we will get to do something together again in the future.”
■■ITV, tonight, 8pm
SUPER-TALENTED James Corden is going to need a new wardrobe soon... and an extra cupboard, come to mention it.
The jovial star of TV comedies, dramas, West End shows, films and host of The Late Late Show already has nine Emmy Awards.
And a Golden Globe might come tomorrow as he is nominated – alongside fellow Brits Sacha Baron Cohen and Dev Patel – for best performance in a musical or comedy. So James, where do you keep your awards? “Do you know what, I keep them all in a cupboard,” he says. “I hide them all away as I don’t know if it is necessarily good for me to see them every day and think, ‘Oh look at me’.
“I think that is where you can come unstuck, if you think you are a bit more of a dude than you really are. They are all in a cupboard at work and one day I guess I will take them out and look at them, but right now I guess it is best to try and look forward.”
So that explains the need for extra cupboard space. But what about the wardrobe?
Well, while there’s more than ever of James on our screens these days, there’s considerably less of him since he kickstarted a new regime with WW – Weight Watchers.
He has shed over a stone in 2021 since becoming a WW ambassador – reining in his pizza consumption and even home-cooking a chickpea version of his favourite dish. So snazzy suits like the one he is seen wearing
My new hobby is hiding in bathroom doing my emails... it’s a miracle Julia hasn’t left me
STAR JAMES ON HIS MOMENTS OF SOLITUDE DURING THE PANDEMIC
here, alongside wife Julia Carey, are either going to need taking in – or ditching.
These are good times for James. Since taking the US chat show job in 2015 he has been nominated for awards 22 times – some for his hugely popular Carpool Karaoke segment where stars like Britney Spears, Celine Dion and Sir Paul McCartney join him in his limo for a sing-song.
James, 42, also hosted the 70th Tony Awards – quite an honour in itself.
During the pandemic he has continued to front The Late Late Show, even teaming up with David Beckham for a Miami Vice skit.
And just a couple of days ago the world was agog at his relaxed open-top bus chat with Prince Harry in Los Angeles.
James has that wonderful knack of making people comfortable – so they open up. Harry was happy to talk about his reasons for stepping back from royal duties, his home life and Zoom chats with the Queen and Prince Philip.
And asked how he sees his future after lockdown, Harry told James: “My life is always going to be about public service.”
He said his wife Meghan had “signed up to that” – and Harry spoke fondly of son Archie’s love for waffles.
Lockdown hasn’t always been easy for James himself and the Gavin & Stacey star admits he often flees to the bathroom – to focus.
James says: “My new hobby in the pandemic is hiding in the bathroom to just read and write emails. I am like, ‘Just nipping to the bathroom, kids’ and could be there for 40 minutes reading and writing emails. It is a miracle my wife has not killed me or left me during this time. Be honest. Who’d want to walk a mile in her shoes? She holds our entire family together.”
James was speaking to Oprah Winfrey for a WW webinar, after being announced as an ambassador. And he says the healthy eating regime – focused on wellness rather than just losing weight – has changed his life.
BENEFIT
The star, who found fame in UK comedy drama Fat Friends, explains: “I do feel as if I have joined something and the benefit for my family and my life is going to be monumental as I really feel it, you know.
“We are all told this is easy, and told by somebody in our lives to just pull our lives together – but it’s not easy. It is really hard,
I’ve had long chats with myself in the mirror, saying, ‘Are you going to look like this for ever?’ ww ambassador james OPENING UP ON HIS BATTLE TO BEAT WEIGHT
but doing this and checking in and being aware of it, we can make those changes and inspire others to.
“We’ll never be people who say ‘losing that weight was easy’ as it isn’t. It is really difficult but I am right there with you.”
A string of family members has signed up to the weight loss programme – which James initially tried as an 11-yearold when living in High Wycombe, Bucks.
He says: “All my family are on WW now. My sisters are on it and they are doing it. My parents are on it.
“I used to go with my mum to Weight Watchers when I was 11 or 12 and it’s the only thing that ever worked for my mum.
“So my sisters and my mum and dad, every three weeks, they do a WW Zoom weigh-in and they clap each other if they have done well. It is terrific.”
James also has his eyes on marketing a low calorie chickpea pizza. He says: “There is a recipe I think WW should sell. It could be called a chick-pizza. It is chickpea based with sauce, not too much cheese. We put broccoli and red onion on it. Last weekend the kids wanted to order pizza which, for me, is a nightmare to sit in the car when they eat it as I just can’t not pick.
“I just can’t. That would be okay if I could eat one good slice – but I consider one good pizza. So me and Jools said ‘Why don’t we do this chick pizza?’ It was sensational. We did it with the kids. They had one from the delivery place and we had chick pizza. I felt so smug. “I’d like to experience a day underneath 200lb. When I met my wife I was 280lb (20st). When I started this on WW I was 236lb and now I am 220lb. I would like to experience a day under 200lb. I am really going to try to keep going on this.
“I have to change my relationship with food and the way I consume food.”
At his lowest point, James says he would berate himself in the mirror about his size. He adds: “I’ve had long conversations with myself in mirrors. I’ve said, ‘Is
LATE GLOW Chirpy James is hit as chat host this what it is going to be? You going to look like this for ever?’ Some days I’ve been like, ‘I don’t want to talk to you’. And others I’ve said, ‘Yes, let’s make a change’.
“So now this is what I am doing, I am going to think what I put in my body.”
James and TV producer Julia dote on their three kids – Max, 10, Carey, six, and Charlotte, three. But he has no desire for them to follow in his showbiz footsteps.
He says: “I’d like my children to be happy, good people. That is my dream more than anything else to find whatever in this world that makes them happy.
“I think all the other stuff is irrelevant after that. I want them to be happy and run with it and never give up on it.”