Pudsey pals hit a real high note
HOW cold does it get?”you’ve got to admire Ben Fogle’s optimism as he prepared to sleep in a transit van in the Swedish wilderness.
“Um, not quite freezing,” replied his host Annalisa as C5’s New Lives In The Wild returned on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old single mum lives in a forest hideaway, with no running water or electricity.
But it’s the fact she lives there with her toddler Nico that was most shocking.
“He’s like a mini wild man,” says Ben. Nico does everything she does - uses knives, drills, hammers in nails. I don’t even let my kids within 3ft of a mildly hot fish finger.
An amazing woman, but I’ll be staying firmly on-grid.
THIS week we witnessed a BBC1 show that could have been called Oh My God, I Didn’t Know They Could Sing! For that is what we all said repeatedly for the entire hour-and-a-half.
Celebrities trooped into the legendary Abbey Road recording studio for Children In Need: We Got It Covered, full of apologies about their terrible voices.
LIES, it was all lies.
In the latest idea for the charity, ten British actors all agreed to record an album. Not just a Band Aid-style song, singing a line or two, but a track each, inspired by their own lives.
Never mind the songs, the casting was pretty inspired. Deep breath: Helena Bonham Carter, Jim Broadbent, Olivia Colman, Shaun Dooley, Luke Evans, Suranne Jones, Adrian Lester, Himesh Patel, David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker.
Clearly TV producers wrote their wishlist and got it – the power of Pudsey at play. There were so many great moments. The Crown buddies Olivia and Helena casually discussing bathroom singing.
“You always think you sound different than you actually do. A bit like how I get dressed in the morning,” said Helena.
Olivia, who was either crying or on the verge of crying throughout, was nervous as hell.
Rude
“I’d rather give birth again with no drugs,” she said, before quickly telling producers she was having a lovely time.
“I don’t want to be rude,” explained the most polite woman in telly.
Oh and of course, she can sing. She can do anything, she’s a goddess.
And then... Phoebe Waller-bridge and her sister Isobel on ukuleles? This is why we pay our licence fees.
It still hadn’t peaked. Taylor Swift sauntered in to surprise Shaun, who was mid-record of her hit Never Grow Up.
Olivia starred in The Favourite with Taylor’s boyfriend Joe Alwyn and had texted in the favour. This was actors pulling strings live in action and I loved it. Who else does Olivia have in her contacts book? Who does she invite for dinner parties?
Jodie lived out a teen fantasy when Coldplay’s drummer Will Champion and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland interrupted her “northern twang” rendition of Yellow.
“Oh my god, I fully stalked you!” she squeaked.
When they started playing, she giggled. But later, as she sang for her nephew Harry, who died aged three, she cried. Harry’s parents cried. We all cried.
This film yo-yoed the emotions about from one extreme to the other.
Adrian was beatboxing, Helena drank weird herbal teas and David told us he used to busk Proclaimers songs.
They saved the best for last. Suranne giving it full on musical theatre lungs, with a backing choir of kids from a children’s theatre. Hearts fit to burst.
This was proper happy telly that felt like a big warm Pudsey hug – and anyone who didn’t enjoy it is a cold-hearted cynic.
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