Short Sharp SHOCK!
We let Pat mullet over after asking him to write for us...
MEET the Daily Star Sunday’s fantastic new columnist – DJ and television star Pat Sharp.
The former Fun House host will be joining us next Sunday and sharing his view on the world every week.
And the 59-year-old has vowed his page is going to be a ton of fun.
Pat promised: “It’s going to be jovial and entertaining and breezy.
“I will be looking at the brighter side of the world because that’s what everyone needs at the moment.
“People want some light. We’re coming out of winter, the days are getting longer – things are getting better.
“There won’t be any negativity. I won’t be having a dig at anybody. It’s not in my nature.”
And Pat, inset with his wife
Monica, is not afraid to poke fun at himself.
He told us: “It’s important to be able to make jokes about yourself. I want to make people laugh and smile.” The Middlesex lad is used to giving people a giggle. Millions have fond memories of watching him on Fun House in the 1990s. He said: “People have an affinity with someone from children’s TV because they watched those shows at a time when they weren’t worrying about their mortgage or a relationship or a job. They were just young kids who chucked their school bags down and watched a show that was really fun, bright and had some blonde twins on it. “It’s a fantastic memory for people. Everybody wanted to be on it.”
Proud Pat added: “I’ve done DJ sets everywhere from Oman to Austria and someone will always tell me they loved Fun House. “I’ll get a 6ft lorry driver come over to me and he’ll look like he wants to kill me. But then he’ll say something lovely. “People often come up to me and say, ‘You made my childhood.’ That’s an accolade I have. I’m really lucky. It’s always a really fantastic thing to hear.”
After more than three decades in showbiz, Pat is still in huge demand.
He has his own show on Greatest Hits Radio, on which he plays classic songs from years ago.
And we’ll hear more about his latest projects in his new column. He said: “Radio is where my career started. That was my original passion. And I still do lots of TV. I used to be a host and now I’m more of a guest.
“I’ve done things like Through The Keyhole, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and before Christmas I was on The Wheel. I’m still getting a crack at things.”
Pat’s keen to hear what you think about what he has to say. He said: “You can agree or disagree. The more feedback the better!”
Films about famous novelists always face the same problem. Whether they’re hammering away at a typewriter, scribbling on a notepad or tapping away on a keyboard, writing will always be stubbornly un-cinematic.
In this Roald Dahl biopic, writing is a little more high octane. Dahl (Hugh Bonneville) is trying to knock out Charlie and the Chocolate Factory while his marriage is falling apart, the bills are piling up and he’s hammered on whisky.
And these days, people moan about the challenges of working from home. A stylish animated sequence under the opening credits traces the paths of dashing fighter pilot Dahl, and Hollywood star Patricia Neal (Keeley Hawes) to a meeting at a New York party in 1951.
The live action begins 10 years later when they are living in a “rickety old tub” of a house in
Great Missenden, in Buckinghamshire, with their three young children Olivia (Darcey Ewart), Tessa (Isabella Jonsson) and Theo (Alfie and Tommy James Hardy).
Neal and Dahl are wonderful parents but their careers have stalled.
James and the Giant Peach has just flopped and the plum roles have dried up for Neal. Then disaster strikes when their
seven-year-old daughter Olivia dies of measles.
Dahl can’t process his grief, numbing his pain with booze and shouting at poor little Tessa.
It all comes to a head when an exhausted Neal flees to Hollywood with the kids for a part in a new Paul Newman movie called Hud.
This domestic drama feels more suited to an episode of a TV series than a standalone movie but the excellent performances keep us watching.
Bonneville never tries to gloss over Dahl’s selfish nature, while Hawes lets us feel Neal’s exasperation.
We care about them because we believe in them.
Bonneville never glosses over Dahl’s selfishness, while Hawes is exasperated