BUTTON IT! ELLA’S DECADE OF SUCCESS DEFIES DOUBTERS
THE COMEDIAN, 60, ON STRIPPING OFF, HER ARTY NUDE GAME SHOW AND WHY SHE REALLY HATES PARKS
ELLA HENDERSON h has d dubbed bb d h herself lf the ‘Benjamin Button’ of pop.
A decade on from wowing on The X Factor, she boasts two Brit award nominations, a No.1 debut album and her tracks have been streamed more than a billion times.
But don’t call her lucky… ‘I deserve to be where I am,’ the singer told GP.
‘There is a lot of stigma with X Factor that you just get success in the click of a finger.’
Ella, 25, took a four-year hiatus from music in 2015. ‘With my songwriting, I needed to take some time to grow as a person. When I came back I wanted to work my arse off,’ she said.
And the This Is Real singer is still clocking up top ten hits, seven years on from her chart-topping debut.
‘Whenever I go into a studio, producers and artists go, “How are you still in your early 20s?
You have been around so long”. It feels like I am Benjamin Button and never grow up. It’s a lot of hard work and graft.
‘When you take some time away from fame, to grow from a teenager to a young woman, it is such a transition’.
And with many teen hopefuls going off course, Ella says she had a lucky escape in the wake of the
Framing Britney
Spears doc.
‘My personal experience was a positive one. I am lucky as a female in this industry to say that.’
Teen sensation: Ella says hard work is secret to her longevity in charts
Nasa spent about $2.7billion on a successful Rover mission to Mars. In comparison, it cost British taxpayers £22billion for a track-and-trace system that was a failure.
Now there’s talk about a vaccine passport. How much is that going to cost us? How long would it take to get an effective system up and running, given the government’s previous track record? And let’s not forget the cloud of cronyism that seems to hang over every government Covid contract.
Would we all have to pay for said passports, whether as an app or physical document? And then would we have to pay again to renew them every time we had a booster?
What is the value of having a Covid passport system, given all the official sources state that even after you’ve had the vaccine, there’s still a chance you can catch, carry and spread the virus?
Sharon G, Surrey
People won’t be able to obtain travel insurance without a Covid vaccine certificate. This will become an insurance issue rather than a civil liberties one.
Doug, Maidstone
Some people believe vaccination passports infringe on their human rights. Well, does it not occur to them that we all have human rights?
Those in nursing homes, those who want to socialise, those who need to have work done in their homes, those who employ people to do that work – all have the right to feel safe.
No right ever came without a responsibility. Those who don’t want to be vaccinated, or to have the onerous imposition of carrying proof of vaccination, have that right to do so. However, they also have a responsibility to ensure that in exercising their right, they don’t infringe the rights of everyone else.
Lynne, Liverpool
Like it or not, if you want a holiday abroad this year, you will be required to show proof you have received an inoculation. Human rights, blah, blah…
Personally, I would feel much happier if I knew that sitting next to me on the plane was a person who had received the jab.
Too many selfish people spread the virus. Why should they be allowed to continue spreading it? Oh, I forgot, the NHS is always there to look after you. Selfish!
Paul, West Midlands
As a passenger on the Tube, I get to read MetroTalk every day. It seems a lot of people writing in are under the impression that once you’ve had your vaccination jab, you are totally immune and can’t catch or pass on Covid.
However, the evidence at the moment says the jab will simply minimise the effects of Covid if caught – it makes the virus less life-threatening. That’s all.
Mark Bradley, Sparky From Sutton
Jon says a Covid passport would be against freedom of choice and human rights (MetroTalk, Fri).
Does he think that having to have a licence to drive is an affront to his human rights and freedom of choice? It’s a matter of safety to society – and I firmly believe it’s exactly the same for a vaccination passport. You can choose not to drive a car but that lessens your options as to how you travel, how you live. If you choose not to have a vaccine, that should also lessen your lifestyle options – travelling abroad, going to nightclubs, theatres, restaurants and so on.
Nick, Hertfordshire
Once every eligible person has been offered a vaccine, there’s no point – outside international travel – in having vaccination ID cards.
With the infection R rate and case numbers falling, the chances of vaccinated people catching it in restaurants and pubs is minimal.
Folk who lie about their age won’t like flashing vaccine ID cards, revealing their date of birth, but luckily they’ll be able to buy a fake one online.
And if we’re going to deny NHS treatment for vaccine refuseniks, why not deny it for all the undeserving ill? Smokers, junk-food eaters, drinkers, sloths etc have brought sickness upon themselves just like vaccine refuseniks, so let’s drop them all. Or, treat all the sick regardless of their behaviour.
How’s your day been?
I’ve just done a radio interview and forgot it was on the radio and nearly said f***ing hell. I just managed to pull myself back. I saved my swears. You can edit out all the swears.
Actually, our readers like a bit of naughtiness...
Oh well, you can put all of the f***s in, then!
You’re hosting a nude lifedrawing game show called Drawers Off. Sounds a bit racy for teatime TV.
It’s a lot less smutty than they’re probably making it sound. I feel a bit sorry for the dirty mac brigade, who have probably got it circled in their diaries with a front-seat view. But there’s a lot of draping, a lot of backs to the easels, that sort of thing. It’s daytime television so you’re not allowed to see nipples. Well, you can see men’s nipples. You can’t see girls’ nipples.
You once had a job as a life-drawing model at Camberwell Art College...
Yes, I’ve done quite a lot of lifedrawing classes and with most of them it’s full nudity. But on television you have to cut your cloth to fit your whatevers. I’ve been both sides of the canvas – there’s nothing here
I haven’t done. On our show there’s an art expert on hand called Diana Ali, who has all the life-modelling tricks up her sleeve. Each of the artist contestants compete by painting and posing for each other, and she knows all the classical poses. She got them into positions that a) they could hold for an hour and b) retain some modesty.
What makes a good life model?
Non-twitching. Oh God, there was one person who was utterly rubbish. I thought he must have worms. This man could not stop wriggling, he was awful. I would have chucked him out of a lifedrawing class.
Would you strip off for a class now?
It wouldn’t bother me in the slightest. I live in a glass house on a bus route and if people don’t want to see me walk naked across the landing then it’s up to them to shut their eyes. Life is too short to worry about people seeing your bum when you’re getting changed on the beach.
Which comedian would you most like to draw naked?
Big, curvy women are the best. As a painter, I like a lot of colour and curved lines are easier to do. So I would go for someone gorgeously ample who would also get off on it. Someone like Jayde
Adams. I’d have her with a leopard-skin drape. She would look magnificent.
How do you rate your artistic talent?
If you’re putting me in the field of very bad, untrained Sunday afternoon amateur painters, I would put myself as a six out of ten.
What’s your medium?
Acrylics. I do use oils occasionally but they’re a faff and they take forever to dry. And I don’t have a studio. For most of us who live in London and have limited space, acrylics are by far the most practical. I also use oil pastel crayon on black paper.
One of the contestants in Drawers Off is a tattoo artist. Would you ever get inked?
I think about it quite a lot. I would have something very traditional. I’m 60, I’m absolutely riddled with cellulite and I have the skin tones of a jelly fish so it’s very difficult to make a tattoo look classy when you’ve got that kind of canvas. My daughter talks about having an anchor on her ankle so I’d probably copy her and have an anchor.
Your next tour is called Sixty! (FFS!) What’s the best thing about turning 60?
Life’s too short to worry about people seeing your bum when you’re changing on a beach
Oh, definitely the vaccines. This is the first time people over a certain age are actually embracing their age. I’ve not had mine yet. Unfortunately, they don’t count dry cracked heels and shortsightedness as a proper illness so I can’t jump the queue.
Any top tips for women about to enter the menopause?
Buy my book Older And Wider! There’s a chapter in it on handy tips for men, on how not to make it worse for their womenfolk. The main tip for men is don’t laugh at your womenfolk when they’re trying to be really serious. My partner, Geoff, has occasionally thought it hilarious when I was trying to be serious and that’s not wise when I’m in the kitchen near the knife drawer.
What else have you been up to during lockdown?
I go out for a f***ing walk every day, which is the dullest thing. But you’ve got to get your arse out of the house and into a park, haven’t you? I’m so bored of parks. I’m so bored of green spaces. I know spring is coming but, really, all I want to see is the inside of Liberty’s. I’m happy to do 10,000 steps around Liberty’s. Very happy indeed.
Drawers Off is on weekdays at 5.30pm on C4. For tickets to Eclair’s stand-up tour Sixty! (FFS!), visit jennyeclair.com
A WORLD War II bomb has left a crater the size of a double-decker bus after being detonated.
Army experts blew up the 2,200lb German explosive – throwing debris more than 100ft in the air – after it was discovered next to the University of Exeter’s campus.
Some 2,600 homes had been evacuated and 400 tons of sand ferried in to prepare for the blast on Saturday night.
And the explosion could be heard for five miles across the Devon city. Rita Tincombe, 90, who lives two miles away, said: ‘It made my windows shake.
‘It reminded me of the war when Exeter was bombed.’
Afterwards, police kept residents away while safety checks were carried out – warning they would be unlikely to return home last night.
‘The impact of the blast has been significant. The crater is around the size of a double-decker bus,’ said a spokesman, adding there were no public health concerns.
Blast:
The Serpent has had more than 31 million streams on BBC iPlayer, with viewers drooling over your costumes. You must be thrilled…
Every job you do, you hope it’s going to be the best that you can make it. When I read the scripts I knew it was going to be a good piece of work because they were fabulous and the story itself is intriguing. I wasn’t aware of serial killer Charles Sobhraj, and I was a kid in the 1970s. That era of fashion is fantastic but it also can be quite vile. It’s a fine balance between a cool ’70s Serge Gainsbourg vibe and Austin Powers.
Although lead actors Tahar Rahim and Jenna Coleman look a million dollars, you’re on a budget. How do you decide
what to buy and what to make as replicas?
We bought vintage pieces we thought encapsulated Tahar’s silhouette as Sobhraj. We boiled that down to these very highwaisted trousers and elegant ’70s shirts with the kipper collar. That was his silhouette. We bought original jeans, took them apart and copied the pattern. There was an amazing flea market in Chatuchak, Bangkok, where we filmed but I also love using eBay. There’s this lovely teal-green wool Irish cape Jenna wears as MarieAndrée in Paris that was an original ’70s piece and I bought that on eBay for less than £100.
Did the actors keep any of their outfits at the end of filming?
Jenna didn’t want to. She doesn’t keep any of her costumes because she associates them with the characters, whereas Tahar wanted to keep everything and production let him. He’s wearing it in Paris now – he sent me pictures. Those shirts were made to fit him. Tahar is built a bit like a swimmer, with a tiny waist, so they were all darted in at the back.
Jenna’s wardrobe shows how her character changes over the course of the story. Was that something you discussed with her?
The character of Marie-Andrée has the biggest journey. She starts as a meek secretary and turns into this almost Vogue model. And she ends up dying of cancer. Jenna wanted to show that arc. We chose for Marie-Andrée’s palette to start very muted, then become Technicolor and finally fade into grey. Her costume she wears in prison is this pale dove grey. It’s almost as if she’s becoming angelic.
What was it like when the hero of the story, Herman Knippenberg, came on set in Bangkok?
Herman loved it. He gave us all his photographs and showed us what everyone looked like at the time. The real Angela Kane also sent us photos of all her dresses and sent pictures of all the jewellery she wore at that time. It was great to have contact with the real characters.
How large was your wardrobe department when you were filming in Bangkok?
We had a big team. I had a whole workroom. There was a cutter with four seamstresses on the go constantly. We had amazing tailors who would make anything you wanted virtually overnight. Then we had a team dressing the crowds. We had about 12 Thai staff. My costume supervisor, Peter Paul, and I were the only English crew.
Were the costumes affected by the heat in Thailand?
At times it was really hard for the actors. We had loads of fans everywhere. I tried to use natural fabrics where I could, especially for Jenna. Obviously in the ’70s everything was made of polyester. I tried to use silk and linen. That also gives more of a chic look. The same with Tahar, all his shirts were pure cotton.
How nerve-racking was it transporting costumes back and forth?
We were having kittens at one point. We filmed in Thailand till Christmas, then we had the Christmas break before going back there to finish. After that we were going to Budapest, which was doubling as Paris. Then the pandemic happened and suddenly we had to leave Bangkok within 24 hours. We had one day to pack everything that we knew was still left to be used in the schedule. We flew back to England and couldn’t film again until July. That’s when you realise one costume you need is in Thailand and another is in Budapest.
What was your route into TV costume design?
I went to Wimbledon School of Art and did the theatre design course. I realised I wasn’t particularly great at that, so I specialised in costume. My first TV was in 2010 as standby costumer on Any Human Heart, looking after the actors Jim Broadbent and Matthew Macfadyen.
Mistakes, you’ve made a few?
When I was younger, I’d bring too many ideas to the table and that can be quite confusing. Now I boil it down to a few options. On set, the unexpected happens all the time. When you’re doing a stunt and something rips, you’re thinking, ‘We’ve only got one more copy. Please don’t do it again!’ On The Royals, the zip went on one of Elizabeth Hurley’s dresses in the middle of a take. The dress nearly fell off her – she caught it. We had to stop filming, sew a new zip in super quick and get it back on set.