A right Royle way to give up smoking

TIME was when Annie Wells got through more ciggies than the Royle Family, but the Glasgow Tory MSP quit smoking six months ago. With her taste buds now fully functional, she was reminiscing last week about a Christmas dinner for eight that threatened to turn into an episode of the BBC sitcom starring Caroline Aherne (pictured) when her oven packed in: ‘Not wanting to have a Denise Royle-style Christmas, I took the turkey to my mum’s across the road – where I dissected it in order to fit it into her somewhat smaller oven.’