Michaela Strachan

January 2013

IT started out as a book of children’s poetry, all based on her experiences with animals as a presenter of TV programmes over the past 25 years.
They included The Really Wild Show, Michaela's Wild Challenge, Orangutan Diary and Winterwatch, which returns to BBC 2 next week.
Michaela Strachan's Really Wild Adventures, which comes to Nottingham Playhouse on February 22, will mix live poetry with music, puppetry and plenty of fun and games for children, she says.
“I got in to poetry through writing postcards when I was away,” says the 46-year-old.
“This was in the days before e-mail and texting. I was travelling all the time so I was writing a lot of postcards. I got bored of just writing the usual so I turned them in to poems.”
She adds: “They are all based on experiences I’ve had with animals so they’re very true. Some of them are very emotional, some are funny and some are daft.”
The book came out in hardback at the end of last year. The paperback will be out in time for the tour.
She says: “Creating a stage show from it came about after a conversation I had with my agent.
“There’s a real culture at the moment for children’s books being turned into theatre shows, like The Gruffalo and Stickman. There seems to be an insatiable appetite for them.
“I took one of the poems to Malachi Bogdanov, who is a theatre director and he said that he could really see it working as a theatre show.”
She continues: “It’s very creative and a lot of fun. It’s also very factual, with interaction.
“I did a poem called Never Try To Out-Spit A Spitting Cobra that was based on a piece I did for Michaela’s Wild Challenge, which was a show I did for Channel 5. On stage there’s a puppet that’s a snake. We get kids up on stage with water pistols and they get prizes. “There’s another called Polar Dentistry, which was another one from the TV show when we had to take a tooth out of a bear to age it. For that we get a dad up on stage and dress him as a polar bear. We mark his bottom, which is one of the things we really did. It gets the kids laughing.
“So it can be very lively and interactive and fun, but there are also poems that I’m just reading to music, like one about an orangutan that we filmed for Orangutan Diary. That’s quite emotional.”
Although she does do a talk for adults with slides and stories from her career, Strachan says this one-woman show is entirely for children, aged three to eight.
“It lasts around an hour and it’s very simple but very effective,” she says.
The presenter now lives in Cape Town, South Africa with her partner, their son Ollie, seven, and three grown-up stepchildren.
“It’s a beautiful place. We live just on the back of Table Mountain and have a view of Hout Bay Harbour. It’s a great lifestyle but it is a little inconvenient for work.”

Michaela Strachan's Really Wild Adventures comes to Nottingham Playhouse on Friday, February 22 at 2pm. Tickets are £12.50 from the box office, call 0115 941 9419 or go to www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk.

Red Bar & Lounge

February 2012

AS Groucho’s it was among the city’s key nightspots during the 80s, as popular as Ritzy’s and the Black Orchid. But the club, housed in the basement of what was then the Royal Hotel, closed 15 years ago and has lay empty ever since. Tonight it reopens under new management, with a new name and with a different concept.
Red Bar & Lounge will also have a new entrance, directly opposite Rock City.
“It’s a late bar open seven nights,” says Johnny Moore, a former DJ who played all over the city, including at Groucho’s.
“I remember how packed it used to be. It was a very popular place. This was when pubs closed at 11pm and people went on to a nightclub.”
After his DJ days, which started at city clubs such as the Babel Club, Zhivago’s and the Aviary at Trent Bridge (now the Riverbank), he became a nightclub promoter, booking a fledgling boy band called Take That at the Black Orchid.
“This was when Robbie Williams asked me to be his manager and because I’d lost money on that gig I said no.”
After running Cabaret for two-and-a-half years in Fletcher Gate (now Ascucha), he moved over to the Royal in Derby. It’s been five years since he operated a venue in his home city.
“It’s free to get in,” continues the 46-year-old, who spent six weeks refurbishing Red. “There are a few nice cheeky seated areas. There’s a dance floor. And there’s a small stage for acoustic performances.”
The 200-capacity bar has been swathed in deep red and black. The staircase off Talbot Street leads down to the main floor, with the DJ booth to the right and the bar ahead. Leather sofas and stools occupy four raised seating areas, with gold leaf framed mirrors and palm plants.
There’s a secret staircase for VIPs to access the club through the hotel, via the Red Door (it isn’t red).
“There are quite a few late bars in Nottingham but there’s nothing like this on this side of the city. It has some very interesting nooks and crannies that I think will make it popular.”
Cabaret hosted regular drag shows, live comedy (it was home to Just The Tonic), music and An Audience With... events. Guests were varied, from Stuart Pearce to Jim Bowen and the late Frank Carson to Derek Acorah and the weekly Slinky Minky Show.
“When I sold Cabaret in 2007, I looked at a few promotion concepts. I put on the Roller Disco at the Capital FM Arena last summer, which was a huge success. And I put on An Audience With people like Frank Bruno, Stuart Pearce, Ricky Tomlinson and darts legends Eric Bristow, John Lowe and Bobby George.
It was a continuation of the Cabaret concept, which he also took to a venue in Milton Keynes. He then took over The Royal in Derby, a live music venue and club that was the city’s equivalent to the Rescue Rooms. Artists included The Maccabees, Calvin Harris, Chase & Status and Pendulum.
Red Bar & Lounge is much simpler idea.
“On a Monday and Tuesday it’ll be background music, there’ll be a laid-back lounge feel to it. Wednesdays will be a mix of 80s and 90s, Ministry of Sound club anthems and electronic pop classics. Thursday will be for students, dance classics and two-for-one cocktails. We’ll have the same offer on every night from 7pm to 9pm but it will be all night on Thursday.
“Friday and Saturday are Get Red-y, with DJs, table service and lots of dancing. On Sunday it’ll be Red Live, with an acoustic act called Adam Peter Smith. We’ll dim the lights and put candles out. It’s all about lounging and dancing.”
Red Bar & Lounge in Talbot Street opens tonight at 7pm. It’ll be open seven nights, 7pm to 2am. Admission is free. For more information go towww.redbarandlounge.co.uk