Vicky McClure

May 2015

The last time we saw Vicky McClure on screen was a brief glimpse during the BBC’s live coverage of the British Academy Television Awards.
The 32-year-old from Wollaton was there to, we all hoped, pick up her second Bafta, after winning Best Leading Actress four years ago for her reprised role as Lol in This Is England ‘88.
The only person confident that she wasn’t going to win was Vicky.
“I didn’t expect the nomination in the first place,” says the actress, who has also been seen in ITV’s Broadchurch alongside David Tennant.
The nod was for her role as DC Kate Fleming in Line Of Duty, the police drama that she is currently filming a third series for in Belfast.
As it turned out, she lost out on a second Bafta, this time for Best Supporting Actress, to Gemma Jones for her role in Marvellous, based on the true story of Stoke City kit-man Neil Baldwin.
“Marvellous was my favourite piece of TV last year so losing to Gemma was more than fine by me,” says Vicky, who was papped on the red carpet wearing a full length white dress by London-based designer Osman Yousefzada.
So busy was she before the ceremony last month, that it wasn’t a dress she had time to pick herself.
“My publisher is a good friend and he knows what I like so he got everything arranged,” she laughs.
Vicky was there with other members of the Line of Duty cast as the show, BBC2’s biggest ratings winner in ten years, was also up for Best Drama, while co-star Keeley Hawes was nominated in the Best Leading Actress category.
“It’s going really well,” she says of the filming that started in April and runs until July.
“The scripts are stronger than ever and there’s a really nice vibe on set. The new additions to the cast are incredible.”

Among them is fellow Nottingham actor Arsher Ali, who starred in The Missing and Arthur and George.
“It’s been great to have a Notts lad on set,” she says, although the pair’s allegiances to football clubs are on opposite sides of the Trent.
Was Forest fan Arsher, who grew up in Sherwood, kind about Notts County’s relegation?
“Nothing was really said,” laughs the Magpies fan.
“I think everyone was kind enough not to mention it.”
Having another Nottinghamian on set has helped ease Vicky’s longings to be back in her city.
“We’ve been chatting a lot about Notts, which has been great. We’ve filmed scenes together and we did try and get an ‘ey up mi duck’ into one of them,” she laughs.
“But that’ll probably be cut.”
There are rare breaks from filming when she has been home. Soon after the Baftas she was at Notts County for Football Rocks, a charity event organised by the club with Jake Bugg. Vicky appeared in the Clifton chart-topper’s video Two Fingers and they have since become friends.
But the main reason she was there was because boyfriend Jonny Owen was playing.
The couple met three years ago during the making of the rock ‘n’ roll comedy film Svengali, written by and starring Jonny.
The Welshman and our Vicky, who appeared in the film as his girlfriend, first settled in London but the draw home was too much for Vicky and the couple now live in Toton.
“I love the city and I love the people – they remind me a lot of those in South Wales,” says Jonny, who has appeared in TV dramas Shameless and Monroe.
“Everyone is very friendly and open. I can’t speak highly enough of people in Nottingham. They have made me feel very welcome.”
Jonny, who produces shows for Notts TV, is currently making a major film about Nottingham Forest’s legendary European Cup wins.
On another swift visit home, Vicky and her man had a meal at La Rock in Sandiacre, a restaurant, which earned the very first five star review from the Nottingham Post’s long-serving restaurant critic, the Food Sleuth.
“It was some of the best service I’ve ever had. And the maître d’ was so lovely. There was nothing pretentious about it and the food was great.”

The former Fernwood Comprehensive School student is a graduate of Nottingham’s Television Workshop, along with Joe Dempsie, Jack O’Connell, Samantha Morton and many others.
It was the two-time Oscar nominee Samantha Morton who spotted her talent at the Workshop and brought her to the attention of director Ian Smith.
Her early screen roles included a spot in daytime soap Doctors, as well as Filth And Wisdom – the first feature film directed by Madonna.
But her big break came after she was cast as Lol in Shane Meadows’ feature film, This Is England, which won him a Bafta.
The third spin-off TV series, This Is England ‘90, has been shot and is due on Channel 4 in September.
Vicky was reunited with fellow “workshoppers” Joe Dempsie, Andrew Shim, Rosamund Hanson, Michael Socha and Chanel Cresswell.
And once again director Meadows insisted the cast improvise each scene.
Says Vicky: “It’s the most fun I’ve had on a set in a long time.”

Nottingham shot film wins national award

April 2015

A SHORT film shot in Nottingham city centre and starring Wollaton actress Lauren Carse has picked up a major award.
Echo, a 15-minute drama about a schoolgirl who tricks shoppers into giving her cash, won Best Short at the National Film Awards in London, where the likes of Idris Elba and Tulisa Contostavlos were in attendance.
“It was great that we won although we weren’t expecting it because we were sat right at the back,” laughs Lauren.
“And we were on a table with the people who supplied the linen for the tables, so we thought this is not spelling out ‘award-winning’.”
She collected the award with the film’s producer Lawrence Mason.
“It took an age for us to get to the stage,” adds the 23-year-old.
“And it was the last award of the night so I was on my third glass of wine after two glasses of champagne.”
The graduate of the Television Workshop thanked its director Ian Smith during her speech.
“I mentioned the cast and crew who couldn’t be there and thanked Ian for his continued support, much like Jack O’Connell did at the Baftas.”
The fellow Workshopper was up for two awards for the drama Starred Up and the film ‘71 at the National Film Awards at Porchester Hall in Mayfair.
“He couldn’t be there because he was filming in New York,” says Lauren, whose character in Echo is a 17-year-old called Caroline. She is seen taking a call on her mobile, becoming distressed at some apparent bad news about her dad being in a motorbike accident. But it’s a con, to trick passers-by into giving her money for a taxi to the hospital. It’s based on an incident witness by the film’s writer James Walker.
Its director came to the Television Workshop, where Lauren started as an 11-year-old, to cast the film.
It was shot two years ago in King Street, Wheeler Gate and the Old Market Square, where Lauren is seen with her on-screen brother, played by Newark teenager Oliver Woollford.
So convincing was her apparent distress, many people interrupted filming to check if she was OK.
“That was really reassuring, good on you, Nottingham,” says Lauren who has also appeared in Casualty, Doctors and the Nottingham-set BBC drama Truckers.
Echo director Lewis Arnold went on to work on TV dramas Misfits, Human and Russell T Davies’ E4 drama Banana, in which Lauren also appeared.
“He couldn’t come to the awards because he was casting in Manchester,” says the former Fernwood Comprehensive pupil.
“I was at the audition but I got to London in time for the awards.”
She adds: “I’ve been to quite a few auditions lately are quite exciting.”
Others at the awards included Keith Chegwin, Rizzle Kicks, Linda Robson, EastEnders’ Tanya Franks, were in attendance.
The red carpet event, included a goodie bag for nominees that included jewellery.
“There was another one we were given on the way out that included popcorn, water and chutney,” she laughs.
“We were really treated.”

Arsher Ali

March 2015

THE mystery surrounding Doctor Who is legendary. Cast and crew are sworn to secrecy in order to ensure storylines for future series are never leaked.
“It’s the first thing you sign; even before you sign your contract,” says Arsher Ali, of the confidentiality agreement with the makers of Britain’s long-running sci-fi series.
The Nottingham-born actor has already filmed his two episodes for the next series which is likely to hit the small screen in late summer.
“I can say it’s a two-parter and my general view of Doctor Who but no more than that,” says the 30-year-old, whose acting breakthrough came five years ago in the comedy film Four Lions.
He has since appeared in Silent Witness, Beaver Falls, The Guilty, Complicit, The Missing and, most recently, Arthur & George opposite Martin Clunes.
About Doctor Who, he says: “I am a fan of the show although it was a shame that the first Doctor for me when I was growing up was Sylvester McCoy.
“You could see that the show was dying so I didn’t really appreciate it until they brought it back with Christopher Eccleston,” says Arsher, who lives in the city centre with Emmerdale actress Roxy Shahidi. “He is up there on my favourite actors’ list so I started watching it again.
“I don’t like the sillier elements of Doctor Who; when it’s really camp and everyone is running around. That’s why I like Peter Capaldi,” he says of the current Doctor.
“The show should be dark and mysterious, and shouldn’t pull any punches in terms of being scary. When we were kids it’s what we all wanted.”
He adds: “Peter Davison was an underrated Doctor; he had a kind of vulnerability. And Tom Baker was silly but he could be serious as well. He was just mad, like The Joker.”
Doctor Who is just the latest in a string of TV series and films that Arsher has been busy filming over recent months.

At the end of last year he was in hit BBC drama The Missing opposite James Nesbitt, then in March in Arthur & George, a three-part ITV drama adapted from Julian Barnes’ acclaimed novel about the true story of The Great Wyrley Outrages.
In 1906, George Edalji, a young Anglo-Indian solicitor, was imprisoned for mutilating animals and writing obscene letters. He served three years before being released, after which he set out to clear his name in order for him to return to practising law.
Helping him in his quest was Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
“I can’t believe it’s real; it’s like someone getting done for terror charges and Russell Brand leaping to their defence,” says Arsher, who played Edalji opposite Clunes as Conan Doyle.
“You think you know him from Men Behaving Badly, that he’s a kind of oafish, comical guy but he’s not at all,” he says of his co-star.
“He’s super smart, super sophisticated, very witty and super posh. And he was so good in it.”
The three-parter pulled in up to six million viewers.
“The actual case, and the achieving of the pardon was quite an historic event. A lot of laws and regulations were changed from that first case. So it is an important landmark case in terms of law now.
“I’d read the book when I left drama school. Then the Nottingham Playhouse did a co-production of it and that landed at my door. But I thought ‘no’ because they don’t do catering,” he jokes.
The theatre’s artistic director, Giles Croft, is a neighbour and has often asked Arsher to appear in various productions there but he’s always been too busy.
“I’d love to work at the Playhouse; it’s where I saw my first theatre really.”
That was when he was at Bilborough College.
“It would be great to work with Giles. My missus has. She did The Importance of Being Earnest with Anjli Mohindra,” he adds, of the Nottingham actress who played his wife in The Missing.
After Bilborough College, Arsher went to East 15 Acting School at the University of Essex, then graduated to roles with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
There will be two more films featuring Arsher out this year; one with This Is England actor Stephen Graham with the working title A Patch of Fog.

“It’s about stalkers and Stephen’s really good in it; very creepy. And he has a menacing persona which he plays on, just for a laugh. Some of the cast members who’d not met him before didn’t know how to take him.
“It was fun. I don’t do a lot of film because I get offered a lot of good TV stuff.”
He had complained that due to his looks, he’d been repeatedly offered roles as a terrorist.
“If you see anything that has a kind of terrorist plot at its heart, be sure it landed at my door,” he laughs.
“It’s getting better though.”
Arsher, who’ll be in another film due out this year called Remainder, based on the cult novel by Tom McCarthy, is writing a screenplay about heavy metal music in Iraq.
“I’m very excited about that, because it’s mad,” he says.
“It’s from an article I came across and I optioned it. We’re on the third draft of the script now.”
He adds: “I’ve always fancied writing. I read so many scripts, why wait around for that perfect thing to land at your door? Why not do it yourself?”
When he’s not working, Arsher’s free time is dominated by sport. His first choice of career was sports journalism and he’s sort of achieved that with regular columns in the Nottingham Post about his beloved Nottingham Forest.
“I’ll travel everywhere to watch them. And if I can’t make it I’ll ring home and get my mum or my missus to put the phone to the radio so I can listen to the commentary on Radio Nottingham.”
He played football for his school team but was “too lazy” to make a go of it.
Arsher, the son of a Raleigh welder, now retired, is also often to be seen at Trent Bridge during the cricket season.
“You can just walk around there and everyone is so friendly. You can get friendly with the players; they are always more wordly than footballers, so you have a proper conversation with them.”
He adds: “I started a cricket team when I was at Haywood School in Sherwood.

“We only had two other teams to play against and I think we always lost those games.”
He and Shahidi will soon be moving North to be closer to Yorkshire Television, where Emmerdale is filmed.
He says with a grin: “If it was up to me we’d be in West Bridgford, but with the City Ground and Trent Bridge just down the road, she knows I’d never be home.”

Morrissey and Vince Eager

March 2015

MORRISSEY would like to be cremated to a song by a Notts rock’n’roller.

The master of the morose, who is at the Capital FM Arena tonight, chose Vince Eager’s 1960 single The World’s Loneliest Man as his No. 1 in a list of Songs To Be Cremated With.

And his fascination with the song has led to him checking into hotels as Vince Eager and even releasing the song as a B-side on his own single.

“I find it all quite bizarre,” says Vince, 74, who lives in Radcliffe-on-Trent.

“The World’s Loneliest Man was written especially for me by Jerry Lordan, who had written Apache and other hits for The Shadows.

“When I did my TV series in 1959, on one occasion I sang Paul Anka’s Lonely Boy. Apparently a lot people went into shops to buy it but I hadn’t recorded it. Because there was so much interest we decided to go for one in a similar vein.”

The single, produced by George Martin before he went on to work with The Beatles, failed to make the Top 40.

“I wasn’t happy with the recording, to be honest, but it sold quite well, around 30,000 copies, which today would get it to No. 1. It got to something like No. 45.”

Fast forward to the late 90s when Vince, one of the original British rock’n’rollers alongside Cliff Richard, Billy Fury and Marty Wilde, was in the US and working as a cruise director.

“I started researching for a book I was writing. I’d got my first computer and I searched for Vince Eager to see what I could find... and there was this story about Morrissey’s list of songs he wanted to be cremated with. And I was at No. 1.”

The list, called Singles To Be Cremated With, was in an article in the NME called Headful Of Heroes, published in 1989.

Vince says: “Now I didn’t know much about him. I knew who The Smiths were but it wasn’t my sort of music. So I asked a friend who said ‘oh he probably chose that because he’s a miserable sod like you’.”

The song includes the lines:

I don’t want to live in the past

Oh no, that’s where you belong

I’ve got nothing to live for tomorrow

And today everything went wrong

I am the world’s loneliest man... yes... yes I am...

Vince continues: “About 18 months ago he released a single with my song as its B-side. It wasn’t his version of The World’s Loneliest Man but my actual version – the single I’d released in 1960. That blew me away. He never got in touch and asked his permission. But it was out of copyright anyway so he was OK to do that.”

The A-side was Glamorous Glue and the seven-inch vinyl record was only released as a limited edition, with some fans paying £150 for it.

“When I was recording my album in Bristol, the guy who ran the studio told me that Morrissey had been checking into hotels overseas as Vince Eager.

“I didn’t believe it but he said there was a bass player who Morrissey worked with that he knew and he’d told him that.

“He’d also told him that Morrissey does really like the record but he thinks everything else I’ve done is rubbish,” he laughs.

“Which is fair enough I suppose – I don’t like his stuff either.”






MORRISSEY’S SONGS TO BE CREMATED WITH...


1. The World’s Loneliest Man – Vince Eager

2. Don’t Take The Lovers From The World – Shirley Bassey

3. What A Nice Way To Turn 17 – The Crystals

4. There, I’ve Said It Again – Sam Cooke

5. Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forgets – Dionne Warwick

6. Strange, I Know – The Marvelettes

7. Third Finger, Left Hand – Martha Reeves And The Vandellas

8. I Take It Back – Sandy Posey

9. Heart – Rita Pavone

10. Shoes – Reparata

Joe Dempsie

March 2015

HAD his family not moved to Nottingham when he was four months old, Joe Dempsie wouldn’t have been an actor.

“There’s no doubt about that,” says the 27-year-old, best known for his roles in teen drama Skins and epic HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones.

He was born in Liverpool but due to his parents’ work, grew up in West Bridgford.

By the age of 13, on his mother’s suggestion, he was a member of The Television Workshop, the Nottingham acting school that has produced numerous stars of TV, film and stage.

Although Dempsie wasn’t harbouring dreams of becoming an actor.

“I went because it was a laugh” he admits, talking to Confetti students as part of their ninth annual Industry Week, a series of events over five days and nights designed to inspire students of film, TV, music and games.

“It wasn’t something I’d considered before joining the Workshop. It wasn’t something I considered the first few years of being a member of the Workshop either.

“I just enjoyed messing around there twice a week. Every now again you’d go for an audition for a part in a TV show or a film but that was just a bonus.

“It was only when I’d been told by the guys who ran the Workshop that it was maybe something I could do, that I started to take it seriously.”

After finishing A-levels at West Bridgford School, where he admits to being “a frustrating student to teach”, Dempsie took a year off to “mull over” the idea of becoming an actor.

“I got a job at Cineworld in the Cornerhouse, thinking I’d be watching loads of films but at the end of a ten-hour shift the last thing you wanted to do was to spend another two hours there.

“By the end of that gap year not a lot was really happening auditions-wise so I applied to do history at university in Birmingham.”

But then he got the part in Skins, the E4 series about partying teenagers in which he played loveable hedonist Chris Miles.

“Skins was nuts,” says Dempsie, who was a regular at Media and Stealth nightclubs as a teenager.

“We shot series one and had no idea what would happen. It was a low-budget show for E4. But then the ad campaign for it started. The trailer seemed to be on every ad break on Channel 4, there were posters on buses, on the Tube... so the build-up for it was huge.

“When people talk about things changing overnight, that’s what happened for us. The night after it was shown, life was different. It was a bit like being in One Direction, I imagine.”

Dempsie, who recalls his first acting role as the ox in a school nativity play (“crouched with a Cornflakes box on my head”), was in the series for two years before being killed off.

“I think the success of it was that out of this motley crew of friends there was one that everyone could identify with.”

As a result of Skins he was being recognised in the street wherever he went.

“Skins started informing some of my career decisions; I didn’t really know if that level of attention was for me.”

He turned down a lot of Skins-style parts offered to him and took on small roles in Doctor Who, Merlin, Shane Meadows’ This Is England ‘86 and The Damned United, before his next major success came along: big budget US fantasy series Game of Thrones.

“I felt like I’d reclaimed my anonymity but then I had to readjust again when Game of Thrones came along,” he says.

“But it doesn’t affect my day to day in the same way that Skins did.”

Since 2011, he’s been playing Gendry in the internationally successful series based on the novels of George R R Martin.

A movie has been rumoured but he doesn’t know if it will happen.

“I think it’s a really good idea but I think the proposal is to do a couple more seasons and then a series of three films, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I hope it does happen, as long as I’m in it,” he laughs.

Other TV hits he’s appeared in include The Fades, Moving On, Accused, Southcliffe, New Worlds and Murder: Joint Enterprise, a one-off drama set in Nottingham that won a BAFTA.

“I don’t get back to Nottingham as much as I’d like,” says Dempsie, who lives in South London.

“My parents are still based here but they’ve been in Surrey for the past five months helping my younger sister, who has cerebral palsy, settle into her new house.

“We’ve got to get a care team in place, which is quite a long process.”

He adds: “When I do get back here it’ll be to see Forest or catch up with friends, although most of them are either engaged or have babies, so no-one wants to go into town anymore.”

Dempsie, who is single, stays in touch with numerous Workshoppers, including Mr Selfridge actress Aisling Loftus and recent BAFTA winner Jack O’Connell, plus Perry Fitzpatrick, his co-star in This Is England 90.

“It’s the most fun I’ve had on a set in a long, long time,” he says of the four-part drama, due to air on Channel 4 in the autumn. “Half the cast I grew up with at the Workshop,” he adds; among them were Vicky McClure, Andrew Shim, Rosamund Hanson, Michael Socha and Chanel Cresswell.

“For everyone it’s a safe environment.”

The BAFTA-winning series recently completed filming in Sheffield, with Nottingham-based director Shane Meadows, who he describes as “the master puppeteer.”

He adds: “We were reminiscing about the Workshop days.

“We’re in the golden age of Workshoppers being professional actors. When I joined it was only Samantha Morton and Chris Gascoyne, who was in Coronation Street, that we looked up to.

“Now we’re everywhere.”

Morrissey in quotes

March 2015

“The Brit Awards are ghastly. I would never accept a Brit. It would be like Laurence Olivier being happy getting a TV Times award.”

“The Brit Awards are ghastly. I would never accept a Brit. It would be like Laurence Olivier being happy getting a TV Times award.”


“Long hair is an unpardonable offence which should be punishable by death.”


“I wish that Prince Charles had been shot. I think it would have made the world a more interesting place.”


“I’m not very good at being dull.”


“The smell of burning animals is making me sick. I can smell burning flesh …and I hope to God it’s human.” – exiting the stage at Coachella in 2009.


“It’s the refuge for the mentally deficient. It’s made by dull people for dull people” – on dance music and club culture.


“Bring me the head of Elton John… which is one instance in which meat would not be murder, if it were served on a plate.”


“Life would be so colourful if only I had a drink problem.”


“Bob Geldof is a nauseating character. Band Aid was the most self-righteous platform ever in the history of popular music.”


“I would rather eat my own testicles than reform The Smiths, and that’s saying something for a vegetarian.”

“All human activity is fruitless unless pitted against the girls and boys singing on pop television, for they have found the answer as the rest of us search for the question. I will sing too. If not, I will have to die.”


“The Smiths only happened because I had walked home in the rain once too often.”


“The monarchy is foremost a business, and it’s important to them that the British public continue to finance the excessive luxurious lifestyles of the now quite enormous, wasteful and useless ‘royal’ family. I find it very sad.”


“Age shouldn’t affect you. You’re either marvellous or you’re boring, regardless of your age.”


“It is really on the same moral level as child abuse. It’s the same thing. Animals are like children, they look to us for protection.”


“If I met Vic Reeves, I’d have no desire other than to smack him in the face.”


“Just as the Mercury Prize lands like a voodoo doll in the hands of the unlucky recipient (who is usually to be found selling mattresses ten months later), a Brit Award generally goes to a lot of shriveled young souls who have not earned it.”

“(Sigmund Freud) made people feel so neurotic about their lives. I mean, if you dreamt about a lampshade, it meant you wanted to be whipped by the local vicar or something.”


“I am capable of looking on the bright side – I just don’t do it very often.”


“What’s the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning? Wish I hadn’t.”


“I do maintain that if your hair is wrong, your entire life is wrong.”


“(Richard Madeley) referred to me as an ‘insufferable puffed-up prat’. This is a bit rich coming from a man who actually married his own mother.”


“The rhino is now more or less extinct, and it’s not because of global warming or shrinking habitats. It’s because of Beyoncé’s handbags.”


“If more men were homosexual, there would be no wars, because homosexual men would never kill other men, whereas heterosexual men love killing other men.”


“My parents were worried about me, certainly when I became so deeply interested in music and people like the New York Dolls who, at the time, were very peculiar indeed.”


“I don’t iron anything. Never have and never will.”


“The Smiths was an incredibly personal thing to me. It was like launching your own diary to music.”

“It seems unlikely that an end-of-the-world announcement would be believed nationally unless confirmed on BBC1 by Cheryl Cole whilst conditioning her hair.”


“We’re all lonely, but I’d rather be lonely by myself than with a long list of duties and obligations. I think that’s why people kill themselves, really.”


“Lady Gaga said to me, ‘You showed me how it’s done.’ I have no idea what she meant by ‘it.’”


“I have no love for myself as a human being, but I have immense pride in the music I make, and I believe it has an important place. Others do, too, and the thousands of people with Morrissey tattoos certainly proves something.”


“I think I’d be a prime candidate for canonisation.”


“The solo years have been more meaningful to the audiences than the Smiths years, but the press in England only write about me in relation to the Smiths era.”


“I never imagined I’d be a solo artist. And now I couldn’t imagine being part of a group.”

“I think we were all initially swept along with the Obama win, but he’s proven to be simply a set of teeth, and useless in every other regard.”


“Britain has been encouraged to become a nation of idiots (which, of course, is what it is not).”


“The fire in the belly is essential, otherwise you become Michael Buble – famous and meaningless.”


“The Smiths are never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever going to reunite – ever.”


Morrissey comes to the Capital FM Arena on Friday, March 13. Tickets are priced at £50.40 and £72.80 (includes admin fee), from the box office. Call 0843 373 3000 or visit capitalfmarena.com.

Andrea Lowe - DCI Banks

February 2015

THERE is a scene in the new series of Yorkshire-based crime drama DCI Banks where a murder investigation leads to Nottingham.

“Yes and no,” laughs actress Andrea Lowe, who plays DS Annie Cabbot.

“The story does travel to Nottingham but sadly we didn’t for the filming, which was a shame,” says the actress who grew up in Arnold.

“So we pretended to be in Nottingham to visit a relative of a victim but it was all filmed in Leeds. Although, I was back in Nottingham last week for a friend’s 40th birthday party,” adds Lowe, who now lives in London.

“And I brought my son up to hang out with my mum and dad in Woodthorpe.”

Lowe had her first child, now two, during the second series, which is why Annie Cabbot was written out as being on maternity leave.

Lowe was back for the third series last year and able to see her newborn during filming as she and partner Terry Betts, a fashion buyer, relocated to Leeds for the duration.

“But he was back at work when we did this series at the end of last year,” she says.

“I did travel to London every week to see him but it was like a pit stop every time. Filming hours are always long so I wasn’t back home for long before I had to be back on the train up to Leeds.”

The fourth series, which starts on ITV1 next week, reunites Lowe with Stephen Tompkinson as Alan Banks, whose on/off relationship with Annie sees her reuniting with an old flame.

“The relationship is most definitely off,” insists Lowe, despite the trailer for the series showing the characters holding hands.

“That’s a reassuring gesture. Banks has a really traumatic time in the first episode and Annie is there for him but she’s very much back with the father of her daughter.

“Alan finds it hard to let go of their relationship. He wants her back. Annie still has feelings for him but a year has passed and in that time her feelings have almost diminished. She’s getting on with her own life.”

In the first of the three, two-part dramas, Banks suffers a family tragedy, although it doesn’t get in the way of the job in hand, investigating the discovery of a body. In fact, all three stories are about the discovery of bodies.

Does she call Tompkinson, who starred in the Nottingham-set BBC drama Truckers, Honky Tonk on set?

“Or Steve-O,” she laughs.

“He gets referred to as Mr T. He’s lovely. He’s not someone who finds problems, he finds solutions, which is helpful. Yeah, he’s a good guy.”

The first three series were based on the novels of Peter Robinson but this time new writers were brought in with CVs that include Law & Order: UK, Lewis, Midsomer Murders and Death In Paradise.

“We’re taking guidance from Peter Robinson so it’s not too much of a departure,” says Lowe, 39.

“There are still lots of options of who could have done it.”

She’d be able to work it out, having told ITV researchers for the programme’s publicity material ‘I would make a good police detective... I have a really investigative mind. I like to know where people are and what they are doing so I can get my head around things.’

It comes as a surprise to the actress that she actually said that. And that ‘there was a dalliance on set and I was straight onto it.’

A dalliance?

“I didn’t think ITV would put that in the notes,” says Lowe, sounding genuinely horrified.

“But yes I did some marvellous detective work when one of the actors had a fling with someone on set.”

Who?

“I can’t say!” she laughs.

Filming the series during the winter caused a few problems.

“It was really windy a lot of the time and so I’ve had to record some of the dialogue again to be overdubbed. Not that you’ll be able to tell.”

She adds: “There was a once scene where we chasing a car and the director and Stephen forgot to tell me that there would be another car involved. So I see this other car hurtling towards us and think it’s really happening,” she laughs.

Lowe’s love of acting goes right back to her childhood in Arnold, where she grew up alongside two brothers.

At Redhill Comprehensive School she appeared in a production of Under Milk Wood and in her spare time attended Lesley Reason School of Dance in Gedling.

After studying English and theatre at Goldsmiths College in London, she cut her teeth doing small parts on telly, such as Peak Practice and The Bill.

Since then her TV credits have included Monroe, Accused, The Tudors, Shameless and Where The Heart Is.

Her first film role was alongside her friend and neighbour Samantha Morton in the musical comedy drama The Token King set in a high school in Nottingham.

“I really want to do some more work in Nottingham,” she says.

“I wanted to do Truckers with Stephen but it didn’t make sense to have us together in another drama.”


DCI Banks begins on ITV1 on Wednesday at 9pm.

Arsher Ali - Arthur & George

February 2015

ITV expects its new drama, Arthur & George, to be a hit with viewers, as it sits in ‘the Broadchurch slot’.

The three-parter, which begins on Monday at 9pm, is based on a true story that became known as The Great Wyrley Outrages.

In 1906, George Edalji, a young Anglo-Indian solicitor, was imprisoned for mutilating animals and writing obscene letters.

He served three years before being released, after which he set out to clear his name in order for him to return to practising law.

Helping him in his quest was Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

“I can’t believe it’s real; it’s like someone getting done for terror charges and Russell Brand leaping to their defence,” says Arsher Ali, who plays Edalji opposite Martin Clunes as Conan Doyle.

“The actual case, and the achieving of the pardon was quite an historic event,” continues the 30-year-old actor, last seen in BBC drama The Missing alongside James Nesbitt.

“A lot of laws and regulations were changed from that first case. So it is an important landmark case in terms of law now.”

Arthur & George is based on Julian Barnes’ acclaimed novel.

“I’d read that when I left drama school. Then the Nottingham Playhouse did a co-production of it and that landed at my door,” he says, meaning he was offered a part.

“But I thought ‘no’ because they don’t do catering,” he jokes.

The theatre’s artistic director, Giles Croft, is a neighbour and has often asked Ali if he’d like to appear in various productions there but he’s always been too busy.

“I’d love to work at the Playhouse; it’s where I saw my first theatre really.” That was when he was at Bilborough College.

“It would be great to work with Giles. My missus has,” he says of Emmerdale actress Roxy Shahidi, who he lives with in the city centre.

“She did The Importance of Being Earnest with Anjli Mohindra,” he adds, of the Nottingham actress who played his wife in The Missing.

After college, Ali went to East 15 Acting School at the University of Essex, then graduated to roles with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Comedy film Four Lions, his breakthrough, was five years ago. Since then he’s been a fixture on the small screen, appearing in Silent Witness, Beaver Falls, The Guilty and Complicit.

There will be two more films featuring Ali out this year; one with This Is England actor Stephen Graham and another called Remainder, based on the cult novel by Tom McCarthy.

He’s also writing a screenplay about heavy metal music in Iraq.

Ali is sworn to secrecy about his role in the next series of Doctor Who, which he finished filming in January.

Arthur & George is his first work playing a real person.

Filmed at the end of last year in London, Oxford and the Black Country Museum in Birmingham, it also stars Art Malik (The Jewel in the Crown, True Lies) as Edalji’s father, Emma Fielding (Silk, DCI Banks, Kidnap and Ransom) as his mother and Charles Edwards (Downton Abbey) as Alfred ‘Woodie’ Wood, Sir Arthur’s trusted secretary, who helps him pursue the apparent miscarriage of justice.

“It is an amazing story which emerged from a letter George wrote campaigning to get people on side,” says Ali.

“Sir Arthur is immediately taken by the letter, and is convinced beyond a doubt that George is innocent.”

Of Clunes, Ali says: “You think you know him from Men Behaving Badly, that he’s a kind of oafish, comical guy but he’s not at all. He’s super smart, super sophisticated, very witty and super posh.”

Ali is an avid Forest fan, who writes regularly for the Post and gets to all the games that his schedule allows.

He’s also often to be seen at Trent Bridge during the cricket season.

“I started a cricket team when I was at Haywood School in Sherwood. Although we only had two other teams to play against and I think we always lost those games.”

He and Shahidi will soon be moving North to be closer to Yorkshire Television, where Emmerdale is filmed.

He says with a grin: “If it was up to met we’d be in West Bridgford but with the City Ground and Trent Bridge just down the road, she knows I’d never be home.”

Arthur & George begins on ITV1 on Monday at 9pm.

X Factor Live 2015

February 2015

A MATTER of days before it was announced that Sam Bailey had been dropped by Simon Cowell’s label Syco Music, the X Factor 2013 winner was asked what advice she had for Ben Haenow.
“You need to stay grounded, be prepared to work hard and most importantly be respectful,” said the mum-of-three.
She should have added: “Enjoy it while you can.”
Bailey’s debut single, Skyscraper, was the Christmas No. 1 in 2013. Her debut album, The Power Of Love, also topped the UK chart.
She even got to support Beyoncé at one of her UK shows. But no sooner had her own tour, which came to the Royal Concert Hall earlier this month, had ended, she was dropped. Or rather her contract was not renewed. Which is a good indication of how Cowell views the longevity of X Factor champions.
“I kind of knew it was coming,” Bailey told Gaby Roslin, standing in for the host of ITV’s Lorraine.
“I’m not silly, I’ve been around the block a bit,” added the former prison officer from Leicester.
Fourteen months after winning the show, she was cast adrift.

Bailey plans to continue but without major label/management behind her she is unlikely to repeat her past success.

Haenow is mirroring Bailey’s journey from the winner’s podium, topping the Christmas chart with Something I Need (the fastest-selling debut single of 2014), then signing Syco Music on his 30th birthday.

He’s in the process of working on his debut album for the label.

“To say I’m excited to become part of the Syco family is an understatement,” said the former van driver from Croydon.

“Getting to work with Simon during the show was incredible. He is a great guy and amazing mentor – and really helped me as an artist.”

Like Bailey, he is the main attraction on the 25-date X Factor tour, which comes to the Capital FM Arena on Sunday.

Joining him will be runner-up Fleur East, for a long time the favourite to win the series, plus Lauren Platt, Andrea Faustini, Stevi Ritchie, Jay James, Only The Young and Stereo Kicks.

The tour opened in Belfast with Fleur East first on stage singing Can’t Hold Us, followed by Lauren Platt with Happy and How Will I Know.

Only The Young took on the Jungle Book classic I Wanna Be Like You, while Stereo Kicks ran through a medley of Beatles hits, among them Let It Be and Hey Jude.

The second half included the obligatory group performance before headliner Haenow’s show-stealing set of six songs, including AC/DC’s Highway To Hell, an indication of his rock leanings.

Stevi Ritchie, whose clowning on the TV series rather bafflingly landed him in the final, will be seen suspended in mid air dressed as Freddie Mercury for his karaoke version of Bohemian Rhapsody.

His first number is Livin’ La Vida Loca, backed by a troupe of backing dancers dressed in bright pink.

Other outfits include a Bond-style tux for Jay James’ cover of Skyfall, described by one reviewer as “the best times to nip to the toilet”.

There’ll be interpretations of songs by The Beatles, Elvis, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Snow Patrol and two Disney tunes, Let It Go from Frozen and I Wanna Be Like You from Jungle Book.

Maintaining her credibility and the most likely to succeed from the 2014 series is Fleur East.

Her six songs (as many as winner Haenow), include Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass, Jessie J’s Bang Bang, Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk, Alicia Keys’ If I Ain’t Got You and Macklemore’s Can’t Hold Us.

And she is the only other X Factor finalist from last year’s series to sign a record deal... with Cowell’s Syco Music.

There’s a video before the group finale – Take That’s Never Forget – showing some of the more interesting characters from the series and you’ll have to look out for Gamston’s Lauren Lovejoy, whose depiction of the four judges as animals (Simon Cowell – lion, Cheryl Fernandez-Versinia – Persian cat, Mel B – panther and Louis Walsh – seal) was one of the highlights of the early shows.

Although they’d be wise not to include that clip as the broadcast edited out the part where the 25-year-old explained that it was her autism that made her see people in such a way.

As for Haenow, he’d be wise to enjoy every moment, considering X Factor winners who have gone before. For every Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke and Little Mix, there’s a Steve Brookstein, Leon Jackson or Sam Bailey.

The world of Twitter has certainly helped keep him grounded.

He recently asked his social media followers “Fancy a little #AskHaenow?”

Among the questions about his life and music, there were a few swipes to the kidneys, including “Who are you again?” (@Our_manPLA) and “When you go to McDonald’s do you ask the staff what their names are to build up a rapport with your future colleagues?” (@ItWasJustBanter).

The X Factor Live Tour comes to the Capital FM Arena on Sunday at 7.30pm. Tickets, from £21.84, are available from 0843 373 3000 or capitalfmarena.com.

April Towers

February 2015

Within just over an hour of uploading it to the BBC Introducing website, April Towers’ first single, Arcadia, was being played by Fearne Cotton on her Radio 1 show.
And it threw the Nottingham synth-pop duo into a spin.
“It was just a coincidence that it was BBC Introducing day,” says Charlie Burley, of the BBC initiative which helps unsigned artists get national radio airplay.
Anyone can put tracks forward  using the BBC Introducing Uploader, which is monitored locally by Dean Jackson at BBC Radio Nottingham.
“Dean was going to play it on The Beat that Saturday but then he called us to say it had been heard by Huw Stephens,” he says of the Radio 1 presenter who is in charge of BBC Introducing at the station.
“And he said it was going to be played on Fearne Cotton’s show that morning.”
Charlie, who was born in West Bridgford, grew up in Southwell but now lives in Mapperley Park, formed April Towers from the ashes of acclaimed Nottingham band Frontiers, with Alex Noble from Wysall.
“We had a break from music, got our heads together and decided we were both going to do solo projects,” says Charlie.
“The idea for April Towers was initially Alex’s solo project. But he sent me a vocal demo that he’d recorded on his iPhone for a track called Tel Aviv and I really liked it. I asked if I could turn it into a proper track.
“That was the first track we uploaded to Soundcloud in the summer of 2013 and it really took off. People were asking us when we were playing live - but we only had one track. So we spent the first few months palming people off.
“But that was the point we started taking it seriously.”
The name comes from a friend of Alex who was trying to saying ‘April showers’.
Says Alex: “It was someone I worked with who’d had a few. And it just stuck with me. I Googled the name and the only April Towers that came up were a few girls in the Deep South of America.
“It’s important to have a name that no-one else has and it has been a big source of discussion. Although some people think we are a female solo act,” he laughs.
Although fundamentally a synth pop act, there are traces of their days with Frontiers.
Says Charlie: “We’ve brought in a lot of indie elements; there are lots of guitars on our tracks, so that takes it away from being purely electronic music.”
Both play guitars and keys, Alex is the main singer with Charlie backing during live shows. And they’ve introduced a drummer for gigs after using a drum machine in the past.
They’d been together just over a year before the Radio 1 airplay last October.
“It triggered a lot of interest,” says Charlie.
“It’s been pretty crazy ever since.”
As well as support slots with Kyla La Grange and a BBC Introducing gig for Club NME at Koko in London last month (where Huw Stephens was the DJ), their second single, No Corruption, has been playlisted on Radio 1.
“Huw’s been playing it for a while, but last week it was played on virtually every Radio 1 show: Fearne Cotton, Greg James, Alice Levine and Scott Mills, who announced on air that he was a real fan and did an impression of the vocals, which was pretty surreal,” says Charlie.
He adds: “We’ve had so many more followers on Twitter and likes on Facebook, even people from Europe.”
The single is released digitally on Monday, followed by physical copies in March. To celebrate they’ve produced their own beer.
“We thought April Towers sounded like an ale,” says Charlie.
“We’re very much into our beer so we contacted Castle Rock.
The bottled beer, 5%, is now on sale at Saltwater and Alex’s local The Plough in Wysall.
He adds: “We also sent Scott Mills a few. We had 15 cases and we’re down to just two. Alex has drunk quite a bit of it. I’ve only had three bottles.”

For more about April Towers follow them on Twitter: @April_Towers.

Indiana makes Top 20 with debut album

February 2015

She knew it; Indiana predicted that her debut album, No Romeo, would be number 17 when the chart was announced. “I was in the shower, the glass was all steamed up and I said to myself ‘write the number you think you’re going to be in the glass and you will be that number,’”says the singer-songwriter who released the album just a week ago.


“And I wrote 17. I wish that, if it was some sort of witching power, that I’d written number one,” she laughs.


The 27-year-old mum of two celebrated at home in Long Eaton by drinking tea and eating chocolate. Last night she was at the cinema with her boyfriend while mum babysat.


“I’m really pleased to have a Top 20 album, it’s what I was hoping for,” she says.


The news came at the end of a busy and anxious week for Indiana, real name Lauren Henson.


“I’ve found it really difficult to sleep,” she admits.


The album was launched in London, followed by a singing and signing session at Nottingham’s Rough Trade in Broad Street, radio and TV interviews and using her Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts to promote the album.


“I’ve been busy on social media more than I have ever,” says Indiana, whose music is dark, electronic pop.


“I think people are sick of seeing my face because I posted so many selfies,” she laughs.


The success, the first for a Nottingham artist in the album chart since Jake Bugg’s Shangri La reached number three two years ago, comes just three years after her very first gig in the Old Market Square.


That was part of the Future Sound of Nottingham competition organised by local music champions Nusic.


“I’ve had a lot of support since then and I want to thank Nottingham for helping me, especially Mark Del from Nusic, who has really been campaigning hard for me. I’m really grateful.”


She’s now planning her next single, which will be album track Blind As I Am.


“The photographer Rankin wants to shoot the video for it and I’m excited about that,” she says, adding: “I want people to keep discovering the album. I want it to be known as a classic over time. I think it deserves to be higher than number 17 but I’m a new artist and my music hasn’t been heard on many platforms yet. I’d like to be played on Radio 2 and commercial radio. Maybe with the release of Blind As I Am, which is a ballad, that will happen.


“I definitely want more. I want No Romeo to be heard by more people, in other countries and it to take me around the world.


“And now it’s a Top 20 album, doors will open; there’s a lot to look forward.”


The number one album was a new entry by Bob Dylan, his 36th release called Shadows In The Night.


Others in the Top 20 included Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Mark Ronson and Meghan Trainor.

Saint Raymond

February 2015

The Saint Raymond story begins with his family. Even his name is a tribute to his paternal grandfather, Raymond Burrows, a Nottingham bus driver who died before rising music star had reached his teens.

“I liked the idea of using Saint something,” says Callum Burrows, now 19, of the street name in Bramcote where he grew up.

“But you can’t put Saint in front of your own name because that’s kind of a big-headed thing to do.

“Sometimes people do think my name is Raymond but most know who I am, what I do, what I had for dinner because the way social media is.”

Adding Saint to his grandfather’s surname was by way of a tribute to a man who had an influence on the youngster, much like the rest of his family.

Callum grew up with an older sister and two older brothers and was exposed to their music tastes from an early age.

“I saw Oasis at the Arena when I was about seven; it must have been one of the last tours they did. At 11 or 12 I started playing the guitar and getting into bands like The Kooks and going to my first gigs. I remember seeing The Maccabees at the Rescue Rooms who had Mumford and Sons supporting them, which was pretty weird because they went on to headline Glastonbury.

“I saw Dizzee Rascal at Rock City when I was 14... I was going to whatever gigs I could.”

It was at 14 that he started playing open mic nights, his first was at The Maze just off Mansfield Road.

He recalls: “A friend of mine was in a band and I just played a set before them. It was actually quite busy although I did many a gig at the Maze where there were just two people there.”

He continued slogging it around the city gig circuit with his guitar, playing around two shows a week.

His talent was noticed by a music scene that was just starting to get national attention, with major label signings for the likes of Natalie Duncan, Liam Bailey, then, most significantly, Jake Bugg.

Two years ago he signed to Asylum Records, part of the Atlantic group, home to Ed Sheeran, who Callum spent nine weeks on the road with at the end of last year playing arenas across the UK and Europe.

Prior to the record deal he’d released his debut EP on chart-topping singer Gabrielle Aplin’s own label and reached the Top 25 on the iTunes chart. He also toured with Aplin, the voice behind the No. 1 single The Power Of Love, as featured on the John Lewis Christmas campaign TV ad.

“She was really supportive,” he recalls.

As was Zane Lowe on Radio 1 and rapper Example, who he is still in touch with.

“He’s always been there on the end of the phone to talk to and text. He’s been wicked. He’s really funny.”

The same year he played the Reading and Leeds Festivals, toured the UK and Europe supporting Haim and had his own sold out tour, including Nottingham’s The Bodega.

The momentum built in 2014 with two more iTunes hits, more national radio support and an impromptu slot at Glastonbury.

“I’d gone with my drummer just to enjoy it. Normally when you are playing them you don’t get to enjoy the festival experience, so it was nice to just go along to have some fun.

“But I bumped into my radio plugger and he said that London Grammar had just dropped out, ‘do you fancy playing a set tomorrow?’ I was drunk so I said yes. I got an early night, rocked up to the stage the next day and they said ‘OK, it’ll be live on Radio 1’”, he laughs.

A bigger gig, or 37 of them, was to come with the Ed Sheeran tour that ran across the UK and Europe and saw him facing crowds of up to 20,000 people.

“I’m usually kind of chilled before shows but I must admit I was pretty overwhelmed by it to start with.

“It’s harder to see faces in arenas so you don’t realise how many people there are... not until the moment in the set where we got everyone to light up their phones. That freaked me out a little bit.”

And how was Britain’s biggest-selling artist of 2014?

“Ed was great. He’d come by the dressing room and ask how it was going, we’d text each other... he’s really down to earth.”

Being away from home for over two months wasn’t easy for the son of a teaching assistant and a salesman, who admits to being quite “homey”.

He says: “Nine weeks is a long time to be with anyone; even if you are married, so it was hard being on a tour bus with the same people every day. But you learn each other’s boundaries.

“I like to sit by myself with my laptop and listen to music, play XBox... I take myself away from it all. That’s what I’d do at home and I think the trick is to install as much of home life into tour life.”

His band are like an extended family. The bassist is his brother-in-law, who was in a band with the drummer.

“Me and him went to Glastonbury and Ibiza together,” he says.

“It has never felt like me and session players. We get along in the dressing and we hang out together.”

Although he has been in search of a new guitarist for the upcoming tour, since his original one quit.

His elder siblings have long flown the nest so when he comes home to Bramcote it’s just him, mum, dad and the dog. And he loves it.

“When I was living at home I just wanted to go out all the time,” he says.

“And by the time I reached 16 I wanted to move to London but then I spent six months going down there working from Monday to Friday... now I just love being at home.”

His fans on Twitter know his mum, Diane, who goes under the name Momma Burrows, as she is a prolific tweeter.

“I was interviewed by Jo Whiley on Radio 2 and she spent most of the time asking me about my mum,” he laughs.

Callum is at home now working on new material, including a song for the soundtrack of an upcoming British film called Kill Your Friends, starring  Nicholas Hoult and James Corden.

He’s already had songs featured on computer games, TV and film, including an advert for ITV Player and Us comedy This Is Where I Leave You, which starred Tina Fey and Jason Bateman.

“My mum collects cuttings from papers and magazines and records all the shows. She’s like ‘you were on Hollyoaks, hang on let me find it,” he laughs.

This month he will be on a headline tour of the UK that includes a sell-out show at Rock City.

“Every year me and my manager do a bucket list and playing Rock City was on it but when he talked about booking it I thought ‘no, I’ll never sell-out Rock City’. Just because I’ve seen so many big artists here. I didn’t think it would happen, so I can’t believe it’s sold out.”

Not that’ll there’ll be any nerves taking to that legendary stage.

“When I came home after the arena tour with Ed, I came to Rock City to see Years and Years supporting Clean Bandit... and it felt so small. But I love Rock City gigs. I like that you can see people texting or whatever. An arena is an amazing experience but it’s a different feeling to playing here.”

After the tour he has no idea what will be happening.

“I honestly don’t know what I’m doing next week. Plans are constantly changing; which is great, you just enjoy the ride. But the down side is that you can’t, say, book a holiday with your mates because you don’t know if you’ll be free.

“Not that I’m complaining.”

The key event will be the long-awaited release of his debut album.

“You only release your first album once so you’ve got to be so sure with the timing. I’d love to release it tomorrow but you can’t get it out there for the sake of getting it out there.

“But it’ll definitely be this year. I’d like to hope it’ll be in the next six months.”

Saint Raymond plays Rock City on February 11. Sold out. For more about him visit saintraymond.co.uk. Follow him on Twitter: @Callum_SR.

Bugg and Burrows

Mention Jake Bugg and Callum Burrows, aka Saint Raymond, will stifle a sigh but the parallels with Nottingham’s biggest music star are numerous.

Both started out at the age of 14 playing opens mic nights at city pubs and venues with an acoustic guitar.

Although he turns 21 this month, Callum’s Clifton counterpart was, like him, 18 when he signed his record deal.

Both were given a helping hand by a major British music star on a tour of Europe. In Jake’s case it was Noel Gallagher, while Callum spent two months on the road with Ed Sheeran.

They are the only two Nottinghamshire musicians to sell-out Rock City’s main hall. This month, Saint Raymond will play the 1,950 capacity venue, two years to the week that Jake Bugg did the same.

And both are Notts County fans.

“Around the UK I do get asked about Jake Bugg, or he gets mentioned in interviews because of the Nottingham connection,” he says.

“And that’s nice because there’s a real vibe about Nottingham now. But we’re in different genres.”

True enough, while Bugg trawls Sixties and Seventies rock, blues, country and folk, Saint Raymond is more of a contemporary, anthemic indie pop artist.

It doesn’t help when we meet at Rock City that he makes a throwaway remark about meeting Cara Delevingne, the supermodel and gossip column regular who Bugg dated for a period.

“I played Call Of Duty with her,” he laughs.

“It was at a random game launch party. They invite a lot of people to test the game and tweet about it. I was with my mate, who knew how much I loved her, and he said ‘do you know Cara Delevingne is here?’. I thought he was joking. But she was sat next to me.

“I was about to leave and she said right let’s all have one big game against each other.”

He pauses, before adding with a grin: “She’s... interesting.”