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

2009 preview

January 2009

By all accounts we're doomed. The economy is in a mess and it's only going to get worse. Yeah, and a happy new year to you too. While the signs all point to a miserable 12 months ahead, that's not the case for the world of entertainment in Nottingham.


1. The year of the Horne It is going to be Mathew Horne's year. The 30-year-old from Burton Joyce, fresh from the success of the brilliant Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special, will first be seen presenting the BRIT Awards with co-star James Corden next month. The pair will be joined by Kylie Minogue, who also appears in the duo's brand new sketch show Horne & Corden which will air on BBC Three in February. A month later they'll be making their big screen debut in the comedy movie Lesbian Vampire Killers. And as revealed over Christmas, a third series of Gavin & Stacey will be made, hopefully by the end of 2009.

2. Bronson The big screen biopic of Britain's most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson a.k.a. Michael Peterson will be released in cinemas on March 13. Starring Tom Hardy (Black Hawk Down, RockNRolla) it was filmed entirely in Nottinghamshire and tells the story of the 55-year-old who has spent 34 years inside for repeat violence against fellow inmates and prison officers. It will also feature Amanda Burton (Silent Witness), Matt King (Doctor Who, Peep Show, Inkheart, RockNRolla) and James Lance (Spaced, Smack The Pony, I'm Alan Partridge).

3. Chart idols Some of the biggest chart names are heading for the Arena in 2009, among them The Killers, The Pussycat Dolls, Pink, Kaiser Chiefs, Metallica, Girls Aloud, Keane and Snow Patrol.

4. TV on tour Three of the biggest TV shows of 2008 go out on the road this year and each will stop off at the Arena in Nottingham, starting with Strictly Come Dancing on January 27, returning for three more shows. Alexandra leads the stars of The X Factor -- including the loonies -- on a tour that comes to the Arena in March, then Torvill & Dean mark the 25th anniversary of their world famous Bolero routine by bringing the stars of the forthcoming Dancing On Ice ITV series to the Arena for two shows in April.

5. Nottingham pops Castle Donington may have given birth to this electro-rock quartet but they consider Nottingham their home city. Probably as they live in Radcliffe-on-Trent these days. Their debut album Fantasy Black Channel was a critical success, landing in the Top 20 of the HMV Poll Of Polls 2008 -- collated from end of year polls by 35 key publications and websites. All they need to do now is translate that in to chart success and we'll be on the music map of Britain (finally). Or that may happen with Sam Beeton. After a shaky start, Carlton's 20-year-old singer-songwriter will finally see the release of his debut album on the Sony BMG label in March.

6. . High School Musical Disney's teen movie phenomenon -- think Fame without the legwarmers -- makes two appearances in the city this year, the first of which is an ice show at the Arena next month. Troy, super popular captain of the basketball team, and Gabriella, super smart transfer student and a genius in science class , then returns in May for the stage version at the Royal Concert Hall.

7. Old school musical Pop nostalgia is still going strong it seems with the astonishing popularity of Take That in 2008. On the back of that the West End musical Never Forget, featuring the songs of Take That, will tour the provinces including a four day run at the Theatre Royal in October. Boyzone, seeing the demand for their forefathers, returned to the pop game last year and sold out the Arena in the process. They'll be back If they're just too modern, there are a host of eighties pop idols coming to the Arena on the Here & Now Tour in May. Kim Wilde, Pete Burns, Altered Images, Brother Beyond and Hazel O'Connor were to be joined by Boy George but he may be otherwise occupied. The former Culture Club leader will be sentenced for falsely imprisoning a male escort on January 16.

8. Belly busters Ahead of his latest tour that will be dropping in to the Royal Concert Hall in April, Ross Noble will be warming up at Just The Tonic at The Approach on February 22, a rare opportunity to see the Geordie wit in a club setting. Manuel-bothering lothario Russell Brand will be making his Arena debut on February 20.

9. Summer fun DOWNLOAD will be back at Donington in June, McFly have been confirmed for one of the outdoor shows at Sherwood Pines Forest Park the same month and though the date has yet to be set, Splendour will return to Wollaton Park this summer. Nottingham's brand new music festival last year featured Kate Nash, Rufus Wainwright, The Lemonheads, Paolo Nutini and dozens of local bands.

10. Naked ladies The West End production of Calendar Girls is one of the big shows heading for the Theatre Royal. The true story of the Yorkshire WI members who hit the headlines after stripping for a fundraising calendar, stars Lynda Bellingham, Patricia Hodge, Sian Phillips and Gaynor Faye. It has been adapted by Tim Firth, who co-wrote the screenplay for the hit movie starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters. Other big hitters at the Theatre Royal in 2009 include The Graduate, West Side Story, Evita and The Witches of Eastwick.