I am a self?confessed superfan. But this isn’t just another interview for me. It is my third time chatting with the one and only Karen Hauer, the Venezuelan whirlwind who became the heart and soul of Strictly Come Dancing for an incredible 14 years. From the very first time we met, I have been completely under her spell. I have followed her every paso doble, jive, and show dance, religiously…
There are summer evenings that remind you why live music matters. This was one of them. Under a London sky that gave us rain, sunshine and a rainbow, the Live at Chelsea concert series returned to the Royal Hospital Chelsea after four years away, and what a homecoming it was.
The setting alone steals your breath. Sir Christopher Wren’s 17th-century courtyards, framed by the river and…
On Wednesday night I did something that might sound mad. I turned down a press ticket to see Jack Savoretti at the Royal Albert Hall. A proper glamorous arena, red velvet seats, the whole thing. Instead I went to a tiny venue in Chelsea to watch a singer songwriter play to thirty people. That venue was the legendary Troubadour. That singer was Alex Kate. And I have not a single second of regret.
Kike Agoro was scouted by Harvard at 18. An international athlete with top grades. But she found out two years too late to prepare. She missed her shot. That missed opportunity is why she built Raising Greats.
Kike grew up in East London with a single mum who held the family together through crisis. At 16 she opened her GCSE results. Eight A stars and three As at a school where only 30 percent…
From Italy to London: a one-on-one interview with the editor of Il Fatto Quotidiano, Marco Travaglio, bringing “Cornuti e contenti” to the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire. A few days before the show, I caught up with him by phone. I confess: at first I felt a little intimidated. Then I found him wonderfully kind and interesting. He even told me about his passion for karaoke.
When I learned that…
She’s been compared to Kate Bush and Karen Carpenter. She writes love songs inspired by Midsomer Murders. And she once told her producer she was going to marry a man she’d just met – then put his name in a song.
Meet Alex Kate, the rising London singer-songwriter who is about to headline her biggest show yet at the iconic Troubadour in Chelsea. We caught up with her ahead of the gig…
You don’t get to sit down with the world’s most celebrated pastry chef every day. Iginio Massari – undisputed master, crowned best pâtissier in the world in 2017, and again last year in Paris – says with ironic modesty: «We can say that’s how it is.» But behind the legend lurks a man who, at four years old, fell into a bowl of cream – and never really got out. A proper Obelix, but…
It is not every day you attend a conference where a former Strictly Come Dancing professional offers to sing Ed Sheeran’s Perfect – and where his wife, a high?flying marketing executive, reveals that her stomach has swollen so badly she once had to wear a ‘tent’ dress to a black?tie gala in Dubai. But this was no ordinary conference. This was an event hosted by Endometriosis UK, and the…
A week before meeting Italy’s most famous contemporary film director Ferzan Özpetek, I wrote my review of Diamanti and I gave it a rating of ten out of ten stars.
For me, it is the most beautiful film of the past decade. It moved me deeply. On impulse, I wrote to him on Instagram. And he replied with a humility you do not expect from someone of his stature. With gratitude. With…
Right now Marco Giallini is in Aosta shooting the new season of Rocco Schiavone / Ice Cold Murders. In the meantime, he broke his leg – but after just a few days and an operation, he was already back on set, doing physiotherapy as he goes. A true phenomenon, as professional as they come. After meeting him in person, my admiration for him has grown even more (if that’s possible, given how much…