WMN on Sunday - West Magazine 21 December

21.12.14

Season of style Your Christmas countdown starts here

DON’T MISS + WIN: £100 WORTH OF BEAUTY TREATS

WE SALUTE OUR FESTIVE HEROES

It’s all wrapped up... + COOK YOUR GOOSE + JOLLY CUPCAKES + GLAM GIFTS

INSIDE: + LITTLE RED

DRESS GUIDE

+ SPARKLING

INTERIORS

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Christmas and New Year at

Bodmin Jail Medieval Menu

Music by ’Mass-Affect’ with an amazing ‘Laser Light Show’ to take you through to 1am Prizes for the best fancy-dress!

Full tickets at £35pp - Door tickets only (with no food or table reservation) £10

Starters

Hunter’s pot vegetable soup

Fresh bread GameKeeper’swarmmeat pie

Served with gravy

Tel: 01208 76292 Ads.indd 1

Poacher’s Potted Shrimps

In Mace butter Served with toast

Main Course

Shepherd’sLambShank

Braised in Mead sauce Peasant Spit Roast Pork

Served with Cider sauce Salmon poached in Monk’s Ale

Served with Tarragon butter Preacher’s Lentil and vegetable Bake

Desserts

Fair Maiden’s Creamy Custard Tart

and fresh cream Village Idiot’s Fruity Steam Pudding

and custard The Bishop’s Cheddar Cheese and Apple

Tea & coffee offered

Served with Tarragon butter

All main courses served with root vegetable pie and jacket potato

www.bodminjail.org

Berrycoombe Road. Bodmin. PL31 2NR

©LW

New Years Eve Party

17/12/2014 18:14:18

‘Never mind, I have my turkey and leek pie to look forward to on Boxing Day’ Midwife Sarah is working on Christmas Day (p 14)

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ESCAPE THE FAMILY Get out and about this festive season with or without the whole family...

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INTERIORS Add metallic sparkle to your home for Christmas - and beyond

DINKY DONKEYS We explore Sidmouth

[contents[ Inside this week...

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THE WISHLIST What to buy, where to go

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WEST IN PICS

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MODERN MANORS

Angels, daddies and happy smiles Edmund Fulford makes a fuss

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EVENTS SPECIAL

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How to find fun this festive season

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THE CHRISTMAS SHIFT We salute the Westcountry workers

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HOW TO BUILD A SNOWMAN Creating panto perfection in Exeter

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BEAUTY Win treats worth £100

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BUILDING SNOWMEN The Exeter designer of top panto costumes

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THE CHRISTMAS SHIFT We salute our festive Westcountry heroes

EATING OUT

How to go South American

UNDER PRESSURE? You CAN survive festive pester power

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GIFTS FOR THE GLAM What fashionistas really, really want

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EATING OUT Tracking down South American cuisine

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INGREDIENT OF THE WEEK Tim Maddams cooks his goose

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THE BEER PAGE Darren Norbury gets in the ales

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MOTORS This Porsche - is it any good?

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MAN & BOY James, four, is in a nativity play 3

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The West team wishes you a fabulous festive season

[ welcome [ We wish you a Merry Christmas!

How did your office party go this year? Ours was enlivened (ahem) by a fun photo booth, plus a natty selection of fancy dress outfits. As you can see from the results, we had a good time.

Later highlights of the night included a karaoke rendition of ‘What A Feeling’ by our columnist Gillian Molesworth, duetting with our motoring editor Steve ‘Flashdance’ Grant. It was, indeed, the season to be merry. Why not tweet us if you can spot who’s who in the pic above: @wmnwestmag or drop us a line at westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk.

We’d also love to see YOUR Christmas selfies - the good, the bad and the outrageous... So send them over too!

We’ve got so much crammed into this week’s

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West magazine, the last before Christmas, that I almost don’t know where to start. There’s party fashion - of course - and some lovely food to be won (see opposite). We’ve also got a guide to getting out of the house on the three days of 24-26 December, just in case full-on family time starts to wear a little thin.

And we’ve got a feature about Jeannie Fletcher on page 18, who makes nationally-acclaimed Christmas panto costumes from her workshop in Exeter. Above all, I’m sure you’ll be moved (and heartened) by our feature on page 14, introducing the festive heroes who are giving up their Christmas Days to help others. We take our (silly santa) hats off to them...

Becky Sheaves, Editor

Highlights included columnist Gillian Molesworth singing ‘What A Feeling’

Tweet

of the week @BoveyCastle The @BoveyCastle Cathedral #ChristmasTree in the process of being decorated!

CONTACT: westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk Tel: 01392 442250 Twitter @wmnwest

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COVER IMAGE: Lands’ End

MEET THE TEAM Becky Sheaves, Editor

Sarah Pitt

Kathryn Clarke-McLeod

Catherine Barnes

Phil Goodwin

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If you buy one thing this week...

Devon-based Riverford Organic’s new recipe food boxes contain recipes and all the ingredients you’ll need to cook three healthy and delicious meals from scratch.

Menus vary seasonally, and your selection is delivered straight to your door.

Boxes start at £33 including home delivery from www.riverford.co.uk.

Win

One lucky reader has the opportunity for a Riverford Organic recipe box worth up to £39.95 to be delivered to their door. TO ENTER: Mark your entry Riverford Recipe Box Competition and send with your name, address, contact number and preferred choice (vegetarian, quick or original recipes) to westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk. Closing date January 9 2015. Normal terms apply.

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Wishlist

Yo ho ho Legless corkscrew, £9.95, www.red5.co.uk

Smell the roses Wild rose petal syrup, made in Newquay, £5.95, www.lusciouslucy.co.uk

The wish List West’s top picks for spending your time and money this week

CHEERS! Beer gift set, £19.99 from Wyevale Garden Centres across the region, www. wyevalegardencentres.co.uk

Store we adore Spin a Yarn, Bovey Tracey This wonderful shop is worth making a special journey for if you are a knitter. It is crammed full of colourful yarn from well-known brands like Rowan and Debbie Bliss alongside unusual discoveries. Owner Joyce Mason is a real enthusiast for the craft - this shop was recently voted third best knitting shop in the British Knitting Awards 2014 for the south of England.

Whether you want sparkly or fluffy yarn, fine or chunky, you can find it here, and in all colours, too. There’s also knitting needles, buttons and advice if you get in a tangle, plus workshops where you can meet other knitters.

Spin a Yarn is at 26 Fore Street, Bovey Tracey, Devon, visit www.spinayarn.co.uk 6

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BRIGHT

IDEA

Jazz winter up with this Marimekko Pieni Unikko red cushion, £42.50, www.cloudberryliving.co.uk

Steam bent wood lampshade by Redruth-based maker Tom Raffield, £395, www.tomraffield.com

PENCIL ME IN Emma Bridgewater ‘Men at Work’ colouring pencils in a tin, £5, www.onebrowncow.co.uk

Let there be light Exmouth mug by artist Moose Allain at INC boutique, Exmouth, £7.99 www.worldofmoose.com

Devon’s Roberta Ayles tea lights, £16 www.aylesglass.com 7

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Am I doing this right? Woodford Primary School held a nativity play

in pictures Proud: HMS Northumberland back in Plymouth

Jolly: Wes Richards set up his stall at The Big Sheep’s Christmas market in north Devon

Tea time: Cafe staff at the new Holsworthy Market

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talking points Santa

Shriek!

Six films that have haunted many a childhood Christmas

1 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang The Child Catcher’s coming – hide!

2 The Wizard of Oz Wicked Witch of the West, Flying Monkeys, eek!

3 W illie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Seriously creepy, seventiesstyle

Be good: 10 names that Father Christmas goes by:

1 Joulupukki (Finland) 2 Babbo Natale (Italy) 3 Julenissen (Norway) 4 Weihnachtsmann (Germany)

5 Kanakaloka (Hawaii) 6 Mos Craciun (Romania)

4 Annie Miss Hannigan = hideous

5 Matilda Miss Trunchbull = worse

6 The Witches They like children – for lunch

7 Watership Down Sob

7 Sion Corn (Wales) 8 Ded Moroz (Russia)

The happy list

9 Gwiazdor (Poland) 10 Baba Chaghaloo (Afghanistan)

Yes, deer

10 things to make you smile this week 1 Jo Pavey Devon supermum rightly up there with Lewis Hamilton and Rory McIlroy

2 Dry shampoo from office to party, with bounce

3 Yours and Mine BeTake a rein check, Rudolph: 10 more species of deer

1 R oe 2 Sika 3 Chinese water 4 Muntjac 5 Fallow 6 Red 7 Pere David’s 8 Indian hog 9 Tibetan wapiti 10 Bactrian

yonce’s short film on love. feminism and motherhood

4 5 6 7 8

omemade soup mmm H Secret Santa cheaper fun Tinsel instantly festive Holly wreaths on the door Solar powered lights you can string them everywhere

9 G eorge Ezra’s Let It Snow is seriously brilliant 10 Snapdragon douse raisins in brandy, set fire and grab as many as you can. Fun game

Gillian Molesworth

Story of my life...

Getting back to Christmas basics hristmas is coming, and I am wildly running around buying too much stuff. It happens every year. I make a resolution that this year I will not over-buy for the kids, ending up in a glutton’s pile. By the end of November I have decided on a few special but not extravagant gifts that ought to do them fine. new generation iPhone, or a pediCloser to the day, I am panicked gree cocker spaniel, or a quadby their Christmas lists. They bike. That should put the old man have to get a few of the things they through his paces. actually have asked for, surely.

As the years pass, it gets harder I look at the lists in bafflement – and harder to provide that sense naturally they make no mention of thrill and wonder. Kids are of the gifts I have chosen. What savvy. Not only that, they get is a Hex Bug, or a Go-Go Pup? I more expensive. We constantly curse children’s retailers for their seem to be investing in rugby pushy advertising at this time of pads, football boots, riding helyear. mets, and field trips.

The result is The lines are a that I go on a lastlittle blurred as to minute spree, whether these are buying junk that gifts or not. My Sport is tricky. we don’t need and theory is, parents Does a pair that will all be subshould provide of shin pads stantially reduced the basics that in price within five kids need to do constitute a days. And then I their stuff: school present or is it get home to disclothes, shoes, something one cover that James furniture. If they has done exactly want bells and should provide the same. whistles on top anyway?

It used to be easy they can save up. when they were Sport is tricky, little.

Toddlers though. Does a used to the usual “no” to the most pair of shin pads constitute a convincing “pleeeease” can’t bepresent, or is it something one lieve their luck on Christmas Day. should provide anyway? I’d hate Not only do they get this present, them to give up a sport because but this one! And this one! And they were hoping for a computer then Granny brought some more! game under the tree instead.

And they got to eat loads of sweets Must, must, must remember BEFORE BREAKFAST. not to be distracted by the conUnfortunately, kids are quick sumer craziness and get back to learners. Once they’re old enough basics. We are marking an importo realise that Christmas pushes tant day in the Christian calendar, the boundaries of everyday rules, and spending quality time togeththey’re onto it. Why not really er. Now, if we can just drive that challenge Santa? Let’s ask for a home to the kids…

C

Gillian Molesworth is a journalist and mum-of-two who grew up in the USA and moved to north Cornwall when she met her husband 9

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My life

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MODERN MANORS

On the hit list

Kishanda Fulford’s list of pet hates, continued...

few weeks back, I wrote a column on my pet hates, but I find the list still continues. So here is Part II. Top of the list today are employers who do not respond to applications for jobs they advertised. Or worse - my son was offered an interview with a London company and, at his expense, he appeared at the company’s office in the City where he was told, at the beginning of the interview, there was actually no job to be had! Some while ago now a ‘popular’ political party was recruiting researchers and my son applied to work for them.

He was informed that applicants would receive a reply in September. It is, as I write, months later and he has not heard a squeak. My children, I have discovered, are not the only ones to suffer from this new phenomenon. There appears to be an epidemic in bad manners on this front.

As for the company who put an ‘internship’ up for sale at a charity auction?

What is going on? How frustrating it is for young job-seekers now. It is also expensive for everyone - except employers.

While on children, another ‘pet hate’ is my children complaining about mould on jams and the like. Edmund recently pulled out some Seville marmalade from the cupboard, home-made by my sister-in-law, and said, ‘Oh!’ to no one in particular, ‘What a treat! This does not have mould on it’. He was recently shocked to see some of our guests at lunch merrily scraping the furry stuff off the top of a pot of mint sauce without a backward glance – and they heartily condemned Edmund for a) mentioning the mould and b) complaining about it. He watched, mouth open, as a spoon lifted the mould off to reveal the much more ‘mature’ mint sauce beneath.

A

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I am not sure who is the worst villain of another of my pet hates – the state of the motor car after a long journey. The time it takes to clear the car of surf boards, sand, ice cream wrappers, odd shoes, empty water bottles and torn maps. I am guilty myself sometimes. When you arrive home after a long journey the last thing you want to do is clear up the mess in the car. In fact one of the joys of a car is that you can shut the door on it and forget about it, until... you set off again once more and find yourself in a sea of boots, empty

I shoved it in a drawer I very rarely use, as the top of the table falls off if you do not open it carefully

‘flakiness’, and ‘moist’ were too ridiculous without the picture of the ‘fluffy, flaky, moist cake.’

The amount of ‘ummmms’ as the mouthful went into the judge’s mouths are also strange to hear when you can’t see the mouthful go in. Having heard the programme in this way, I think it would be much better as radio comedy.

Another thing I find annoying is putting something precious in a secret place and then failing to remember where I put the precious thing in the first place. I recently had a houseful of teenage children and, as the hordes came through the door, I thought: I must put my laptop out of sight. I shoved it in a drawer I very rarely use, as the top of the table falls off if you do not open it carefully. After the young left I could not think where I had put it. Eventually I tracked it down, alongside papers I have been meaning to deal with for ages. I think top of my list of ‘pet hates’ is what a friend once described as ‘personal administration’.

Is there anything worse than filing? Is there anything worse than knowing that it is better to file your will safely at Government offices rather than allow it to languish in a drawer?

I hope you have noticed that I have not mentioned BT. It would take ten weeks or more to catalogue my encounters with them. About as long as it takes for them to mend something.

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cartridges, newspapers and odd socks.

I also get quite cross when I have to watch things on television that I do not want to watch. I do not like ‘The Simpsons’ or ‘Friends’. During the summer I was forced to watch the final of the Great British Bake Off. I did not want to enjoy it but like the rest of the country I found there is something quite calming about watching sugar being spun. I was once in an airport when this progamme was on full blast but I could not see the picture. The conversations about ‘fluffy’,

Kishanda Fulford lives in Great Fulford, Dunsford, Devon. The Fulford family has lived in the same house for more than 800 years.

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HOW TO

Escape the family this Christmas!

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Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day - a time for staying at home, with your nearest and dearest, right? ccording to recent research, the average British family has five rows on Christmas Day, with the first one taking place at 10.13am. The next bust-up is scheduled for 12.42pm when 38 per cent of children will moan about receiving the wrong presents.

And 45 per cent of mums and dads fall out between 1pm and 3pm, triggered by the stress of food preparation, according to a survey of 2000 people carried out for Travelodge.

So if family togetherness starts to wear a bit thin at your house, here’s our pick of places to go and things to do over the crucial three days of the festive season. With - or without - the family...

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Events

Visit Santa

Christmas Eve 1. Explore the jungle ...and get properly warm The Eden Project (Bodelva near St Austell) is open on Christmas Eve from 10am-4pm, so you can walk through the Mediterranean (pretty warm) biome as well as the (properly hot) jungle biome. You can even catch Father Christmas - book online first though - before he heads off to harness up his reindeer at 3.30 pm on Christmas Eve. Visit www.edenproject.com for details

2. Lights on! ...and the pub is open Mousehole Harbour Lights have to be the prettiest sight in West Cornwall at this time of year. They’re switched on from 5pm-11pm - and why not pop in for a pint or a bite to eat at the Ship Inn, right on the harbour, which is open on Christmas Eve night. Call 01736 731234 to book for food.

3. Have a last-minute flap ...and shop till you drop Want to be really traditional? Spend Christmas Eve panic-buying presents.

Princesshay Shopping Centre in Exeter is open from 9.30am-5pm and Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth is also open – plus Santa is there in a Magical Grotto!

4. Take a road trip ...it’s free and festive It’s actually fun just to drive or walk through a town or city centre with lots of Christmas lights up, so why not take an evening road trip? We recommend the pretty displays in Modbury, South Devon, as well as nearby Totnes, not to mention Bideford, Ilfracombe, Penzance and Truro.

Or why not check out the local ho ho ho homes (sorry) near you, where the owners go all-out with festive bling in their front gardens? All good for a giggle.

Truro Cathedral

Christmas Day 1. Go swimming in the sea ...a bracingly British tradition Yes really - the brave can join in an organised Christmas Day Swim in the sea.

The not so brave can watch one with a hot chocolate. Swims are often organised by your local Surf life Saving Club, and followed, traditionally, by a visit to the pub.

Wetsuits are frowned upon: the correct Christmas swim dress code is more along the lines of an elf costume, or dressing as a woman (if you are a man). See our panel (right) for the best swims this year.

2. Christmas cruise ...take to the seas in style If you don’t fancy a dip in the briny, you can cheer swimmers on in Exmouth bay from the comfort of a covered and heated boat - enjoying a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie. Stuart Line Cruises embarks out into the estuary at 10.45am, just ahead of the swimmers for a great view of the ensuing mayhem on the shore. £8 adults £5 children, book at www.stuartlinecruises. co.uk.

3. Church - or cathedral ...for a Christmassy glow Carols, mince pies and (more than likely) a sherry, all for free and no ticket required. What’s not to like? And a dose of spirituality can be an oh-so-welcome antidote to the gift-fest of Christmas morning. The 10am Christmas Day service with Bishop Tim and the wonderful Cathedral Choir is an uplifting highlight of the Truro Cathedral year.

4. The pub ...you know it makes sense Nip out before lunch for roaring fires, a swift drink and – crucially – the chance to talk to people to whom you are not related.

The Driftwood Spars in St Agnes is open for drinks from 11am-2pm, The Sloop at Bantham is serving drinks at lunchtime and The Feathers in Budleigh Salterton is open (drinks only) from 10.30-12.30am.

The cosy, traditional King’s Arms in Georgeham is open until 2.30pm “ish”, say the owners. Perfect.

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Dive in!

Top 8 festive season swims

1 Exmouth It’s been a Christmas Day Boxing Day meet

tradition since 1970 and now attracts hundreds of plucky swimmers. Turn up at 11am, ideally in fancy dress.

2 Bude Swimmers wade in from

Crooklets Bach at 11am Xmas Day after a warm up (good luck with that) on the beach. Wetsuits allowed but only for children: sign up to be sponsored at www.budeslsc.co.uk

3 St Agnes Also at 11am Dec 25,

Trevaunance Beach hosts a swim followed by mulled cider in the Driftwood Arms. No wetsuits but rash vests are (grudgingly) acceptable.

Boxing Day

4 Budleigh Salterton Before the

1. Do good for charity ...and give something back Come along to a Children’s Hospice South West fundraiser today from 7pm11pm at the Mount Charles Social Club, St Austell. There’s entertainment, children’s games and a pasty supper so you don’t have to bother cooking (yippee!). Entry is £2.50 adults, £1 children, family ticket £6. Contact 07514 476708 or 07738 526712 for details or visit www.chsw.org.uk

2. Go hunting ...or sabbing Most Boxing Day meets are at 11am and hunting goes on until dark, so that will get you out of lunch nicely. Disapprove? Bear in mind hunting these days is all within the law according to the 2004 Hunting Act, following a pre-laid trail, not a fox.

However, if you fancy donning camouflage and a placard, then a bit of anti-action will also get you out of the house like a charm.

Shaldon’s finest

grand Exmouth swim (above) the Exmouth lifeboat comes around the coast to tranquil Budleigh, for a smaller swim event at 10.30am.

5 Cadgwith On The Lizard at midday

3. Three-legless?

Shaldon goes completely bonkers Shaldon in Teignbridge holds a fancydress three-legged race today round the village pubs (soft drinks for the under 18s!).

Turn up on the day, between 10.30am and 11.30am at The Ness. £2.50 per runner and the race starts at noon.

4. Go on the pull ...at Swimbridge In Swimbridge, near Barnstaple, the Boxing Day Tug of War sees hundreds of people turn up to join in or watch the fun. Meet at the Jack Russell Inn at 11am.

Teams stand either side of the River Venn for the best of three bouts, and the defeated side gets very wet.

Dec 25, this swim has attracted some A listers in its time, such as David Baddiel, Russell Brand and Jenny Agutter. See www.cadgwithcoveinn. com/events for details

6 Teignmouth This one takes

place on Boxing Day, at 11am, with prizes for fancy dress. See www. teignmouthlifeboat.org for details

7 Torquay Organised by No. 200

Squadron Air Training Corps for the RNLI, at Corbyn Head Beach opposite The Grand Hotel at 11am Boxing Day.

8 Sidmouth A Boxing Day tradition since 1985, work off your Christmas Day excesses with a swim off the Esplanade at 11am.

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People At work on Christmas Day

Festive heroes If you’re planning a cosy Christmas at home by the fire, with your family, spare a thought for the Westcountry people hard at work on December 25

rom coastguards to firefighters, doctors to the cheerful folk who pull you a pint in the pub on Christmas morning, there are many people across the South West who work hard on December 25. Here we salute two women who give up their family festivities to work hard and help others. To them, and all like them, we say a huge thank you. And we wish you a very Merry Christmas (even if you will be actually celebrating it on Boxing Day).

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Midwife Sarah Harvey-Hurst, 34, from Probus, will be working at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro on Christmas Day. She is married to Matthew, an army officer, and has two children, Thomas, ten and Bailey, eight.

Sarah says: It may sound mad but I actually volunteered to work on Christmas Day this year. There is such a special atmosphere in the maternity unit on December 25 – it’s really wonderful to be here. Besides, it is definitely my turn!

I won’t come in in until 1.30 in the afternoon, though, so I will see my kids open their stockings and presents on Christmas morning. That, for me, is the most magical part of Christmas with my family.

We’ll have a special breakfast at home of scrambled egg with smoked salmon, then I’ll leave them to have their turkey with our extended family, while I go off to work. I’ll be home by about 10pm, unless a woman really needs to me stay on with her. On Boxing Day my sister is making her famous turkey and leek pie, and we’ll go for a long beach walk after a glass of Buck’s Fizz, so I will have some family time, too.

It’s only two and a half years since I qualified as a midwife. Before I had my children, I worked in an office in finance. It was very safe - and very boring. Then one day I thought, there has to be more to life than this. I got onto the phone and the next thing I knew, I was taking an access course at Truro College. Then it was off to Plymouth to study as a midwife.

I can’t tell you how much I love working here – I was actually born in this hospital

myself and so were my two children. Midwifery is so special and rewarding, and certainly never, ever dull.

At Christmas, our rules on visiting are a little more relaxed. So you’ll find the whole tribe, from grandparents to tiny tots, gathered round the bed with Mum and the new baby. We all make an effort to look Christmassy too. I’ve got my Christmas hat and bauble earrings ready. It helps the older siblings – the toddlers and tinies often feel confused about why mum has disappeared off to hospital, instead of cooking them Christmas dinner at home.

Lots of the mums who have older children as well are desperate to have their baby and get home to their families for Christmas. So we do our best make that possible.

The toughest situation is for the parents whose new babies aren’t well and have to go into the Special Care Baby Unit. I know the nurses there prepare a little Christmas card from each baby to their mums and dads, with photos of the baby and their footprints too. It’s a hard time to have a little one struggling in hospital, so we try to support the families as much as we can. It makes me realise how lucky I am to have happy, healthy children myself.

On Christmas Day we’ll have about 30 babies here and probably 40 or so women in total – some waiting to give birth, others recovering. There’s no chance of a proper Christmas dinner for us staff, but all of our team bring in festive treats for a buffet which we set out in the staff room. The reality is, we’re usually so busy it’s all I can do to pick at it during my shift. Never mind, I have my turkey and leek pie to look forward to on Boxing Day.

pictures: toby weller

Sarah Harvey-Hurst

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People

We ser ve t he w orks !

Wendy Chapman Wendy Chapman, 57, will be working on Christmas Day at the Shekinah Mission drop-in centre for the homeless in Plymouth, where she is manager. Here’s what the big day has in store for her this year: Wendy says: It is my turn to work on Christmas Day this year, while my assistant manager Andy Lang will be working on Boxing Day. We take it in turns each year. I’ve been working for the Shekinah Mission for 20 years, so I’m quite used to it, and my husband Gary is too. He drops me off in the morning, because I don’t drive, and picks me up at the end of the shift.

We are open for four hours on December 25, from 10.30am and 2.30pm. We are here so that no one has to be on their own on Christmas Day. It is a time when everyone is supposed to be happy, but it can be a horrible day for many people. I see a lot of people absolutely devastated, through drink or drugs or just the fact that no one cares for them. I hate the idea that anyone could be on their own at Christmas.

We arrive at 10am, half an hour before we open. This year there will be myself, our cook Peter Waterfield, plus five volunteers, and we also have a lady doctor who has volunteered because she wants to help out on Christmas Day. The first thing we do is set up a cold buffet – sandwiches, sausage rolls, all sorts of crisps, Scotch eggs and cheese straws – for people to help themselves to when they come through the door. At other times we might charge a small amount, 10p for a cup of tea say or £1 for a hot dinner, but on Christmas Day everything is free.

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l Visitors feel sp ecia

We always get more people than at our usual mealtimes, coming to join us for a little company and cheer. While Peter and the volunteers are busy making the Christmas lunch, I’m on the floor. I make sure that we don’t have any trouble, because we have all sorts of drinkers and characters coming in. I’m not a pushover, I’m known for my tough love. We don’t have any drink on the premises and if visitors have alcohol on them, I will put it aside. They can take it with them when they leave.

If I sense that something is going to kick off, I will speak to them very straight and ask them to go for a walk to calm down. Then they can come back in.

I like to give everyone a Christmas present. For so many, ‘We’re here so it will be their only one. We have that no one has two sacks of presents, one for women and one for men. I preto be alone on pare about 60 presents, again all Christmas Day, donated by volunteers. I’ll ask to make people for hats, scarves, scented sprays or special sweets, something for of the people here and then feel cared for themselves.

I’ll notice someone who is not and part of a Then we have our Christlaughing. I’ll sit down quietly mas lunch, which is the works, next to them, and say “How are family’ turkey and roast potatoes, two you doing?” Or I might see that or three vegetables, gravy, and someone isn’t eating, and I’ll stuffing and pigs in blankets say “Tell you what, I’ll put a bit (sausages wrapped in bacon). And we always in a bag for you and you can have it later”. We have crackers. All the food is donated, and is detry to tune in to each individual and work out livered to us on Christmas Eve, which is when what they need. the Christmas decorations go up too.

I organise a game of pass-the-parcel for after We have to be sensitive, because some people dinner, and I put presents in it to entice grown are very low, even suicidal, at this time of the men to play. I have been known to put in some year. I’ll be having a bit of banter with some baccy, which gets even the biggest roughest

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Pigs i n

blank ets a

nyone

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guys joining in. After my shift ends, my husband and I visit our two grown up daughters and four grandchildren, who all live nearby here in Plymouth. I started volunteering for Shekinah years ago, when my daughters were young. So for them this is just what I do.

And why do I do it? I’m a Christian, and I want people to feel cared for and loved at Christmas.

They can feel part of a family here, that this is their home.

pictures: emily whitfield-wicks

free Everything is

To donate food or gifts to the Shekinah Mission call Helen Pearce at the drop-in centre on 01752 220330.

Visit www.shekinah.co.uk to find out more.

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[

JEANNIE FLETCHER

How to build a snowman

PHOTOGRAPHY: MATT AUSTIN

Interview

[

Tucked away in a corner of an Exeter industrial estate is a creative treasure trove called Costume Construction. Run by Jeannie Fletcher, credits include a Tony award for the costumes in the West End show Wicked, not to mention crazy outfits for pantomime dames across the country. Anita Merritt goes along to find out more

he chaos of Christmas arrives early for Devon-based costume designer Jeannie Fletcher. In fact, Jeannie’s festive season starts way back in spring, when demands for wild and wacky Christmas pantomime costumes come flooding in.

When I visit Jeannie, I find her busily perfecting four life-sized snowmen that she has created for this year’s Snow White panto at Plymouth’s Theatre Royal. She’s also been making three monster heads for a production of Roald Dahl’s The BFG in Birminham, and bringing to life a hairy forest monster for Sleeping Beauty at The Nottingham Playhouse.

“It’s hard work, because although I make costumes, what I’m actually doing is making a prop that has to fit a human inside it. What that means is each costume has to be practical - and very strong!” says Jeannie.

Perhaps her greatest triumphs to date were the costumes in the smash hit show Wicked, which was a smash hit in the West End and on Broadway.

“Wicked is owned by Paramount Pictures so it was a big deal for me,” admits Jeannie. “One costume I did – a porter who pushes on a suitcase – took literally

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Interview

months to make, but in the show if you blink you’d miss it!

“I also made the famous witch hats which appeared on all the Wicked posters. Wicked was nominated for Tony Awards and the only one it won was for best costumes, so I was absolutely thrilled by that.”

Just recently, Jeannie and her team of two staffers have been working virtually flatout to ensure each Christmas costume is completed in time. So how are the costumes created? “Usually, all I have to work from is just a one-dimensional drawing. I work out how to create it in 3D by making a prototype, but I can’t do small! I make it life-sized, the size it’s meant to be.

“I use plastazote foam which, believe it or not, was invented to protect cruise missiles during transportation. It comes in all different grades, colours and thicknesses. It curves and is really versatile and flexible.

“Once I’ve made a prototype, I photograph it and send the pictures to the designer for fine-tuning.”

American-born Jeannie moved to England when

she was 12. She began her career as a dresser at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre at the age 17, and then moved to London to work as a freelancer. She later enrolled at Chelsea School of Art on a mural designer course, and - at the same time - managed to fit in working for the BBC, as the BBC TV centre was 10 minutes’ walk up the road.

Among the shows she worked on back then was was TV’s It’s a Knockout. Jeannie credits her time on the wacky sports show with teaching her how to make strong, long-lasting costumes.

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After stints working in Leicester, Paris, Bristol and Dorset, Jeannie came to Exeter 26 years ago.

Since then she has made her astonishing creations for theatres right across the UK, as well as those closer to home, such as Exeter’s Northcott Theatre.

Her impressively well-organised workshop is now based among the car franchises and light industry of the Marsh Barton industrial estate, a space which is shared with artist Felicity Shillingford and Jeannie’s part-time helper Kay

Jeannie, above, and her team in Exeter work all year round on Christmas panto costumes

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Interview Amazing creations Devon costume creator Jeannie Fletcher’s career highlights include:

Panto Dame costume, Nottingham Playhouse

High flyers Basketball mascots

Walker. The Wicked shows are the most highwe glue and paint, too. profile productions Jeannie has worked on, “I keep all my patterns, even though I never but her favourites are the Christmas pantouse the exact same pattern twice. I’ll pull mime costumes. them out and look at them for ideas, though.

“I’ve got a few favourWe’re always on the hunt for ites I’ve done over the inspiration. years,” she admits. “Four “Sometimes I can be seen years ago I made eight tapwith things like a colander Sometimes I dancing penguins for Noton top of my head saying, tingham Playhouse. They ‘will this work?’. It’s fun, can be seen with danced to a song from 42nd even when I’m here until things like a Street and looked so funny.

10pm in the winter gluing “For a panto at Salisand it’s so smelly all the colander bury Playhouse a couple windows are open and it’s of years back, I made a freezing.” Those cold days on my head, panto dame costume that are now behind Jeannie for saying ‘Will was a version of a Mini another year. The plus side car covered in flowers and of thinking about Christmas this work?’ rainbows. so early is that, while every“I love making the panto one else is caught up in the dame costumes - they are Christmas rush, she can sit so over-the-top. One of the back in the warm, knowing most memorable ones we’ve her work is done. done was a dress in the shape of a tomato ketchAnd at this time of year, she is partial to up bottle.” going out to see a pantomime herself - it’s What Jeannie enjoys most is the process of in- a tradition she loves: “I especially enjoy it venting each costume and seeing it come to life. when the shows are well-written, have great “Dreaming up the costumes gives me the songs, and, of course, when the costumes most pleasure. And we don’t just sew them, are good!”

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Wickedly good!

Hats and more for Wicked in the West End

Jump around Rabbits at the Nottingham Playhouse Pantomime

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interiors

31

beauty

44

cars

style

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eat out

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17/12/2014 12:43:16

Gardens

ANNE SWITHINBANK

Putting on a show Devon’s Anne Swithinbank, panellist on Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, gets ready for Christmas s the build-up to Christmas reaches its peak, a gardener can be forgiven for experiencing the urge to stage a good old festive show off. My advice is to go for it, on the basis that if your non-gardening friends have ignored your floral feats during the rest of the year, there’s a chance they might notice clusters of plants around the front door, a homemade wreath, swags, garlands and small fragrant posies to bring the best of the outside in. This also tests whether your garden is sufficiently well stocked to hold its own during the darker months, when we need some beauty to tempt us out into the fresh air.

Having struggled with massive wreath creations in the past, I’ve now decided simple is best. I’ve bought a cheap and cheerful, yet well-constructed, woven heart for around £7 and carried out some simple embellishments involving strands of ivy and sprigs of holly, pushed in through the woven frame. If you want to go mad, add ribbon and use florist’s wire to attach small cones and other decorations.

Fragrant posies could be a challenge but venture out with secateurs and you might be surprised at what you find. I can gather the glistening and fragrant pink blooms of Viburnum farreri (a parent of the more widely planted V.x bodnantense ‘Dawn’) and winter flowering honeysuckle (Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’ ). In a small garden, try training this against a north or east facing wall or fence. To these, you can add stems of

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evergreens including pittosporum (I like whitesplashed P.tenuifolium ‘Irene Patterson’) and perhaps the marbled, arrow-shaped foliage of Arum italicum ‘Marmoratum’ . This grows from

tubers, sending up leaves in the autumn, joined by typical jack-in-the-pulpit flower spathes in spring. These mature into stems of decorative but poisonous red berries just as the leaves die back for summer. The foliage is remarkably winter hardy and although wilted by frost, springs back into perfect shape after a thaw.

There is considerable scope for showing off in the veg department too. In case cold weather threatens, it pays to gather Brussels sprouts, parsnips and leeks ahead of your Christmas lunch, as you never know when frost might glue sprouts to their stems or lock roots into rock hard ground. Stored carrots, beetroot and celeriac can certainly be put to good use. I visited expert organic veg grower Charles Dowding at his new garden in Somerset recently.

For lunch, his partner Steph had created some amazing salads from a variety of raw grated roots with added seeds and nuts. Inspired, I’ve tried simple mixes like grated carrot, with a little grated apple, a few caraway and pumpkin seeds and raisins, moistened with a splash of fresh orange juice. These salads are delicious and refreshing to the palate (and stomach) after rich Christmas fare.

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Christmas specialities Anne’s pick of plants with festive names

Christmas Cactus

Christmas rose (Helleborus niger) Often seen on Christmas cards, these hardy perennials make great winter pot plants for cool places, to be planted out later. White flowers with golden anthers are somewhat downward looking but some (‘Potter’s Wheel’ and ‘HGC Joel’ for instance) have upward looking blooms.

This week’s gardening tips Anne’s advice for your garden

Christmas box (Sarcococca humilis, S.confusa and others) This group of hardy evergreens make smallish shrubs useful as ground cover in shady spots.

Small white flowers emit a sweet, honey-like perfume which most of us find delicious but my mother could not stand.

• Don’t forget the gardener’s great get-out clause for avoiding washing up on Christmas Day. It is traditional to sow onions for exhibition today, so away to the greenhouse you must go, port in hand!

Christmas star (Euphorbia pulcherrima) Showy Poinsettias come in white, cream and pink as well as festive red. They love warm rooms, hate draughts and you can either bin them after Christmas, or coax them back into bract again.

Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera truncata and cultivars) Originally from Brazilian jungles, these draping cacti are potentially long-lived house plants and will flower every year. They eventually reach magnificent proportions and are handed down from one generation to the next.

•D o penance on Boxing Day, however, by turning the compost heap.

Mine has spread somewhat, so I could easily burn off a few helpings of Christmas pud

Question time with Anne

by forking made compost into one area for use, turning the rest and making room for fresh additions.

• Make holes in the ice on ponds to allow air movement. Leave a ball floating to prevent the top from freezing. Never hit ice to break it as this shocks fish and (presumably) other aquatic life.

Placing a saucepan of boiling water on top is a kinder method.

West reader queries answered by Anne Swithinbank For several years running, a shrub in my garden has been smothered in white flowers in autumn and early winter. It looks like a camellia but I thought these were spring flowering?.

Q

You most likely have a lovely Japanese Camellia sasanqua whose flowers usually open in autumn, especially after favourable weather. The species itself bears fragrant single flowers but there are plenty of cultivars with semi-double or double blooms and in shades of pink. This camellia does particularly well in the milder regions of the South West, where flowers are less likely to be damaged by frost. Eventually it makes a large shrub. Look after it like other camellias, by offering sheltered, woodland-like conditions.

Q

I have read that strawberries like to be mulched with pine needles. Is this true?

This is not something I’ve tried but it does make sense. Strawberries are said to prefer a slightly acidic soil and a good way of acidifying is to add pine needle mould. This is easily made by collecting and rotting down the needles, though the process is slow and takes a couple of years for them to disintegrate. I have used pine needle mould successfully on beds for woodland plants.

My old fruit books make no reference to it but recommend mulches of well rotted stable manure instead, added just as the fruits are setting in spring.

If you have the pine needles, I would say go for it but let them break down a bit first.

Send your questions to Anne at westmag@ westernmorningnews.co.uk

Scrub out and fill baths and bowls of water put out for birds. Empty, clean, dry and refill their nut and seed feeders too.

Tie in any stems needed to extend the framework of wisteria but trim by one third.

Prune remaining side shoots made last summer to a couple of buds. This makes short flowering spurs along the older stems.

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Interiors

Modern metallics

ABOVE: Diamante Reindeer Head £39.99, Wyevale Garden Centre

There’s nothing like gold, silver and bronze to add glamour to your home. Claire Spreadbury reveals how to work metallic magic through Christmas and beyond littery golds, sparkling silvers and classy coppers are bang on trend for December. They’re the stylish colours of this year’s festive season, stepping away from traditional reds and greens. But metallic hues also create a luxurious look for the home that lasts well into the New Year. Katie Watson is an interior designer at furniture store Fishpools: “Metallic accents will give your décor an immediate style upgrade, as well as introducing both warmth and texture,” she says.

“From copper, brass and gold to chrome and nickel, there’s a great array of gilded finishes to choose from - and just as many ways to style them.”

Of all the precious metals, gold is the most

G

Pols Potten Facet tealight holder £12, www.Heals.co.uk

glam, says Alicia Kaper, head of curation at the gorgeous home furnishings company Joss & Main. “Gold is warm and luxurious, and a few accents can add ‘oomph’ to a tired scheme.

“The trick with gold is not to overdo it - integrating just a few high-quality pieces will help you stay on the chic side of the trend. A statement rug, accent table or look-at-me mirror will have lasting impact, while anyone looking to dip their toes in this precious metal should start with candleholders and votives.”

“To set a warm colour palette with your Christmas decorations, mix gold and brown,” advises Laura Comfort from Wyevale Garden Centres.

“Glass compote jars and candy dishes look great filled with small pine cones, topped with rich 27

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Interiors

Gold decorations, from £3, Sainsbury’s

Funky Flora wallpaper £55, Graham & Brown

gold and deep brown ornaments.”

Cool and crisp, silver has a fresh and timeless feel, which makes it a sophisticated choice for the home, says Alicia Kaper. “Paired with blues and whites, this precious metal is a shimmering snow queen. In in the summer, it partners beautifully with pinks, mauves and greens, adding freshness to more vibrant tones. Look out for silver mirrors and lamps, which can really open up a dark or narrow space, bouncing light into the room.

“Nickel, chrome, aluminium and stainless steel have similar reflective qualities, bringing a polished sparkle to any home.”

And don’t restrict magnificent baubles and sparkly snowflakes to the tree, advises Laura Comfort. “Accentuate overhead lighting with

Mirror, £200, www.jossandmain.co.uk

Briar silk cushion, £55, www.clarissahulse.com

Albus table lamp, £40, John Lewis 28

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a fresh winter palette of shimmery and berry reds for a rustic look, but silver and pale blue decorations, it also looks stunning among dangling from the chanother warm metallics, like gold delier on silver satin and pewter.” ribbon.”

This Christmas, why not Copper is a bold but adorn a mantel by adding bronze sophisticated metallic, accents to a greenery and suitable for all rooms of the pine cone garland, sughouse, says Sainsbury’s head gests Laura Comfort. “The of home design, Emma Mann. metallic colour will pop “Its burnished glow brings against the wood and the perfect accent to a range natural green tones. of colour schemes. For a “Fill glass garden chic, relaxed look, coppers cloches with vintage bronze and oranges look beautiornaments and display it on ful with crisp whites, or the mantel among the lush for a richer look, team with greenery, or create a chic darker golds, reds or deep indoor/outdoor decoration Gold sparkle indigo. by adding copper and gold reindeer, £22.40 “For Christmas, copper embellishments to an everLaura Ashley complements forest green green wreath.”

Cyprum Tara tap £769, www. dornbracht.com

Copper works well with deep jewel tones. Classic poplar wood shutters in Dulux Niagra Blues from £177 per metre, www. californiashutters.co.uk 29

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Beauty

Tried

& tested

We present the beauty treats and cheats of the week, all trialled by West magazine’s Catherine Barnes, with help from daughter Tilly, 17.

Good stuff Aromatika’s organic skincare products not only feel and smell gorgeous, but are made by aromatherapist Lisa Hosking in Devon, too. Buy online or try before you buy with a treatment at Aromatika’s Beauty Rooms in Totnes and Exeter.

Rose moisturiser (30ml, £14.95) and frangipani body cream, (60ml, £9.50). www. aromatika.co.uk

Happy days...

What’s your true love giving you for Christmas? Elemis has a gift idea: Its 12 Days of Beauty box packed full of treats £59.50 from www.giftofelemis.com

Smooth work Gently scrub your skin and then apply spa expert Sothys lemon and petitgrain elixir for a silky smooth finish. A home salon experience in a special gift box edition. £53 at www.sothys.com

Win!

We have a le mon and pe titgrain set worth £5 3 to give aw ay. To win, mark your entry Sothys and send your n ame, contac t number and postal ad dress to: westmag@ westernmor ningnews. co.uk to arri ve byJanuar y 9.

Normal term s apply

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the review WHAT’S THE BUZZ...

We’ve already love Honey Doctor’s facial cleanser and this set, worth £60, also includes face cream, body moisturiser, soap, exfoliator and lip balm. Individual prices range between £4.95 and £14.50, at www.thehoneydoctor.com

Win

This week we try:

His and Hers Treatments Do real men visit spas? asks Becky Sheaves

Win this set worth £50 by emailing your name, contact number and postal address, headed Honey Doctor, to westmag@westernmorningnews.co.uk by January 9.

Normal terms apply.

ersonally speaking, I’m quite the possibly girly and alien. But as we arrived, the expert at visiting spas. Not that calm, professional welcome clearly reassured there is much to it, of course. him. Even when the therapist took him into one You just turn up, lie down and of the treatment rooms and told him to take off have all your cares and stresses (most of) his clothes. Luckily, I had warned him, soothed away. How lovely. So it was with a bit in no uncertain terms, to wear smart underwear. of a shock that I realised, just Meanwhile I headed off to anrecently, that my poor husother treatment room. We had band John had never, ever had both opted for a back, neck and a proper spa treatment (and I shoulder and back of legs masThe therapist don’t count the odd back rub sage, lasting 40 minutes (£44). told him to take that I have given to him now My masseuse, called Sophie, was (most of) his and then: I’m no masseuse and superb. The pressure was just I freely admit it). Never – in his right and the whole treatment clothes off. I had entire life. was designed, she told me, espewarned him This was easily remedied with cially for people who spend their to wear smart a his and hers visit to the Natudays hunched over a computer ral Health Spa at the Budock (yep, that’s me). Within minutes, underwear Vean Hotel down by the beauI was so relaxed that I was drifttiful Helford River in Cornwall, ing away. when we were staying at the John, afterwards, said he really hotel for the weekend. Normally on such visits, enjoyed his massage too, despite an initial attack I’d head off for a treatment while John played of the giggles caused by the whole situation. Not golf, went boating, or just read the paper. This to mention the fact that his shoulders are so time, I dragged him along with me, assuring him broad his arms kept falling off the table. He said that real men do visit spas. They really do. he would definitely have another one in future.

I’ll admit, he was dubious. My husband is old- Oh dear, I haven’t really thought this through. It school and considers a spa to be something imcould work out to be rather expensive…

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We adore the vintage look of Bronnley’s festive Floral Collection. Fill a stocking with a soap (£5) or treat someone special to a body wash and lotion set (£20)

Vintage florals

fave!

The Natural Health Spa at the Budock Vean Hotel is open to non residents. Call 01326 252101 or email naturalhealthspa@budockvean.co.uk to book 31

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Living

Resist the pressure Parents can face enormous pester power to deliver the perfect Christmas - but it doesn’t have to cost the earth... s the festive season picks up pace, parents are yet again facing huge pressure to buy the best toys and gadgets for their excited youngsters.

And the best come at a hefty price, of course. In fact, new research has revealed that the average UK parents plan to spend £275 on gifts for each of their children. Topping the gift list is a TV, a camera and a personalised football kit.

The study, by World Bicycle Relief UK, also revealed that 71% of UK mothers said they felt pressure to spend a lot of money, and 28% added that they had exceeded their initial budget.

Jeremy Todd, chief executive of the parenting charity Family Lives, points out that companies have realised how powerful children are as consumers. Many advertising campaigns proactively target children, which can really increase the pressure on mums and dads.

He says: “Every season, especially Christmas, new toys and gadgets come onto the market and many children and young people want to get their hands on them. It can be difficult for parents to know how to respond to a child who wants

A

everything.” own offspring, this Christmas, spending £188 in So what is the alternative? “Although it doesn’t total. feel like it at times, you as the parent are the most One answer to the overwhelming tide of valuable resource for your child,” Jeremy advises. consumerism that threatens to overwhelm He stresses that any creative a family Christmas is The time parents spend with their World Bicycle Relief UK’s Gift children is worth more than of Giving campaign (www. anything that can be bought in a u k . wo rl d b i cycl e re l i e f . o r g / It can be shop: “Even if you work, which donate), which aims to alleviate difficult for leaves you with less time, think some of the pressure on parents ‘quality time’ and do something by offering an alternative, inspirparents to you all enjoy.” ing gift idea for their children to know how to He adds: “It can feel good to give or receive. respond to a spoil your child with expensive The campaign is encouraggifts, but cost is a great coning parents to consider charitachild who wants sideration for most parents, as ble gifts this year, whether it be everything is keeping limitations on how a small donation as a stocking much you indulge your chilpresent or a higher donation as dren.” one of their children’s top gifts.

And it’s not only their own World Bicycle Relief UK provides children that parents have to buy for - separate schoolchildren living in poor areas of Zambia, research by the games and jigsaw manufacturer Zimbabwe and South Africa with robust bicycles Orchard Toys has revealed UK parents will buy that give them access to education, healthcare gifts for an average of 12 children, on top of their and opportunities. Now that is worth giving.

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THE KEEP FIT COLUMN WHERE ONE WOMAN TRIES EVERYTHING:

DODGER

this week: SPINNING

THE SOFA

Mum of three Sam Taylor, 35, from Cardinham near Bodmin is behind Sofa Dodger, the website with wealth of keep-fit activities at a place near you. This week she tries: Spinning Bikes and I have a very distrustful relationship, ever since I fell off my bike riding to school when I was eight. So if I’m honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to my Spinning Class at The Retallack Resort in north Cornwall.

Darren, the instructor took me through the control pad and showed me where the resistance knob was to control tension. I had a premonition that me and this knob were not going to get on. We sat on our bikes and started cycling and immediately my bum started

to hurt, as I tried to find the most comfortable position. Ouch, that hurts. It really hurts!

The first 15 minutes of the class were some of the longest of my life, as I struggled through.

Thankfully, we then moved onto standing up and pedaling. This was much better and I started to feel far happier about life. Overall, the class was tough for me - but looking at the physiques of my classmates, it seemed worth it. Afterwards, I set off to spend the 200 calories I’d burned on a hot chocolate.

GET INVOLVED: Try something new or tell the world about your own keep fit class for free at www.sofadodger.co.uk 32

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Enjoy

T h e Pe a

G re e n B o

at

[ Sidmouth [ A WEEKEND IN...

Sidm outh Don key San ctua ry

Becky Sheaves checks out the charms of a Regency gem on the Jurassic coast of East Devon ith its genteel charm and mild climate Sidmouth is a serene escape for those keen to sidestep life’s stresses.

It’s bustling in the summer, especially during the festival atmosphere of its annual Folk Week in August. But right now is a good time to enjoy a weekend here of good food, coastal walks and pretty architecture.

This Regency gem (it has more than 500 listed buildings) is set on the Jurassic Coast in East Devon. An infant Queen Victoria once stayed here in Woolbrook Cottage, now The Royal Glen Hotel.

Why not follow in royal footsteps with a weekend in this characterful little town?

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Stay: The former Poet Laureate John Betjeman described Sidmouth as “a town caught still in a timeless charm”. The sea front is home to many hotels, of which four-star The Riviera is probably the grandest, while The Westcliff has a reputation for good food and a friendly welcome. Just outside the town, try the country setting of the Sid Valley Country House Hotel, which is family run and also offers cottages to hire.

Eat: The Pea Green Boat, right on the Esplanade, has a Taste of the West Gold rating and is small, cheery and serves good local produce. Also try the Mocha Café, right on the sea in one of the oldest Regency buildings. The White Horse Café

The Byes

on Old Fore Street serves excellent fish and chips (as does The Pea Green Boat) and Selley’s Café in Libra Court has good food too.

Walk: The town is rightly proud of “The Byes” a wooded public park that follows the River Sid for several miles from Sidford down to the sea, right through the town centre. Or you could take the more strenuous South West Coast Path across the cliffs to Beer Head in the east or Ladram Bay in the west, with stunning sea views guaranteed.

Shop: Sidmouth is full of delightful independ-

ent shops. Fashionistas will love Polka on Fore Street, a designer treasure-trove of cool clothes, while there is also a good-sized branch of Fat Face on Fore Street. Fields is a wonderful traditional department store and the Gliddon family runs two superb shops in the town – one packed with toys, the other with cookware.

Days out: The Donkey Sanctuary has free entry, nice walks, donkeys to cuddle and a good café (www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk). The Norman Lockyer Observatory up on the hillside holds regular star-gazing evenings (www.normanlockyer.com). Sidmouth Museum on Church Street is packed full of curiosities and runs guided tours of the town on most Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Nights out: The town has its own independent cinema, The Radway, and a theatre, Manor Pavilion (www.manorpavilion.com) running regular jazz, classical and theatre performances. For the young at heart, the town centre even boasts its own nightclub, called Carinas.

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Hobbs scarf £49

Burberry Beauty charm £70

Gifts for the glam

Lands’ End Party dress £59.95

If you’re looking for a last-minute present for the fashionista in your life, here are our top tips for getting it right come December 25, says Katie Wright t’s a present-buying puzzle: how do you shop for a shopaholic? Is there a harder task on earth than buying a Christmas present for a fashionista?

Well, yes, obviously - but it’s still a trial that can induce panic and confusion in even the most organised of shoppers.

Help is at hand, however. Is your fashion-following friend in possession of a designer handbag (or four) that she loves like a child? Obviously, adding to her collection isn’t really an option - unless your Secret Santa budget is in fact £1,000 but you can offer a little seasonal spruce-up in the form of a trendy trinket. We love this Burberry Beauty Charm, with a dusky pink lipgloss hidden in one of the golden cubes.

Gifting clothes can be a risky business. Might we suggest an on-trend top? That way, you’ve got more leeway size-wise and don’t have to worry about pesky inside leg lengths, bra sizes or waist measurements.

Alternatively, as any catwalk watcher will tell you, designers went wild for wool this season, and the high street Christmas collections are full of gorgeous gift-worthy knits. Wool scarves, hats and gloves always go down well - especially if they’re Dents gloves (made in the Westcountry btw) with one techy fingertip that works on touchscreen devices - and this M&S blanket wrap is both cosy and cool. Happy shopping!

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Dune Keyring £15 Ted Baker tassel bag charm £35 34

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17/12/2014 13:08:30

Fashion Miss Selfridge Embellished top £35

Jacques Vert gold satin panel dress £149 (down from £229)

M&S Best of British wool wrap £45

Next beaded top £85 Dents (House of Fraser) Tech-finger wool gloves £19

Debenhams Frill trim clutch bag £50 35

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17/12/2014 13:09:03

Shop

The edit Take the festive colours of red, gold and green to create a great Christmas outfit

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Radley clutch £119

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Dune sparkle clutch £55

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Clutch with built in charger £79.95 www.cuckooland.com

fave!

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+

John Lewis Adrianna Papell plus size dress £190

M&S Twiggy dress £55

Daxon Metallic pumps £49

Ravel Gold courts £50

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Monsoon dress £89

Linzi Gold heels £40

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16/12/2014 18:23:49

Bake

NEW!

cake

Kate Shirazi bakes:

Christmas Cupcakes You will need:

Kate says: These are a hoot and those who hate Christmas cake seem to have no trouble snaffling them. Essentially, it is Christmas cake in a cupcake – but it’s sponge, too.

Something for everyone. These cakes keep really well because the marzipan and the royal icing seal everything.

110g self-raising flour 50g caster sugar 4 tsp mincemeat 110g soft margarine 2 large free-range eggs 1 tsp ground cinnamon 300g icing sugar, sifted 1tbsp lemon juice 1 large egg white 1 large free range 200g marzipan 2 tbsp apricot jam, sieved food colouring

Method: 1.

2.

Preheat the oven to 160C (325F, gas mark 3).

Line a 12-hole muffin tin with muffin cases.

In a mixer or food processor, beat the flour, caster sugar, mincemeat, margarine, the two eggs and cinnamon until the mixture is fluffy and mousse-like. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cakes are springy and firm to the touch. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Make the royal icing by beating together the icing sugar, lemon juice and egg white.

The mixture should stand up in stiff peaks

of the week

and be very smooth and white. If it isn’t, you haven’t beaten it for long enough. If the texture is all wrong, adjust it by adding a little water if too stiff or icing sugar if it is too wet

3.

Roll out the marzipan to about 3mm thick and cut out circles to fit the tops of the cupcakes. Brush each cupcake with a little apricot jam and place the discs of marzipan on top. Tint the icing with whatever colour you like and ice the tops of the cakes. Leave to dry for a couple of hours.

4.

Gather up the remaining marzipan and tint this with colouring too. Make whatever Christmassy shapes you like – holly leaves, berries, stars, baubles and so on. Using a tiny dab of icing, stick your marzipan shapes to the iced cakes. You can also put some of the icing into little piping bags and pipe patterns over the top. Let you imagination run riot. Leave for a good few hours to dry out properly before sharing your wares.

Kate Shirazi runs Cakeadoodledo shop and cafe on Exeter’s Cathedral Green (www.cakedoodledo.co.uk) and bakes cakes of all kinds to order and send by post. Look out for Kate’s beautiful books Cake Magic and Baking Magic (both £11.99, Pavilion Books) 37

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16/12/2014 18:25:05

Ian Mortimor

My Secret Westcountry Ian Mortimer

B o o k st o p

Dr Ian Mortimer is the bestselling author of the Time Traveller’s Guides to Medieval and Elizabethan England.

He is a Secretary-of-State appointee to the Dartmoor National Park Authority and lives in Moretonhampstead with his wife Sophie and their three children. His latest book is called Centuries of Change.

My favourite...

Christmas Day:

In our house this is a very traditional affair, from Christmas stockings on the beds to a massive tree. The whole day is one long feast: smoked salmon and scrambled eggs with fizz, followed by four or five more dishes over the day, and Christmas pud after dark.

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17/12/2014 13:46:00

People

Westcountry food:

Gidleigh Park

Although I don’t eat meat, I do eat fish, sometimes three or four times every day. My family are used to me ordering mussels as a dessert in a restaurant. My comfort foods are seafood thermidor, scallops, panfried sea bass or gilthead bream, or my own fish pie.

All locally caught of course.

Pub: The Duke of York in Iddesleigh.

Restaurant: Gidleigh Park. I’ve only twice ever had tears in my eyes because the food was so good. Both times were at Gidleigh Park.

Shop: I was very impressed recently by a visit to Bookstop in Tavistock, which is everything the ideal bookshop should be: stuffed with books beneath historic beams, run by lovely, knowledgeable people. And stocking large quantities of my book Centuries of Change – which tells you everything you really need to know about the past and a few things you REALLY need to know about the future!

Special place:

Grenofen near Tavistock, and downstream along the River Walkham. In that valley my great-grandfather used to go otterhunting, my grandfather won time trials on his off-road motorcycle, my father ‘wooed’ my mother in his Hillman Minx.

Secret place:

Music: There are carols and mince pies for all

At Pewtor on Dartmoor there are many carvings of crosses within circles on the granite. The most I have found in one trip was eleven – when, as a teenager, I spent all one afternoon up there with my brothers. My family has lived within the shadow of Dartmoor for centuries, at Coombeinteignhead, Plymouth, Dousland and Hoo Meavy. Nowhere else do I feel as free as I do when walking on the moor. It is not only beautiful but inspiring.

when the Christmas lights are turned on in Moretonhampstead. And on Christmas Eve a number of us go carolling in the four pubs in town. Last year we had a tuba and flugelhorn among the instruments accompanying our singing.

Centuries of Change by Ian Mortimer is published by The Bodley Head, £20.

The River Walkham at Grenofen

Christmas tradition:

Every year I write a piece of festive doggerel to be my Christmas card. You can read them at www.ianmortimer. com/xmas.

Walk: I don’t eat (or cook) meat so an important tradition for us is to go out on Boxing Day and have a walk, followed by a visit to a good

pub where my wife and children can eat as much meat as they want.

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[

EATING OUT

[

Las Iguanas

By Becky Sheaves

Y

ears and years ago, I spent a winter back-packing around Central America. It was lots of fun and very memorable for the beaches, the people, the amazing Mayan lost

cities.

And the food. I was so looking forward to the food. But I soon discovered that the cuisine on offer to low-budget travellers on the hippy trail was essentially just three items: tortillas, scrambled eggs and “frijoles” - refried black beans.

There would sometimes be some tabasco sauce to add a little pizzazz. But for the most part the food that ordinary Mexican people actually ate, day in day out, was bland, cheap and - as the weeks wore on - incredibly boring.

The Mexican food revolution of adventurous dishes had, I was told by American fellow travellers, happened over the border in Texas. Nachos, guacamole etc had completely passed your ordinary cash-strapped Mexican by. Perhaps things are different there now, but I can vouch for the fact that the traditional indigenous cuisine of Mexico and Guatemala is not exactly thrilling.

The absolute pinnacle of culinary expertise that I was proudly offered by a local, during a community feast, was the tamale. This turned out to be a chunk of starchy corn dough wrapped in a leaf and boiled. I also got all excited about a glamorous-sounding quesadilla, which turned out to be nothing more than a tortilla, filled with a little plain yellow cheese and grilled on a hot plate.

Anyway, this is probably why I wouldn’t have chosen to eat at Las Iguanas, a new Mexican/ South American restaurant that has just opened in Exeter. However, Las Iguanas is where we were heading to for our office party this year, so off I went. And I took the train into town, too – which I also haven’t done for a long, long time – so that I could have a few festive drinks with my colleagues.

Las Iguanas is in the large old building on Queen Street that used to be home to a Pitcher and Piano. It has been completely refurbished and was, on a Saturday night in December, full of people who seemed (to me) amazingly glammed up, young and gorgeous. Bearing in mind that I am now contentedly middle-aged and very rural in my habits (and dress). So: Las Iguanas is clearly Where It Is At in Exeter these days. But is the food any good?

The short answer is yes. The cooking is sur40

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4 of the best

Places to eat Mexican The Mex

1 The Mex, St Ives

This colourful town-centre restaurant (pictured above) has been serving freshly-cooked specialities in St Ives for several years now. It’s the sort of place where you get free Tequila shots with your dinner: lots of fun and popular with the young (at heart).

Dish of the day: Seafood fajitas with marinated monkfish and scallops Price: Three course set menu plus nachos, £18.95 Contact: 01736 797658

2 Jalapeno Peppers, Barnstaple

[[

meringue, which is just sugar prisingly accomplished. We held together with a bit of frothy were following a set menu costThe service egg white. Having said that, one ing £25 for three courses, which of my colleagues thought hers turned out to be very good value. was friendly was fantastic, so it may just be As for drinks, when we arrived and efficient, that I don’t have such a sweet cocktails were on a buy-one-getconsidering we tooth as her. But if you ate lots of on-free offer, which led to most this, you wouldn’t have any teeth of my colleagues standing at the were a table left, sweet or otherwise. bar with a mojito in either hand. of 29, most The service was friendly and And very lovely they were too. enjoying twoefficient, especially considering To start, I had Queso Ensalaours was a table of 29 people, most da, which was a pretty dish of for-one cocktails enjoying two-for-one cocktails. By baby spinach with mango, canthe end of the night, I had drunk died pecans and a really good several mojitos, had a great meal goat’s cheese, with a stickywith my workmates and won two sweet balsamic vinegar dressing. penguin hand warmers in the office lucky dip.

My main course was Moqueca, which is a BraMost definitely a good night out. zilian stew, usually made with salt cod. This one Las Iguanas, Queen Street, Exeter, 01392 210753 was vegetarian, with a tomato and coconut curry plus squash, palm hearts and plantain. It was delicious, and came with coconut farofa – a sort of crunchy toasted manioc flour mix. This was a complicated but successful dish that I had never eaten before, but certainly would do again.

Food My pud was less of a hit: Winterberry Mess was an Eton mess with redcurrants, blackberries Atmosphere and blackcurrants. It was diabetes-inducingly Service sweet, with too much sugar in the fruit, yet more sugar in the cream and then of course smashed

How they scored...

  

A friendly family-run restaurant in north Devon, Jalapeno Peppers serves all the Mexican favourites at reasonable prices.

Dish of the day: Starter of red snapper and prawn fishcakes £5.95 Price: Mains around £10 Contact: 01271 328877

3 Mama Stone’s, Exeter

A great place to hear live music, plus Mexican restaurant, this city centre venue is run by Joss Stone’s mum, and even has its own house band.

Dish of the day: Fire roasted chicken burritos Price: Mains around £10 Contact: 01392 848485

4 3 Amigos, Falmouth

Popular with the student set, this restaurant serves Mexican food, plus good quality steaks and burgers. All the beef is local and aged for 28 days.

Dish of the day: Ceviche – local white fish cured in lime juice with chilli, fresh coriander and Mexican oregano.

Price: Mains around £13 Contact: 01326 317477

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16/12/2014 18:26:34

Ingredient of the Week

Goose

with Tim Maddams hristmas is coming and the goose is getting fat. In fact all five of our geese were looking decidedly porky – it was time for them to get the chop. I was surprised they hadn’t put on a little more weight more quickly given the amount of feed they eat. But it seems the local pheasant population have been popping in and talking full advantage of the barley and grower’s pellets.

I won’t be eating all five, though. Only two are ours and one of them is promised for a pal’s Christmas lunch. The other three geese belong to our friends, who kindly share their smallholding with us. In return we all share the care of the animals, making everything a little less demanding for everyone involved.

If you are opting for goose this Christmas it’s well worth remembering that your average goose is very far removed from a turkey. Weight-wise, there will be a lower percentage of meat on the goose and far more fat. Flavour-wise, though the goose wins hands down. A decent free-range

C

goose that’s had plenty of good grazing along with a decent supplementary diet will have the deep, rich quality of farmed duck meat but with a luxurious edge that even duck simply can’t match. And turkey can’t compete at all.

When it comes to cooking, you can simply roast the bird whole, remembering to keep any fat that renders out to use for your potatoes and dressing the veg. Due to the different shape of a goose - it has a relatively large cavity - the cooking time will be considerably less than that for a turkey. I won’t be roasting mine whole though – see panel, right.

Yes, in one simple step I have removed the tricky part of cooking a whole bird on the day, freed up the oven for all the other bits and bobs we need, roast potatoes and parsnips, cauliflower cheese etc and taken all the guesswork out of the situation, leaving me free to enjoy the day a little more.

Whether you are going for goose or it simply has to be turkey, consider cutting the bird up and getting some of the cookery out of the way beforehand. It really will make for a better meal and a much more relaxing time.

On the day

In the spirit of making life easy, my plan for Christmas Day is to take the stress and hassle out of the job by cutting up the goose before cooking it. The legs I will slow-roast with apples, onions, garlic and a little dry cider. Once cooled I will pick the meat off the bones and add it back to mix in with the apples and veg to create a delicious dish. The crown (both breasts on the breast bone) will be pan roasted to crisp up the skin then given a quick blast in the oven before resting and carving at the table.

Afterwards, the carcass will be made into a stock for another use at some point, as there will be enough gravy from the leg meat to serve with the crown. @TimGreenSauce

Tim Maddams is a Devon chef and writer who often appears on the River Cottage TV series 42

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17/12/2014 12:49:42

Drink Harbour Brewing Co in Cornwall: well worth checking out

Darren Norbury Beer of the week Lizard Ales’ Horseshow Special Reserve is the perfect winter warmer, weighing in at 6.2%. Bready malt and berry notes pack loads of taste in this smooth, easy drinking brew. It is matured for at least six months in bottle before it is released from the former nuclear bunker base of Lizard Ales.

local is best

There’s a flood of cheap Polish apples on the market since Russia snubbed EU produce. But Somerset cider maker Orchard Pig is using only the best Westcountry apples. “We’ve always supported our local apple growers and this won’t change,” says the company’s Andrew Quinlan.

talks beer f you recall from a few weeks ago, we are, possibly forever, without a satisfactory definition of a craft brewery. However, I’d say that any brewery with a half-pipe skateboard ramp on its premises probably fitted the bill.

Such is the case at Harbour Brewing Co, just outside Bodmin, where partners Eddie Lofthouse and Rhys Powell are reviewing another successful year which has put them on more of the international map – all the more amazing as the business has yet to celebrate its third anniversary.

This year the company has taken on a new apprentice, Matt Dunn – chief user of the onpremises skateboard – to work with Rhys and fellow brewer Sarah Hjalmarsson, and is employing another brewer in the new year.

A bottling plant in a newly acquired unit next to the original brewery is helping the team fulfil a major national Sainsbury’s contract for their standard IPA. Production has been boosted, too, by three new 20-barrel fermenters.

Looking around the Kirland premises a week or two ago, I was given a bottle of their latest Doppel Bock (6.5% ABV) to take away. As well as being a damn fine beer – rich, deep, bursting with preserved berry and Morello cherry notes and a little leatheriness, having been matured in bourbon

I

barrels – it comes with an unusual label which is actually made of wood. I was lucky enough to take away bottle number one of this exclusive batch to open over the festive period.

Eddie tends to be front of house, handling marketing than sales, rather than in the brewhouse, but he has found time to develop a double IPA which will be out soon and which was tasting excellent, too. “It’s the first beer I’ve brewed on my own,” he said, proudly, and it’s ticking all those classic IPA boxes with resinous hop and deep orange notes to the fore.

Look out next year, too, for the latest addition to Harbour team. It’s a 1962 Chevrolet pick-up, recently acquired from California, with a side ramp which makes it perfect to hold a mobile bar for events during better weather. After a spruceup it’ll be hitting Westcountry roads, taking Harbour beers to new destinations.

One final thing. If the brewery’s near landlocked Bodmin, why’s it called Harbour? Because Eddie and Rhys came up with the project over a beer in, where else, Padstow. Is there any way in which this small north Cornish town doesn’t figure in most stories of Cornish food and drink?

Darren Norbury is editor of beertoday.co.uk @beertoday

TRAVEL AWARDS My Exmoor friend and fellow beer writer, Adrian Tierney-Jones, has won a silver German Travel Writers’ Award for an article entitled Deutsch Courage, about the Munich Oktoberfest, which appeared in the Sunday Times. Yes, apparently there are other Sunday papers…

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17/12/2014 12:51:31

Living

MOTORS

Oh, very Porsche...

Forget the Heston Blumenthal turkey, our motoring expert Steve Grant investigates what your favourite petrolhead really wants for Christmas this year welve drummers drumming? You must be joking. If your true love is a petrolhead he or she is more likely to want hundreds of horsepower humming.

And, thankfully, I know just the place.

Silverstone is, of course, the home of British motorsport. But it is also the home of the UK’s Porsche Experience Centre. And, as experiences go, a trip here will leave any car fan burbling with excitement.

It’s a very special day out - and a very special present should you feel that way inclined. You can contact me at...

The centre’s six dedicated Porsche tracks provide a unique and challenging driving environ-

T

ment that allows the performance and dynamics of a Porsche to be fully explored. You can use one of their cars or take your own, should you have one. Each “driving experience” includes one-toone instruction tailored to your experience and your exact requirements, whether you want to try out the four wheel drive system on the latest 911 or get a better understanding of car control in the Porsche Boxster.

At the moment, the £275 gift experience entitles the recipient 90 minutes on the tracks, driving either the Boxster, Cayman, 911, Panamera, Cayenne or new Macan.

For a real Christmas treat, there’s a feast of Porsche delights available as part of the hourlong Taste of Porsche Experience. This includes

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gadget notebook TECH TIPS: Boy’s toys

21 December 2014

Fun stuff for the young - and young at heart

20 minutes driving the latest 911 Carrera, 20 minutes driving a new Cayman GTS, an exhilarating off-road demonstration in the new Cayenne, and a high-octane passenger ride in the latest Panamera. And lunch for two in the Porsche Restaurant overlooking the tracks. Put your pedal to the metal as this £150 experience is strictly limited and must be taken by March 31 2015.

On my visit, I particularly wanted to try out the Panamera 3.0-litre V6 diesel (£65,634). Yes, a Porsche with a diesel engine! My tuition came from Brian Saunders, one of a team of Porsche driving consultants. These experts come from advanced road, rally and motorsport backgrounds. Their brief is not to teach you to race, rather to help you master your vehicle and to enjoy it as well.

The team includes a Le Mans winner - Brian explained that he himself is a former Formula Asia champion, European Formula Ford champion and Porsche Carrera Cup racer.

We first ventured out on to the centre’s handling circuit. This isn’t designed as a race track but as a challenging country road. Using the contours of the land it features a flowing series of corners and undulations that offer a range of experiences for both car and driver.

We didn’t used all of the Panamera’s 247bhp, or get near its 150mph top speed. But, more importantly, I learnt the correct lines, braking points and how to extract the maximum enjoyment from the car in safety. Driving smoothly, not bat out of hell style, was the name of the game.

As I mentioned earlier, this is not a race track.

Instead there are a variety of configurations and surface conditions on which the potential of the Porsches can be explored and understood.

My favourite was the “ice hill”, a 7% slope featuring computer-controlled water jets and a low friction surface. Learning to drive the Porsche up and down the slippery slope using the power and technology of the Panamera was testing, fun and highly addictive. Even if I did feel like Bambi on ice at times.

Now, the Panamera is, of course, not your usual Porsche. For a start it’s got four doors and four seats. It is comfortable, quiet and - when not on the ice hill - an undemanding car to drive. It is exactly what you might want from a big grand tourer. Precisely what it was designed for, in fact.

For details, visit www.porsche.com/silverstone

All aboard Who wouldn’t be chuffed with this battery operated train set? £29.99 www.dotcomgiftshop.com

Robo-fish This little robot can swim! Bring the Hexbug Aquabot 2.0 to life by running your fingers through the water or tapping on the outside of the fish bowl. £7.99 from stores including Toys R Us, Smyths and Toymaster.

SPUD POWER What’s the time? It’s Potato’clock! Two spuds are all you need as batteries for this digital timepiece. £7.99 www.tigerstores. co.uk

Building bliss You’ll have hours of fun assembling this Lego Movie super secret police dropship £88 www.littlewoods.com

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17/12/2014 13:50:55

My life

[

[

man and boy

Little donkey, little donkey Phil Goodwin applauds James, four, in the school nativity

his week saw us trooping out to watch James in his school nativity play. It’s a unique piece of theatre which has the reputation of reducing parents not normally given to public outbursts to weeping wrecks. I suspect for many it also offers the opportunity to reacquaint oneself with the inside of a church.

It was certainly my first step on sacred ground for a year (unless you count Anfield, the home of Liverpool Football Club, as a holy place).

You have to admit, it is a great story, whatever faith you follow. In a nativity play, we can delight in the tale of Jesus’ humble roots. After all, you don’t get much more lowly a start in life than being born in a barn in the middle of winter, with parents who are soon to become refugees from the murderous and tyrannical dictator King Herod.

This year the drama department at James’ school added a modern twist to the age-old saga, presenting us with a show entitled Donkey for Sale. Young James and his Reception class were decked out in tunics with the traditional checked tea towel headwear, then set to following the star along the rocky road from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Rehearsals have been under way for weeks, and the boy has been belting out the songs at home as well as school. My favourite is the donkey’s lament: “Hee-haw, hee-haw, don’t you know my feet are sore…” It beats last year’s version, with its story of a grumpy sheep – “Baa-baa grump” – but keeps the animal theme going nicely.

And then came the actual performance.

As the musical extravaganza unfolded in a chilly Exeter church, an army of proud paparazzi parents trained camera phones on the young performers. Like much of modern life, the moment is recorded for posterity and is

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destined to do the rounds online. Thinking back to my own attempts to strut the boards, it made me thankful they were played out in the pre-digital age.

I do have fond memories of infant school productions, and donkeys, having once played a rear end in a festive stage-play. There was also a minor role as a regal sword bearer in an Elizabethan court romp, which required my poor mother to run up a ruff on the sewing machine.

[

I have fond memories of infant school nativities, and once played a donkey’s rear end in a festive stage play

[

But my crowning moment came in the Easter story and marked a meteoric rise from a bit-part as a beast of burden to the ultimate starring role, Yes, I played Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary in a musical version of the Passion, no less. I landed the role by virtue of my long hair and apparent resemblance to the rebellious carpenter, if I recall. But the part did expose my own youthful weakness – an inability to hold a decent tune.

I think I had already been measured for my loincloth or something because I kept the job despite my wailing adding a little more torture than was needed, even for a crucifixion scene.

Instead a novel solution was found which kept me in the role: a better singer was drafted in the take care of the vocals while I lip synched the songs.

The poor vocalist hid away backstage as I took all the glory, hands bound to a gold sprayed cross of branches sunk into a giant pot. It wasn’t quite Monty Python star Eric Idle’s chirpy Easter ditty “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. But interestingly, the Pythons’ epic send-up of Christianity’s origins, Life of Brian, was released shortly after my performance.

I’m not making great claims for my comic acting, but I can’t help feeling that my performance may have been equally - albeit unintentionally - hilarious.

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17/12/2014 13:23:28

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