Actress & mum Jo Page chats to Liz Nicholls about the upcoming Gavin & Stacey Christmas reunion, life, love, wildlife & more
You can watch & hear Jo’s full chat on our Spotlight podcast:
Hi Jo, how are you? “Good thanks. I’m in the middle of filming at the Wildlife Aid Foundation hospital in Leatherhead. I’m dealing with badgers, foxes, bats: cleaning cages, coming home and changing nappies. So my life is just cleaning up poo: animals and children!”
Q. We’re excited about the Gavin & Stacey special. What’s in store for Nessa & Smiffy, and you two!? “Oh gosh I’ve no idea. I just hope to God they haven’t got me in a bikini on Barry Island because I’m 47 now! We haven’t seen a script yet and even my husband said ‘don’t tell me!’ I’m as excited as everyone else.”
Q. What’s it like on set? “Everyone’s lovely. When we first started it was clear we had great chemistry, and would be big pals, like family. I love them all. Rob Brydon is so funny, always doing voices. And the impressions! He’s either doing Hugh Grant or Al Pacino. It’s an utter joy. I’d only ever watched Gavin & Stacey once; my daughter is 11 and asked if we could watch the first series and… it’s really funny! And rude!”
Q. What does your Christmas look like? “I’m a real home girl… apart from one year when I did panto in Milton Keynes which was weird! I’m the sort of person who takes the Halloween decorations down and wants to put the tree up. I don’t have any recipes or a precious way I do my potatoes: I don’t enjoy cooking because I cook so much for the kids, so if the men want to take over, I’m fine with that! We’re up opening presents, having Bucks fizz. We stay in pyjamas all day, eat and play with toys – it’s bedlam! I’m already thinking how on earth are we going to watch Gavin & Stacey? Mind you they’re a bit older now so they might sit still.”
Q. Can I ask you about your naked bit-part in Love Actually with Martin Freeman? “I first watched it sitting next to my parents and I was mortified! I was only 23 and terrified when we made it, as all the cast were there. I remember thinking ‘it’s Alan Rickman! Emma Thomson! Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson!’ It was so exciting.”
Q. Do you ever get star-struck? “I don’t normally… but I saw Paul Gorton from The Traitors at the NTAs this year and went beserk!”
Q. You and your husband got together after you both starred in David Copperfield? “Yes! I saw him on telly and thought ooh he’s so rugged and handsome. I said to my mum: ‘I want that man to be the father of my children!’ My mate Maxine Peake called me and said: ‘I’m working with an actor who says he’s in love with you: will you please come and see the play?’ I went to the green room bar and we just did not stop talking. I just knew. And he had lovely forearms and great neck / shoulder area.”
Q. What invention would drastically improve the quality of your life as a busy working mum? “Hmm… A contraption that allows me to have a constant massage, fly and gives me a lie-in. And makes me breakfast and looks after the children so I could sleep in until one in the afternoon. Then it would turn back time to 8am but I’d be incredibly well-rested and enjoy my day with everyone… Basically a nanny/husband and a time machine. With a constant massage!”
Marlborough LitFest celebrates its 15th year with a packed programme full of more than 40 events offering a myriad of topics for all ages across the festival weekend from 26th to 29th September
On offer this year is an exciting mix of debut authors and established writers in fiction and non-fiction, as well as poetry, children’s authors and free schools events, workshops and LitFest’s annual Big Town Read in the historic market town.
This year’s line-up includes LitFest Patron Sir Simon Russell Beale, 2024 Golding Speaker Linda Grant, Celia Imrie, Robert Hardman, Kate Mosse, William Dalrymple, Zeinab Badawi, Robert Peston, Sarah Perry, Martin Sixsmith, Jonathan Dimbleby, Felix Francis and children’s author and illustrator duo Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre.
With autobiography, memoir, poetry and fiction and non-fiction covering genres including Shakespeare, royalty, politics, history, nature (in particular trees and tulips), signing therapy, midlife crises, a history of childhood reading, crime, food and travel, AI, sport, storytelling for both adults and children and a Big Book Quiz at The Parade Cinema, this year’s 15th anniversary programme has something for everyone.
Bestselling Sunday Times author and award-winning actor Celia Imrie will discuss her latest novel, Meet Me at Rainbow Corner. Fans of the international bestseller, The Essex Serpent can hear Sarah Perry talking about her new novel, Enlightenment. Political and economics reporter Robert Peston will talk about his latest novel, The Crash, featuring his recurring main protagonist, Gil Peck.
Join local playwright and author Barney Norris on a walk in Savernake Forest, examining the link between place and memory when writing about fiction. Participants can write about their own experiences and discuss this over a drink in a local Marlborough pub.
LitFest Patron Sir Simon Russell Beale will be interviewed by Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford, discussing Beale’s first book, A Piece of Work, recounting his acting career with a focus on his Shakespearean characters. Broadcaster and journalist Jonathan Dimbleby, acclaimed for his Second World War histories, will talk about Endgame 1944: How Stalin Won the War.
Among many other highlights, sports journalist Sam Peters will be in conversation with rugby player Steve Thompson about concussion in sport in his book Concussed: Sport’s Uncomfortable Truth. First time writer Chloe Dalton will share her astonishing story of Raising Hare. Tristan Gooley, bestselling author of How to Read a Tree, will share tips on tree identification and how to unlock the secret signs that trees give about their past and surrounding landscape.
This year’s Big Town Read, run in association with Wiltshire Libraries, is The Secret Life of John leCarré by Adam Sisman.
In its 15th year LitFest has expanded its free activities for younger children and their families, with many ways to join in and share everyone’s love of stories. The children’s festival programme features a bumper crop of events – many free – to keep all ages entertained both before and during the festival weekend. Little ones can enjoy poetry and storytelling slots at Pewsey and Marlborough Libraries, with Street Storytellers at The Parade Cinema, as well as free craft activities at St Peter’s Church with Aldbourne Children’s Book Group.
To book your tickets and find out more please visit Marlborough Literature Festival. You can also call 0333 666 3366 or buy from The White Horse Bookshop in Marlborough, and from the box office in the Town Hall over the festival weekend. Please note that the bookshop cannot take orders by phone.
Oxford’s residents are proud to announce the line-up for this year’s free-to-visit Oxford Canal Festival, 11am-6pm on Saturday, 21st September
Head along and enjoy a community day of festival fun on the Aristotle Lane Recreation Ground, OX2 – entry is free!
Proceeds will go to ‘The Kilsby Theatre Boat Project’ – the 108-year-old narrowboat being rescued to become a new community theatre boat for Oxford’s waterways.
The music line up included the Jericho Singers, Ben Avison & Three Idle Women, Weekend Warriors, The Dirty Big Canal Dance Band, Mambo Panthers, Papa Nui, and Senegalese kora musician Jali Fily Cissokho.
Visit the Spoken Word Tent for a fantastic literary experience with Sir Philip Pullman reading live on stage, Roy MacFarlane, our Canal Laureate announcing the winning performances from this year’s poetry competition and the hugely fun University Challenged quiz with local teams taking on Oxford University finest brains!
Enjoy stalls selling jewellery, clothing, treats and local crafts on the Oxford canal running alongside the Aristotle Rec. There will be fun activities running all day for children including: face painting, art, a bouncy castle, a Canal Olympics, Arts and Crafts projects, and a Cinema showing local history short films.
Visitors can also enter a fun dog show – a hugely entertaining and impressive competition with our winners taking home fantastic canine prizes.
Craft beers and non-alcoholic drinks will be available in the bar tent, and a big selection of food vendors will be on site offering international cuisines.
The Kilsby Boat Project is rescuing and restoring a 1912 canal boat, reinventing it as a community venue for storytelling, music and boat trips. Kilsby is moored at Tooley’s historic boatyard awaiting restoration works that will enable her to make the trip back home to Oxford.
Neighbours fan Liz Nicholls chats to one of her heroes, Ryan Moloney, who has played Toadfish in beloved Aussie soap for 30 years and is sharing his behind-the-scenes stories with the Toad On The Road UK tour.
G’day fellow Neighbours fans (and fans-to-be)! This week I was honoured to chat to Neighbours royalty: Ryan Moloney who has played Jarrod Vincenzo “Toadfish” Rebecchi for an astonishing 30 years.
In case you missed the memo, Toadie is leaving the beloved soap very soon which is why he’s in the UK. Ryan is hosting the Toad on the Road show which stops at The Anvil Basingstoke this Friday, 13th September, and has been winning rave reviews so far!
Toadie has survived a brutal kidnapping, croc attack and breakdown in Neighbours’ thrilling #DeathInTheOutback week but we’re still unsure what form his demise might take… But it can’t be that final, can it, Ryan? Bear in mind that Dionne (my personal favourite of the Toad’s five wives, along with her evil twin… but that’s another story) came back from the dead after plummeting off a cliff, and Harrold Bishop was also famously resurrected. Is this really the end of the Toad? “Ummm. Well, yeah… Nothing’s ever final, but I think it might be for Toadie!”
Q&A with Ryan Moloney
Wow, ok, no spoilers! Toadie’s has a lot of trauma over the past three decades, hasn’t he? I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone cry so much on screen! How do you do that?! “Well, actually that’s part of the Toad On The Road show. When you’re younger, you spend a lot of time trying to extend your skills and make things more real so you can connect with your audience more. And the more truthful and honest things are for me, it’s almost like the less I have to act. And from that point on, there’s access to this emotionally deep well.”
It’s so good to see mental health – my favourite subject – explored in my favourite soap… “Yeah, absolutely. Mental health is not necessarily something that we show on television. I get that it’s a tough subject, but I think we need to show it. It’s part of our psyche, our world, so we should represent these stories. That’s the thing about watching shows, television, movies, hearing music, it connects people. If you don’t see this stuff on television, it almost shuns people going through stuff and makes them feel mental health problems are something that we need to push away. But it’s something that so many people deal with.
“That’s why I’m so glad that this is actually what I’m doing for my last year on Neighbours. We get to tell the story of this character’s mental demise. Thirty years of trauma catches up with Toadie and he ends up having a psychotic snap. And then by the end of it he has a realisation… This is almost my last gift, in a way. This is what I want to go out with.”
When it was announced that Neighbours was ending in 2022, it was a big shock to fans. Then the whole world tuned in for the finale, starring the likes of Guy Ritchie, Kylie and Margot Robbie. Is it down to the love of the fans that Neighbours is back, for a year now, with a new network? “Absolutely! It would not have come back without the fans’ demand for Neighbours to exist. And I think it was almost like a happy accident that Amazon wanted to launch Freevee. If I was Amazon, I’d be thinking: ‘What am I going to launch with?’ And here’s this show with an audience just screaming for it back on TV.”
Apart from Neighbours, what’s your favourite TV show, and what’s your favourite film? “Oooh film is a tough one but I’d say Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch: I love films that are not just your run-of-the-mill kind of storytelling.
“But I don’t actually watch a lot of TV. I’m too busy kind of building things and learning things, mainly mechanics. I tend to spend a lot of time on YouTube, just kind of going down rabbit holes. At the moment I’m trying to make my son’s go-kart go faster! Apart from doing a directing traineeship with the Neighbours team, I do a lot of things. We’re building farms, and I do civil construction. Mainly, now I just want to spend time with my kids. My daughter’s coming up 18 and my son’s just turned 16. And I want to just be able to grab that last second with them before they disappear.”
There’s a lot to be celebrated about Toadie. How much of Toadie is in you, Ryan? “I’d say, you know, he’s probably about 25% like me. Toadie’s a knight in shining armour and one of the main drivers behind him is that he’s the eternal loser. We always need him to lose so we can get behind him. So we give him little wins and then we make him lose. He’s a generous person, always looking out for other people; that’s very much me. But also, he makes some very bad decisions and he doesn’t seem to learn from his past behaviours: I don’t think that’s me! Nobody can always be liked, that’s for sure. I think it’s important to have off-putting elements in a character like Toadie, because that’s real.”
Speaking of which, as much as I love Toadie, Paul is my favourite character… So what’s Stefan Dennis (one of the finest actors of our generation) like behind the scenes? “Ahhh he’s such a lovely fella. I absolutely love Steffi. He’s just so kind and generous and he’s pretty funny too.
“I love Paul too! He’s the character that you just love to hate. I can’t believe that everyone keeps getting sucked in! See here’s the thing, right? If Toad is the eternal loser, Paul is the baddie who comes good in a way. He’s a… winner! The audience always want him to come good and then he does for a period of time. But the important thing to remember is that he is completely flawed and he will never be truly good!”
I’m really looking forward to the show on Friday! So what can people expect from Toad On The Road? “You can expect a journey. It’s not superficial, we talk about Neighbours and storylines and whatnot, but it’s really kind of the conduit for explaining character development, how we actually use structures to create families, and how we get audience to buy-in, and then manage and manipulate that audience buy-in as well. But on top of that, then it’s also about how the really emotional stuff. The beautiful thing is that when people come and see it, when they leave, they’re like, wow, I was not expecting that.
Q1. As a teen troublemaker Toadie tried to blackmail Lucy Robinson with nudie centrefolds in which fictional British porn magazine?
Q2. Toadie and Hannah Martin found buried treasure when Hannah’s dog dug up an old tin box. Name that dog! (It’s not Bouncer).
Q3. While living at the Kennedys with his surrogate parents Karl and Susan, Toadie had a turkey that was supposed to be dinner but became a beloved pet. Name that turkey!
Q4. In which nightclub did Toadie meet his future wife Dee?
Dick Morbey tells us about the enchanting West Wycombe Music Festival, 19th to 21st September, founded by international star (& Wycombe born & raised) musician Lawrence Power
West Wycombe Chamber Music Festival was established 13 years ago by Lawrence Power who is now recognised as a performer of the very highest calibre on the world stage.
Each September Lawrence returns to the area to direct and perform in this three-day music festival which offers audiences five attractively programmed concerts. He brings with him an array of top-flight musicians who join him to perform in this exclusive series of concerts.
The festival has firmly established its place as one of the key musical events in our locality. It was hailed by the Guardian newspaper as “One of the top ten classical music events of 2021”.
After last year’s success in Hambleden, where we received a very warm welcome from the community and our audiences, we are delighted to be returning to the village this year. The festival will take place from Thursday 19th to Saturday, 21st September.
Five concerts will be given, with an Enchanted theme, all in the beautiful 12th century Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Hambledon, RG9 6RX, in the heart of one the most attractive villages in the Chiltern hills in Buckinghamshire. In addition to three evening concerts, there will also be a lunchtime concert on the Friday and a late morning concert on the Saturday. You can find full details of the five concerts and performances & book at westwycombemusic.org.uk and also follow the Facebook page. For further details, ticket sales and enquiries please email the festival organisers on [email protected] or you can call 01494 528659 or 07948 897148.
The West Wycombe Chamber Music Festival is an entirely non-profit concert series which aims to bring the very best of live music performance to the area, given by top calibre musicians. In current times this is increasingly costly, but thanks to the support of audiences and Friends of the Festival we are able to cover most, but not all of our costs.
We invite music-lovers to consider becoming a Friend. The Friends of the Festival are a thriving, friendly group who have offered great support for the festival for over a decade. Friends’ subscriptions and subsequent generous donations have been instrumental in supplementing the income we receive from our generously-priced concert tickets and enabling the continuance of the concert series.
For further info, ticket sales and enquiries please email the organisers by emailing [email protected] or call 01494 528659 or 07948 897148.
The Jordans Picture House team look forward to welcoming you back, with September’s super screenings: A Man Called Otto and Jojo Rabbit
Starring Tom Hanks; Marian Trevino & Rachel Keller and directed by Marc Forster, A Man Called Otto (15) will be screened at Jordans Picture House on Friday, 13th September. Doors open at the new time of 6.45pm and the programme start at 7.30pm.
Otto is a grump who has given up on life, following the loss of his wife. He’s ready to end it all but his plans are interrupted when a lively young family moves in next door and he meets his match in quick-witted Marisol. She challenges him to see life differently, leading to an unlikely friendship which turns his world around. This is a heart-warming and funny story about love, loss and life, showing that family can be found in the most unexpected places.
“This is the perfect vehicle for Tom Hanks and he makes the most of the opportunity,” says one IMDB user. “Well written and well-acted this is great entertainment moving seamlessly from comedy to drama and ultimately packs an emotional punch that makes it memorable and pushes it into one of the best movies of the year. A great reminder of why Tom Hanks has been at the top for so long.”
On Friday, 27th September, Jordans Picture House will screen Jojo Rabbit 12A (6.45pm for 7.30pm).
Starring Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie & Scarlett Johannsen and directed by Taika Waititi, it tells the story of a young German boy in the Hitler Youth whose hero and imaginary friend is the country’s dictator is shocked to discover that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home.
“Jojo Rabbit demonstrates that there is hope, both for humanity and Hollywood,” says one reviewer. “The characters are charming and quirky, the dialogue clever and the plot wisely confines itself to telling an intensely personal story rather than one of the war itself. The young male star is perfect.”
Book your tickets now: £8pp or £5 under-15s. Visit Jordans Picture House, or call Gill on 01494 678050.
Head to Discover Bucks Museum near Aylesbury to see one of the finest collection of vintage Star Wars toys & original movie posters
One of the UK’s finest collections of vintage Star Wars toys and original movie posters is on display in a stunning exhibition at Discover Bucks Museum in Bucks.
Back when the movie Star Wars broke box office records in 1977 no one could have predicted that the merchandising would go on to earn even more than the film itself. The toys of Star Wars took the world by storm and became the must-have playthings for an entire generation. From 1977 to 1985 an estimated 300 million action figures were sold, allowing children to re-enact the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo.
May The Toys Be With You is both a celebration of the now highly collectable vintage toy line and also of the iconic design work and art of the Star Wars movies. From X-Wing Fighters to lightsabers, these fantastical designs have fired our imaginations and stamped their place on our cultural landscape.
For little kids and “big kids” alike this is an unmissable opportunity to view many rarely seen Star Wars treasures. This exhibition has broken visitor attendance records at a host of museums around the country, and the museum team are excited for its first visit to Aylesbury. The exhibition runs until 3rd November.
Continuing the sci-fi theme and a treat for those visitors who have fond memories of the 1980 BBC Television adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, we have on display until 3rd November the original, screen-used costume prop of Marvin the Paranoid Android.
For more information, opening times, ticket prices and to book visit Welcome to Discover Bucks – Discover Bucks. Discover Bucks Museum, Church Street, Aylesbury HP20 2QP.
13th September is Roald Dahl Story Day and Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity is inviting schools to celebrate by hosting their very own Roald Dahl Story Day event to fundraise for the charity.
Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity establishes specialist nurses to care for children with complex lifelong conditions.
There are more than 150 Roald Dahl Nurses caring for more than 36,000 children across the UK, including lots in the Round & About counties, such as Roald Dahl Nurses Stephanie Lawrence in Surrey, Hannah Gerrard in Berkshire, and Katrina Williams in Hampshire.
Hosting a dress-up day for Roald Dahl Story Day is one fantabulous way to support the charity while having lots of fun and celebrating the joy of reading and the power of spellbinding stories. There are so many inspiring characters for children to choose, from Willy Wonka to Matilda to Fantastic Mr Fox! You may even get a Giant Peach or two turning up!
Teachers can visit the schools fundraising page at http://www.roalddahlcharity.org to register and the charity’s schools team will be in touch with buckets of fundraising support and resources to make your Roald Dahl Story Day a truly splendiferous one. There are even some dressing up tups on the website – it couldn’t be easier!
All funds raised will go towards establishing Roald Dahl Nurses and the incredible work the charity does caring for seriously ill children living with complex medical conditions and supporting their families who find life very tough. Every seriously ill child deserves a Roald Dahl Nurse.
Watch this space for our interview with Dame Felicity in our October editions.
Peter Henry tells us more about Chesham Bois Tennis Club’s oldest member Roy Thorn who is still smiling at 100
As a member of Chesham Bois Lawn Tennis and Squash Club for some 30 years I have known and played tennis with Roy for a considerable time. On his 90th Birthday, when he was still playing twice a week, I had the opportunity to interview about his life and he turned out to be quite a character. Now that he reached 100 it provides the opportunity to share some of his stories with the world.
Roy was born on 7th August 1924 in Chesham where apart from his time in the RAF and 10 years working in London, he has spent all his life in the area. He was married to Mary, a talented painter and Sculptor, for 46 years until her death in 1997, with whom he had 3 children, Robin, Jane and Timothy, four grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren. His career was in the legal profession as first a solicitor’s clerk and later as a Legal Executive when he was a founder member of the Institute of Legal Executives. Outside work he has been a keen sportsman all his life with tennis and badminton as his two games. He founded Chiltern Badminton Club and has been a member of Chesham Bois LT&SC for 76 years.
Roy has always been a keen photographer and during the early part of the war Roy delighted in taking illicit photographs of the military vehicles and troop movements either from the offices of Blaser Mills which overlooked the Broadway or by concealing his camera under his coat on the Avenue in Lowndes Park where British Army vehicles were concealed under the line of trees.
“Roy has always been a keen photographer”
One night in 1941, during the period of the London Blitz, bombs were dropped on a field on the outskirts of Chesham. Roy went out early the next morning and picked up an unexploded incendiary bomb sticking out of the ground taking it home on his bike concealed in his gauntlet gloves much to his mother’s horror. On returning home for lunch the bomb had gone, taken away by the police. Roy went round to the Police Station in a high dudgeon, had a heated but failed argument with the sergeant to get ‘his’ bomb back.
In 1943 Roy joined the RAF and was then sent on an aviation course in Leicester where he flew Tiger Moths learning all the tricks of the trade including Acrobatics, Night Flying, Navigation and Forced Landings. As part of this course, they were required to travel an 80-mile route with an instructor and then retrace the route flying solo the next day. The course took them north from Leicester but Roy, who as shown by his clandestine military photography was always keen to take a risk, worked out that if he fiddled his log he could fly to Chesham and back. This he did successfully with the only difficulty being when he encountered 3 Bovingdon based US Flying Fortresses and was forced to climb so they couldn’t see his registration and possibly report his presence in the wrong part of the country!
During his time in the RAF, he was working alongside the now famous actor Robert Hardy. Robert asked Roy to take some photographs and, being enamoured of the Laurence Olivier 1944 film of Henry V, came to the shoot with full costume including armour, hired for the occasion.
Roy left the RAF in 1946 and returned to his old firm of Blaser Mills and then spent 10 years working in similar roles in London from the late 1950s but returned to Chesham and joined the solicitors Iliffes (now– IBB).
With two friends, who both safely survived the war, he founded Chiltern Badminton Club in which he was involved for the next 25 years including the roles of secretary and chairman. Roy joined Chesham Bois LT&SC in 1948, was made an honorary member on the Club’s Centenary in 2008 plating until he was 97.
Three further facts that demonstrate his character are; that he rode a motorbike until he was 87, and at the age of 96 he also managed to climb through a very small window that was a good 6ft above the ground, after he’d locked himself out of the house upon return from his granddaughter’s wedding. Having achieved entry with the aid of a ladder he then took it outside, locked himself out again, and had to repeat the whole process!
Roy lived independently in Amersham until February this year when he moved to The Willow Care Home in Chesham where he continues to make the most of life.
Churches across Newbury are holding a prayer week from 8th to 14th September, with many events happening each day.
The formats and venues are varied, with different topics and focuses for each meeting, but the churches are united in wanting to seek God together and bless the local area. Head along for a prayer walk, soak in meditative prayer, or join the prayers for global crises and the environment.
For the full schedule of events go to the website.
