Abena Bailey Features

Totally unjudged, Brendan Cole’s theatre show is all about him and now that the Strictly dancer has stepped into his own could he be thinking about the patter of tiny feet? Abena Bailey had to ask.

 

 

When it comes to the BBC’s successful Saturday night show Strictly Come Dancing, the attention is all geared towards the celebrity dancers.

The professional dancers they are paired up with smile sweetly in the background but one has managed to steal a bit of the limelight for himself and has become a star in his own right.

Tall dark and handsome, Brendan Cole not only ticks all the boxes when it comes to looks but the former builder has won himself the nickname of the bad boy of Strictly.

He breaks rules to wow the audiences with some pretty impressive lifts and until he married model Zoe Hobbs in 2010 he provided plenty of entertainment for the gossip columns, which linked him to a string of beauties including Martine McCutcheon and Abi Titmuss.

So what’s on the cards for him now that he has been a married man for more than a year we wonder. A baby?

“Children are in the plan. That's definitely what the future holds,” he revealed.

“We've decided  when we're going to have them. It’s exciting. It’s all a part of life and something that is very important to both of us.”

The question really is when will there be a mini Brendan running around. This year?

He laughed and carefully said: “Quite possibly. This year could be huge.”

After first appearing on television screens in Strictly back in 2004 it was always only going to be a matter of time before the outspoken New Zealand-born dancer produced his own stage show.

In Live and Unjudged he brings the audience into his way of thinking.

He said: “It’s my show, there’s my name on the door, I write it, produce it, direct it, cast it and decide on costumes. I don’t leave anything to anyone else.

“It’s important to me to be able to bring out my creative side and what’s good about the show is it’s very intimate and includes everything I love about dance. Plus it’s not just one dance after another dance, it’s very audience interactive. There’s a moment where we get the audience up off their seats to do a salsa.

“I wanted to do something like that because people sit and watch Strictly but there’s a massive want out there for the public to be part of the dancing and I wanted to give them that opportunity when they come to see Live and Unjudged.”

 The 35-year-old has come a long way from being a six-year-old boy whose mother used to drag him ‘kicking and screaming’ to dance classes with his brother Scott.

“I hated it,” Brendan laughed.

“We used to jump out of the window and run down the street. It wasn’t until we started competing when we got hooked.”

This little memory has become one of those wonderful things that he and his mother look back on and laugh at.

He said: “Mum has been over several times to see my show and my sister came over last year.

“The fact that my family love it makes it private to me in a way. My sister is very proud of me and because she’s a dancer herself it makes me feel lucky to have been able to do it.”

 Wife Zoe is often in the audience while big brother Scott also stars in the show dancing on stage and sharing anecdotes with the audience.

Brendan said: “Having Scott in the show adds a whole different dimension. It’s more personable because he can take the mick out of me.

“Scott’s the happiest he’s ever been.

“Getting people up on their feet at the end of performance is a special feeling and the fact that my brother is a part of that and experiences it with me means we can go home, have a beer and reflect on it together.”

Kicking off in 2010, the touring show has been praised for its elegance, charm and fun. So where does our dancer go from here?

“I want to do another one but I have to see how things go because I can’t just do a show for the sake of it. I need to be inspired to create and it takes months to produce something like Live and Unjudged.”

When summer does come it can feel so tropical in Cornwall

Turquoise waters, white sand beaches and tropical gardens...it may sound like the Caribbean but on a trip to Cornwall Abena Bailey discovers that there is paradise right here in the UK.

I stood in the gift shop of the Minack Theatre, in Penzance, and gazed at a postcard of a Cornish beach scene showing a basking shark under the water approaching a crowd of unaware people playing in the bright blue seawater.

“That picture hasn't been photo-shopped you know. That is the real colour of the sea,” the lady at the gift shop told me.

“One of the ladies who works here is a photographer and when she gets a moment she pops out on to Porthcurno Beach with her camera and takes snaps for the postcards.”

It wasn’t hard to believe that the image I was looking at was Porthcurno Beach and not somewhere on the coast of the Mediterranean.

This south coast of Cornwall is so glorious people nickname it the English Riviera as it is blessed by good weather.

Situated at the most westerly and southerly point of Britain, it is mostly surrounded by sea. 

The sunniest times are from May to July and during these months the Minack Theatre’s subtropical garden is in full bloom - cacti and plants from South Africa and Mexico thrive here.

There is no other place in the world like the Minack Theatre. Back in 1931 and local woman named Rowena Cade carved it out of the side of the cliff.

She enlisted the help of two local craftsmen to build a stage for an amateur performance of The Tempest, which took place overlooking the sea.

Today the Minack continues to celebrate amateur dramatics and has an exciting summer programme, which this year includes Guys and Dolls, Hamlet, Pirates of Penzance and the season will end, as it does every year, with a proms night and fireworks.

Theatre-goers sit close to the stage for serious plays and further back for large scale productions.

They take picnics, blankets and cushions and are not only treated to the spectacle of a show; the sea creates its own drama too.

The actors compete for attention with dolphins, basking sharks and ships and at night the stage is covered with a blanket of stars.

I had booked a luxury farmhouse through Cornish Farm Holidays. Out of the 80 odd farmhouses they offer, I chose the Granary on Chegwidden Farm.

The self-catering accommodation was located, in St Levan, which is just a 20 minute stroll away from the Minack Theatre and Porthcurno beach.

Situated close to Land’s End, this location is ideal because you can take a helicopter over to the isles of Scilly, have a day trip in St Ives and visit scores of easy-to-find attractions dotted about.

There are tropical gardens, museums, coves, vineyards and breweries.

Chegwidden Farm has a farmhouse, which sleeps six people, and a Granary, which sleeps four.

Both are exceptionally beautiful and are decorated in traditional farmhouse style. Expect polished beams, exposed stonework, solid pine furniture, log burners in living rooms, Agas in the kitchen and hot tubs on the terrace.

The working farm is hidden away up a country lane in the small village and is surrounded by fields where sheep and cattle graze.

The animals are kept in pens on the property behind the Farmhouse and Granary and you can see them from the living room window.

There farm shop opposite sells fresh eggs, vegetables and meat, which are produced on the farm.

I felt like I could have all the benefits of living on a farm without having to do any of the work.

Farm owner Viv Hall lives down the lane in a bungalow and was up at the crack of dawn each morning to do various jobs.

She told me that youngsters who stay love the farm animals and she often takes them on tours around the yard and lets the kids help out if they want to.

On arrival guests are greeted with a welcome hamper of Cornish chutneys, jam, shortbread biscuits, local apple juice, a bottle of cava and a batch of freshly baked scones.

All the essentials, such as milk, butter, cooking oil and condiments, were provided and there was a huge bunch of freshly cut daffodils on the kitchen table.

I couldn’t have felt more at home. The hot tub had also been fired up and was ready to go.

I spent our days exploring the beaches, gardens and took walks to see performances at the theatre.

Evenings were for slow cooking kebabs in the Aga while lazing under the stars in the hot tub. It was bliss.

Get away from it all... in The Docklands

Horse riding, antiquing and boat trips are not exactly the first things that spring to mind as things to do in the London Docklands area.

 

Most people laughed when I told them I was going to a farm in the city. “I thought you were in The Docklands?” was the common response to which I relished replying: “Yes, I am. I'm going horse riding.”

There are  more than 90,000 people working in the 97 acres of Canary Wharf, which is one of Europe's biggest clusters of super sleek skyscrapers and home to leading international companies and more than 200 shops, bars and restaurants, so you can imagine the atmosphere.

Shopping arcades; Cabot Place, Churchill Place, Canada Place and Jubilee Place; are packed with high end stores, such as Bang & Olufsen, Kurt Geiger and Tiffany and Co.

It's pretty manic. Thousands of business people march along making urgent calls made into smartphones and tube announcements to get on the train, get off the train and mind the gap, constantly ring in your ears.

This area is also a major tourist destination where surprisingly it is actually possible to mimic a country break and relax.

Just four stops away  from Canary Wharf on the DLR is Mudchute, which is home to Mudchute Farm.

Here the only sound to break the peace was a cock crowing. At 32-acres, Mudchute is the largest of the capital's 15 city farms and offers riding lessons in its arena and surrounding countryside.

A half hour horseback tour of the land, which is home to llamas, Gloucester Old Spot pigs, cows, goats and other farm animals, is an ideal way to begin a country break.

Lessons are in the mornings and evenings and costs £25 per  adult for an hour's group session. Booking in advance is essential because they are popular.

With one countryside activity ticked off, I had the ball rolling.

Next. Does anyone fancy antiquing, a walk around a manor house and then maybe a picnic?

Yes it's true you can buy vintage anywhere in London and easily picnic in the Royal Parks, but Greenwich village, a waterside escape with Georgian buildings, is wonderfully twee.

I got chatting to Laurence O'Toole, a musician in a band called Sonic Jewels, who runs The Beehive vintage shop, on Creek Road: “Greenwich has the feel of a seaside town like Brighton. There are loads of designers, riverside cafes and a chilled out vibe,” he told me.

He was right about the artisan feel. Greenwich Market has about 100 designer makers selling original clothes, art, accessories and gifts.

The weekend Clock Tower Market specialises in all things vintage. You can even get arty yourself painting plates at Biscuit Ceramic Cafe, on Nelson Road.

A peek in National Maritime Museum, walk up to Royal Observatory and ice cream in the park kept me amused.

Tired and hungry I decided to head to my hotel, The Radisson Edwardian New Providence Wharf , where I was booked in for a massage and dinner.

The 169-room tower luxury hotel in the usual wharf architectural style has a sleek interior and no chintz in sight.

I was grateful for the mod cons – Bang & Olufsen stereos, entertainment systems, bathroom television and Wifi.

The East River Spa has treatment rooms and steam, sauna, rain shower and ice rooms - top quality with twinkly lights.

After the best and most intense massage of my life I lay in the Thai-style relaxation room on a heated lounger sipping chamomile tea mesmerised by the panoramic night time view of the O2.

Later dining on modern British – pan-fried Scottish scallops with sun blushed tomato, broad bean and basil broth and cheesecakes hidden in sugar towers - I realised that finding country break activities in a financial district was  actually very easy. It offers the joys of the country married with the practicalities of the city.