The Sun - Access Interviews

Michael Winner

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

THE most annoying telly adverts in history are to make an infuriating return. Irrepressible film legend Michael Winner, 73, will be back on the box from the New Year with four new ads for insurance firm esure, famous for their “Calm down, dear,” catchphrase. And you won’t be surprised to hear that there was no flashing of cash to make them — the multi-millionaire, who also produced and directed them, turned down the chance to film abroad in favour of the modest street where he was born. He even roped in two ex-girlfriends instead of trawling agencies for actresses. Winner lived in Alexander Avenue, Willesden Green, North London, until 1941, when his family moved to Cheltenham, Gloucs. He explains: “I didn’t know why I was bothering to scout for locations when this particular street was perfect for the advert. Why would I want to go to South Africa? “I knocked on all the doors to make sure the residents were all right with us filming. They were all very friendly — it helps if you’re known.” Some of Winner’s earliest memories of living on Alexander Avenue give clues to what would become two of his great loves — women and films. Full interview in today's Sun newspaper...

Ricky Gervais

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

RICKY GERVAIS says his TV pal Jonathan Ross was “devastated” after his career was left hanging in the balance by the storm over Sachsgate. The Office and Extras star has revealed that the BBC presenter poured his heart out to him after his vile prank call to veteran Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs on Russell Brand’s Radio 2 show in October. Ricky has also told how Jonathan, 48, sank to a new low after being hit with a 12-week suspension from the BBC which cost him £1.5million in lost pay. In an interview to mark Comedians Week in The Sun, 47-year-old Ricky says: “It did go too far, yes. Jonathan was devastated. I’ve spoken to him a few times and he knows he was in the wrong. “The whole thing got blown out of proportion. Obviously what they did was wrong. It wasn’t very funny. “They made a mistake because they picked on a real person and they left the message on a human being’s answerphone. “They could have sworn a hundred times and said some other ridiculous things and that would have been OK. “But it was about a human being. The sex and the baying for blood and all that. It was wrong. “But they do know that now. Jonathan has apologised. He knew he made a mistake — but he didn’t kill anyone.” Full interview in today's Sun newspaper ...

Dara O’Briain

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

THEY say laughter is the best medicine — and Dara O’Briain could not agree more. So with the economy in the doldrums, the Mock The Week host reckons a hearty chortle could do us all good. In the second part of a new Sun series to cheer up Britain, funnyman Dara says: “Hardship and humour go hand in hand. It’s a natural reaction to life. “For example, people who work in the grimmest jobs have the funniest sense of humour. Firemen and surgeons love a good old laugh at the awful stuff they face day to day. “And if you think about it, a child’s first giggle happens before it walks, runs or talks. That’s how innate laughing is to human beings. So, in any situation you have the capacity to laugh. Even in the most difficult times.”

Jimmy Carr

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

REDUNDANCIES, repossessions and a lack of credit have left us all fearing a long, hard winter. But Jimmy Carr has his own gallery of gags to beat the credit crunch blues. The comic, who today kicks off a new Sun series to cheer up Britain, quipped last night: “They say the people most affected by the credit crunch are pensioners — well, let go of the handbag then, Nanna.” Jimmy is currently touring Britain with his hit stand-up routine and says crowds are flocking to comedy gigs as the economic gloom worsens. ... A joke from Jimmy: ‘I was in the South of France. I saw a Brownie on a school trip. She was holding up a book. It said on the front 'rough guide'. I thought: 'Yeah, she's not a looker'.'

Tommy Williams

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

TOMMY WILLIAMS is the Peterborough full-back happy to live in the shadow of Celebrity girlfriend Nicola McLean. And, let’s be honest, that is quite some shadow the former Page 3 favourite is casting out there in the jungle. Glamour girl Nicola’s Down Under feud with David Van Day has gripped the nation in the latest series of I’m A Celebrity. And Williams is itching to confront the former Dollar singer to give him a piece of his mind. He warned: “I’ll be waiting at the airport when he flies back from Australia. “I’ll definitely be having a word with him. “But I’m the least of Mr Van Day’s problems. “If he’s not careful, he could soon find himself on the wrong end of a couple of backhanders from Nic, which would be very interesting.” Not that Van Day is the only jungle resident with something to worry about. Williams added: “Timmy Mallet is winding everyone up a treat and that’s definitely why he’s been sent in there. “I couldn’t live with that, no chance. If someone was annoying me that much when I was tired and hungry I’d knock their block off straight away, simple as that. “The way the show is edited they can make anyone look good, bad, ugly or plain evil. They’ve jumped on to the fact that Nic and David don’t get on but it’s great TV. Even I find them funny.” ...

Petr Cech

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

IT is not often you find support from an opponent on the eve of a match as fierce as Chelsea versus Arsenal. But Petr Cech has backed his former Blues team-mate William Gallas over the row which has rocked the Emirates. The Chelsea keeper got to know Gallas well over three seasons in which they helped form the best defence in the Premier League. And Cech is adamant that the France international had only the welfare of Arsenal in mind when he spoke out last week. Cech told SunSport: “I know William and if he says it then it is true. I’ve played with him and know him well. “William is a great guy and he is passionate about football but I don’t agree players should talk publicly about what is discussed in the dressing room. “William must have felt very frustrated to want to talk publicly about it. As a person he says what he feels. And that’s why people look at him differently because, when he speaks, it comes from the heart.’’ ...

Dani Behr

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

DANI Behr has revealed her true feelings about her fellow stars after being booted off I’m A Celebrity — and it’s not pretty reading. The ex-Word host, 34, said campmates in the Australian jungle got on her nerves and kept banging on about sex. But she had kind words for Nicola McLean and George Takei. Dani claimed Esther Rantzen was a “nutter” who lusted after ex-EastEnders star Joe Swash, 26. She said: “Esther is a drama queen. She kept banging on about sex — who she’d slept with, when she lost her virginity, what she was into. It was just weird. “I reckon she is going to pounce on Joe — she really wants sex. I told her she should have a toyboy. They’re so much more fun.”

The Black Angels

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

EXCLUSIVE: SFTW talk to The Black Angels, an Indie band from Texas with a big future ahead

Daughters of Britain's "Fritzl"

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

TWO sisters who had nine children by their rapist father have told The Sun how they even pretended to their MOTHER that other men were to blame for their pregnancies. The tragic pair endured 28 years of hell during which they were raped more than 1,000 times by their dad — dubbed the British Josef Fritzl after the Austrian who fathered seven children by his own daughter. Last night the sisters told how they had begged their father to stop the torture. One said she even began PAYING the benefits-obsessed 56-year-old not to abuse her. Speaking to The Sun, the elder sister said: “No one was there for us and we were too terrified of him to tell anyone what was happening. I pleaded for him to stop but he wouldn’t. I was too scared to tell anyone. “When my mum asked me who the father of my first child was I told her it was a local boy — but I knew the real father was my dad. “I lost count of how many times he raped me. As I got older he said if I told anyone, my children would be taken away from me. “He started touching me when I was about five. It was going on for years but I didn’t know my younger sister was also being abused until much later. “At one stage a few years ago I even paid him a few times from my benefits just to stop him. There was no way out. “It took us years to build up the courage to report him. We were just under his control.

Kara Tointon

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

EASTENDERS star Kara Tointon blinked back tears as she listened to Charity Mugari’s harrowing story. The two women, both 25 but from different worlds, came face to face in the dustbowl village of Mukamino, in Aids-ravaged Zambia. Her voice cracked with emotion as Charity, a single mum of four, told the actress: “My husband is gone, I can only afford to feed my babies one meal of maize a day. They go to bed crying with hunger.” Like many in this land of 600,000 Aids orphans, Charity has fallen back on Africa’s support network — the extended family in her home village. null The meeting between the two women is seared into Kara’s mind. She said: “After speaking to Charity, we set off back to our hotel but I couldn’t stop thinking about her beautiful children. “I knew they would be in their little hut in the dark, going to sleep with empty stomachs. It was utterly heart-breaking.”

Paul McCartney

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

IT’S official. Paul McCartney likes birds. I’m talking, naturally, about our feathered friends — a constant source of inspiration to Britain’s greatest living songwriter from his Beatles days right up to his latest project. His third collaborative album with producer and Killing Joke bassist Youth (aka Martin Glover), bears a handsome ditty called Two Magpies, the latest McCartney bird song. “I’ve always liked birds. It’s a theme of mine,” Paul explains when we meet to discuss Electric Arguments by The Fireman, an album that’s getting him some of the best reviews for many a year. “I think they’re symbolic of freedom, of flying away. “As a kid, I was a keen ornithologist and had a little pocket book, the Observer’s Book Of Birds. I lived on the outskirts of Liverpool and could walk just a mile to be in quite deep countryside.”

Sharon Osbourne

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

SHARON OSBOURNE today breaks her silence on leaving The X Factor – and claims she was driven out by “manipulative” Dannii Minogue. The show’s fiery ex-judge says she was bullied off the programme by the Aussie singer — who she insists is now trying to get rid of Louis Walsh in the same way. In an explosive interview, Sharon also claims Dannii . . . *Is as cold as an iceberg *Acted like the teacher’s pet to boss Simon Cowell — but is furious that Cheryl Cole is now flavour of the month instead *Never thanked Louis for a present he bought as a peace offering *Needs to go to a reconstructive surgeon — because her plastic surgery is so BAD. Sharon, 56, who is filming a new telly show in LA with husband Ozzy and children Jack and Kelly, quit The X Factor earlier this year and was replaced by Girls Aloud singer Cheryl, 25. Read the FULL interview in today's Sun newspaper ...

David Cameron

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

TEN-year-old Damilola Taylor was stabbed to death eight years ago today. This afternoon Tory leader David Cameron will be among VIPs attending a memorial service in London. Here Damilola’s dad, Richard Taylor, quizzes father-of-three Cameron on the state of broken Britain – and how he plans to fix it. RICHARD TAYLOR: Politicians on both sides of the fence disagree violently about whether Britain is Broken. What do you believe? DAVID CAMERON: This is a subject very close to my heart. We need to re-civilise our society. Society is broken down in too many ways and too many places.

Alison Madgin

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

TODAY politicians, police and victims of crime meet to tackle knife crime at a Sun event in Newcastle. Alison Madgin will be one of the speakers and here the mum, whose 18-year-old daughter Samantha was murdered, reveals the anguish at the heart of broken Britain.

Hilary Foster

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

A SOLEMN promise made by the mum of Hannah Foster to her dead daughter was finally fulfilled yesterday when the girl’s killer was convicted. Weeping Hilary Foster made the pledge to Hannah as she held the teenager’s limp hand in a hospital morgue five years and eight months ago. The mum revealed she and husband Trevor vowed they would not rest until her murderer faced justice. Hilary said: “It is the last thing we can do for her — I want to be able to say, ‘Job done’.” Yesterday snared fugitive Maninder Pal Singh Kohli was found guilty of the murder, rape, kidnap and false imprisonment of their “darling little girl”. And Hilary, 52, could at last say: “Job done.” But the price paid by the Fosters extends well beyond the awful loss of Hannah. ...

Coldplay

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

THERE is one huge drawback being in a globally successful rock ’n’ roll band on the road – missing The X Factor. Coldplay have been touring the US for most of the latest series, missing out on the phone vote drama and bickering judges on the TV talent show juggernaut. Before I could even ask a question in the band’s dressing room in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Saturday night frontman Chris Martin insisted on a full update from the show. He said: “We haven’t seen The X Factor for about ten weeks. Is Laura still in, that nice girl from Manchester (She’s actually from Bolton)? She was our favourite. She should win.”

Mark Mendelssohn

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

THE blonde alleged to have romped with Hell’s Kitchen star Gordon Ramsay is a “sex-crazed tiger” who loves BITING and SCRATCHING in bed, says a former lover. Ex-bouncer Mark Mendelssohn said he found Sarah Symonds too hot to handle after they once had sex NINE times in seven hours — adding: “I was scared. I could barely walk out of the place.” He also told how she took charge in the bedroom, saying: “She is very demanding — a bit like Ramsay on TV really.” t was claimed they met up last week for sex in the plush Marriott Hotel, adjoining father-of-four Ramsay’s Maze restaurant in London’s Mayfair. Symonds, 38, was even said to have stopped off first in Soho to buy legal sex drug amyl nitrate. The allegations came as no surprise to Mark, who met Symonds when he was working at the Royal Over-Seas League in central London where she was organising posh bashes. Mark Mendelssohn ... 'I was scared' Mark ... 'I was scared' Mark, 35, told how he and Sarah had their first sex session in a nightclub toilet. He said: She must have been really horny at the time because she never showed any signs that she fancied me before. We ended up in a cubicle together taking a sex drug and she just leapt on me. Within minutes we were at it hammer and tongs. It was very fast and furious. FULL interview on today's Sun

Cesc Fabregas

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

NEW Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas has sounded the rallying cry round The Emirates and vowed: I’m 100 per cent committed to this club and I will do everything I can to make us successful again. Fabregas, 21, has a huge task to help restore the Gunners’ battered pride as they lose touch with the Premier League pacesetters. However, after being installed as captain by manager Arsene Wenger yesterday, the Spanish midfield maestro promised: “We are strong enough to get through these difficult times. “We have shown we can come back from problems before — and we can do it again.” He added: “Right now is not the best moment for Arsenal and we have to admit that, because everybody knows some of the results have not been good. “But people can see we have quality players and that we have a lot of good youngsters coming through. “We want to show just how good we are. “We have to prove that all the criticism we have had is not justified — that we are together and that we are one of the best teams in the country and in Europe.”

Ian Anderson

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

EXCLUSIVE: JETHRO Tull star Ian Anderson talks about his weird and wonderful career

Take That

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:43 +0000

IT’S the evening of Children In Need and I’m in the middle of a cluster of people hanging outside a certain dressing room at BBC Studios. I’ve already suffered an elbow jab in the ribs as the crowd — mainly female — jostle to get a glimpse of the biggest pop band in the country. Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Jason Orange and Howard Donald are to present Children In Need with a cheque for (their fee from their Marks & Spencer advert) and perform new single Greatest Day. But first there are photograph requests, autograph pleas and star-struck gawping to deal with. ...