Dancing on Ice

Don’t give up on your day job Corky, was the overwhelming message on last night’s DOI as Dominic fell victim to the programme’s first Ice Pick, loosing three votes to Jeff Brazier’s six.

Only Johnson, Denise and Comedy Dave saved Dominic, while the others shown their loyalty lay with Jeff, including Vanilla Ice, who appeared on the Farm with Jeff a few years back, and flipped a coin to decide, however he failed to mention which contestant was heads or tails?

It was only last week that Dominic was saved by the judges in the skate off, but his performance last night has ‘deteriorated’, said Jason, with the ‘end being the part of the routine he looked forward to the most’, seems his wish came true.

At the other end of the leader board last night was once again Sam Attwater with 25/30, who Jason called a ‘skating Viagra’, despite knowing his girlfriend, skating partner Brianne, was in the picture. Laura came in second with a respectable 20/30 points, and third Chloe Madeley with 19.5.

In the judges bottom two were Denise and Kerry, who was told off for being too dependent on her partner.

Mary Portas helps Fonehouse become more customer friendly

So far we've seen Mary tackle fast fashion stores and furniture shops, but next week tough talking Ms Portas will visit mobile phone retailer Fonehouse, run by CEO Clive Bayley, who thinks his customer service is 10/10. And then in comes Mary who shows him what good customer service is really about by taking control of his flagship store in Islington, London. But getting her ideas rolled out across the chain doesn't prove to be easy, as she will have to convince a group of successful franchisees as well as Clive that their customers are worth spending serious money on.

Scream 4 trailer released

As a big fan of the Scream trilogy, I can't wait for the fourth film to come to the silver screen this year. Let's just hope that the new flick doesn't disappoint much like the last film did, please a horror film based on a movie set, BORING. Perhaps the same will be said for the chemistry between Gail Weathers and Dewey, now that Courtney and David are no longer an item?

Mary Portas: Secret Shopper

 

What’s more important-customer service or commission? To furniture salesmen it’s the latter, claimed retail expert Mary Portas on the second of her Secret Shopper programmes last night.

How to solve this? Send tough taking Ms Portas to Northern furniture chain CSL to teach staff how to be customer friendly and make an example of them. But not before going undercover in some of the UK’s largest furniture retailers-SCS and Harvey’s, where salesmen pushed on her a white sofa for her ‘teenage son’s Uni pad’, and a leather sofa for her home that she shares with her cats. ‘Cats avoid leather’, said the sales guy? To add to their misdemeanours she was advised to commit insurance fraud at many of the stores.

However CSL owner, Jason, 37, told Mary his business was different as the customer always comes first? Something Ms Portas proved otherwise, of course, at the chain’s Rotherham store.

Spending a day as a member of the furniture sales team, all men, she was paired up with the store’s top seller, who despite being on minimum wage,  earned £57,000 last year all down to commission. Nice work if you can get it?!

After observation of the salesmen she set them an exercise to find a specially selected group of customers a sofa each that they would A- be happy with and B- would fit in their home, very important. The salesmen failed miserably, surprise, surprise, has no-one ever watched Mary Queen of Shops?
Welcome Mary’s ideas to turn the store into a customer friendly one at a cost of half a million pounds for all branches.

Ideas  included:- Creating an inspiration station, where customers can create a room plan using I-Pads provided.

-Mood boards, rooms created within the store.

-A list of truths written by the owner to dispel confusion of varying ‘false’ discounts and eradicate the so called money back guarantee.

-Make amends with the angry customers who created a complaints website.

And like all good stories, after implementing Mary’s changes the store was 30 per cent up on their busiest day. A coincidence or Ms Portas’ magic touch?

Next week Mary cracks down on the phone shops (Wed 9pm CH4)

Exclusive: The Dancing on Ice twist

Run VT can reveal that on next week's DOI celebrities, rather than judges, will have to pick who out of the bottom two skaters they want to leave the competition and provide their reasons.

The new twist to the competition could cause bad feelings amongst the celebrity skaters, who have grown to know each other over the past few weeks. So will they be honest and choose the worst skater to leave the competition, someone they don't like, or a rival celeb?

Gok's new show

Tonight sees the launch of fashion guru Gok Wan's new show-Clothes Roadshow on Channel 4.

This time 'Auntie Gok' is taking his stylist skills on the road, visiting a city each week to do makeovers on unsuspecting women and hold masterclasses on how to dress for your body shape. Designer Brix Smith is also back, her quest to undermine Gok's budget driven buys with her high end fashion alternatives.

Tomight at 8pm he visits Liverpool to show the ladies how it's done by treating a bunch of social workers to a five star makeover. Sky Plus at the ready!

Dancing on Ice

Dominic Cork scored a hat trick last night as he was saved by all three of the judges in the skate off.

Not surprising seeing as the only competition he faced was Steven, whose skating was branded a ‘natural disaster’ by judge Jason.

The judges’ gloves were off in last night’s DOI, having regained their power over the contestants. Most faced harsh criticism from Jason, who was back on form, telling Laura she had stumpy legs and needed to point her toes, and Comedy Dave ‘he can’t act, dance or find a beat.’

Those that escaped Jason’s wrath were Johnson Beharry, who admitted his broken finger made skating more challenging, and judge’s favourite Sam, whose power and speed earned him a score of 25/30. Second and third on the leader board were Laura and Jennifer, both of whom have been in the skate-off in previous weeks.

The award for the worse dressed went to Denise Welch for her Abba inspired gold PVC cat suit, and Kerry, whose large tattoo and tangerine lipstick took attention away from her skating.

Next week all the contestants will have to up their game as a new twist to the show is announced.

Review- Black Swan

Black Swan blurs the line between reality and fantasy by delving into the dark world of a professional dancer.

If you ever had dreams of becoming a ballerina you would soon change your mind after watching this film, which reveals the extremes dancers go to in the hope of being chosen as the principal dancer.
More worryingly this truth does not seem surprising, with dancers preparing to sleep with the company's director, take drugs and starve themselves all for a part. But despite all this you feel empathy for the girls in the film who have so much passion for ballet that it become's their life's purpose, even though it's such a short-lived career.

Natalie Portman captures this spirit perfectly as Nina, a shy and retiring type, living with her mum who treats her like a 10-year-old, in order to live her life through her child having given up her ballet career years ago to have her. However this all changes when Nina is given the role of the Swan Queen in the company's (New York Ballet) contemporary performance of Swan Lake, where she is required to play two parts, the good White Swan, and her evil twin the Black Swan. While the White Swan presents no challenge to Nina, who is pure and virginal, the Black Swan is. Determined not to loose the part after convincing herself that another of the girl's-Lily, is after her role, she delves into a dark, monstrous side of her personality, even trying an illegal high, which accenuates her paranoia and psychosis, as her life starts to play out like the Swan Queen's.

Cue confusion and the use of symbolism as sub text, as the cinema goer is drawn into Nina's dark world, questioning what is real and fantasy. Does Lily really exist? What happened between Lily and Nina in her dressing room? and Was it suicide or murder?

At the end of the film you can't help feeling touched by the story, which finishes with Nina getting her wish to perform the lead role on opening night, but so accurately that she embodies the White Swan whole-heartedly.

Coming Soon to a cinema near you

This spring you will see Little Red Riding Hood as you have never seen her before in an American horror loosely based on the popular children’s tale.

Starring Amanda Seyfried and Gary Oldman, the film tells the story of a village haunted by a werewolf, leaving Valerie (Red Riding Hood) and a hunter to track the beast done and kill him.

The film is being tipped as a successor to the Twilight series, and is set to continue the trend for movies aimed at tweens.

If you go down to the woods today….. don’t go alone!

What I watched last night-Mary Portas Secret Shopper

A fitting room with themed ‘style icon’ cubicles, a catwalk, till point and Tweet Mirrors, technology that lets you take a photo and post it onto Twitter, was all part of Mary’s plan last night to transform fast fashion store Pilot, costing the owner a cool £1 million. That was just one of Mary’s suggestions to make the store in Braintree more customer friendly, a place where training consists of a poster in the staff room demonstrating customer feelings through faces with different expressions, and a ‘motivational’ laminate in the toilet with phrases such as ‘smile like you’re on a stage’, no wonder customer service is non-existent on the UK high street.

The MD of Pilot wasn’t much better having never met the three members of staff working at he store, despite one working there three years. Instead he considered speaking to them over the phone adequate enough. I guess you shouldn’t expect too much from a man who carries security tags in his briefcase to test door alarms.

Nevertheless he listened to tough talking Mary and let his girls practice their service skills on customers at a branch of restaurant chain Leon, along with agreeing to roll out the new fitting room concept to all 44 stores. Not sure I would listen to a retail expert wearing a fuchsia dress teamed with a khaki cotton top against vivid orange hair, Mary what were you thinking?

It was clear from the start of the programme that Mary had very high expectations of high street stores. Going undercover in Primark, New Look, H&M and Zara, she discovered how unwelcoming and untidy they are, and their total disregard for customer service, what ever happened to the saying ‘The customer is king?’

However what did Mary expect from these fast fashion stores when staff are working for minimum wage and have to buy their own uniform, ie Primark. And this is all coming from the woman who shops in Selfridges with the help of a personal shopper in the VIP area. Perhaps Mary you would like to hear some of my experiences, which include being totally ignored by staff, them having no product knowledge or seeming more interested in the layout of the store than you, the customer.

Mary continues her mission for good customer service and the golden rules-smile-speak-service, next Wednesday on Channel 4 when she visits a large chain of furniture stores, heads will roll.

Must see film

Black Swan

Previewing in cinemas this week, Black Swan is one of this year's hottest tickets, and sure to go down in history as one of the greatest films of this century.

Star of the film, Natalie Portman, plays Nina, a ballerina who works for the New York City ballet company and like all her colleagues, is completley consumed by dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica who has control over her. When artistic director Thomas Leroy decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre for the opening production of their new season performing Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But she faces stiff competiton from new dancer Lily, who impresses Leroy as well. Nina fits the role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan character. Soon the two dancers friendship turns into rivalry as they battle for the role. Nina begins to get in touch more with her dark side, which sends her into a downwards spiral.

Must see TV

Ch4 Wed 19 @9pm- Mary Portas:secret shopper

In this new Ch4 series tough talking retail expert Mary visits stores and restaurants to critique their customer service, and I have to say I am behind Mary 100 per cent if it will mean customer service is improved.
This week she turns her attention to fashion chain Pilot and its MD Chris George. Her mission-to transform the chain's worst performing store in Essex into a haven for shoppers, and to challenge Chris to roll out her ideas across the rest of his empire.
But with a team of unpassionate staff and an MD who hires shop managers without meeting them first, will she convince them that it's her way or the highway?

Dancing on ice

Elen Rivas and Craig Mclachlan were voted off Dancing on ice last night.

The pair, along with Jennifer Metcalfe ,were in the bottom three and skated again for their survival.

The second qualifier got off to a slow start with Aussie Craig Machalan's lack lustre routine earning him a score of 9. Second to skate was Hollyoaks' Jennifer Metcalfe, who appeared confident on the ice despite falling out of a lift. Judges gave her a score of 12, while Chris Dean said she was one of the strongest skaters in the group.

Following the two actors was Comedy Dave, who gave a routine worthy of his namesake. His stiff performance earned him 11 points, along with fiesty spaniard Elen Rivas and sportsman Dominic Cork. Chloe Madeley surprised everyone, receiving 16 points, but it was Sam Attwood who stole the show with his complicated routine, earning him a score of 21, and its only his first show.

Last to skate was Denise Welch, who scored 10 points.Judge Jason said it looked like the professional skater was dancing with his mum. Of course it's not until next week that the judges scores actually matter.

Movie news

• Funnyman Ricky Gervais is set to feature in Ray Griggs' remake of The Wind and the Willows, coming to the big screen in June.Gervais will play main character the mole

• This summer the film offering from Disney is the sequel to animated movie Cars. The story this time sees Lightning and Mater go around the world to compete in a series of races against the fastest cars on earth, although they get disrupted when they become entanged in a international spy operation.

• Nicholas Cage's new movie- Age of the Witch is now showing on the silver screen. Basically members of the crusading army leave after disagreeing with the murder of innocent by standers, then they are taken to prison and asked to transport a girl to a monastery to stand on trial for being a witch, just your average day then?!

What I watched last night

Having worked as a waitress while at Uni I can sympathise with the trainees taking part in BBC2's Michel Roux's Service, which sees a group of jobless teenagers taught how to serve guests in Michellin starred restaurants.

However, unlike my pub restaurant job, its all work and no play for the recruits, who in last night's episode proved they were completely out of their depth having failed the basics. Their misdemeanours included serving cold food to customers, making diners wait 30 mins for tables to be cleared, and swearing and arguing at each other in the middle of service. Perhaps it was too early to let them loose on real customers at a branch of Italian restaurant Zizzi's, after all they only had a couple of days training and we are talking about a group of clueless teenagers.

They certainly have a lot to learn if two of them at the end of eight part series are to be awarded a scholarship to study at the Academy of Food and Wine.

Wednesday's 8pm BBC2.

Guilty TV pleasures

Keeping up with the Kardashians

This is the ultimate reality TV show starring sisters Kim, Kourtney and Khloe as they go through life and loves. Since the programme started in 2007, the girls have moved out of the family home, got married and had children, despite this they still have their sibling rivalry, tantrums, and then there's the running of Dash, the family's clothing store in LA and Miami, as well as several public appearances come family holidays.
A fantastic replacement to The Hills, with loveable real characters that you can relate to and characters that you love to hate-e.g Scott, every mother's bf hell.

Keeping up with the Kardashians is on every Thurs on 4Music, freeview channel 18.

Visit http://uk.eonline.com/on/shows/kardashians/index.html

Dvd review

The Last Exorcism

This spoof documentary is confusing and lacks the scream factor. Although what makes this film stand out from the other one hundred exorcism horror films, is that this movie is from the point of view of a priest who sees doing 'exorcisms' as easy money, but surprise surprise he quickly changes his mind when he accepts a plea to help a young girl's family rid her of the demon that has taken over her body. Resulting in some shaky camera work, screaming and farcical action, Blair Witch meets American Beauty style. That is if you manage to sit through the first hour of the film listening to a priest rattle on about his life, yawn. Whats more most of the characters in the film are unbelievable leaving you wondering what they actually bring to the movie apart from making the narrative a bit more confusing and dragging things out.

Dancing on Ice

After 12 weeks of practice, fake tan applications and teeth whitening, two celebs were voted off the ice during last night’s DOI qualifier.



Nadia, along with Angela, is voted off the competition.

Angela, Laura and Nadia received the least public votes and skated again for survival. While Laure impressed viewers with her speed and agility on the ice, 66-year-old Angela and TV presenter Nadia’s attempts led to them being voted off the show.

Next week two other couples will join them as the eight contestants who didn’t skate this week take to the ice on Sunday to compete for the four remaining places.

First to skate last night was Steven, aka ‘Ashley Peacock’, who did a comedy routine to Baggy Trousers. There were a few icy moments earning him a pitiful seven points.

Angela Rippon followed with a some-what safe performance in which she was awarded a score of 11. But children’s TV presenter Laura, blew them out of the water with a complicated routine that put her on top, earning a score of 16 out of 30, definitely one to watch!

Johnson Beharry VC had a tough act to follow, and despite his ability to support his partner, he was only given 11 points.

Next was tentative Nadia who was awarded a reasonable nine points, Kerry Katona a score of 14 and Jeff Brazier 11 points.

Rapper Ice, who went against tradition and wore an embellished vest and baseball cap, was awarded a score of 15, placing him in the judges top two.

Must see TV

ITV 6pm Dancing on ice

This Sunday the new series of Dancing on ice starts and I can’t wait. After Strictly finished and I’m a Celeb came to an end a large gaping hole was left in my TV viewing, but now I’m pleased to say I will be glued to the box come Sunday night.

Here on Run VT we will be keeping you up to date with the latest departures and back stage gossip.

As usual this year’s contestants are largely made up of D list celebrities with the odd TV presenter and actress. They include 66 year-old Angela Rippon, Chloe Madeley-daughter of Richard and Judy, Former Home and Away actor Craig Mclachlan, Dave Vitty-Chris Moyles’ sidekick, Loose woman Denise Welch, cricketer Dominic Cork, Peter Andre’s new girlfriend Elen Rivas, reality star Jeff Brazier, Jennifer Metcalfe-aka Mercedes from Hollyoaks, Johnson Beharry VC-the first recipient of the Victoria Cross, former Queen of the Jungle- Kerry Katona, TV presenters Laura Hamilton and Nadia Sawalha, Sam Attwater-actor, Steven Arnold-or more famously known as Ashley from Corrie, and rapper Vanilla Ice.

Team Rippon all the way!

Breaking soap news

It has been reported that Samantha Womack, the actress who plays Ronnie in Eastenders, is to leave the soap in May. Apparently Samantha handed her notice to bosses at the BBC after reading the controversial storyline in which she swaps her baby after he dies from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, scenes that aired in the New Year.

Earlier Run VT revealed that soap bosses planned on continuing the storyline for many years, however this now may not be the case, with rumours spreading that Ronnie is soon to confess all to Kat.

Watch this space…

TV higlight

The Brits launch 14 January @8pm

Ahead of the BRIT awards ceremony, ITV2 presents a launch show to reveal this year's nominations. The launch is held at the Indigo O2 and will see perfomances from top music acts across the country. They will also announce the BRITS new venue, the 02, and a new 'blank canvas' trophy which will be restyled each year by different creatives, courtesy of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.

What I watched last night....

BBC 3 -Sun, Sex and Suspicious parents

In the first episode of this tame BBC documentary, which encourages parents to spy on their teenagers enjoying their first holiday with friends, eighteen-year-old Joe and Millie let loose (?) on the party island of Malia, supposedly oblivious to the fact that their parents had flown to the island and were spying on them.

The teens, along with their group of friends, enjoyed late night antics, drinking and relaxing by the pool. However despite this being the first holiday without their parents, they failed to make the most of the five days, with Joe the most adventurous daring to wear pink nail varnish and dress in a skirt, attracting unwanted male attention. Millie’s holiday was even more dull, with her and her friends visiting only one club and ordering soft drinks on a night out, boring. Given the choice I would have chosen to be their parents, enjoying a free holiday and spying on their teens, much more exciting.

Surprisingly at the end of the programme when the parents sprung it on their teens they had been watching them, both Joe and Millie didn’t seem too bothered or embarrassed in front of their mates that their parents felt the need to check up on them.

Soap news

Eastenders

The soap rumour mill has it that Ronnie will continue to bring up baby James, aka Tommy, as her own for years to come. Soap bosses say that they hope to continue with the story-line as long as possible, ie until one of the actors involved decides to leave.

Coronation Street

Bar man Sean Tully is set to marry ex boyfriend Marcus when he returns to the street this year, oh we do love a happy ending.

Emmerdale

Tissues at the ready as there will be a big blaze in the Dales, with two long standing characters expected to be killed off, sob, sob, and just when we had gotten over the horror of Corrie's tram crash.

Film Review- Narnia: The voyage of the Dawn Treader

After watching the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and  Prince Caspian over the Christmas holidays I was left wanting another Narnia fix so decided to give the latest film in the trilogy a go. I was slightly disappointed by Prince Caspian and had heard Disney had pulled out of making the third so was a little sceptical that the new film could be better than the first. Unfortunately I was right, the film was some what predictable and uninteresting, I guess it didn't help that I was sat next to a sniffling child for the whole two hours?
While the graphics were amazing, much of the characters lacked the love ability factor which came so easily in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. With King Peter and Queen Susan being demoted to minor characters, it was up to Queen Lucy and King Edmund to lead the way, taking centre stage with their cousin Eustace, who depsite his name actually played a somewhat amusing part, building up a good rapport with Reepicheep the mouse, actually their relationship was what stood out most in the film.I was also disappointed with the lack of Narnian characters who were replaced by people, a comment which may seem odd but only fans of Narnia could understand. All I can think is that the lack of CGI characters was down to smaller budgets? All in all he film is a bit of a let down and because of its simplistic plot more suited to children.