Was worried there were too many pics on instagram of me looking smiley as, let’s face it, life isn’t all bright and shiny, in fact a lot of it is shit, so here’s what happened when my easel crashed down on my head … #reallife
I mean, what the hell? #rain #losingthewilltolive
Aw..on this day in 1982, the first episode of a daring new show called Treasure Hunt was broadcast on Channel 4. We had a ridiculous amount of fun making the series. There were genuine near misses and true jeopardy. I ended up in A & E more than once. Flinging ourselves round the world in a helicopter without doors was thrilling though. Up till then, tv was lacking ‘live’ adventure – and definitely lacking young women calling the shots. Treasure Hunt changed the face of tv for ever! A woman centre stage of the action! It was a HUGE moment in tv history ..Nice one @Channel4 for a huge, big, daring idea! #treasurehunt #channel4 #tv #realitytv #youtube #team #crew #realityshow
Beyond honoured to have a painting in the same exhibition as Maggi Hambling! In fact, two! It’s all part of “Maggi Hambling – Teacher”, a celebration of her teaching life. Being taught by Maggi Hambling has been life-changing and our weekly classes are a true highlight of my life. She is gruff and funny and wise and kind and I hear her voice ringing in my ears whenever I start a new painting. I met her 15 years ago when I interviewed her and I was bewitched. I asked her then and there if I could join her Master Class. She looked at me for about 10 minutes and then wrote on a stub of paper an address and ‘10am. Charcoal’. I turned up the next day and have been part of her eccentric, nurturing, creative group ever since. Every person in the groups paints in a completely different way which Maggi celebrates. There is no house style. The exhibition is at Morley Gallery 6-26 March so do come along and have a look at what we all get up to. @morleygallery #maggihambling #painting #exhibition
An utterly magical day in Suffolk with my mentor and teacher Maggi Hambling, recording a one-off special for Radio 4 about how the county has shaped her. We started in a ditch – because this is where she had sat as a teenager and sketched, too nervous to walk up the drive to Benton End where she was meant to be enrolling – and ended up at the Scallop, via her studio and her favourite beach. I’ve wanted to get Maggi in that ditch ever since I first met her 15 years ago, and then trace her journey and life through the Suffolk landscape. And finally we did it! At one point a man came up to her on the beach and said “thank you for being a genius”. Says it all…Details of transmission to follow… #maggihambling #painting #suffolk #sea #seascapes #scallop #beach #studio #teacher #pupil @bbcradio4
Can’t stop thinking about the Mark Quinn exhibition at Kew Gardens. His sculptures are beautiful – massive giant mirrored plants – which emerge from the sumptuous green lushness around. Here I am disappearing into a reflective frond. It really makes you feel part of the landscape as your reflection disappears into it. There’s sex thrown in too with a massive glistening red orchid. I really recommend a visit. @kewgardens #kew @marcquinnart
We built this sodding great arena in 72 hours on #ChallengeAnneka 30 years ago!!! Joyful morning with CEO Sister Mary Joy @wsponycentre to talk about a big 30th celebration. Over the 30 years the centre has helped hundreds of troubled children to ride out of the rain. The arena has been life-changing. I’ve seen first-hand this work. An autistic 5 year old, screaming and anxious, sits on a pony and is calm within seconds. I loved this Challenge – it’s on YouTube if you want to watch it. It involved prisoners from Wormwood Scrubs coming to help and Sister Mary Joy sleeping on the common with the ponies while the work was done… it’s joyful! The prisoners were a bit naughty and we ended up on the front page of The Sun. 😬. But Sister Mary Joy stayed in touch with them for decades. @RDAUK #wormwoodscrubsponycentre #challenge #ponies #ridingforthedisabled #redemption #30 #anniversary
I’m on The One Show tonight at 7pm talking about this suit. No, I’m not on a land mines mission! This is an Empathy Suit. The idea is it gives the care-giver an insight into the struggles of someone with dementia. I was a bit sceptical – thought it might be a gimmick – as empathy is an innate thing, not something you learn. But the suit – weights on the feet and body, goggles to emulate cataracts, ear phones to demonstrate tinnitus, gloves to emulate Parkinson’s – certainly would give someone a better understanding of what it’s like to feel out of control of your body, after decades being a brain surgeon, Headmistress, top lawyer. It was lovely to meet the team at Deerhurst Care Home in Bristol who are doing all they can to give their residents dignity and love. 7pm #bbc
Jenny Eclair is officially sensible. She uses the glove compartment in her car for a bottle of Chardonnay. Fits perfectly! Have a listen to her Wine Times episode for very useful tips. She said that just the word ‘golf club’ makes her vagina contract, but sadly that bit was edited out (not my call! I’d have kept it in with streamers and party poppers). Anyway, just google Wine Times to hear other wise musings … #winetimes #podcast #wine @thetimes @mrwill_lyons #sundaytimes #winetasting
Helping out my friend today @highgateflowers .. Love shop life. So many interesting people dropping by ….#flowers #shop #local
Taking a quick break from #TheBigHelpOut and joining #TheBigHelpYourselfToABottleofWine as the rather wonderful Hugh Dennis is our guest on #WineTimes. We’ve given him South Africa to slurp through and he’s very knowledgeable, as well as showing off his excellent ex-geography teacher credentials. Do join us! It’s free! #Wine #podcast #sundaytimeswineclub #southafrica #wineroute #outnumbered #geography #teacher #comedy
Gorgeous morning previewing Chelsea Flower Show….. #chelsea #chelseaflowershow @the_rhs
Very excited to welcome @michel_roux_jr to our Wine Times podcast this week. When I was 16 my boyfriend’s parents took me to Le Gavroche. So I went from my usual, the Wonky Wok in Croydon, to a 3* Michelin star restaurant, which was exciting and baffling all at once. I got blind drunk as waiters kept leaping out from behind curtains to fill up my glass. I didn’t realise this was a thing. It became a challenge to empty my glass. This never happened in the Wonky Wok. We discuss the demise this year of this extraordinary restaurant – I don’t mean the WW – and also analyse slurpy noises when eating. @mrwill_lyons chooses some delicious wines and all in all it’s a very pleasant afternoon … #wine #winetime #winetimes #afternoon #winetasting @sundaytimeswineclub @thetimes
Chickenshed has made my heart explode this afternoon. Went to see their Xmas show, The Toymaker’s Child, and sobbed throughout as usual. I am SO proud to be their Ambassador. I first saw them perform in 1986, children and adults with disabilities sharing centre stage with others who could help and guide them. A mind-blowing concept in the 80s. I literally ran home and wrote the Challenge format on the back of the envelope after that because I saw a community on that stage, everyone pulling together, and frankly everything that’s great about humanity. Do try and see them, support them, if you can. Watching a young child with severe disabilities being supported by an 11 year old will blow your mind. @chickenshed_uk #community #theatre #inclusive #thebest #challenge
Very excited to be doing Tweet of the Day on Radio 4 today. Just before 9am. I became obsessed with painting nightingales during lockdown so this is my first subject today. I like the story that Keats composed Ode to a Nightingale when he heard one singing in a leafy glade on the Isle of Wight. #tweet #nightingale #isleofwight
Oh God, I might be flirting again. This wine malarkey is making me unstable. @clarkepetersofficial is a glorious guest on Wine Times this week. We go to Portugal and talk tarts and tiles. Have a listen, it’s free. @mrwill_lyons offers up some sumptuous wines. @sundaytimeswineclub #winetimes https://pod.fo/e/20c80b #wine #tasting #travel #portugal
Mind blowing boat trip up the Thames with Jo and Debra and their gang from @littlesproutscharity yesterday! They were in London to meet the King having just been awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Services. I love and respect these women so much. They run the charity which supports families in the Stockton-on-Tees area. The life expectancy difference between rich and poor is 18 years. You may have watched our recent #ChallengeAnneka when volunteers built them a training kitchen, cafe and food hub in Thornaby so they can give food bank support to hundreds in their community. I saw first-hand how they change people’s lives. They don’t just help with food supplies, they run hands on cooking workshops so people can make their food go further. I literally adore this charity and all the volunteers I’ve met. Do have a look at their website www.littlesprouts.org.uk in case you can join them. They sum up everything that is joyful about volunteering, being part of an amazing team and feeling useful, making a massive difference. #kingsawardforvoluntaryservice #volunteering #food #foodhub #makingadifference #cooking @debbiefixter @jo_tough #littlesprouts
I’m on @BBCOneShow 7pm, launching #TheBigHelpOut We want to match you up with a local project you can snuggle in with this June 7-9th. Sort of like Tinder without the heartbreak. Honestly, the communities I volunteer with have made my life. Hope you can tune in and feel inspired 🩷🩷 #charity #community #volunteer
Been helping out at one of the @crisis_uk hotels in London.Every year Crisis supports over 7,000 people at Xmas. They are incredible; the team, the volunteers, the stories of the people they support. Shockingly, exactly 30 years ago we renovated a soup kitchen in London for one of our Challenge programmes, thinking homelessness would be a temporary problem. Who knew that 3 decades on, it would still be such an issue. And a Big Issue at that. Beyond depressing and upsetting. #crisis #volunteering #homeless #charity #xmas #bigissue @sopedirisu @officialcliff_parisi
I try to get @shaunkeaveny_ and @iszi_lawrence to run away to Hong Kong with me at 10am Radio 4 this morning (via Bali and the 1980s) #yourplaceormine #bbc #radio4 #hongkong
It was a joy to make today’s episode of Open Country on Radio 4 (3pm!) I set off on an odyssey to find out what makes the Isle of Wight such an inspiring place for writers and artists and composers and landscapers, anyone who’s creative. I mean, Tennyson, Keats, Dickens and many more giants of the written word all found inspiration on the island. Charles Darwin even started On the Origin of Species here. Tennyson was such inspiring company that Victoria and Albert used to drop round for a cup of tea and a chat! I had a lovely scamper around meeting islanders carrying on the legacy. Pictured here at Binnel Studios with @celiawilkinson and @marriottglassart #isleofwight #inspiration #painting #writing #garden @bbcradio4 #bbc #bbcradio4
Back on Loose Ends tonight 6.15pm with Clive Anderson and guests @mrgeorgeclarke @charithra17 and @duncanlindsay … Plus exciting music from @caitybaser and @richardstrange @bbc @bbcradio4
The new Expressionists exhibition @Tate is delicious. Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Paul Klee and more. I loved this self-portrait by Marianne von Werefkin. I always judge the success of an exhibition on whether I want to run home and paint. Which I did …
Went to the opening of @marcquinnart exhibition Light into Life @kewgardens . His stainless steel and bronze sculptures are dotted around the lake and gardens and are beautiful and dazzling, especially in the evening light…#lightintolife #kew #sculpture
