Tony Blackburn is not the only radio DJ taking to the high seas this summer.
Mike Read, fellow Radio 1 veteran, and coincidentally another former contestant on TV’s “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here,” will be cruising from Newcastle upon Tyne to the Norwegian fjords and North Cape in June.
Mike is one of a collection of familiar faces who will be hosting “An Audience
With . . . ” evenings on board Thomson Spirit throughout the summer.
Bouncy gardening expert Charlie Dimmock sails on the Fire and Ice cruise to Iceland, and gold medal sprinter Derek Redmond, who won the nation’s sympathy when he fought injury during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, will be answering passengers’ questions on a voyage to the Baltic Sea.
Lord David Steel, who sailed round Africa on the Saga Ruby earlier this year, and Sir Bernard Ingham, former political adviser to Maggie Thatcher, will be adding political spin when they are on board in July and September.
Fans of Last of the Summer Wine and Wallace and Gromit will want to join actor Peter Sallis on the cruise from Harwich to the Baltic in August, and ITN reporter Michael Nicholson will talk about his experiences as a war reporter, and the touching tale of how he adopted a Bosnian orphan, when he sails from Southampton to the Mediterranean in September.
But the one I would look forward to most would be the appearance in May of comedian and game show host Jim “let’s see what you would have won” Bowen. He’s got a rich career to look back on; not only those hysterical years on Bullseye, but from his early days as a trumpeter on the QE2, right through to his appearances in Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights, most of which ended up as out-takes on the DVDs.
A couple of the celebrities I have listed would, I have to admit, send me running for the lifeboats. But having seen Jim Bowen in hilarious action on the after-dinner circuit, I know he is the one person I’d be happy to share a lifeboat with.
Thanks for the warning about the Bernard Ingham cruise. I’ll steer clear of that one. Who would want to listen to what that pompous so and so has to say
Your right Jim Bowen is a verry funny comedian. it would be even better if he coukld bring Peter kay with him