Onto a winner

HE might have a face for radio, but Chris Moyles proved he could shine on the small screen when the first series of his TV quiz show, Chris Moyles’ Quiz Night, became one of the finds of last year.

Even his fiercest critics had to concede that the C4 topical quiz show was every bit as good as his Radio 1 breakfast show, which still attracts more than seven million listeners every weekday morning.

In the opening edition, Moyles is joined by David Walliams, Peter Andre and Christine Bleakley, who’ll be keen to show off their knowledge, secure a place in the grand final and quip their way to the top spot on the series leader board.

The famous faces are playing to win money for their fans in the audience. But the amount of hard cash up for grabs depends on how many people back the winning star. In tonight’s show, 34 per cent of the audience think that Andre will top the leader board, while only 11 per cent tip The One Show’s Bleakley to win.

The celebrities taking part throughout the series will face questions asked by a host of famous faces, including a brainteaser sung by pop three-piece the Hoosiers and Ozzy Osbourne, whose wife Sharon appeared as a quizmistress in the first series.

The show’s return marks what has The Northern Sinfonia, The Sage Gateshead THE mere mention of Stravinsky, let alone anything more contemporary, seems to ensure a small audience at The Sage Gateshead.

Preferring the certitudes of the Romantics, most classical lovers seem to run a mile when faced with a challenge. So it was no surprise that the latest concert with The Northern Sinfonia drew only a small band of devotees.

Which is sad, for the guest conductor, HK Gruber, was not only a leading exponent of Stravinsky, but also made his elegant music accessible in a refreshing way.

The programme, opening with Ragtime for 11 instruments, showcased the considerable talent of Sinfonia members. Ed Cervanka, on the cimbalon, did a perfect take of a honky-tonk piano.

Stravinsky was framed by contemporary works on the theme of war.

Mark Anthony-Turnage’s The Torn Fields takes a journey through the trenches of the Western front in the words of eminent poets.

Baritone Jeremy Huw Williams conveyed the verse with utter conviction and depth, from the mordant A Son, by Rudyard Kipling, to the anger of Isaac Rosenberg’s The Immortals.

Relief came in Stravinsky’s Concertino for Twelve Instruments. A six-minute jewel, in which some wonderful lines were provided by sinfonia leader Bradley Creswick.

John Adams’ Wound Dresser, based on the work of Walt Whitman, is an account of the gore and death the author experienced as a nurse in the American Civil War.

The evening ended with a tightly-wrought account of Stravinsky’s Suite from Pulcinella. Gruber was in his element and the audience loved it. A loss for those who didn’t make it.

Gavin Engelbrecht Tonight’sTV By Steve Pratt email: steve.pratt@nne.co.uk been a busy 12 months for Moyles.

Last March, he and nine other celebrities climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief and raised more than £1m.

And this series has given him the chance to forget his first disastrous foray into television with Five’s Live with Chris Moyles in 2002, when he was replaced after one series by Christian O’Connell.

IN 1978, Blame It on the Boogie was performed by two Michael Jacksons – the one who wrote it, Mick Jackson, from Yorkshire, and the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson. The pair went head-tohead in the charts as the two versions were released simultaneously, dubbed the Battle of the Boogie by the media.

In the First Cut film The Other Michael Jackson, the Yorkshireman’s son, Sam Peter Jackson, travels to his father’s farm in Germany to find out what went on behind the scenes.

Mick recalls how he nearly lost out because legendary producer Sylvester Levay wasn’t initially keen on the song.

And before Mick’s version was released, the song somehow passed into the hands of The Jackson Five, who decided to bring out their own version. The Jackson Five version outsold the original, which struck a death blow to Mick’s career.

OVER the past two weeks, Monty Don has shown us how to work with green wood, and how to thatch a roof, in his series Mastercrafts.

This week, he reveals how the smithy was once the most important place in the village.

He discusses how that, more than any other craft, the blacksmith helped transform Britain into the great workshop of the world, during the industrial revolution.

He meets market trader Dominic Branch, museum educator Gill Fewings and architectural illustrator Hugh Gallagher as they learn the mysteries of the forge. It takes four to five years to train properly as a blacksmith, but these three have only six weeks to learn the foundations of the craft.

HOW Anna Paquin has grown up since playing Holly Hunter’s daughter in the Oscar-winning film The Piano. Now she’s waitress Sookie and in love with a vampire in True Blood.

Terrestrial viewers will have to wait a while before they can catch up with the second series and see what the townspeople of Bon Temps are up to. FX viewers, on the other hand, can see it tonight.

In the opener, Dallas vampires employ Sookie’s telepathy to help find their lost companion, while her relationship with Bill (Stephen Moyer) is tested when she learns the truth about his involvement in her uncle’s death.