Award winning comedian and actor Omid Djalili has announced a huge 108-date 2016 & 2017 UK tour of his brand new show ‘Schmuck for a Night’, from Monday 3rd October 2016 – Saturday 20th May 2017. Full tour listings follow the interview. Here he sits down for a chat with Ben Williams…
Beautiful, mysterious opals... these very unique gems are top of the scale when it comes to superstitions associated with precious stones. They are traditionally the birthstone for October and their multi colour light refracting properties have inspired devotion and irrational fear in equal measure through the ages.
After a lovely dinner and night spent at the picturesque five star Lainston Hotel near Winchester we set off under a light grey sky in the Bentley Flying Spur heading for Exton Park Vineyard, the last stop on our luxury English wine tour. Exton Park is set in Hampshire overlooking Exton village in the Meon valley (now that’s a great name for a wine region, evocative and rolls off the tongue) and has the same chalky soil as the Champagne region. They are a relatively new company which is already winning some very impressive accolades.
The next vineyard on the Bentley Flying Spur tour was the Bolney Wine Estate in West Sussex. They are another family run business, who have been experimenting and developing English wines for many years. They are also one of the first, started back in 1972 by Janet and Rodney Pratt. Rodney became interested in producing wine whilst studying Chemistry and Engineering in Germany, spending his spare time learning what he could from German vineyards.
After an informative morning steeped in oenology, and a lot of spitting and no swallowing (well in my case anyway) we got back in the Bentley V8 S, placed our Blanc de Blancs 2008 in the Bentley’s wine cooler, with its two designer glasses and Star Trek swooshing glass door, and headed back out on to the country lanes. We were now bound for Ridgeview Estate Winery, a vineyard in the Sussex Downs and official suppliers to Downing Street. Rolling along in the Bentley was as usual a distinct pleasure. The comfort specification now coming into its own as we had been driving a few hours.
Russell Kane has a new show out entitled Right Man Wrong Age which we caught at Glive in Guildford. His performance is as energetic, hilarious, electric, hysterical and as explosive as ever. However one thing has changed, he now has a baby daughter and like most great comedians (he is one of the very best of this generation) he takes his material from his own experiences and life. Clearly having a baby was a life changing moment and Russell is keen to share this in all its glories and vertiginous pitfalls.
What better way to tour the best English vineyards producing award winning sparkling wines than in the Bentley Flying Spur V8 S? The Flying Spur is without doubt one of the most comfortable luxury cars ever made and ideal for a luxury tour of the chalk and clay landscapes of southern England that now host some of the finest wines in the world.
So IX Magazine had the Bentley Flying Spur V8 S for a week to review, so we took it out for a luxury tour of the finest English vineyards, mostly specialising in fine sparkling wine.
I reviewed the Bentley Mulsanne a little while ago in Bavaria and the aim of that car is pretty self explanatory. It targets the top end of the luxury market looking to be chauffeured around in total luxury. But I was not so sure about the Flying Spur, who is it aimed at and what is its purpose?
Design Dodge 2016
I’ve been mouching around Cumbria recently and it really is quite bloody marvellous. So if you’re heading up there for some grub it’s worth noting that the Lake District is extremely good with food and its restaurants are some of the best on this planet. So without any waffling or further hyperbole, here is my top 10 (so far!)
