Hailing one of the most loved families in showbiz, Linda Nolan has entertained millions around the world for over six decades.
As 1/6 of iconic Irish girl group The Nolans, she and her sisters took the world pop charts by storm, selling over 30 million records worldwide and have been keeping us In The Mood for Dancing ever since.
As one of the most successful girl groups of all time, The Nolans have spent more weeks in the UK Albums Charts than fellow 80s acts Bucks Fizz, Bros and Kim Wilde – as well as newer acts such as Rita Ora, Niall Horan and The Saturdays – proving Girl Power really began with The Nolans!
From outselling The Beatles and Michael Jackson in Japan; to touring with Frank Sinatra; becoming a Guinness World Record holding West End star as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers and everything in between, there’s very little Linda hasn’t done.
Despite living with incurable cancer, Linda still continues to remain at the forefront of the entertainment industry – as a three time Sunday Times Bestseller, columnist for the Daily Express and TV personality on Quest Red’s smash hit The Nolans Go Cruising and Celebrity Antiques Road Trip (where she paired up with Francis Rossi! – airing 13th December FYI)
Gayle Telfer StevensGayle is best known as Shieldinch’s razor sharp landlady Caitlin in River City where she has been a long running member of the show for the past 7 years moving from one explosive storyline to another. You have maybe seen her in the amazing Scottish film: Sunshine on Leith many moons ago. Dr Who, Casualty and Gary Tank commander to throw into the credit bucket too.
She started off in London’s west end in Jerry Springer the Opera and won Best supporting Role in a Musical 2004 as part of the show’s ensemble, the first time in Olivier history!
She is also one half of the smash hit comedy duo THE DOLLS who tour all over Scotland and have broken box office records while doing it. The DOLLS is a phenomenon. If you haven’t seen it, GO!!
Gayle is a graduate from Uta Hagen’s Technique in Acting & Teaching at HB Studio, New York and Mountview Academy of Performing Arts in London.
Gayle’s TV credits include: Growing up Scottish (BBC), STEVENS & McCARTHY (BBC), Scots Squad (BBC) Whats funny about the indy ref’ (BBC) Sketchland (BBC) Scrotal Recall (Channel 4) Crash (BBC) Waterloo Road (BBC) Gary Tank Commander (BBC), Senga in Irn Bru’s gets you thru campaign, Desperado’s (CBBC), Dr Who (BBC), Casualty (BBC) and STV’s Bingomood commercial (STV)
Rosemary ShragerRosemary endeared herself to the nation when she took part in ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here’ where she proved she could cook just about anything, anywhere. Her latest programmes include The Big Family Cooking Showdown and the very successful The Real Marigold Hotel which aired on BBC to great acclaim and was nominated for, and won, a string of awards. Subsequently Rosemary has filmed several further series of The Real Marigold on Tour .visiting countries all around the world. Rosemary’s The Chopping Block, filmed at her cookery school in Tunbridge Wells aired for two series on on ITV and Rosemary also appeared on Culinary Genius for ITV.
Rosemary latest programmes have been incredibly fun – Netflix’s Best Leftovers Ever judging some crazy leftover combinations in USA. Fishing Scotland’s Lochs and Riversfor C5 and most recently, Cooking with the Stars for ITV where Rosemary starred as mentor for Jonny Vegas in Series 1 whilst Series 2 sees Rosemary teaching the lovely Anton Du Beke.
With a over a decade in broadcasting and teaching, Rosemary Shrager’s role in ITV1’sLadette to Lady cemented her position as Britain’s best loved Chef and Cookery Teacher. Rosemary Shrager’s School for Cooks aired for two seasons on ITV1. Further afield Rosemary has filmed Ladette to Lady US and Australia.
Previous work includes Taste the Nation, Sue and Giles live The Good Life, Supersizers with Giles Coren and Sue Perkins (BBC 2) resident judge on Soapstar Superchef and Kitchen Showdown with Rosemary Shrager which won rave reviews on UKTV Food. She was also one of the judges on the acclaimed Local Food Heroes, alongside Gary Rhodes.
Rosemary is a talented and versatile chef who loves talking about food as much as she loves cooking. 2005 saw her broadcast career span the Atlantic with her first series for US Broadcaster Discovery Home – Rosemary – Queen of the Kitchen. This was coupled with her series for Channel 4 – Mind Your Manners and, of course, ITV1’s prime time show Ladette to Lady.
Rosemary’s six part series, Rosemary – Castle Cook for Five led to a second series, Rosemary on the Road. Rosemary has worked on a number of television projects including an eight part contribution to the Carlton TV series Nosh.
Her first cookery book, Rosemary – Castle Cook was described by food writer Michael Raffael as “an object lesson in handling the finest produce”. Her second book Rosemary Shrager’s School for Cooks was published to accompany the series and her latest with another Rosemary Shrager’s Absolutely Foolproof Classic Home Cooking as well as Food for Family and Friends following soon after. Rosemary Shrager’s Yorkshire Breakfasts was published in October 2011. Rosemary’s latest book Rosemary Shrager’s Cookery Course is available now.
Rosemary regularly works with brands on PR and consultancy projects including Specsavers, ABP and NPower adding her natural extrovert and communicator skills to all relevant projects as well as demonstrating at food and drink festivals around the country including Ideal Home Show, Eat & Drink and Cake & Bake Show.
During the pandemic, Rosemary began her own online demonstrations which appear on her Facebook page and her Youtube channel to great acclaim. She has now begun her own virtual cookery school. All details appear on her website – www.rosemaryshrager.com
Gail is a Scottish television personality, television presenter, former model and actress best recognised for featuring in shows like ‘Fully Booked’, ‘The Movie Chart Show’ and ‘Dead Famous’.
She commenced her career on small-screen presenting shows aimed for children and family like ‘Children’s BBC Scotland’, ‘Children in Need’, ‘Fully Booked’ and ‘The Movie Chart Show’. She then branched out into modelling in the late 1990s and turned heads posing nude for FHM. The photograph was projected on the Houses of Parliament as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign.
She went on to feature in several other TV shows including ‘Celebrity Blind Man’s Bluff’, ‘Lily Savage’s Blankety Blank’, ‘The Games’, ‘Dead Famous’, ‘The Wright Stuff’ and ‘Celebrity Big Brother’. On the personal front, the otherwise upbeat and positive Gail, had to struggle with anorexia, insomnia and bi-polar disorder apart from post-natal depression which led to breakdown of her marriage and single motherhood.
She developed alopecia totalis and lost her hair but resolved not to hide her bald head with a hat or wig so as to raise awareness of the condition. She became ambassador for the ‘Little Princess Trust’ and serves as a vice-president of ‘The Children’s Trust’.
Helen LedererHelen is probably best known for her role as the dippy ‘Catriona’ in ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ alongside Jennifer Saunders in all six series and more recently in ‘Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie’. She created the ‘Girl at the Bar’ in the BBC comedy sketch show ‘Naked Video’ and is known for her unique wit and observational humour. A comedy writer with an extensive portfolio that includes writing and performing her own material, not only as a stand-up comedian but also as a comedy novelist and contributor to various respected publications.
Helen has starred in a great number of top TV comedy and radio shows. Helen was part of a group of early 1980’s comedians, including Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, the late Rik Mayall and Ben Elton who made their names at London’s Comedy Store. She was a guest on ITV’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ with her solo comedy act as well as performing at the first ‘Just for Laughs’ comedy festival in Montreal with Lenny Henry. TV appearances span such shows as ‘The Young Ones’, ‘French and Saunders’, ‘Happy Families’, ‘One Foot in the Grave’, ‘Bottom’, ‘Love Soup’, ‘Miss Marple’ and ‘Hollyoaks’. Children’s TV includes the much-loved children’s favourite ‘Miss Bowline-Hitch’ along with Bernard Cribbins for CBeebies’ ‘Old Jacks Boat’. She starred as Rich Aunt Ruby in ‘Horrid Henry: The Movie’.
On BBC radio she has written and performed her own comedy series ‘Life with Lederer’ and ‘All Change’ as well as being a panellist on shows such as ‘The News Quiz’, ‘Just a Minute’, ‘Quote…Unquote’, ‘A Good Read’, ‘Open Book’ and ‘Woman’s Hour’.
A columnist for Woman & Home, she is currently guest columnist for I newspaper and ‘Funny old world’ in Woman’s Weekly as well as writing for The Mail on Sunday, The Express and The Daily Telegraph, she is also currently ‘agony aunt’ for Woman’s Weekly.
Theatre work includes ‘Educating Rita’, and Alan Bleasdale’s ‘Having a Ball’. She has been in ‘The Vagina Monologues’, ‘Calendar Girls’, and ‘The Killing of Sister George’, in London’s West End. This is interspersed with many fringe plays. Her first comedy novel ‘Losing It’, published by Pan Macmillan, was nominated for the PG Wodehouse comedy literary prize. Helen set up her own Comedy Women In Print Prize (CWIP) in 2018. Since then, CWIP has reached its third year with Marian Keyes as patron and enabled many unpublished writers to become published https://comedywomeninprint.co.uk/.
Helen’s appearance in Celebrity Big Brother led to her temporarily trending on Twitter. Her new Stand Up show ‘I might as well say it’ was a ‘sell out’ at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to rave reviews. She is a sought-after panellist and commentator. She is currently working on her comedy memoir.
Jenny PowellJenny Powell is one of the UK’s most experienced and recognisable presenters, having appeared in some of the most loved TV shows in the UK.
She currently hosts her own weekend Breakfast Show on Greatest Hits Radio Saturday and Sunday mornings, the critically acclaimed Hot Mess Mums podcast and is developing a TV show looking at her Cape Coloured heritage and her ethnic roots in South Africa.
She first came to prominence presenting the cult music show No Limits for BBC 2 and then quickly became a firm favourite on children’s TV, hosting such shows as UP2U, Ghost Train and Gimme 5. She went on to host a huge range of TV shows such as Top of the Pops, To Buy or Not To Buy, Soap Fever, Live Talk, Wordplay, Jenny Powell’s Luxury Uncovered, Food and Wine Adventures, and the hilarious Saturday night show ITV1 BIGHEADS with Jason Manford and Kris Akabussi.
She has also appeared in numerous other shows including Celebrity MasterChef, Come Dine With Me, Lemon La Vida Loca, Loose Women, Pointless and a regular on Through The Keyhole as well as her iconic role on Wheel of Fortune.Jenny is a fantastic live event host, compering several events a week and her professionalism, passion and sense of fun is evidenced by the number of repeat bookings she receives.
Jenny lives in Cheshire with her family.
Kerry KatonaKerry Katona is one of the UK’s biggest household names having grown up in the spotlight with us all. After joining girl band Atomic Kitten 22 years ago, Kerry went on to have 4 top ten hits before leaving the band to have her daughter Molly. In 2003 Kerry stepped back into the spotlight where she became a panellist for 2 years on Loose Women. In February 2004 Kerry joined the cast of ‘I’m A Celebrity…’ and went on to win as the first female winner of the show. Kerry was snapped up by supermarket chains Asda and Iceland for huge advertising campaigns after being taken into the nations hearts in the Jungle, where she proved she was a normal, northern, down to earth girl. Kerry later become a judge on the Irish Version of the X Factor ‘You’re A Star’, as well as landing her first ITV2 show ‘My Fair Kerry’.
In 2006 Kerry released the first of her autobiographies, ‘Kerry Katona: Too Much, Too Young’, selling an incredible 750,000 copies. She later released a second autobiography, ‘Still Standing: The Autobiography’, and a self-help book called ‘Survive the Worst and Aim for the Best: How to Get Your Life Back on Track’. On top of those she released three novels; ‘Tough Love’, ‘The Footballer’s Wife’, and ‘Glamour Girl’. As well as being a columnist for OK! Magazine, Kerry is now a weekly columnist for New Magazine.
Between 2007 and 2009 Kerry had 5 of her own MTV shows, hitting over half a million viewers a week. In 2010 Kerry landed a show on ITV2 called ‘Kerry Coming Clean’ where she cleared up her past tabloid scandals and showed that she had turned her life around. She was then snapped up to appear on ITV show ‘Dancing On Ice’. In 2011 Kerry joined the cast of ‘Celebrity Big Brother’, coming second. In 2012 Kerry re-joined Atomic Kitten, which was documented on the ITV2 show ‘The Big Reunion’. Kerry later went on tour with the band off the back of the show. In 2019 Kerry appeared on E4 show ‘Celebs Go Dating’.
Kerry is now settled in the North of England with fiancé Ryan and her 5 children. Kerry is a regular feature in women’s magazines, as well as being a guest on various TV shows and podcasts, and she also has her own YouTube channel. In 2021 Kerry won MTV’s Celebrities On The Farm as well as appearing on Celebrity SAS on Channel 4, winning Celebrity Coach Trip with daughter Lilly-Sue, and she finished the year off doing the social experiment on Channel 4 called ‘Trash Monsters’ alongside Jodie Kidd and John Barnes.
Kerry has seen 2022 off to a great start appearing on Celebrity Cooking School for E4, and she is now a regular presenter on Channel 4’s lunchtime show ‘Packed Lunch.’ She also released her newest autobiography ‘Whole Again’, landed herself the co-host role on the popular BBC Sounds comedy podcast ‘Wheel of Misfortune’ alongside Alison Spittle, and she’s continuing with her successful clothing brand Kerry’s Boutique.
Claire SweeneyClaire Sweeney is an actress, singer and TV presenter.
She could most recently be seen on stage starring as Irene Roth in Crazy For You, Baroness Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray (all on National Tour). Prior to these, Claire toured in the hit show Sex In Suburbia, which she co-wrote, following it’s hugely successful run at the Royal Court Liverpool. She recently guest starred as Maxine in the hit ITV comedy Benidorm, was special guest on the hugely successful Jane and Friends, and could be heard hosting her very own weekly musical theatre-themed show on Magic FM.
Claire trained at the Elliot Clarke Stage School in Liverpool and the Italia Conti Stage School in London. Her extensive acting work on television includes playing regular character Lindsay Corkhill in Brookside, the fiery Katrina in the award-winning drama Clocking Off, Lindsey Kendal in the popular BBC series Holby City, Roz in BBC1’s hit drama Merseybeat, and Amanda in comedy drama Candy Cabs.
Claire’s West End roles include Roxie Hart in Chicago and Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, playing opposite Patrick Swayze. Claire played the title role in Educating Rita alongside Matthew Kelly and prior to that, played Paulette in the UK tour of the award winning Legally Blonde. In 2011, she starred in a new production of Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Don Black’s one-woman show Tell Me on A Sunday. Other theatre credits include White Christmas, Shout!, Fosse (World Tour), The Play Wot I Wrote, and the UK Tour of John Godber’s September in the Rain, alongside John Thomson. She has also performed duets with International Opera starts Bryn Terfel and Jose Carreras at The Royal Albert Hall, and headlined the Lytham Proms Festival.
As a television presenter, Claire authored the one-hour ITV primetime documentary Claire Sweeney: My Big Fat Diet. She presented four series of 60 Minute Makeover (ITV1) and hosted Saturday night shows Here Comes the Sun (BBC1) and Challenge of a Lifetime (ITV1). Claire presented three live specials of I’m Famous and Frightened for Living TV. She appeared in the first and most successful series of Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother, was a regular panellist on Loose Women, appeared on Celebrity Come Dine with Me, and was a contestant on the first ever series of Strictly Come Dancing. Claire has also enjoyed taking part in The Royal Variety Show and BBC1’s primetime Saturday night series Let’s Dance for Comic Relief, in which she made it to the finals.
Recently, Claire has been a regular presenter on The Wright Stuff, filmed various segments for the Lorraine Show, made a guest appearance in Back in Time for Tea (BBC2), filmed the ITV series Secrets from The Asylum, and was one of the special celebrity guests on Through the Keyhole.
Claire has worked as the Forces Sweetheart, entertaining British Troops abroad, and was the first entertainer to visit the troops in Afghanistan and Oman. She was delighted and honoured to perform at A Party To Remember broadcast live on BBC1 from Trafalgar Square in celebration of VE Day and sang live at The Royal Albert Hall for VE Day live on the BBC. She also mesmerised audiences at The Festival of Commemoration in Horse Guards Parade, performing live to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in the presence of HM the Queen. Claire was recently made an Ambassador for the Variety Club and was the leading force in raising one million pounds to build a new wing for Claire House as part of the Sparkling Star Campaign. Over the years Claire has made several trips to Africa for her Aids charity work, a cause she holds close to her heart.
Claire’s solo album, simply entitled Claire, reached the top 5 of the UK charts. She featured on the album Give Me A Smile, a compilation of songs with the legendary composer and conductor Carl Davis. In 2010, Claire performed in a series of concerts with Carl entitled Battle Of Britain – 70th Anniversary with three of the country’s finest orchestras.
Claire has been the face of Marks & Spencer and an Ambassador for Fashion World, designing her own range for their Spring / Summer and Autumn / Winter collections. She was also recently made a Celebrity Ambassador for SlimFast.
2014 saw her most important production to date – the birth of her first child Jaxon.
In 2019 Claire appeared in TV comedy Scarborough and toured the country as the one and only Shirley Valentine.
Rustie LeeRustie made her name and grew her reputation on her eight year residency as she took to our screens on TVam back in the 1980’s with her own authority on Carribbean cookery. Rustie became the first ever black presenter of hugely popular 80’s Saturday night prime time TV show Game For A Laugh where she firmly established herself as a household name.
Known for her infectious laugh, vibrant personality and much loved recipes, Rustie just loves to entertain in her own unique way and much loved way, she has gained legendary status in British showbusiness.
Rustie has done many personal appearances and cookery demonstrations – whether cooking on the main stage at The Ideal Home Show in London, regional food shows like The Nottingham Food and Drink Festival or internationally at the Gourmand in Paris and Frankfurt, Rustie always pulled the biggest crowds, gave the most interviews and had the most photo opportunities, sold the most books and had the longest signing queues. To top it all off, Rustie delivered the best cookery demonstrations of all the chefs! Every time!
Rusties recent television appearances include; The Real Marigold Hotel (BBC1), Big Brother’s Bit On The Side (Channel 5), 5 In Search of Santa (Channel 5), Loose Women (ITV), Pointless Celebrities (BBC1), Top Of The Box (BBC1), Celebrity Coach Trip (E4), Tipping Point Lucky Stars (ITV), Celebrity Tenables Christmas Special (BBC1), When… Goes Wrong series (Channel 5). Later TV appearances include; The Morning (ITV), Good Morning Britain (ITV), Celebrity Super Spa (Channel 5), Benidorm (ITV), Day Break (ITV), Keep It In The Family (ITV), Us Girls (BBC1), Doctors (BBC1), EastEnders (BBC1).
Rusties career is not just television but she has appeared on stage on many West End national tours including; South Pacific, Smokey Joe’s Café, Ain’t Misbehavin and over 15 pantomimes.
Rustie has published a number of publications including; Rustie Lee – A Taste of Caribbean, Charlie The Magical Turtle (currently in pre production for a TV animated series), The Sun Newspaper – Sun Bingo Is Having A Ball
Its safe to say Rustie is one of Britains show business’ best loved.