Vanessa Feltz

Vanessa Feltz to hand over to Chris Evans every morning on BBC

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 12:59:09 +0000

Vanessa Feltz has been confirmed as the new presenter for the Radio 2 Early Breakfast show.

As the JC reported last week, the Jewish broadcaster will take over from Sarah Kennedy in the slot, starting from January 2011.

Her new role will not prevent her from continuing to present her weekday programme on BBC London.

Ms Feltz said she was “overjoyed” to be joining the UK's most listened to network.

“I'm a huge fan of Radio 2 - home of many of the country's most beloved presenters.

"I'm utterly thrilled to be handing over to Chris Evans every morning - it's my idea of the perfect start to the day.”

Vanessa Feltz frontrunner for BBC Radio 2 morning show

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:44:04 +0000

Vanessa Feltz is expected to take over as presenter of BBC Radio Two’s early morning radio show.

The outspoken Jewish broadcaster, who currently presents BBC Radio London’s morning phone-in programme, has been described as the frontrunner for the position.

The slot, which runs between 5am and 6.30, is followed by Chris Evans’ breakfast show.

Radio 2 is looking for a replacement for Sarah Kennedy, who left the BBC in September amid allegations she had a drink problem.

Her appointment has yet to be confirmed. A spokesman for the station said there would be an announcement “in the near future."

Ms Feltz, 48, has appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2001 and Ultimate Big Brother earlier this year. She was named Speech Radio Personality of the Year at the Sony Radio Academy Awards in 2009.

Stars out for UK Jewish Film Festival

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:12:22 +0000

The 2010 UK Jewish Film Festival opened last night with a screening of The Debt at Vue West End cinema.

Celebrities including Claudia Winkleman and Downton Abbey actress Elizabeth McGovern turned out to watch Helen Mirren star as a Mossad agent on the run from her Nazi-hunting past.

Other big names in the audience included Vanessa Feltz, Lord Levy, Alan Yentob and Ronnie Ancona, as well as the Festival’s first ever Ambassador, Tracy-Ann Oberman.

Before the main feature guests were treated to the official trailer, So, Mrs Cohen, starring David Baddiel and Graham Norton

The Festival’s founder and director, Judy Ironside, said: “We have a fantastic festival stretching out before us, ranging from Hollywood blockbusters to intriguing and innovative documentaries.

“We still have a few tickets available for some films so don’t miss out.”

The Festival is now in its 14th year. To find out more about what’s on and who is involved, go to the JC’s dedicated UKJFF page

Graham Norton, Al Murray and the Jewish joke

Jenni Frazer — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:51:24 +0100

Al Murray is telling a Jewish joke. And Davina McCall and Brian Ferry are joining in. And, oh, look, there's actor Miranda Hart. And Boy George.

And writer Sanjeev Bhaskar (whose shrug goes right up past his ears). And that burlesque dancer, the fabulously named Immodesty Blaize. And comedians Shazia Mirza and Phil Cornwell. And tv presenter Jamie Theakston. And isn't that Graham Norton?

Quite what all these studiously non-Jewish celebs are doing is a mystery swiftly unravelled. They are, together with the cream of Jewish showbiz, gathered at the behest of actor and columnist Tracy-Ann Oberman, in this year's UK Jewish Film Festival trailer, "So, Mrs Cohen..."

Tracey-Ann has been named the festival's first ambassador, after having been a UKJFF patron for several years.

This year's festival has a comedy theme, and besides films, will include two programmes which will feature live comedy and discussion.

It has become a tradition to have a dedicated film trailer to precede all screenings: last year's, marking the UKJFF's 13th year, took inspiration from the Jack Rosenthal film, Barmitzvah Boy. Tracy-Ann, who has wanted to make a film about Jewish humour for some time, decided to make comedy the focus point of this year's trailer film.

She said: "My idea was to open up the subject of Jewish humour to contemporaries of mine in the industry I admire, both Jewish and non-Jewish. This married very well with the remit of the festival which this year wants to have a big comedy strand and also a broader appeal.

"I aimed to find the cheesiest Jewish joke imaginable and then get the interviewees to dissect it, whether they thought it was funny; if so why, and if not, why not, and to analyse whether Jewish humour was inclusive or exclusive to being Jewish."

And dissecting this truly terrible gag, shrugging and armwaving and holding up notices saying they reckon it is antisemitic (David Baddiel) and curling their lip and saying what a rotten joke it is (Jay Rayner), are dozens of actors, writers and presenters, many of whom will surprise audiences.

We should not forget the high-profile Jewish contributors, from Steve Furst (the man in the Orange phone commercials), Vanessa Feltz, Maureen Lipman, to American Jewish comediennes Ronna Glickman and Beverly Ginsburg - and even Rabbi Lionel Blue, who has been known to tell a dreadful Jewish joke or two in his time.

Tracy-Ann said: "Everyone interviewed was a friend either of myself or Harvey B Brown, the director. Basically, we took a camera and filmed everyone when they were free. For example, I knew that Sanjeev Bhaskar, an old, old friend, would always cite Woody Allen and Mel Brookes as great influences when he was writing for Goodness Gracious Me. He had a lot of insight into Jewish comedy.

"Boy George was wonderful because he has always had very close Jewish friends, but can still equate it all with his Irishness. Miranda Hart was utterly charming and felt that the joke could be about anyone, not necessarily a Jewish woman. Bryan Ferry was delightful, as was Davina.

"The editing and fine timing of getting the joke's rhythms right, was a massive job, done through the nights with top editors and sound mixers by blagging favours from people that both Harvey and I have worked with over the years. "

The trailer 'So, Mrs Cohen' will be shown before each screening. The UKJFF runs from Nov 4-21. Or look online at www.thejc.com

So, Mrs cohen, just how bad is it?

As for the Joke... it is indeed the cheesiest, and probably hoariest, that could be found, concerning as it does the JC's very own classified advertising department.

This is how it goes: Mrs Cohen calls the classified line as she wants to place an announcement. She says: "Morris Cohen's dead." That's it? asks the classified manager. "Yes," says Mrs Cohen, "that's it." But, urges the JC man, "you're entitled to six words. You get three more. And they're free." Mrs Cohen says she will think about it. Finally, she rings back. After due consideration, she has found her three missing words: "Morris Cohen's dead; Volvo for sale."

Watch the trailer here

Bricked up in borehamwood

Simon Rocker — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:24:39 +0100

As Channel 4's Big Brother hurtles towards oblivion - at last - on Friday, consider the spiritual welfare of our own dear Vanessa Feltz.

As I write, the blond broadcaster, who volunteered to take part in the final programme, is still cocooned with fellow-celebrities in the televised den and may remain so during Rosh Hash-anah unless she is evicted beforehand.

Just in case she should go festively without, offerings of apple and honey and pomegranate seeds should be left outside the Big Brother house in Borehamwood.

And should she still be there on Thursday, ask a friendly neighbourhood rabbi to pop down and serenade her with a shofar.

Vanessa Feltz's wild party upsets neighbours

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:35:49 +0100

Vanessa Feltz has landed herself in trouble with her neighbours after a noisy party at her north west London home.

The presenter, 48, hosted an event to celebrate her daughter Allegra’s engagement to a French lawyer.

But the party, which went on until after 4am in a garden marquee, attracted complaints from 12 neighbours.

A court has now instructed that Ms Feltz pay £3,000 for breaching council noise levels.

Westminster council noise patrol officers said they had to twice warn Ms Feltz twice following complaints from other St John’s Wood residents.

One told the Daily Mail newspaper: “It went on all night. We could definitely hear it and we live quite a few doors down.”

When the JC met Vanessa Feltz

Vanessa’s shrinking feeling

Simon Rocker — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:21:26 +0100

Vanessa Feltz hopes finally to have beaten those unwanted pounds. The radio hostess revealed this week that, after various failed diets, she has already shed 16lb from more than 16 stone, thanks to her new gastric band. The device that she believes can convert her into a “model of abstinence” was fitted by a Dr Focquet of Zottegem in Belgium.

Blooms: The kosher icon that got marooned in the past

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:51:32 +0100

Steven Berkoff
Actor, director and playwright

● "I went to the one in Golders Green quite recently and I thought it was very good. It was pleasant and homely and nourishing and full of those flavours that we like. I'm surprised it closed down in such a Jewish area. I used to go to Bloom's in Whitechapel. I didn't like it as much there, I thought it had a very bad atmosphere. It was sleazy and indifferent - there was no commitment to the food. Last time I was there, I wanted to sit and eat at the counter and they gave me chicken soup in a paper cup. I was disgusted, and I thought it would be best to bury this place - it doesn't represent the joy of Jewish food."

Matthew Norman
Food critic

● "You didn't go to Bloom's for the food, which was lumps of teutonic meat, and was vastly overpriced. You went for the pantomime rudeness of the staff.

"It's such a shame that it's gone. It's a bit like Radio 3, you never listen to it but you're sort of glad it's there. There's sadness because it really was out of its time.

"I reviewed it for the Evening Standard years ago, and took my wife and my parents and it was just such a typically Jewish evening, bickering with the staff and across the table about what was too hot and what was too cold. The food was never going to be brilliant. It really is the world's worst kind of cuisine. I think if a chilli was ever found in Bloom's, a fire alarm would go off and everyone would have to be disinfected."

Maureen Lipman
Actress

● "Bloom's was past its sell-by date. All food has to move with the times. If you go to the restaurant at Bevis Marks, it's Jewish food but it's superb. Bloom's was stuck in a time warp. It's only fine if you still want to eat chicken soup, borscht or chopped liver, or egg and onion. It has left a hole in Jewish food because Jewish restaurants now have become very Israeli and Lebanese in their cooking. Now if I want a decent salt beef sandwich, I would go to Selfridges.

"The staff were hilarious, thin-faced and harassed. It was part of the remit, they had to be like that. Even the staff in Israel aren't like that any more."

David Schneider
Comedian

● "Bloom's was a treat after visiting my Auntie Bertha and Auntie Lily. We used to go and eat salt beef sandwiches with that delicious kosher mustard. I don't know if they count as sandwiches because the meat to bread ratio was so large. That was the joy of them.

"But as me and my brother got older, we started asking to be taken to McDonald's. Now I feel personally responsible for Bloom's going under. I haven't been in years. I do feel like I pushed it over the brink.

"There's that Proustian quality of chicken soup with lokshen. It instantly connects you to your childhood, to barmitzvahs you went to, to Shabbat dinners. Of course, the staff were terribly rude but that was the point. It was a completely un-English experience."

Esther Rantzen
Television presenter

● "I used to go quite a lot to eat chopped liver and chicken soup. The food was terribly variable. But I never minded the waiters - they were very funny. Of course, it was more like being served by taxi drivers than the maître d of the Ritz. It did deteriorate over the years, there's no question. There are three things about running a restaurant. Good food, good value and good service, and if Bloom's can't do that, then it has to go. I am sad that it went the way it did. In a way, the old East End closing of Bloom's was more historic. It should have gone in its prime, instead of slowly deteriorating."

Vanessa Feltz
Broadcaster

● "When I was three years old, it was my favourite restaurant. I would eat chicken soup with lokshen, salt beef and latkes and a strudel. It made me the fine figure of a woman I am today. I'm still probably carrying those latkes around with me now.

"Bloom's was always an energetic experience, dodging the waiters carrying soup, catching a boiled gefilte fish in your hand with carrots flying everywhere. It made you feel like you were getting some exercise, a bit like It's a Knock Out, when, in reality, you were probably consuming more cholesterol than a sensible person should eat in a year. The food was an affront to man and beast really, but it was always my fall-back restaurant. I'm very sad it's gone."

Giles Coren
Food critic

● "I would always take some gentile girlfriend to Bloom's, as part of breaking it to them that I was Jewish. And I would explain, here's a latke, yes, it's supposed to taste like that; this is how you pronounce kreplach, kneidlach, tsimmus.

"I once took a blonde, Swedish-looking girl who did really well, ordered everything perfectly and I was so proud of her. But then she turned round and said: 'And can I have a glass of milk, please?' I was so mortified, but looking back I do think it was terribly sweet.

"I did once write a review which said: 'The gefilte fish are terrible - as they should be.' That's exactly how I feel about it. I'm furious with myself for not going one last time. There ought to be a shivah for Bloom's, we should put a plate of salt beef on a low chair. It's going to be replaced by some God-awful kosher Chinese or Indian place. I'm an old Ashkenazi at heart. I don't like that Israeli stuff, I'm suspicious of it. It's Arab food as far as I'm concerned. I don't want falafel and hummus at a Jewish restaurant."

Henry Goodman
Actor

● "I went through the pain of Bloom's closing when it closed in Whitechapel. I worked on a stall in the East End as a kid. I was only about 12 or 13 and got up early on cold winter Sunday mornings to work on this watch stall. And if we had a good day, we could go round the corner, by Aldgate East, to get a really great salt beef sandwich. That's how I will remember Bloom's. It's a taste that lingers in my buds, of a good day. And of taking warm bagels home. Yes, the staff were grumpy and rude, but that was all part of the package."

Jay rayner
Food critic

● "It's like an elderly relative that's died, and had lost it towards the end of their life. You remember the good times - although actually I can't really remember any about Bloom's.

"I always found rudeness of the service absolutely baffling. If I'm being really cruel, it was a gift to antisemites. If people went there and found it funny that they were abused, then they're mugs. What is the point in spending money on it?

"It was heroically overpriced for what was essentially peasant food. Pickles and salt beef were just substitutes for the real thing, and we used to need chicken fat to get us through the winter. But not at bourgeois prices."

Mandy amid the latkes

Simon Rocker — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:08:38 +0000

Although Gordon Brown was off in Copenhagen trying to cool the planet, Lord Mandelson was on hand to dispense good cheer at last week’s Downing Street Chanucah party.

Premier latkas all round for those there to enjoy them. But while entertainment types such as Josh Howie and Vanessa Feltz were present, many a communal official was miffed at not being on the guest list.

Still, there’s always Purim.

Arlene sacked? Time to step up Ruby, Zoe and Vanessa

Keren David — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:13:10 +0100

To the picket lines, Maureen Lipman! Placard at the ready Esther Rantzen! Zoe Wanamaker, Ruby Wax, pick up your megaphones! You are who we need at this time of crisis. I’m proposing a new union, Older Jewish Entertaining Women (O JEW) to take on the bumbling bosses of the BBC.
We muttered about Wossy and Sachsgate. We grumbled over the Blue Peter cat row. We rolled our eyes at executives’ vast expenses claims.
But this is a step too far. Arlene Phillips has been booted off the Strictly Come Dancing judging panel.

You may fail to see the Jewish — or any — interest in a competition for two-left-footed celebrities, despite the fine performances of co-religionists like Natasha Kaplinsky and Rachel Stevens. Maybe you prefer the hora to the foxtrot.

If so, you have missed the star that is Arlene. Warm, wise, witty and slightly bonkers she is a composite of everyone’s favourite auntie from Prestwich.

She is a complete expert in her field, as erudite in her own way as Rabbi Julia Neuberger or Baroness Ruth Deech. When Arlene attacked John Sergeant’s lamentable footwork her comments were based upon years of choreographing the likes of Hot Gossip. Arlene knows her stuff —unlike Alesha Dixon, her replacement, picked to attract younger viewers.

Arlene’s judgements are packed with wordplay and delivered with aplomb. She knows how to send herself up, but takes no nonsense from high-spirited fellow judges. Like Ruby Wax or Vanessa Feltz she is confident enough to joke about her own sexuality — but knows where to draw the line.

She’s got the caustic edge of Wanamaker or Lipman, and the ability to wound of Joan Rivers. Like many older Jewish woman Arlene delivers outrageously insulting criticism cleverly disguised as helpful advice.
“No one’s remarks cut as deeply as Arlene’s, yet backstage she was like a caring mother figure,” remarked flat-footed TV presenter Fiona (no relation) Phillips, survivor of many on-screen maulings from Arlene. Fiona’s confusion will be familiar to anyone whose booba has weighed in on a radical haircut or an ill-fitting yomtov outfit.

Last but not least Arlene, 66 looks stunning — and not a day older than 40. Just like most older Jewish woman. Look at Felicity Kendal.
So Arlene’s departure is no small matter. Not only has the BBC broken every employment law about sexism and ageism, but they have failed to cherish a Jewish treasure. Solidarity is essential. Maureen, Zoe, Felicity, no more heavy drama or jolly sitcoms. Ruby, zip that mouth; Esther, Julia and Ruth, just say no to Question Time. Can someone get Madonna on board?

Before we unleash O JEW’s industrial action though, there are two ways that the BBC can avoid this blow.

Brucie’s getting on a bit. Let’s have Arlene as Strictly’s presenter. Of course, she’ll need some eye candy at her side. Sweet Gethin Jones or Matt di Angelo? That’ll pull in viewers, young and old.

But maybe Strictly is too small for Arlene. There’s a vacancy at another top BBC show. The Apprentice needs a new right-hand woman, now that Margaret Mountford is to spend more time with her PhD. Who better to take her place than sparky Arlene? Sir Alan… it’s up to you.