Twits like Galloway are spot on

A boy band called One Direction recently broke all records by becoming the first British group to have an album go straight into the US charts at number one. Never mind that this group of sweet young things were cobbled together out of the rejects from the X Factor by Simon Cowell.

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Yes, things really have got better

Nostalgia. The sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time. My life at the moment is giving me pause for nostalgic thought but, as in the words of American writer Peter de Vries, "Nostalgia isn't what it used to be."

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Don't tour with your eyes shut

There is a wonderful talmudic story that goes something like this: a father and son go for a walk, get lost and find themselves in a terrible area where the sick and dying and impoverished languish on the streets.

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One day to change the world

We Jews need to get the message across that we want to make the world a better place, not just for ourselves but for everyone. Luckily, the wonderful Mitzvah Day is coming round again as the perfect opportunity to do just that. The brother of a non-Jewish friend of my daughter was talking about it today as if it was part of the national calendar.

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I would be mad not to do it all

I am currently on tour with the National Theatre in an exciting piece of writing by Mike Bartlett. The play, Earthquakes in London, is the sort that I wish I'd seen as a young teenager.

Its breakneck speed, dazzling set, modern language and audacious use of music and dance would have blown away my perceptions of what a theatrical experience could and should be.

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Nowadays I act like a mother

Rosh Hashanah is looming again and as ever I find that the shift in temperature and the new smell in the air are my cue to take stock - to look back on the year, at who I once was, who I hoped to be and who I have now become. I'm currently working with much younger cast members.

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Now I get how they knew it all

When I first joined the cast of a well known soap opera, one of the first things that happened, before the ink had dried on the contract, was a long and serious briefing by the press office. This two hour session was to prep me for the life changing experience ahead.

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Mummy, please stop it!

Maison Oberman has resembled the X Factor HQ these past two weeks. I kid you not. Mr O works in the music industry and is not quiet about vocalising his opinions. On the occasions that X Factor has graced our screens, he can be heard passing damning judgement on the delusionals who take part.

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Signs and wonders on the M1

I am currently appearing in a play out of town. This is something I have not felt able to do since the birth of the beloved daughter as, like Chicken Likken, fearing the sky will cave in at any moment, I have fretted that taking a prolonged working leave of absence from Maison Oberman will result in untold catastrophes.

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The love that we make

I have had an almost rabbinical epiphany this week. I started rehearsals on a play by Alan Ayckbourn, aka the modern-day Chekhov. Like Chekhov, Ayckbourn understands the human condition in all its glorious frailty. He sees the flaws and hypocricies and ridiculousness that makes human relationships function or dysfunction.

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My record-breaking noise fest

This week I had a very strange experience. I found myself backstage in the performers' Green Room of the Royal Albert Hall alongside 90 other celebrities, actors, stand-up comics, presenters, journalists and musicians - what seemed like every household name in the country. We were all clutching a musical instrument, about to go on stage in front of a capacity crowd; 3,910 to be exact.

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Awards aren't all a big yawn

The award season is upon us. There's been the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTAs and soon good old Oscar Night. Undoubtedly the best way to watch these events is sitting at home with the tea brewing, a loo nearby and some snacks to hand. And even then only the highlights. Because award nights are dull.

To watch is hard; to attend even worse. I've been to comedy awards, theatre awards, soap awards, fragrance awards and TV awards. I once accompanied Mr O to DJ Mag's technology awards, where categories included Best Amplifier and Best Turntable.

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Our colour blind slave traders

I was recently invited to hear the writer Andrea Levy give a small informal talk about her Booker Prize nominated The Long Song, which follows the life of July, a slave girl on a sugar plantation in Jamaica during the uncertain last years of slavery and the process of freedom that had to be negotiated after abolition.

As her inspiration, Ms Levy very movingly described a conference she attended when a young girl stood up and admitted she felt shame at coming from a lineage of slaves and how could she reclaim some pride in her humble ancestry.

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Kosher television takeover

The end of the year is upon us. The secular year that is. Now is a time to sit back with a glass of sherry, look into the fire and reflect upon the eternal question: "How was it for the Jews?"

We know that there has been a rise in antisemitic attacks and that university campuses are rife with hostility to all things Israeli and that some people confuse their virulent loathing of Israel with a seeming dislike of Jews in general. We know all that. It's the same every year.

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Girl Guiding suddenly grew up

When I was just a young schoolgirl, seven years of age,I signed up for the Brownies. In fact, I was not only a Brownie - I was a Sixer of the Leprechauns (which Brownie aficionados will know is akin to being the gansa macher on the shul board). My responsibility as a Brownie Sixer was to lead my pack in all the set duties to claim the much-coveted badges that were earned and then sewn onto the unforgiving yellow and brown uniform, and displayed with pride.

The more badges worn, the more seriously that Brownie had taken her oath of "good conduct and good deeds".

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