A FORMER Bournemouth University screenwriting graduate is working on a gritty new psychological thriller movie starring Danny Dyer. Mum-of-two Lucy V Hay, 30, of Winton, is associate producer of low budget film Deviation. It stars Dyer
THE evening saw impressive artistry from Marin Alsop and her team of musicians in a lovingly prepared account of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, The Song of the Earth. With expressive singing by both soloists, though Mahler sets the greatest store for
THE Vienna Festival Ballet brought their production of Sleeping Beauty to the Wimborne Tivoli on a snowy Thursday night. Despite the severe weather, the company performed to a house with very few empty seats – a testament to their enduring popularity
IT’S new film Friday! Will you be braving the cold weather to head to the cinema? Low budget science fiction film Monsters, the debut from British writer-director Gareth Edwards, has been creating a huge buzz. The feature film was shot
AS you watch Peter Pan flying gracefully through the air in this year’s Poole pantomime, spare a thought for the costume designers. For although it might look magical, it takes more than a handful of fairy dust to make it all happen. Students at the
BOURNEMOUTH Council has entered a new era. Private sector consultancy, Mouchel, has assumed control of four core services - revenues, benefits, ICT, and facilities management - in a 10-year deal worth nearly £150m. The architects of the
Cherries’ match at Bristol Rovers tomorrow is the subject of a pitch inspection – with the Big Freeze hitting sporting schedules. Referee Graham Salisbury will be at the Memorial Stadium at 9.30am to judge whether the League One clash can
Tuesday should have been Bacon & Leek Pasta. However, I had a sudden attack of "meh!" and could hardly be bothered to pick up the telephone and ring for a curry. So hubby did. I consulted the Twitterverse first and asked for recommendations in our
TENANT farmers in rural Dorset are poorly placed to survive the harsh economic climate, a new report has warned. The government’s farming watchdog the Commission for Rural Communities says one in four farm households lives below the poverty
JAMES Cameron please take note: you don’t need to spend $200 million to smack an audience’s gobs. British writer-director Gareth Edwards challenges the conventional thinking that bigger is always better when it comes to special effects-laden
DRIVERS are being urged to take extreme care on untreated roads today, after temperatures dropped as low as minus 10 in parts of Dorset last night. More sleet is forecast for this afternoon and evening. A new Met Office weather warning has
SO, ITALIAN Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is ‘feckless, vain and ineffective.’ North Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ Kim Jong Il is, er, ill, President Ahmadinejad of Iran is ‘like Hitler’ and our own Dear Leader, David Cameron, is a ‘lightweight’. Well, according
A “LOST” Pre-Raphaelite painting discovered in Bournemouth is expected to fetch up to £5,000 at auction. The rare and previously unrecognised watercolour is by Charlotte Wyllie who was associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of Artists that flourished
Like all of us, I am only too well aware of announcements coming almost daily from Council after Council on a nationwide basis – cuts to frontline services, significant redundancies and / or calls for salary cuts to avoid some of them and so on. This
TEMPORARY measures have been taken to ensure patient safety at Fordingbridge Hospital after potentially deadly legionella bacteria was found in waterpipes. Elderly patients and staff on Ford Ward were transferred to Lymington and Romsey
A VICTIM of the cold weather is tonight's Tree of Lights service due to be held in the grounds of Lewis-Manning Hospice at Evening Hill, Poole. The event has been cancelled, however a Remembrance Carol Service with Friends of Forest Holme will be held
DESPITE sub-zero temperatures and treacherous driving conditions there was – as ever, a warm welcome in Bournemouth for Irish singer Daniel O’Donnell. Flight cancellations meant the Donegal idol and his band were forced to take an early morning ferry
Art Robert Golden - Lighthouse café, Poole (until December 31) Cruising with the Queens - Southampton City Art Gallery (until January 30) Christmas Arts & Crafts Show - Russell-Cotes Museum, Bournemouth (until January)
Sweet Potato, Celeriac and Bacon Soup Serves 4 6 rashers un-smoked streaky bacon, de-rinded 340g (approximately 1 large) sweet potato, peeled and chopped 340g (approximately 1 small) celeriac, peeled and chopped
DEAR reader, yes you, Joan of Wallisdown, I strongly advise that you fold this paper up immediately and read no further as what follows is going to be bulging with filthy words, offensive humour, raging political incorrectness and lots of stuff of a sexual
COUNCIL bosses in North Dorset are threatening to change energy supplier after recent power cuts, including one that left 8,000 homes in Blandford without electricity. Three power failures within a week have cost North Dorset District Council valuable
BELITTLED by men with ale-stained beards and praised by discerning diners, the emergence of the gastro pub has divided opinion among Britain’s pub goers. Purists may rue the loss of spit and sawdust boozers, but pork scratchings and ale were never
A PATIENT from Blandford has become the first person in Dorset to be given a knee replacement with the aid of groundbreaking new computer technology. Beverly Randerson underwent an MRI scan to produce a precise computer-generated three dimensional image
A director from Mouchel has spoken out to reassure residents that its operations for Bournemouth Council will not be affected by a bid to refinance the company's £83m debt. Mouchel assumed control of the council's revenues, benefits, ICT, and
I believe that all this talk about gritting our roads should be taken with a pinch of salt. Graham Cribb, Branksome Wood Road, Bournemouth
BUILDING work has begun on the £1.3 million second phase of the redevelopment of Lymington’s Oakhaven Hospice. Phase One, costing £580,000, was opened in May by actress and Oakhaven Hospice patron Susan Hampshire, which saw the remaining half of Pennington
Following on the comments made by Peter Hobby with the opening of Waitrose in Wimborne and the town planners lack of common sense – the same will apply if Wetherspoons are allowed to open in the old Conservative Club building. The effect on existing
yet another public lavatory has closed with no information given as to why. There is no longer anywhere in Wallisdown now that the council has closed the toilets in the car park behind Aldi. How inconvenient is this? This is yet another example
There is a website called Surfcheck Live which surfers can access to see the conditions at a particular beach by live webcam. Unfortunately no one seems to have told Bournemouth Tourism or the council, as when I accessed the site the only live webcam
Can an immediate stop please be made to tearing apart the lovely vegetation in Alum Chine? Last year we suffered with the same thing, which has left our lovely chine bare and an absolute mess. There has been no explanation why this is being done, no
A HEARTBROKEN mother struggled to contain her grief yesterday as she recalled her 12-year-old son’s last words before he lapsed into unconsciousness following a tragic cycling accident. Linsey O’Neill was comforted by her husband Steve during
THANK you very much for the recent article you printed by reporter Melanie Vass about our charity’s current situation. It was very helpful to have such a clear explanation of our needs and our difficulty in raising enough funds to pay wages in the present
IN the newsroom earlier this week there was desperate talk of a snow crisis – amid fears that there wouldn’t be any. To the huge relief of reporters, photographers and especially the newsdesk, it arrived. So how has Dorset coped? Pretty
could I add a little to the council tax second home debate? I don’t believe the ‘them and us’ argument, but surely the recipients of the discounts are getting a tax break? If the houses were permanently occupied a full tax would be payable. Thus if
With the advent of North Sea gas we were told there was plenty of it and it was so cheap it would be virtually free, with the advantage of being much cleaner than the coal gas that had served us well for nearly a century. The story is now very different
As an old age pensioner I receive the winter fuel allowance from the government, for which I am very grateful. However, I do feel that it is all wrong that the government is using the public purse to pay the fuel companies who then use it to line the
As a patron for Dogs Trust, I’m writing to let the animal lovers among your readers know how they can help abandoned and unwanted dogs this Christmas. Firstly let me introduce you to three of my best friends: Captain Jack, my Jack Russell Terrier and
Here is the list of schools closed today. We'll do our best to keep as up to date as we can but you can cross check with Heart Fm or Wave 105 FM or Wessex FM The list below shows the currently closed schools in Dorset. All Saints CE
HEAVY snowfall caused huge disruptions across Purbeck, leaving many country lanes impassable and closing a host of services. Pupils had good reason to cheer, yesterday (Dec 2), as the majority of the district's schools closed after up to three
DRIVERS and groundworkers in Bournemouth are warning of treacherous conditions today as compacted snow turns to ice. Temperatures as low as minus five hit the town overnight, freezing yesterday’s powdered snow into sheet ice. Kevin Pettit
BOURNEMOUTH'S gritting team has been working flat out to keep the borough's main roads clear. When it became clear on Wednesday evening that the snow that had blighted much of the UK was finally heading for Dorset, the council's army of gritters
GRITTERS were out on major routes from midnight onwards in Poole yesterday in a bid to keep the town moving after heavy snow overnight. All main routes were passable - but many small roads remained treacherous. Bourne Valley Road and Cromer Road in
NEW FOREST residents woke up to a winter wonderland - and a day of disruption yesterday. Mums and dads had to make alternative arrangements as schools and pre-schools closed for the day, with most looking likely to remain shut until Monday.
BOSS Eddie Howe has highlighted the threat posed by familiar foe Jo Kuffour as Cherries look to keep the ex-Dean Court star quiet tomorrow. Kuffour is set to lead the Bristol Rovers attack when the teams meet at the Memorial Stadium tomorrow (3pm).
WIMBORNE boss Alex Browne is preparing his troops for a punishing December – but insists no player can be guaranteed a place. Magpies face a gruelling schedule of no fewer than seven Southern League encounters in the space of 23 days, starting
BOSS Kenny Vaughan is sweating on the fitness of talismanic striker Kent Eriksen ahead of Poppies’ FA Vase third round trip to Willand Rovers. The Norwegian ace, the two-goal hero of Poppies’ 5-0 crushing of Odd Down in the second round – is
BOURNEMOUTH boss David Dunn believes the chase for the National Three South West title is down to a “three-horse race”. Lions’ coach is also “pretty confident” the Chapel Gate club can snap up one of the two promotion slots on offer. Dunn, whose in-form
DANNY Ings admitted it would be a “dream” to become Cherries’ latest homegrown hotshot but he is determined to avoid comparisons and build his own reputation. The 18-year-old forward was this week handed a new Dean Court deal and is now tied to the club
THERE is a well-known saying – once bitten, twice shy. Cherries supporters, particularly those who choose to travel to away games, will doubtless be mindful of it during these Arctic conditions. Bristol Rovers should be commended for trying to do everything
VERWOOD boss Adie Arnold could pitch new signing Dave Wrixton straight into his team for their FA Vase third round home clash against Torpoint Athletic tomorrow (3pm). The 25-year-old midfielder cracked 10 goals in 65 appearances for Poppies before leaving
OAKMEADIANS boss Tom Drewett may switch teenager Aaron Garrett into the back row for their South West One East clash at Amersham (2.15pm). The 17-year-old second row forward may drop back as Drewett aims to strengthen his line-out. Oaks
BARS, restaurants and shops could be forced to close early or pay a police levy under a proposed crackdown on problem drinking. A planned overhaul of licensing laws will have dramatic repercussions for Bournemouth town centre, with one expert
HERE are the AA's tips from driving in snow and ice. Stopping distances are 10 times longer in ice and snow. Gentle manoeuvres are the key to safe driving. Wear comfortable, dry shoes: cumbersome, snow-covered boots will slip on the
Annie, Kate and I are now in St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands having completed Day 1 of the Carlos Aguilar Regatta. Sailing with us this week is an American, Katie Storck on the IC24 (a J24 with the cockpit cut out). We had a strong start to the regatta
