elton john

Chris Evans has made a major comeback with the relaunch of TFI Friday and brought the iconic programme to his radio station almost 30 years after it first aired

Chris Evans has relaunched his hit 90s series TFI Friday. The presenter, 59, fronted the hit series during its initial run on Channel 4 from 1996 until 2000 and it became staple viewing at the start of the weekend.

The format featured a mix of live performances and celebrity interviews. Chris left the programme after the fifth series, and big names like the Spice Girls, Davina McCall and Elton John stepped in to take the reins for the last run of episodes in the build up to Christmas 2000. Now best known for fronting his radio show on Virgin, the TV star, who also presented the short-lived revival in 2015, has brought the programme back once more.

The revamped version of the iconic series is currently being released on Virgin Radio’s YouTube channel, and welcoming the audience to the first episode, Chris said: “Hello friends. Thank you for tuning in! Welcome to TFI Unplugged.

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“On the way today, Delroy Lindo, currently nominated for Academy Award, Hollywood Sim Car of course. Also on the way, the hilarious Ross Noble going to be here!”

Some of the more regular segments during the original run of the show included Freak or Unique, which encouraged participants to show off a strange talent. Other items included Fishbowl Challenge, Show Us Your Face Then and Sink Or Swim.

The show also ran a segment called Someone’s Going to Be a Millionaire!, based on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, and on Christmas Eve 1999, TFI Friday became the first British programme to issue a £1 million prize, almost a year before one player won the jackpot on the ITV game show.

Chris became a major television star in the early 1990s, as the Channel 4 show The Big Breakfast which he presented alongside Gaby Roslin, before other showbiz favourites like Denise Van Outen, Zoe Ball and Kelly Brook took on the hosting role.

He wrote and presented TFI Friday whilst working on the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show, which he eventually resigned from whilst he was live on air in 1997 after Radio 1 refused to allow him to work a four-day week.

He also presented The One Show on Fridays between 2010 and 2015, and later became the lead host of Top Gear in 2015 after the sacking of Jeremy Clarkson.

In 2022, Chris explained on his radio show that a reboot of TFI Friday didn’t need to be on television anymore thanks to the advent of streaming. He said: “Can I tell you a bit more about it?

“Oh, sure. The thing is, you don’t need a TV channel now. You don’t don’t need one. It’s amazing what you can do. TFI Friday doesn’t have to be an hour long, it could be longer, we could livestream it!”

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A poignant tribute has been paid to a forgotten Blue Peter star, who died at the age of 28 after a brave health battle. The presenter wowed both on screen and on stage

Tributes have been paid to a talented Blue Peter presenter who was sacked before his tragic death.

At just 12-years-old, Michael Sundin had already become a trampolining champion, a talent that would prove instrumental in securing his position as a Blue Peter presenter in 1984.

Prior to joining the beloved children’s show, Michael had performed in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s acclaimed musical Cats before going on to portray Tik-Tok in Disney’s Return To Oz.

He caught the attention of Blue Peter producers while being interviewed by the programme’s then-presenter Janet Ellis, resulting in his appointment alongside her and Simon Groom.

Taking over from the show’s celebrated presenter Peter Duncan, Michael swiftly gained recognition for his adventurous exploits on Blue Peter, covering film sets and even paying a visit to Elton John’s residence.

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However, despite his natural screen presence, Michael’s stint on Blue Peter proved brief; he departed the programme after less than a year, allegedly when his contract wasn’t renewed. He then heartbreakingly passed away from an Aids-related illness aged just 28, in 1989.

Michael, fondly recalled by those close to him as a “blond, outgoing, gregarious ball of fun”, was cruelly outed by the media as gay during his short tenure on Blue Peter.

While then-Editor Biddy Baxter attributed his departure to lack of viewer appeal, his exit became mired in scandal as numerous sources suggested it stemmed from his sexuality, OK! reports.

During a 2007 television interview, Baxter dismissed these allegations, stating: “It was his leaving the programme because children didn’t like him – nothing to do with his sexual proclivities”.

After leaving Blue Peter, Michael went on to pursue acting, featuring in the 1987 film Lionheart. He performed in touring stage shows including Seven Brides For Seven Brothers and Starlight Express, and made an appearance in Rick Astley’s 1988 music video for She Wants To Dance With Me. Tragically, that same year Michael became unwell. He passed away at Newcastle General Hospital aged just 28, with initial reports suggesting his death was caused by liver cancer.

This week, The Elstree Project paid a poignant tribute to Michael’s talents as they looked back on his role as Tik-Tok. They wrote: “Michael Sundin was the performer inside Tik-Tok in Return to Oz (1985). His contribution was not animatronic control or puppetry, but full-body suit performance: movement, balance, timing and physical character, carried out under extreme physical and technical constraints.

“Tik-Tok was a hybrid creation. His head, eyes and facial details were operated externally by puppeteer Tim Rose using mechanical and radio-controlled systems, while the voice was added later in post-production. But the character’s weight, rhythm and locomotion came entirely from Sundin. He was responsible for making a rigid, four-foot copper robot feel grounded, deliberate and alive.

“The physical challenge was extraordinary. Sundin was folded double inside a small Kevlar suit, arms crossed, head tucked between his legs, walking backwards throughout filming. To navigate the set, he relied on a small internal monitor relaying an external camera feed — upside-down and reversed. This demanded constant recalibration, spatial intelligence and muscular control.”

Meanwhile, the programme’s oral history director, Walter Murch, said: “When Michael Sundin died in 1989 from an AIDS-related illness, aged just 28, there was only a small on-air acknowledgement of his passing on Blue Peter with no retrospective of his work in the way other presenters have been respected. In an era marked by stigma and silence, much of his contribution was quietly erased, and he was notably absent from anniversary clips and montages until the 60th anniversary.

“Sundin’s work on Return to Oz deserves to be understood clearly. He was not an animatronics operator or a puppeteer, but a suit performer whose body performed in a complex system of mechanical, electronic and human collaboration. Without his performance, Tik-Tok would not move as he does on screen. As we celebrate the technical innovations that took shape at Elstree, it’s worth remembering how many depended on performers willing to endure extraordinary conditions to make new forms of cinema possible.”

Following Michael’s passing, Blue Peter presenter Yvette Fielding paid tribute, joined by colleagues John Leslie and Caron Keating. She said: “We had one piece of very sad news during the summer. As many people may have heard, Michael Sundin – who presented Blue Peter five years ago – tragically died at the very young age of 28. Michael had been ill for a little while but the news of his death came as a great shock to all of us.”

One way to honor your 93-year-old host: by calling him a “f— gangster” who’ll “slit your throat for a hit record.”

That’s how Monte Lipman big-upped Clive Davis on Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton, where Davis had convened an invite-only crowd of celebrities and music-industry insiders for his annual night-before-the-Grammys gala. Lipman, who runs Republic Records, was there to receive the Recording Academy’s Industry Icon award along with his brother and business partner, Avery; clearly, the commendation had gotten him feeling all warm and fuzzy about the record-biz machers who paved his way.

An incomplete list of stars in the Hilton’s ballroom for Saturday’s soiree: Joni Mitchell, Nancy Pelosi, Stevie Wonder, Colman Domingo, Frankie Valli, Martha Stewart, Lana Del Rey, Karol G, Brandi Carlile, Bill Maher, Teyana Taylor, Gladys Knight, Bryan Cox, Jeff Goldblum, Max Martin and — speaking of record-biz machers — Motown founder Berry Gordy, who at 96 had to have been the only person at the party with more experience on him than Davis.

Jennifer Hudson performs.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

At least a few of these luminaries had come, no doubt, to see the Lipmans pick up their prize; among the many, many successes they’ve racked up in recent years include blockbusters by Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Post Malone and the lovable cartoon assassins of “KPop Demon Hunters.”

But mostly folks had come to schmooze and to take in the entertainment Davis had arranged.

As always, the show featured a blend of beloved old-timers and ascendant youngsters, including three of the nominees for the Grammys’ best new artist award: Sombr, pouting extravagantly through a pretend-sleazy “12 to 12”; Olivia Dean, downright luminous as a horn section added some swing to “Man I Need”; and Alex Warren, who’s beginning to look like he may never want to sing “Ordinary” again.

Sombr spins Olivia Dean during his performance.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Clipse and John Legend performed “The Birds Don’t Sing,” from the rap duo’s “Let God Sort Em Out,” which is up for album of the year at Sunday’s Grammys ceremony. The women of “KPop Demon Hunters’” Huntr/x turned up to sing “Golden,” which is nominated for song of the year.

MGK and Jelly Roll tag-teamed an homage to the late Ozzy Osbourne, while Jennifer Hudson saluted the late Roberta Flack; her typically virtuosic rendition of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” brought the room to as close to quiet as it got all night.

Pusha T of Clipse, left, and John Legend perform.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

There were also tributes to two living legends: Bernie Taupin and Art Garfunkel. For the former, Darren Criss sang “Bennie and the Jets” — just one of the classics Taupin co-wrote with Elton John — then brought out Laufey for a surprisingly frisky take on John and Kiki Dee’s disco-era “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” (Free idea: Somebody cast Criss and Laufey in a reboot of “Grease.”)

To honor Garfunkel, the country duo Dan + Shay performed “Mrs. Robinson” before throwing to the 84-year-old himself, who sauntered onstage in a tuxedo and Phillies ball cap, sat down on a stool and — after having read a bit of poetry scrawled on the back on an envelope — closed the show with a touching if slightly wobbly journey across “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

Behold more pictures from Saturday’s event:

Art Garfunkel performs.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Clive Davis, left, addresses the crowd.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Karol G on the red carpet.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Adam Lambert on the red carpet.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Darren Criss, left, and Laufey perform.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Jelly Roll, left, and Bunnie Xo on the red carpet.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Monte Lipman, left, and Avery Lipman on the red carpet.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Olivia Dean performs.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)