The Sun Newspaper

DARE to bare was the theme of the night for the planet’s sexiest women as they stunned in these eye-popping dresses.

A-listers left little to the imagination at the LACMA Art+Film Gala, where the biggest surprise of the evening was Kim Kardashian arriving in a Gucci gown which was uncharacteristically modest by comparison.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who last month parted ways with M&S lingerie after 14 years, chose a look that needed no undies at all.

The 39-year-old British model made a big impact in a backless, black Gucci gown with an ultra-high leg slit.

The raised collar gave the appearance of a demure floor-length dress from the front, but when she turned round, Rosie revealed her bum.

Never one to miss an opportunity to flash some flesh, model Emily Ratajkowski, 35, sizzled in a white halter-neck Gucci number, which was slashed on the thigh and across her chest.

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Also on the red carpet at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was actress Amber Valetta, 52, in a backless gown complete with yet another thigh slit and a silver Gucci insignia.

Models Iris Law and Candice Swanepoel and US influencer Alix Earle all shimmered in silver at the charity gala on Saturday, which was sponsored by Gucci and co-chaired by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Iris, 26, was the boldest in a metallic mesh Amaramara dress, which had a thin strip covering her chest but had her rear end in full view.

Alix, 25, wore a Gucci thong halter bodysuit, draped in floor-length crystal tassels, to show off her bottom, back and sideboob.

And Candice, 38, went commando in a crystal Gucci design, which had two front slits so high that she was one gust of wind away from a paparazzi catastrophe.

Another head-turner — though not because of the amount of skin on show — was actress Anya Taylor-Joy, 30.

The Dune: Part Three star wore an off-white vintage Pierre Cardin gown with an extravagantly layered organza shawl.

Anya’s Style Queen

By Emily Regan Sun Stylist

AFTER a summer of near-naked fashion dividing critics, it seems the cut-out trend isn’t going anywhere despite the drop in temperature.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley proved she can push the boundaries in attention-grabbing Gucci.

With an almost entirely open back that revealed her toned physique and bottom, Rosie’s floral M&S collections suddenly seem a distant memory.

Fellow Victoria’s Secret Angel Candice Swanepoel also got the balance right. Her sparkly gown featured dramatic shoulder pads, which balanced out the plunging neckline and thigh-high slits.

A daring but sophisticated look.

Meanwhile, Alix Earle and Iris Law played a risque game in barely-there silver dresses.

But for me, the standout looks of the night came from the celebrities who chose to keep things a little more under wraps.

Anya Taylor-Joy brought the drama in a vintage floor-length column gown, by Pierre Cardin, which had a ruffled organza shawl.

The Queen’s Gambit actress made a big statement without a bum in sight.

Meanwhile, Nicole Kindman, 59, embraced the ballet-core trend, wearing a voluminous Chanel tulle dress with a taupe long-sleeved, open-back bodice.

Top Gun: Maverick star Monica Barbaro, 36, kept things tasteful in a white sequin Dior gown with a circular cutout back.

Proof you can still turn heads on the red carpet without flashing your flesh.

THE Great Bear – Ursa Major – burns bright against the darkening sky.

And if I twist my body a little, I can spot the Cygnus constellation shimmering through the gaps between the branches of a nearby tree.

It’s not every day that you get to stargaze from your bath. But at Liba Vineyard, the woodfired tubs are perfectly positioned for it beneath some of the darkest skies in the country.

This glamping site, on an old farm in rural Wiltshire, is home to just three snug pods, each set just beyond the vineyard’s young vines which are preparing for their first harvest next year.

Chris, the founder of the vineyard and glampsite, fires up the hot tub furnaces ahead of guests’ arrivals to ensure waters are kept at a balmy 40C.

Although that evening, I’m left to tend the dying embers solo, chucking on extra logs until smoke billows from the bath’s chimney in a magical plume.

WAIL OF A TIME

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It’s pretty satisfying to watch nature work its magic beneath the glittering sky.

That’s a big selling point of the off-grid Liba, whose name stems from a blend of the words ‘life’ and ‘balance’. Here, you’re fully at one with your surroundings and there’s a huge emphasis on organic materials and natural methods.

The vineyard’s alpacas, for example, are used to keep the site nice and tidy instead of fertilisers. Every so often, they roam among the vines and gobble up weeds, trim the grass and . . . provide some of the best natural fertiliser.

It’s much easier to manage this type of natural wine-making on a smaller scale, and this small-scale production is partly what will make Liba’s wine so special.

After a soothing evening gazing up at the stars and toasting marshmallows, I was up early the next morning to feed the alpacas before helping out with some grape-picking at a neighbouring vineyard.

While Chris is currently waiting for his own vines to ripen, he has still been able to hone his wine-making techniques by using grapes from nearby vineyards.

I discovered how to weed out the ripe fruit from the rotten stuff and even got involved in the sticky action of smushing grapes the traditional way – with my bare feet.

This is the sort of hands-on experience Chris is hoping to introduce to guests once he produces his first bottles.

The glampsite has only been open for around a year and already enjoyed a sell-out summer.

I can’t say I’m surprised. It is idyllic, especially during autumn when the outdoor fire pit can be used to its full advantage.

The finer details are just as important. The mattress in my pod was incredibly comfy, while fairy lights around the fence ensured I could easily get in and out of the hot tub at night.

A small kitchen is well equipped for fry-ups and the sofa can be turned into a bed for two extra guests.

The pods also have lots of windows, to fully embrace nature – including that glittering night sky.

AS the glass lift descended the cliff face, green umbrella pines gave way to craggy sandstone  before the epic golden sands of Praia da Falesia were revealed.

My friend Rosie and I were in awe.

“This place is stunning”, was our first impression — and it was one that held true throughout our three-day autumn sunshine break at the 5H Pine Cliffs Resort on Portugal’s Algarve coast.

From the bottom of the lift, we strolled down the boardwalk to beach restaurant Maré, which serves the freshest seafood.

As we enjoyed shrimp mango tacos and spritz cocktails, then chocolate ice cream, we deliberated over which sunloungers on the private beach we should aim for the next morning.

Despite our early-morning flight, the quick transfer meant we were in the mood for exploring and after lunch, we got back in the lift to head back up to the resort and get our bearings.

WAIL OF A TIME

I drove Irish Route 66 with deserted golden beaches and pirate-like islands

TEMPTED?

Tiny ‘Bali of Europe’ town with stunning beaches, €3 cocktails and £20 flights

Across the 178-acre estate there are options for every budget or group size, from apartments and suites to villas and townhouses. But our home for the weekend was the resort’s original focal point, the 217-room Pine Cliffs Hotel.

Strolling from the beach to the hotel we passed under the many pines that shade the cobblestone walkways and gardens and give the resort its name.

The clifftop hotel, unlike the resort’s newer residential zones, has a traditional style. Terracotta floors, hand-painted ceramic tiles and whitewashed archways give way to leafy courtyards, as Moorish-style architecture pays homage to the region’s historic Arabic influences.

It’s a theme that continues into the hotel’s bedrooms. The beds have bespoke headboards featuring more of those hand-painted tiles, in elegant constrast to the rooms’ calm, white walls and all the mod cons you could wish for.

Guests can join a free Tiles Tour to learn more about the Algarve’s decorative tiles, or azulejos, in the hotel and grounds.

Once you’ve soaked up the back stories, about how this traditional art has survived earthquakes and invaders down the centuries, you head off for a workshop to design your own creations.

Armed with a blank tile, fine brushes and traditional mineral paints, you learn the technique of glazing from scratch.

Your work of art is then fired for you to safely pack into your suitcase.

Meanwhile, across the resort’s grounds, sport is also front and centre.
A scenic nine-hole golf course hugs the cliff edge and features the hair-raising Devil’s Parlour hole, where players must drive a ball straight over a deep ravine.

Then there’s the Annabel Croft Tennis and Padel Academy. We had a fantastic time here, being taught the basics of Padel on one of the resort’s beautiful courts — even though our backhands didn’t quite match the facility.

If you work up a thirst, and appetite, then good: the resort has 18 fabulous bars and restaurants.

The Mirador Champagne Bar was the perfect place for us to sit and watch the sunset with a glass of fizz and bowls of salty snacks before dinner.

We kicked off our first evening at lively steakhouse Piri Piri, one of the Algarve’s top spots for meat lovers, with gourmet cuts from all corners of the globe.

We enjoyed fillet steak and fresh lobster salad with local wines and ended the night with a glass of Amarguinha, a local almond liqueur which was dangerously delicious.

On our second night, we went to seafood restaurant O’Pescador, where guests choose their catch from the tank before having it grilled on the barbecue. For lunch, we loved the Corda Cafe and healthfood spot Zest, where we mixed it up with salads, wraps and pizzas.

Day two was all about recharging in the resort’s Serenity Spa where we were treated to massages before sampling the outdoor Jacuzzi and the saunas, ice pool and steam rooms in the spa itself.

The resort’s health club also features two big gyms, a Pilates studio and an indoor pool.

If you prefer unwinding under the sun, the resort has seven outdoor pools.

There is no adult-only pool but those after a quiet spot should visit the pools near the spa, one of which has a swanky swim-up bar.

Families will find the best areas for kids in the Porto Pirata Children’s Village — the biggest kids’ club in the region.

If you fancy a spot of shopping, there’s a strip of boutiques selling handmade gifts and jewellery or, in the hotel lobby, there are several high-end shops.

Outside the resort, the coastal city of Albufeira is just a 15-minute drive away, with a huge selection of bars, restaurants and nightclubs as well as a pretty old quarter.

But with their clifftop sundowners, world-class dining and golden sands, we were not in a rush to leave our hotel and its glorious grounds and beach.

NAMED Europe’s best city 2026 by Travel + Leisure earlier this year, Florence’s easy-to-traverse streets make it an ideal weekend away.

You can find world-famous art and fantastic pizza just steps from each other. Here’s why a trip to the beautiful Italian city should be on everyone’s bucket list…

WHY SHOULD I GO?

Florence is now a bit easier to visit, with easyJet expanding its city break package destinations.

Two-hour flights, cheap package holidays and weather that is still warmer than the UK’s are just some of the many reasons it’s great.

STREETS MADE FOR WALKING?

Forget taxis and trains — Florence is insanely walkable, with its top attractions and restaurants all within spitting distance of each other.

Perfect if you love a mooch without having to work out how to use a foreign public transport system.

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The city is known for its Renaissance art, so most people head straight to the Uffizi Gallery to see Botticelli’s most famous painting, The Birth Of Venus.

But I’d recommend heading over the river to Palazzo Pitti instead. Owned by the Medici family back in the 1500s, the palace was said to have inspired Versailles in France.

Now it is home to five separate museums, with 500 paintings across 28 ornately decorated halls.

The highlight is Italy’s largest Museum of Costume and Fashion, featuring pieces from Chanel, Dior and Schiaparelli. Speaking of fashion, make sure you don’t leave without a leather souvenir, as Florentine leather is world-famous.

There are more market stalls and shops than you can shake a stick at, so you’ll be spoilt for choice for bags, belts and even more leather pieces.

WHERE SHOULD I EAT?

The city is known for its Renaissance art, so most people head straight to the Uffizi Gallery to see Botticelli’s most famous painting, The Birth Of Venus.

But I’d recommend heading over the river to Palazzo Pitti instead. Owned by the Medici family back in the 1500s, the palace was said to have inspired Versailles in France.

Now it is home to five separate museums, with 500 paintings across 28 ornately decorated halls.

The highlight is Italy’s largest Museum of Costume and Fashion, featuring pieces from Chanel, Dior and Schiaparelli. Speaking of fashion, make sure you don’t leave without a leather souvenir, as Florentine leather is world-famous.

There are more market stalls and shops than you can shake a stick at, so you’ll be spoilt for choice for bags, belts and even more leather pieces.

I FANCY A DRINK

Florence is hardly short of wine bars, but my favourite is Oratio, in a tiny library dedicated to wine books where wines are organised into regions of Italy.

Service is friendly, the menu is affordable, and you can pick up a book or two if you want to learn more about what you are drinking.

There are also Florence’s famous wine windows — 300 portals in the city’s stonework which were used to serve wine and food to people during the plague without risking physical contact.

Glasses of wine are still passed through the windows, and a popular one is part of the restaurant Babae, where you can even keep the plastic souvenir wine glass.

WHERE SHOULD I STAY?

There’s no better stay than at the 4H Palazzo Monnalisa, a city-centre hotel, but in a quiet street.

The building dates from the 14th century but recently completed a two-year renovation, so rooms are modern and cosy yet arty and chic — think terracotta tiles and textured mural wallpaper showcasing famous Italian skylines.

The rooms surround a private garden courtyard, making it feel worlds away from the busy city.

Breakfast is small but enough to line your stomach for the day, in the form of fresh pastries and fruit, or a hot menu offering dishes such as eggs benedict.

The restaurant is here too, with the bar on the other side to grab a wine to take to the outdoor patio.

The hotel almost feels like a museum in itself, from the painted wooden ceilings to its time-worn stone steps.

CHAMPAGNE flutes clink all around us as we sit on the sunny terrace of elegant mansion house La Baronnie, a property so chic King Louis XVI gave it to Marie Antoinette back in 1785.

My husband Eamon and I have begun our long weekend on the French island of Île de Ré with an indulgent brunch buffet, £44 each, including a glass of fizz.

And as we stuff ourselves silly with treats such as oysters, smoked trout and local meats and cheeses, we can’t help but think it’s the perfect start (Hotel-labaronnie.com).

Capital Gains

Off the west coast of France, Île de Ré is roughly 19 miles long and three miles wide, and home to idyllic, quaint villages of whitewashed houses decked out with pastel-shuttered windows.

But first, we explore the capital, Saint-Martin-de-Ré, strolling past the handsome Citadelle Vauban and historic harbour, before hitting the backstreets that brim with independent shops.

The isle is famed for salt and soap, so I stock up on seasoning at Esprit du Sel, £4.80, before dropping into colour and scent fest Loix & Savons to splurge on a perfumed trio of fig, caramel and violet soap, £16.50.

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I browse colourful threads at Équateur and classic swimwear at Pile ou Face, but my fave find is 29 on Rue Jean Jaurès, where everything is €29!

Later, quirky Le Tout du Cru turns out to be seafood heaven – as I feast on delicate half crab, £16.50, and Eamon devours blue lobster with home-made mayo, £41.50 (Tout-du-cru.fr).

After refreshing scoops of blackcurrant and violet ice cream from La Martinière parlour, £3.20 each (La-martiniere.fr), we make the 20-minute drive to charming Hôtel Le Sénéchal in Ars-en-Ré, which sits just metres from the main square and the black-and-white peak of Saint-Étienne church.

A quiet oasis of floral courtyards and a small, heated outdoor pool, the bedrooms offer crisp white sheets with a palette of dusky blues and creams.

Even better, double rooms cost from just £81 per night (En.hotel-le-senechal.com).

Wheely good

The next morning, we wake early and grab bikes from Les Cycles N to embark on a 15km circular route.

Daily hire costs £11 per adult (Lescyclesn.com).

Our highlights include snapping the towering 57-metre-tall Lighthouse Of The Whales and wandering across the sweeping golden sands of La Conche beach, before sharing a dozen oysters for £21.50 at stylish La Bazenne in the little village of Les Portes-en-Ré (Labazenne.fr).

We head back via the Lilleau des Niges Nature Reserve, with its thriving birdlife and shimmering salt marshes and, after a quick dip back at the hotel pool, we stroll to the port to dine on traditional moules marinières with fries, £16.75, at laid-back Le Café du Commerce (Cafcom-ars.com).

Another brilliant decision is to visit Relais Thalasso’s coastal spa, just 10 minutes’ drive from the bridge that will take us back to France’s mainland – and home again.

Here, the motto is: “The sea takes care of you,” and for £43 each, we’re able to spend the whole day relaxing at the Marine Spa, which includes an indoor seawater pool with bubble benches and massage jets, a hammam, sauna, sensory shower trail and herbal tea room, as well as a gorgeous outdoor pool (Iledere.relaisthalasso.com).

If this isn’t bliss, I really don’t know what is.

THERE aren’t too many places where your ski run can be interrupted by a singing troll taking a poop, or by a giant snowman slaloming past.

But this is just part of the regular experience in Sälen, Sweden.

I’ve skied in numerous places across France, Austria, Italy and Andorra but have never seen anywhere even close to what the biggest resort in the land of Abba has to offer for beginners of all ages.

Sälen (pronounced either Say-learn or Sah-learn by locals) is like skiing on easy mode.

The snow is consistent, with few moguls or icy patches, the slopes are wide, mostly not too steep or too long, and it’s rare you have to wait for other skiers or don’t have room to manoeuvre.

For kids (and adults, who’ll want to visit at least once for novelty value), there’s the Troll Forest, with troll figures both large and small lurking in the trees to murmur and croon at you.

WAIL OF A TIME

I drove Irish Route 66 with deserted golden beaches and pirate-like islands

TEMPTED?

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The main ski school is Northern Europe’s largest — and the relatively cheap kids’ ski school, for ages three and up, has its own mascot, Valle the snowman, who regularly comes out on the slopes with the instructors to lead a trail of nippers down.

I’m told Valle did once fall over mid-run and his head came off, which must have traumatised a few pre-schoolers.

And talking of unique experiences, there’s even a world-first ski-through McDonald’s for when you get peckish.

All this is spread across Sälen’s four ski areas — Lindvallen, Hundfjället, Högfjället, and Tandådalen — and they are each covered by the same ski pass. which includes free ski-bus access between the different areas.

We stayed in the smallest of these areas, Högfjället, at the ski-in, ski-out Högfjällshotell — a 20-minute transfer from the refreshingly small and relatively new Scandinavian Mountains Airport, where it’s snow-covered as soon as you land.

If you pre-book, you can even hire a husky sled to transfer you and your luggage.

The hotel contains everything you could need, including a Skistar ski shop to get your gear, adjacent nursery slopes — and even its own cavernous nightclub in the basement, where the Swedish youth congregate for nights of excess.

I heard one young businessman racked up a tab of about £35,000 for vintage champagne a couple of nights before our arrival, and his group didn’t even finish the bottles.

Overall, my limited experience of aprés ski in Sweden was notable for the good-natured boisterousness of the locals, who were soon linking arms with us to sing Swedish songs and pulling us up to conga round the room to I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers.

So, any downsides? Well, if you’re an advanced skier, there are only a few slopes that will offer much of a challenge (I would normally steer well clear of black runs but comfortably managed three here and they felt more like moderate reds elsewhere).

Also, the lift network is fairly old-school compared with better-known European rivals — there are quite a few button lifts and T-bar lifts involved in getting from area to area.

The main thing you need to be prepared for is the toe-numbing levels of cold that are the norm in Sälen.

During our days there it was -13C to -15C, with temperatures expected to dip to -20C the weekend after our departure.

I would recommend thermal gloves within your ski gloves, and maybe wool-lined socks and regular stop-offs for hot chocolate.

As well as the skiing, there is snowmobiling, which was great fun if a little scary (driving licence required).

We motored along, through falling snow, up to a remote mountain cabin where we enjoyed local-style waffles and hot chocolate.

The next evening saw us take a horse-drawn sleigh deep into the forest, warmed by reindeer skins on our laps and with flaming torches on the back of the sleigh.

We eventually arrived at a cluster of teepees, in one of which we enjoyed a dinner of blueberry soup (delicious) in an edible bread bowl and moose stew (soft and tasty) — with a home-made knitted beer mitt to cradle my drink.

The final mode of transport the next day was husky-driving, and after I got used to standing on my narrow perch at the back of the sled and controlling the speed on the narrow track by hopping on a large plough-style brake, I was able to admire the trail the eight yelping hounds were so excitedly pulling us along.

As is par for the course on the ski slopes, there are tall, skinny Norwegian spruces everywhere, and if you talk about a ski resort being blanketed in snow, this is more the full, heavy-tog duvet of snow.

The forests look, to a tree, like they’ve been liberally sploshed with icing sugar — giving wintry vistas unlike anywhere else I’ve seen.

However much Sälen might chill your fingers, its easy, freezy, trolls-in-treesy fun will leave you with a warm glow inside.

WITH my face contorted by G-force and hands gripping white-knuckle tight to the grab rail, I wondered what on earth I’d let myself in for.

Beside me, my 12-year-old son was grinning from ear to ear as he yelled: “I told you being at the front was the best seat to be in, Mummy!”

Europa-Park has just been voted Europe’s best theme park and boy, does it live up to the title.

We were rocked, flung, hung upside-down and rattled at speed over more loop-the-loops than I could count as we gasped, laughed and threw our hands in the air.

Close to the borders of France and Switzerland in the town of Rust, it’s Germany’s answer to Walt Disney World with 20 European-themed lands and 14 rip-roaring rollercoasters.

Visiting during the festive season adds even more magic as the whole site is festooned with lights ­— more than 3,000 trees are draped with fairy lights and baubles.

WAIL OF A TIME

I drove Irish Route 66 with deserted golden beaches and pirate-like islands

TEMPTED?

Tiny ‘Bali of Europe’ town with stunning beaches, €3 cocktails and £20 flights

Add a dusting of snow (real and fake) and a Christmas market complete with mulled wine and open fires and it is the ultimate pre-Christmas break.

Navigating the park itself was very easy with the dedicated mobile app that shows where all the rides are, the waiting times and the distance from each.

For tired little legs, a monorail runs straight through the park and the on-site hotels, offering a bird’s-eye view of the action.

We made our way round the miniature countries, each carefully themed with authentic food, drinks and world-class rides.

The Christmas market in mini Germany was a standout for me due to the many stalls selling festive treats.

The boy was much more interested in the Croatian zone, where the latest high-octane ride was drawing a crowd.

Voltron Nevera is a terrifying, record-breaking coaster that catapults riders at a 105-degree angle.

Despite the winter crowds, queues rarely topped 30 minutes, and outdoor patio heaters helped keep chilly fingers warm while we waited.

If you need a breather, the hour-long circus show — featuring world-class acrobats, clowns, and a live orchestra — is a festive must-see.

Also worth a trip is the 55m-high giant wheel, Bellevue, that graces the Portuguese area each winter with enclosed, heated gondolas to keep you cosy as you enjoy panoramic views across the park.

With temperatures dipping, a turn around the Nordic fjord lake that serves as a huge outdoor ice-skating rink is a winner — as is a reviving schnapps poured from bottles frozen in ice at Bar Glaciar.

Whatever the weather, you aren’t far from the warmth of one of Europa-Park’s six 4H hotels that come with the added advantage of early park admission for guests.

We checked into Spanish-themed Hotel El Andaluz and our room came complete with terracotta tiling, a huge double bed plus bunk beds and even a matador’s hat on the coat peg.

There was plenty of storage, the usual flat-screen telly and decent fluffy towels.

The only thing missing for this English mum was a kettle for a cuppa.

But there was plenty of tea and coffee on tap every morning in the hotel’s Don Quichotte restaurant alongside a hearty breakfast buffet.

My son was particularly impressed with the pastry selection while I stuck to the cheese and amazing bread selection on offer.

The staff were all incredibly attentive and the food was constantly replenished.

I would definitely recommend filling up here as the chilly temperatures and outside walking require sustenance.

One other top tip would be to book your evening meals when you reserve your room.

Festive breaks are hugely popular, and family-friendly hotel buffets fill up fast.

In contrast, the outside heated pool was empty after dark so we enjoyed an evening swim in warm water in the chilly air watching the fireworks from our hotel. It was really magical.

We saved the best wind-down for last: a short five-minute shuttle to Rulantica, the resort’s colossal indoor water kingdom packed with wild flumes, lazy rivers and an Icelandic-style heated outdoor lagoon.

To avoid the busiest spots, we treated ourselves to a private relaxation suite, complete with its own sauna, bubbly whirlpool, sofa, and TV.

Leaving my son to conquer the waterslides, I enjoyed a blissful lie-down, soaking up the heat to my favourite playlist via the sauna’s Bluetooth speakers.

It was the ultimate warm-up — and the perfect finish to an adrenaline-packed mother-and-son escape.

DOGS may not be able to speak, but mine didn’t have to – the eyes said it all.

As Ernie watched me skip over to the outdoor hot tub armed with kindling and firelighters, he clearly thought I’d gone mad.

While I waited for the water to warm with a glass of wine and a good book, he took himself off inside our cottage for a nap — and went on to snooze away the majority of our three-day stay.

Never in his 11 years have I seen him so relaxed away from home, and I have to say, I felt pretty zen, too.

We were at Rowley Farm Holidays — an award-winning family-run retreat in Worcestershire.

It specialises in luxurious self- catering stays, and everything about the site has been designed with dogs and their owners in mind.

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You won’t find any annoying pet fees here or rules about which breeds are welcome.

And whether you choose to stay in one of the three beautiful cottages or hidden-away shepherd’s hut, you will have access to your own enclosed garden, a secure dog field and the cute Muddy Paws Wash Room, which comes complete with a range of doggy shampoos.

Dog bowls, blankets, treats, poo bags and throws for the beds and sofas are provided in every type of accommodation, too.

I was staying in The Old Dairy, all on one level bar a couple of steps up from the entrance hall — handy for an older boy like Ernie who sometimes struggles with his back legs.

The open-plan cottage, which sleeps two, was, as the name suggests, the farm’s former dairy but it has been given a stylish makeover since then, kitted out with all the mod cons but retaining a country-chic feel throughout.

I loved the gable ceiling and large windows that allowed light to flood in.

And just like Ernie, I slept like a baby, snuggled up in luxurious linen in the comfy king-sized bed.

While The Old Dairy has underfloor heating beneath its easy-to-clean stone slabs, it also boasts air con — a great perk for pet owners staying during future heatwaves.

We had a welcome basket of local produce waiting for us and the kitchen was incredibly well-equipped.

Although if you don’t fancy cooking, there are a whole host of dog-friendly farm shops and places to eat within a few miles of Rowley Farm.

You’ll find traditional pub grub at The Holt Fleet and the Lenchford Riverside Inn, while The Red Lion serves up cracking Indian cuisine.
Quiet time

In its car park, you’ll also find the quirky Whole Moo World vending machine and tuck shop, which I was quite taken with.

Here, you can get fresh milk, milkshakes and snacks like sandwiches and Scotch eggs 24/7 — handy if you get a case of the midnight munchies.

While all the other cottages were booked during our stay, we barely heard a peep from any of them.

And, on a stroll through the quiet site, we saw that like us, many other guests had opted to just chill out — reading, lounging around in the complimentary robes and enjoying some quiet time while their dogs roamed safely in their gardens.

At Rowley Farm, you really can just kick back and relax — but if you do decide to venture out, there are lots of things to see and do nearby.

Witley Court, just up the road, is a must if you like your history.

This once-grand stately home was destroyed by a fire in the 1930s and while only the shell of the building remains, it’s easy to imagine how it would have looked in its heyday.

Dogs on leads are welcome to explore, and Ernie and I spent a good couple of hours wandering around the ruins and grounds.

Don’t miss seeing the Perseus and Andromeda fountain blast jets of water into the sky, either. This normally happens on the hour in the summer months.

We also went into Worcester, around a 20-minute drive away, where we enjoyed a stroll alongside the River Severn, visited Gheluvelt Park, feasted at Kyndfolk and popped into the Cathedral to have a word with the Man Upstairs.

I couldn’t say if Ernie asked for peace on Earth and good will to men (and dogs), but I think it’s probably more likely he asked for a return visit to Rowley Farm.

AFTER donating his kidney to his pop star brother, Chris Bourne has opened up about the healing process – revealing he used music as therapy.

Busted rocker James and Chris are both now recovering from their operations, which took place on October 3.

On his song Selfless, which Chris produced with his best friend James Ennis and released to raise money for mental-health charity Mind, he told me: “Songwriting is like therapy.

“You’re thinking about a situation and you’re conceptualising it and you’re going through all these things, how you feel about it, and you’re filtering out all of it.

“At the end of it, kind of whatever’s on the paper [ends up] in the song.”

Chris stepped in for James during Busted’s joint tour with McFly in 2025 after the guitarist became too unwell.

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Selfless, which was originally a poem by Chris about coming to terms with being a donor, is already a hit with James.

Laughing, Chris said: “For the first time he asked me to play him a song again. He was like, ‘Wow, you actually wrote a good song’.

“I totally trust and respect everything he says about music. And it was weird with this stuff because I’d never written such a personal song.”

Chris said he is looking foward to when he and his brother are fully recovered, and hopes to one day join James on stage.

He revealed: “If Busted felt like they would need an extra guitar player, I would definitely be there. It would be a dream experience.”

LILY’S GOTH HER SPARK BACK

LILY JAMES is black in business after stepping out of the acting world because of burnout.

After starring in a string of blockbusters including Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Cinderella and Pride And Prejudice she was left her feeling flat.

Lily said: I’ve worked consistently since I was 21, and I was beginning to feel so burned out. I was scared I was losing the joy.

“You have to recharge. Going from one job to the next, not only was I feeling like I wasn’t recharging or finding new sources of inspiration, but also blink, and you’ve missed a year.”

Lily is back at it now, though, and attended meetings in New York in this gothic-inspired outfit.

Her next project is Cliffhanger – a remake of the 1993 action film starring Sylvester Stallone – slated for release next year. Welcome back, Lily.

BIG CITY JITTERS FOR FAYE

FAYE WINTER says life in the big smoke after the Love Island villa triggered panic attacks and left her too scared to use the Tube.

The Devon-born reality star and then boyfriend Teddy Soares lived on the outskirts of London after meeting on the dating show in 2021.

She said: “I came out and I was very lost. I really struggled with the London lifestyle. It used to keep me up at night. If I was going to London, I would be awake until, like, one, two in the morning.”

She added: “I was so terrified, it would give me anxiety, like I would have panic attacks. If somebody said I had to get the Tube, I wouldn’t.”

Now back in the countryside, Faye is backing calls for couples to sign “pre-pups” – a pet version of the pre-nup – after her split from Teddy in 2023 turned the spotlight on how she got custody of their beloved golden retriever Bonnie.

It comes after research by Compare The Market found nearly one in three couples clash over who keeps their pet after a break-up.

She said: “Nobody thinks about what will happen if your relationship does come to an end and who’s going to take full responsibility of the dog.

“As a nation of animal lovers, I honestly don’t believe that the law is there to protect them enough.

“People have children, they take priority over their pets, but that shouldn’t be the case.”

DJ JOEL CORRY has opened up about the perils of touring and strict self-care regime.

In an exclusive chat as he promotes Movember’s Why Did We Stop Hugging Our Friends? campaign, the Head & Heart producer said: “I’ve had to really adapt to the lifestyle of long-haul flights, late nights, jet lag.

“I’ve tackled it by keeping my routine on lock. So whenever I land in a different country, I get a workout in.

“It’s more of a mental-health benefit than physical. It keeps my mind clear and positive.”

LADY GAGA and Shakira lead the nominees for the 2027 Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The panel have until December 14 to cast their votes before the winners will be announced at next year’s Induction & Awards Gala in New York City.

I adore both Gaga and Shakira so I’d be over the moon if either comes out on top.

JESS LOCKS A PICTURE

AND the Oscar for the biggest transformation goes to . . . Jessica Chastain.

The Hollywood actress has lopped off her statement long, red hair and dyed it blonde.

It was a surefire way to get noticed on the red carpet as she promoted new Netflix film, Heartland, in New York on Thursday.

Jessica plays Misty Jones, a country music star searching in the underbelly in Nashville for her rising star niece, who has mysteriously vanished.

A lot like Jessica’s hair then. . . 

EM BEARS SOUL ON NEW TUNE

EMILY BEAR will perform new single God Forbid A Girl Gets Used To This on Later With Jools Holland tomorrow night.

In an exclusive chat before the BBC Two show, alongside Jamie T and Violet Grohl, Emily told me what inspired the track.

She said: “I’ve fallen in love recently. I usually need really sad things to happen to me to be able to write.

“We hear all these stories about how love makes you fearless, love conquers all.

“No one really talks about what happens when you finally experience that fateful feeling. Suddenly, there’s something you’re terrified to lose.

“This song lives somewhere in that fear, and in the vulnerability of letting yourself start to believe a good thing can just be a good thing.”

RUSSELL Brand, they say, was a man hiding in plain sight.

Let me tell you now: no, he was not. This was a vile predator openly peacocking about precisely how depraved and sick he has always been.

“What kind of man was I?”’ he wrote in his own book. “Treating women in this way.

“If this is what I’m telling you, can you imagine what’s being left out?”

Now, in part, we know.

Quite why it took so long for the world to wake-up, and act on the clues he was liberally throwing around – as narcissists tend to do – are questions that shall follow in due course.

We must commend the brave, courageous women – his victims – for speaking out in a judicial system which traditionally views are as notoriously hard to prosecute.

It must also be stated: were it not for hard-working, incredibly diligent journalists at The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches – ones Brand and his lawyers tried to shut down – this man would still be free today.

In fact, after getting wind of the investigation into Brand, I introduced my contact to the Dispatches team. He willingly shared his testimony which, I believe, proved helpful for background.

I also wish to add, I have deep sympathy with the other victims of this fall-out: his loyal family, members of whom appeared this week in court. This will be unbearably hard for his three children too, and they must have our compassion.

Three years ago, in a column for this newspaper, I wrote about my own torrid encounter with the erstwhile toast of Hollywood.

To rewind, on August 18 2010, I had written a story revealing Brand was having relationship counselling with his then-fiancée, American singer Katy Perry.

The star procured my number and wanted to know who’d given me the story: A name. He pushed, and pushed, and pushed.

For the next ten days or so, I would receive daily texts and calls, begging me to betray my sources.

If I did so, he promised a joint interview with him and Katy, or the exclusive news if the couple should become pregnant. He was an arch manipulator.

After fobbing him off, or so I thought, one horrifying afternoon, I received a tearful phone call from my contact.

His elderly mother had received an unannounced visit from one of his terrifying and burly flunkies, threatening in the most terrifying of ways.

She was home alone in North London, and the minder called my source – after demanding his number – and said: “Don’t forget where I am. I’m stood here with your mum.”

He went on to tell her that her son was “in a lot of trouble”.

Afterwards, the two entirely blameless pensioner was, understandably, left reeling.

I was later told Brand had “blagged” the number from my former newspaper’s unsuspecting accounts’ department.

It was but a flavour of the man, and so deeply unnerving. For years, I have hated myself for being so flattered, initially, by his attentions.

After the initial investigation into Brand, colloquially I have heard from so many people about things he is alleged to have said and done. All pretty awful.

One colleague recalled how Brand, sitting in his dressing room, would get his penis out to a young make-up girl. In her early twenties, she felt deeply uncomfortable but also too powerless, too afraid, to raise the red flag.

Certainly, such a narrative – the abuse of power – appears to be a long-running theme in this harrowing case: his influence and popularity acting as the ultimate enabler, a bullet-proof shield.

Naturally, as a showbiz reporter in the noughties, our paths crossed on numerous occasions.

Perhaps it should be noted that at no point did Brand try it on with me. In fact, I’d go as far to say we found one another mutually repellant.

He was mercurial. He could be wildly charismatic. Charming.

A long-time member of AA, he was never drunk or obnoxious, but his moods could swing enormously.

I interviewed him in Los Angeles one year, at a time when Hollywood couldn’t get enough of this louche, skinny jean-wearing, open-shirted man.

He was charm personified, and spoke elegantly and idiosyncratically, as always.

Indeed, if Brand was hiding behind anything, it was his florid vocabulary: big words used to obfuscate.

My former colleague and friend had a very different experience.

Speaking to him a London hotel room, mid-interview he stood up, went to the toilet with the door still open, and p***ed, telling her: “You can keep asking me questions”.

She felt wildly awkward.

At parties, women flocked towards Brand; he was rarely shy of female attention, and clearly he basked in it, like a flower gravitating towards the sunlight.

Sex – we now know, some of it, heinously, non-consenting, was his drug of choice.

Today, we know he is a rapist.

In the intervening years, of course, Brand famously reinvented himself as born-again Christian.

He has repented, he insisted, often clutching a Bible. He was very, very sorry. Nothing to see here, M’Lord.

Except there is, and there was.

Guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault following his trial at Southwark Crown Court, we are assured he faces a “lengthy” sentence.

Thank God, as Brand himself might, in this rare instance, probably not say.

IN the summer of 1970, Tom Petty met one of his future Heartbreakers – and made a friend for life. 

He was 19 when he invited guitarist Mike Campbell, then 20, to join his band Mudcrutch, named after the rundown Florida farm where they practised. 

“Tom was instantly unforgettable,” says Campbell today. “Of course, he had the long blond hair but he also had a swagger. 

“He had this vibe around him of knowing where he was going — and he was smarter than anybody else in the room.”

The pair hit it off from the get-go, resulting in Campbell being by Petty’s side throughout his career — playing lead guitar in The Heartbreakers, joining Tom on his solo albums and taking part in the Mudcrutch revival in 2007. 

“We immediately connected as musicians,” continues Campbell. “We had a similar dream — not to be rock stars, just to be professional and successful. 

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“The whole rock star thing came later. Tom lived at home [with his parents Earl and Kitty] and was a hippie dude like me.” 

The first incarnation of Mudcrutch “paid their dues” in Petty’s hometown of Gainesville, Florida, known for its vast university campus. 

Campbell recalls: “I’d come down from Jacksonville and was pretty much homeless. I was sleeping on couches and giving guitar lessons. It was a meagre existence.” 

Things began to fall into place when he hooked up with two Toms — Tom Petty and Tom Leadon (brother of Eagles’ guitarist Bernie) — and drummer Randall Marsh to form Mudcrutch. 

He says: “Gainesville was a great place to be. There was a thriving artistic community around the university, lots of parks for us to play for free and little bars to play in around town.  

“We even got a gig in a topless bar for a while but it kept us in money for a few months. 

“We mostly played covers but Tom was beginning to write and I was dabbling around with ideas.” 

I ask Campbell what kind of music and which artists were his and Petty’s chief inspirations.  

“Florida was a hotbed for all kinds of music, from blues and country to rock ’n’ roll,” he replies. 

“But the strongest influence on both of us was the whole British Invasion — The Beatles, the Stones, The Kinks, The Animals.  

“We would draw on them our whole lives.” 

I’m speaking to Campbell, 76, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band that Mudcrutch eventually morphed into, all-American icons Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. 

Campbell is in Memphis, Tennessee, for the last stop on his tour with his post-Heartbreakers band, The Dirty Knobs.  

He notes that he is in the music-loving Southern city where Elvis Presley started out at Sam Phillips’ Sun Records. 

“The tour is coming to a close and everybody has picked up the flu,” he sighs when we’re connected via video call from his hotel room.  

“Sorry if I sound a little under the weather but I’ll be OK.” 

The main hook for our chat is a new boxset documenting the earliest recorded forays of Mudcrutch, Petty’s solo excursions as he searched for his direct yet melodic sound, his first two albums with The Heartbreakers, an incendiary 1977 Heartbreakers gig and footage from BBC Two’s cult late-night show, The Old Grey Whistle Test. 

It is nine years since Petty’s death, aged 66, from an accidental overdose of prescription meds a week after his final show with The Heartbreakers, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.  

Campbell is still coming to terms with his loss. Before returning to memories of their early years together, he reflects on the man he was proud to call his “best friend”. 

“It was like losing your right arm,” he affirms. “Very hard — and a surprise — and I’m still grieving. 

“Tom and I were close, not necessarily to hang out all the time, but our musical and spiritual connection was about as strong as anybody can have.” 

When touring with The Dirty Knobs, Campbell makes sure to include Heartbreakers songs in the set, featuring some of his co-writes with Petty such as Runnin’ Down The Dream and You Got Lucky. 

“I can’t believe it’s nine years,” he says. “But, as time goes on, I’ve dealt with the grief better. 

“I like to perform Heartbreakers songs to keep them alive, to remember and revisit my time with Tom.  

“It is bittersweet but there are moments when I feel his spirit. He’s right behind me, saying, ‘Go man, go!’ ” 

Campbell concludes: “You might never get over the loss of your brother or your father or your mother or your best friend but you learn to cope. That’s what grief is. 

“Memories seem to have a life of their own and I have very good memories. I treasure them.” 

This is a cue for more of Campbell’s precious recollections of the Seventies, beginning with Mudcrutch’s first attempts at recording.  

On the first disc of the new boxset, No Sleep Till LA, there is an unpolished but promising song from 1971 called Up In Mississippi Tonight — a self-financed single — and later efforts including Depot Street and Wild Eyes. 

So what does Campbell make of those initial studio forays all these years later? 

“I hear immaturity and I don’t hear any big hit singles,” he decides. “But I do hear dedicated dudes trying to learn their craft. 

“We drove down to Miami to cut a couple of demos and were intimidated because we only knew how to play live. 

“We were ducks out of water so it was quite an education. 

“The looseness of it all is shocking to me now but you sense the germ of something special is about to show itself.” 

Their chastening early studio endeavours meant that Petty, Campbell and the rest of Mudcrutch decided they needed “to get smarter and get out of Gainesville”. 

By this time, another future Heartbreaker, keyboardist Benmont Tench, had joined the fold, bringing an extra level of sophistication to the group’s music. 

Campbell says: “We had done everything we could do as a local band. We had played everywhere, we had a following, but there was nowhere else to go.  

“So we thought either New York or LA was our best shot at getting into the rat race.” 

He adds that they chose the West Coast because “we already had a friend in Bernie Leadon, who came back to Florida and said, ‘It’s all going on in LA — record companies and musicians everywhere’. 

“He encouraged us to get our asses out there, take our hard knocks, and get into it.” 

Mudcrutch arrived in LA in 1974 but things didn’t go well. Although famed musician Leon Russell signed them to Shelter Records, their first single, Depot Street, flopped and they were dropped soon afterwards. 

Petty, however, still had a solo deal with Shelter and his next efforts are represented on the No Sleep Till LA disc by a gorgeous acoustic demo, Unheard Kind Of Hero. 

Campbell remembers the period like this: “After a couple of years of Mudcrutch struggle and the band falling apart, then Tom trying to go solo, The Heartbreakers showed up like magic one night — and boom!” 

He explains: “Benmont had put together a demo session [in 1976] to work on songs and he called us all down. 

“It was as if a light went on — this is who we are, this is what we do. 

“Tom immediately said he was fed up with trying to make a solo record. He wanted to be in a band and said, ‘I’ve still got a deal and this is my band!’ ” It consisted of Petty, Campbell, Tench and new recruits Stan Lynch on drums and Ron Blair on bass.  

“And we started that first Heartbreakers record almost overnight,” continues Campbell. 

As for calling themselves Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, he says: “I never had any issues with that. Tom was a great leader and frontman.” 

Producer Denny Cordell gave them “unlimited studio time and nice equipment” and soon songs flowed thick and fast. 

“They just started exploding out of Tom like they were waiting for an outlet,” says Campbell. “He’d come in and say, ‘Oh, I’ve got a song, it’s called Breakdown. And here’s another called I Need To Know’.” 

The self-titled debut album kicks off in thrilling fashion with Petty/Campbell’s Rockin’ Around (With You). 

“I wasn’t even trying to write a song,” says the guitarist. “I was sitting in the studio playing the riff and Tom walked by and goes, ‘What’s that?’  

“He took it home and came back the next day with Rockin’ Around (With You). But the real lightbulb moment was on the 4th of July, 1976, when we recorded American Girl.” 

Campbell watched Petty demo the first Heartbreakers stone-cold classic on acoustic guitar and decided it would benefit from a 12-string.  

“But we couldn’t afford a 12-string so I tried to emulate it with my six-string by playing octaves,” he says. 

“When we finished that song, we realised something had happened. We had found our sound — and nobody else sounded like that.  

“From then on, it was smooth sailing. Tom was finding his persona and his voice. He was getting confident and he was proud of the band.” 

The self-titled debut album, released on November 9, 1976, failed to make an impact in the States but, as Campbell points out: “The British press loved us. They thought we were a punk band.” 

A brief UK tour in May and June, 1977, brings back fond memories for Campbell. 

He says: “Our first show was in Cardiff supporting Nils Lofgren. We drove there in a little bread truck, facing each other on wooden benches. 

“For the last song, Tom and I were running around in circles and got our guitar cords tangled up. We were literally hog-tied to each other and everyone was laughing. 

“After that it was Heartbreaker mania for a while. We played places like Stoke-on-Trent, Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds.” 

On returning to the States, the Heartbreakers set about trying to break through. 

“But we couldn’t get arrested,” laughs Campbell. “The first album came and went so it was back to the grind. The second [1978’s You’re Gonna Get It!] picked up a little traction with songs Listen To Her Heart and I Need To Know but the response was still pretty meagre.  

“We were opening for Bob Seger if we were lucky or the J. Geils Band, going from city to city in a minivan.”  

Everything changed with the fabulous third album, Damn The Torpedoes (1979), which reached No2 on the Billboard charts despite what Campbell calls “a difficult birth”. 

It opened with two of his co-writes, Refugee and Here Comes My Girl, but the story behind that album is for another time. 

Before I let him go, I ask Campbell about playing not just with Petty but many great artists during his career. 

“I feel like the luckiest guy in the world,” he says. “My path has landed me in the presence of my heroes — and they always tripped me out.  

“I’d think, ‘Wow, I’m just this little kid from Florida and there’s George Harrison or Bob Dylan or Roy Orbison or Johnny Cash. How did I get here?’  

“People like that can overwhelm you. You get a gush of confusion but it soon settles down.” 

As for Petty, it was never like that. He just wanted to be one of the boys. 

Campbell says: “Tom could have gone solo and could have been like Rod Stewart or whoever but he grew up in a band and he wanted to keep it that way. 

“It’s why we stayed together for so long. I always liked that about him.” 

On a personal note, he adds: “If Tom was working on a record, he could always look at me and say, ‘Should I go this way or that?’ 

“He trusted me and we loved each other.” 

TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS 

Origins 1971- 1978 

★★★★★

WRAP up warm and embrace the winter at Gulliver’s World.

Its fantastic Land Of Lights experience at its parks in Milton Keynes, Warrington and Rotherham is perfect for families looking to enjoy some fun after dark.

Fairytale characters welcomed us to Gulliver’s World in Milton Keynes, and I’m soon struggling to catch up with Finn, nine, and Isobel, seven, as they burst through the gates.

We’ve visited Gulliver’s World before during the day, and loved it.

The park is ideal for younger children, with gentle rollercoasters, log flumes and fairground fun, as well as rides for adrenalin-seekers, like Dragon Siege.

But this time, we’re here to enjoy the separately ticketed Land Of Lights — a joyful trail through illuminated lands, complete with giant light installations, larger-than-life lanterns and cute photo opportunities.

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We start in Dinosaur Land, where the park’s life-size Jurassic monsters are joined by dazzling new residents, including a luminous T-Rex.

Alongside the brightly coloured beasts are some entertaining special effects.

Following the path through a fairy garden and animal farm, we wander, enchanted, open-mouthed through the Under The Sea exhibit.

Halfway through, we stop to toast marshmallows on a bonfire.

There is an extra cost of £5 for this, but my kids really enjoy it and it’s a great way to warm up.

There’s also a little food court, if you’re feeling peckish.

Bolstered by our marshmallow feast, we arrive at the Christmas-themed kingdom, complete with Santa and his elves.

And I’m just as captivated by it all as the kids, skipping along the sparkly path of lights.

To extend the fun, you can even stay overnight in one of the park’s themed cabins, which include a Wild West Saloon.

The next morning, we head into the park for some thrills.

The Land Of Lights may have been more relaxing, but Isobel is thrilled to finally be tall enough to take on Dragon Siege, and as we step off the ride, our cheeks have a different kind of glow.

It’s such a great way to keep everyone entertained — a weekend with something for everyone is a winter win.

RUSSELL Brand was “petrified” tonight after being whisked to a high security jail after his rape and sexual assault conviction.

Brand, 51 – due to be sentenced on Monday – was being monitored around the clock by guards after he was found guilty.

The fallen comic and TV star had to hand over his clothes in reception before being strip-searched and scanned.

He was then taken to an induction wing and given a ‘first-night pack’ which consists of toiletries including a toothbrush and toothpaste and a food pack including cereal, tea, milk and sugar.

The packs also contain treats including Polos, juice sticks, and digestive biscuits.

Brand was also handed one toilet roll and given two pairs of grey prison-issue jogging bottoms plus t-shirts and sweatshirts and underwear.

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He was allowed one three-minute phonecall behind bars – likley to have been made to wife Laura, 39, who supported him during his Southwark Crown Court trial.

But that will be his only call for a week as all phone numbers have to be approved and assigned a PIN.

Brand – understood to have whisked to either Wandsworth or Belmarsh in London – was monitored around the clock and blocked from mixing with other lags.

His first-night meal was an “inedible” microwave offering in reception.

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Staff conducted a first-night interview in which they asked the star about his state of mind and checked he was not a danger to himself.

New inmates are also asked about religious beliefs and Brand was offered a bible.

He was also offered a vape pack.

Brand – who lived in a Hollywood Hills mansion in California when allegations against him were first raised – will tomorrow be assessed by a nurse and a wellbeing specialist.

A source said: “The first night for anyone in a jail is really daunting – and Brand was petrified.

“It will be a massive shock to the system to him and he will be monitored around the clock.

“All prisoners have to strip off in reception which is humiliating and a real wake-up call.

“He will be in prison-issue clothes and given a first-night pack, which will be a world away from what he is used to.

“All his cockiness will disappear as he takes in his new surroundings.

“But he will be relatively safe and watched around the clock by officers and banged up away from other inmates to start with.

“Brand will be in London until and after his sentencing but is then likely to be moved somewhere that specialises in sex offenders where he is more out of harm’s way.”

HOLLY WILLOUGHBY has revealed the secret to her glossy blonde locks – she doesn’t use shampoo.

The glam mum-of-three has one of the most famous barnets on British TV, and the fact that she doesn’t get in a lather over it is something even the most slovenly among us can get on board with.

In fact, Holly reckons skipping the suds helps keep her tresses thick and shiny.

And that’s not the only hack the down-to-earth presenter has in her locker — she’s also got a go-to look up her sleeve for when she’s hungover.

In an exclusive chat, Holly said: “In the summer, I tend not to even shampoo my hair, ’cause I try not to take any of the oils out of it. I just condition it.

“But I’ve had hair fails. When you’re a blonde, you have to be really careful. Chlorine is a b*****d.

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“My natural colour . . . it’s like a dirty blonde, so once I was brunette then tried to go blonde again and it went green.

“Then I had to put red in it, and obviously I was, like, ‘Just go to the hairdresser’s, you silly cow’. Like, ‘No, no, I can fix this [at home]’. I’ve always been a bit like that, where I will experiment and try things.”

Refreshingly honest Holly even admitted she had hair extensions put in for added volume as she launched her firm Wylde Moon’s new body cream and wash range with Beauty Pie this week.

She revealed: “The first time I had my skin pigmentation lasered off, I was really shocked at what you’re left with.

“Because it goes really brown and then it kind of flakes off for about a week later, so you just look like you’ve been in some horrendous kind of sunburnt situation.

“My beauty sin is I remember, back in the day, wearing brown lip liner and concealer on my lips. Nowadays, if I’m hungover or tired, an [eyeliner] flick and a red lip, always.”

There’s hope for us all . . . 

HOLLY reckons her TV pal Leigh Francis will make a great campmate on I’m A Celebrity — because he’s “not an a**e”.

After The Sun revealed he had signed up for the latest series, Holly told me: “The thing about Leigh is that he’s pretty resilient.

“I know he’s always played a character [Keith Lemon], but I know him as Leigh and  . . . what you see is what you get.

“He won’t be one of those people that has to go in there and try and keep up some sort of facade for ages.

“He will just be him through and through and he’s just a really great guy.

“I think people will see that. He’s not an ae, you know, he’s just a really lovely person.”

Kanye’s kidding around

KANYE WEST had a rare smile on his face as he had an even rarer photo snapped with all four of his children.

The rapper, now known as Ye, posed with his eldest North, who was sporting long blue hair, at his Yeezy Season 01 runway show in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

They were joined by his other daughter Chicago, as well as sons Saint and Psalm.

Meanwhile, their mum Kim Kardashian was in New York, where she was photographed out for dinner with actress Jennifer Lawrence.

BONO has opened up about U2’s last-ever collaboration with Dolly Parton.

The frontman and bandmate Adam Clayton spoke to Chris Evans on his Virgin Radio Breakfast Show and admitted they didn’t know just how ill she was when they recorded new single Torn.

Bono said: “I didn’t even know she was into our band. She was being really sassy and everything you’d love about her.

“Because we’d taken this song in a very different direction, she sends this quite emotional note, having finished the vocal. She says, ‘Just so you know, I’ve always loved your music. I’ve always loved you, and I will always love you.’

“I could feel a puddle about to happen. She’s taking the piss, because that’s her song! . . . And we knew she was ill.

“And I just didn’t know that she was so sick. And she sang this, honestly, like she sang herself somewhere else, for sure.”

New single Torn is out next Friday.

Blazing year for Cara

SHE plays a party promoter in new film Club Kid but Cara Delevingne was dolled up for a far more demure night out than a sweaty rave in this chic blazer dress and scarf.

Cara, wore the ensemble to the Los Angeles premiere of the film, which won’t hit screens here until January.

It tells the story of party animal Peter – played by Jordan Firstman who she gave a kiss to on the red carpet – whose life is turned upside down when he is forced to care for a ten-year-old son, who he didn’t know he’d had.

It’s been a busy year for Cara, who released her debut album Not Normal in September following a lengthy summer tour.

And she’s recently been back on set for the upcoming erotic thriller Non Compos Mentis, in which her character finds herself in a love triangle with two men played by Liam Hemsworth and Sam Worthington.

She’s a lucky lady.

KATHERINE’S READY FOR FESTIVE FUN

CHRISTMAS has come early with a flurry of new festive songs out today, led by Katherine Jenkins who has recorded a seasonal rendition of Heaven Is A Place On Earth.

The Welsh mezzo-soprano’s cover of the Belinda Carlisle hit is the soundtrack to this year’s Marks & Spencer Christmas advert, and she appears in the clip as a singer at a fete.

Olivia Rodrigo has dropped her track Take Me Home (4 Christmas) and NECTAR WOODE has released her festive ballad, Only Want You.

Away from the jingle bells, Slayyyter has released her song Hey Boyyy and Poland’s 2026 Eurovision entrant Alicja has returned with the appropriately titled She’s Back.

For something rockier, check out Cage The Elephant’s Make It Easy, from their newly announced album Dying In Reverse, which will be out on February 5.

LEWIS CAPALDI has confirmed his performance at Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball with Barclaycard will be the last time his fans can see him before he takes a lengthy break.

Speaking ahead of the event, taking place at London’s O2 Arena on the first weekend in December, Lewis said: “I need to go away and make new music so it feels like a nice fitting tip of the cap.

“It feels fitting that it’s at Jingle Bell Ball. I’m very excited.”

OZZFEST TO KEEP OZZY’S LEGACY ALIVE

OZZY OSBOURNE’s Back To The Beginning concert was one of the highlights of last summer, and the late rocker’s legacy will continue to live on with the return of Ozzfest.

The hard rock festival was first held two decades ago – and next year, it will be brought back for a one-day extravaganza at The National Bowl in Milton Keynes on July 10.

The line-up will be announced in the coming months but if Back To The Beginning is anything to go by, it’ll have some belters on board.

It had been hoped the event could take place at Villa Park in Ozzy’s hometown of Birmingham, but construction work prevented it.

The rocker’s widow Sharon said: “Ozzy was the first to launch his own traveling metal festival, and Ozzfest will always remain an important part of Ozzy’s legacy.”

LITTLE MESS, JES

A FEUD appears to have broken out between Jesy Nelson and the father of her twin daughters Zion Foster.

Fans of the couple, who split in January, noticed Zion sharing a reel on his Instagram account from a man who posted a video about “Dad’s who don’t get access to their kids”.

It comes just weeks after former Little Mix singer Jesy appeared to take a swipe at the R&B artist by liking a comment online which said: “How deadbeats be convincing new women they’re a good dad.”

The pair, whose twins Ocean and Story were born with genetic muscle-weakening condition SMA Type 1 in May last year, had previously been on good terms but pals told me it’s turned “very messy”.

A friend added: “It’s a very sad situation. Jesy and Zion have very opposing views on who is at fault and they cannot see eye to eye at all. Those close to them want them to come together and focus on their children.”

Yesterday Zion released a new song, which he said would be the “first and last time” he would say his piece.

On the track he raps that he is “hurt to the core”, before adding: “The real truth ain’t going to hit the surface, cause I aint going to put my babies through that.

“Got the receipts in my phone and notepad, why would I save myself and put my girls through that pain as well.”

I think it’d do Jesy and Zion well to step away from social media and sort out their issues behind closed doors.

IT’S just over a month since James Bourne’s brother Chris gave him the gift of life – with his kidney.

And in his only interview, musician Chris has revealed the Busted rocker felt the positive effects of the surgery immediately after waking up.

“We were in adjoining rooms that were identical and we both had a clock on the wall at the end of our beds which was driving us both insane as we waited to go into ­surgery,” Chris says.

“When James went in, he said he had trouble reading the clock.

“But when he came out of the ­operation and was taken to his room, he could see the clock.

“The whole process of receiving a new kidney isn’t as instant as that.

“But for some things, it’s pretty instantaneous. It’s incredible.”

Updating Busted fans on James’s ­condition, Chris — who is in a six-week recovery period — adds: “James is doing really well.

“The surgeon was so happy. He said to me, ‘You’ve given your brother a Bentley/Rolls-Royce kidney’.

“Hopefully I’ve got a Bentley left and not a banger.”

It was just over a year ago that James’s life was turned upside down and he was told by doctors he needed to go into hospital for urgent tests.

The news landed just as Busted were one day away from starting their tour with McFly, and James asked Chris to step into the fold.

Chris says: “We didn’t know anything was wrong with James.

“He called and said: ‘Hey mate, you’re up.’

“He said he’d been advised not to tour and to have some tests. It was a shock to everyone.

“I drove to Southend, where James was, and he said: ‘Just learn as many Busted songs as you can.

“When I saw him I could tell that he wasn’t OK.

“I obviously knew a lot but it was trying to learn which riffs and which chords he played on what songs.

“They’d been in full production rehearsals for three weeks when this happened.

“It felt like a Freaky Friday nightmare.”

Chris joined James’ Busted bandmates Matt Willis, Charlie Simpson and tour drummer Eddy Thrower in Leeds the following day, just 24 hours before the first night of the tour in Birmingham.

“Everyone was in disbelief,” Chris says.

The first two shows went without a hitch, with Chris doing James proud.

It was on the third show, at London’s Wembley Arena, that Chris received the devastating news of the extent of James’s ill health.

He says: “Our sister Melissa is a make-up artist and we’d met up at Wembley. She got a phone call and she burst into tears. James was in a really bad way.”

Chris and his siblings, Melissa and Nick, all put themselves forward to be kidney donors — with Chris overhauling his lifestyle on the road to ready himself.

“We all got tested and the results came back and I was the leading contender,” Chris says.

“In the family group chat I put the Lord Of The Rings meme, the one where it’s King Theoden and he says ‘Rohan will answer.’”

During this time, Chris was on tour with Busted and he admits he struggled with taking his brother’s place.

“I was sleeping in suites with his name on, the wardrobes had his clothes in them,” Chris explains.

“There was a part of me that didn’t want to be in the limelight. Like I was basking in my brother’s illness.

“It was a really difficult time.

“I felt so overwhelmed I said I couldn’t sing James’s part. I had to work hard to keep it together.

“During one show, Busted fans had arranged to wear masks of James’s face. It came from a place of love but it overwhelmed me. I had to turn around and try to keep it together.”

The brothers then faced an agonising wait until October 3, when they were cleared for surgery.

“I didn’t sleep the whole night,” Chris recalls.

“In the morning, I didn’t really want to wake my brother up because there’s no point in him being awake while I’m going down.

“As I was leaving, he came out and it was funny.

“We didn’t say anything. We looked at each other and just fist-bumped.”

After Chris’s five-hour surgery, James was taken down to receive his kidney.

Chris adds: “When James came out and I found out that it had all gone well, it was the biggest relief. It was a weight I’d been carrying for a year.”

Chris says the family are now looking forward to spending Christmas together, with the kidney transplant giving them all a sense of hope for the future.

“I’m looking forward to doing normal stuff with James, playing music, hanging out,” Chris explains.

“It’s done.

“It’s gone as well as it could and now we can try and move on.”

Robbie is Oz to the races

ROBBIE WILLIAMS had the world at his feet as he performed in the middle of the crowd at the Melbourne Cup.

The Brit was the headline performer at the annual Australian horse race.

And he delighted the audience with a set featuring Feel, Rock DJ, Angels and Let Me Entertain You.

Robbie was dressed in a striking all-red outfit for the performance, which was watched by almost 100,000 fans at Flemington Racecourse.

Robbie is currently on tour Down Under, ahead of a well-earned break for the first half of 2027.

But then he will kick-off a summer of performances, beginning with a headline set at the Isle Of Wight Festival next June.

By the looks of this, the punters there will have a blast.

A perfecth days for Queens

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE are preparing to pop the champagne as their new record, Perfecth, is on course to become their second No1 tomorrow.

And in an exclusive chat, frontman Josh Homme has opened up about the final track on the album, Run Away From The Mob, which features Dave Grohl on drums.

Dave recorded his part way back in 2013, but Josh admitted he didn’t feel ready to finish the song until they started making Perfecth.

“It comes from [sixth album] Like Clockwork,” Josh revealed.

“It didn’t make sense for that record, and I didn’t understand this song. You know, some flowers take a long time to bloom.

“You can’t force open the petals of a flower, and you hope that’s what you have. I also think this is a really good example of everyone in Queens at their best.

“And Dave is so good at doing exactly what needs to be done as a drummer.”

Looking Lively

HER last high-profile public appearance was at the World Cup final in July after her dispute with Justin Baldoni.

But there was no wiping the smile off Blake Lively’s face as she returned to the party scene in this navy sequinned dress.

The Gossip Girl star was snapped in New York on Tuesday as she arrived for a jewellery brand launch.

She certainly added some sparkle . . .

Jade debut sets record

JADE THIRLWALL has made history as the first member of a British girl group to have a solo track with no featured artist chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

Her breakthrough single, Angel Of My Dreams, has become a US hit – two years after its release. But that’s not been a surprise for the former Little Mix star, who said she kept being told it was going to have a resurgence.

Jade, whose track was given a boost when Kylie Jenner walked to it at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show last month, said: “I actually do think that enough people thought that enough to speak it into existence. I’d seen a psychic who said the same thing, and an astrologer.”

Jade was in Little Mix for over a decade until they went on hiatus in 2022, but reckons there’s more love for them now than ever – and she hopes they could one day headline Glastonbury.

She told The Pop Pod: “I could see that happening for sure. When the Little Mix medley comes on, people go crazy for it.

“All these places that we didn’t get to go to properly and they’re craving it. There’s a nostalgia people want.”

ANTHONY JOSHUA has given his fans an insight on Snapchat into the music he uses to inspire him before a fight, as he prepares to take on Tyson Fury at ­Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on December 11.

And I have to admit, our AJ is a nostalgic man.

From So Solid Crew’s Dilemma 2 to Dizzee Rascal’s Creeper Freestyle, AJ is loving the old-school, with some added R&B classics in there, including Jaheim’s Just In Case.

Looking at the sheer size of Tyson though, I’d be much more inclined to have added Iron Maiden’s Run To The Hills.

NOEL GALLAGHER, Lily Allen and Brian Eno were among the stars in the room as U2 returned to the stage in an exclusive concert for the BBC at London’s Tate Modern on Tuesday.

The gig, which airs on BBC Two later this month, saw them ­perform several of their hits, plus songs from 16th studio album Carnaval De Luz, out November 13.

JOHN LEGEND has confirmed he is performing on the Sunday night of Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball with Barclaycard on December 6.

The Barclaycard pre-sale starts today, where card holders can get ten per cent off tickets, with the general sale starting Friday.

See you there.

RAYE vowed she would not release another studio album until she found her true love, after spending her last release singing about ­wanting to land a partner.

But fans of the star won’t have to wait for her to ­complete Tinder before they get some new songs.

The Where Is My Husband! singer has joined the voice cast of Benny Safdie’s film Lizard Music – and will write songs for it.

LATE film icon Brigitte Bardot accused her last husband of “destroying” her as she cut him from her will, it has emerged.

She told him in a letter: “You have patiently destroyed me, day after day, for 30 years.”

Bernard d’Ormale, 85, was until last year living in luxury in Saint-Tropez with the French ex-actress.

But when she died in December, aged 91, she left him nothing, sparking a bitter dispute.

A 2022 note has been released in which she says: “I am in such desperate need of a shoulder to lean on, of support, of tenderness, of a presence — things you are simply incapable of giving me. Checkmate!”

He has been evicted from their home, with all of Ms Bardot’s estate going to her animal charity foundation and son Nicolas Charrier, 66.

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Mr d’Ormale’s lawyer has said that “he was treated deplorably.”

Four times-wed Ms Bardot was in 45 films and a singer before retiring from public life in 1973.

A foundation spokesman said Mr d’Ormale has been “well-supported”.

Bardot also had a number of other high-profile relationships, including with the singer Serge Gainsbourg.

IT’S Monday lunchtime on London’s Old Bond Street and I’ve been invited to Dolce & Gabbana to hang out with the legend that is Sir Rod Stewart.

As the doors swing open, he walks in with two pairs of trousers under his arm and chirps in his trademark ­Cockney twang, “They’re too long in the leg”, before adding: “And a bottle of perfume for the lady, please.”

With me looking like a ropey Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, Rod escorts me upstairs and a beautifully gift-wrapped, £280 ­perfume bottle is handed to me en-route.

Turning his attention to a £3,800 silver sequinned jacket, Rod laments: “It’s lovely, but it’s far too heavy for the stage.”

Then, he ushers me to a posh sofa to discuss his last hoorah.

The Final Encore will mark Rod’s retirement from touring after six decades on the road.

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Two extra dates have been added to the almost sold-out UK run thanks to the phenomenal demand for tickets.

Set lists are still being finalised, but fans can expect a spectacular trip down memory lane, with hits from Rod’s incredible back catalogue of 11 No1 albums — which include 25 Top Ten hits.

“At 81, it’s quite remarkable,” he says of the ticket sales for his farewell tour.

“I can’t jump around like I used to when I was 32. But I think the audience knows that, vocally, I’m better now than I’ve ever been.

“A few of the big voices have gone. Paul McCartney’s has gone a bit. I treat my voice like the crown jewels. Pavarotti said, ‘I’m a prisoner of my voice’, and you are. You wake up, you say, ‘Oh, I’ve got an itch. I’m f***ed. I’ve got to cancel’. I’m totally paranoid about runny noses now. “Now, when I go out, I wear white gloves like Michael Jackson. He did it to stop him catching colds and flu.”

Rod puts his remarkable good health down to a strict exercise regime which sees him training like an athlete — and getting lots of sleep.

“When you’re in your 20s and 30s, you don’t even warm up,” Rod laughs.

“You drink whatever you want, do the drugs, get on the stage.

“In the old days, we used to get p***d as farts with [band] FACES. Now, when I go on, I’m absolutely sober, then I’ll have a rum and Coke after the third song or so.

“Plus, I have an hour’s workout before I go on — stretching, cycling, stationary bike, massaging, warming up the voice, just getting yourself in the zone.

“It is like being an athlete.”

Of his regime at home, Rod adds: “Three times a week, I cycle for a mile, lots of uphill stuff, and I do a load of swimming.

“Frank Sinatra told me about that. He said, ‘If you just do underwater swimming as much as you can, holding your breath till you want to burst, because then your lungs will get bigger. And they’ll get used to you holding your breath and singing’.”

Rod’s pipes, I can attest, are back on top form after a scary ­incident this summer in Utah.

At an amphitheatre 4,300ft above sea level, Rod needed oxygen after almost fainting on stage.

Keen to reassure his fans he’s now fine, the Maggie May singer explains: “I had a bout of illness, which was bad luck. I’d just had bronchitis at the same time as I was playing above altitude. I was in a right state.

“The geezer who worked for me didn’t tell me. I said, ‘Are we above sea level?’. He said, ‘Nah, of course we’re not’.

“So, I ran out and did three fast songs. All of a sudden, I was like, I couldn’t breathe. I got through the show, but it was painful.

“If I’m performing above altitude, you go out and do a mid-tempo one and a slow one, then do a fast one. Not three off the bounce, jumping about.”

Rod, with his electric blonde hair and bronzed skin, could pass for a man 20 years younger.

A decade after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, he is still all-clear from the disease.

Grinning, he says of his health tests: “My PSA levels are at 0.02. You’ve got to keep an eye on it.”

But cackling, he adds of the old-style check for prostate problems: “Finger up the bum, no harm done. That’s what most men don’t like. The old finger up the bum. But just get on with it.”

Like any good musician, Rod has his vices and cannot resist a drink . . . even if his wife Penny Lancaster warns him off it.

“I wish I could curb my drinking, but I love wine with an evening meal,”

Rod explains. “I’ve got a great chef and I can’t drink water with a good meal.

“Penny says, ‘You must cut back, darling’. I only have a couple of glasses. But then, sometimes, I’ll get on the apple martinis and I can really knock those back.

“I have these conversations with my kids. I stress to them that I can have a drink, you know, because it’s show business, I drink whenever I want. Not that I drink a lot. But, you know, one of my sons goes out and gets all pd on a Sunday night and he’s got to go to school the next morning.”

Laughing, he adds: “I’ve let the cat out of the bag there, haven’t I? There’s only one going to school.”

The Final Encore will kick off its UK leg in Glasgow on April 29 at the OVO Hydro, after Rod turned down a farewell gig at his beloved Celtic Park in the city.

“It would have been just, like, 90 minutes and I’d say goodbye,” he explains. “I thought, ‘If I can have it for three nights, I can really get into it and indulge myself in it’.”

By next summer, Rod’s touring days will be over — but he says that, inspired by artists such as Adele, he is planning smaller, residency-style shows in future.

“I made the album [Swing Fever in 2024] with Jools Holland, which got to No1 and, when I do my last show, that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve talked to Jools.

“I don’t know if he wants to do it with me, because I think he’s afraid of losing his identity. If he doesn’t, I’ll form my own big band. I’d like to do the London Palladium for a few nights, then maybe the Albert Hall.”

Rod’s fans also have a top-secret documentary to look forward to next year, after the star confessed he’s just done a tell-all interview with his old foe, Sir Elton John.

The pair, who are now good pals, traded comedy barbs over the years, with Rod admitting to me he was miles better at football than Elton when they trained together at Watford FC.

“I nearly signed for Brentford,” Rod says proudly. “I only finished playing when I was 68.

“But Elton, I was miles better than him when we trained together. The documentary we’ve done should be out at the ­beginning of the year. At the end . . . he kissed me on the lips. And we caught it on film.”

Rod added of Elton’s kids Zachary, 15, and Elijah, 13: “His boys are wonderful. I don’t know whether they were putting it on for me, but they came in from school and went, ‘Daddy, Daddy, oh, Mr Stewart, we are so glad to meet you, Mr ­Stewart’. They are so well spoken.”

Looking back at his six-decade career, Rod knows it won’t be easy to retire from touring.

He says: “Carly Simon found it stressful going on stage. I don’t. I am absolutely raring to go out there. I absolutely love it.”

Stepping back will, however, give Rod more time to focus on Penny and his one other true love — his model train set.

Covering 156 square metres and featuring a 275-metre track that runs through a city landscape, it has kept Rod busy for decades.

“I want to open it to the public and give the money to charity,” he explains.

“I think I’ll be able to get permission. I would like to share it with the world.”

Politics is another keen passion of Rod’s, although he admits he’s more likely to keep his views to himself these days for fear of being misunderstood.

One subject we speak passionately about, however, is the plight of the people of Ukraine — who Rod has publicly supported since Russia invaded in 2022.

“I just hope it’s not too late for Ukraine,” he says.

“They’re going into winter now, and this could be the turning point. It’s scary.

“They’re bombing the fuel and water supplies. Putin is a b*****d.”

Another topic of contention is US president Donald Trump, who Rod has no time for.

“I stand by what I told Kind Charles,” he says.

“I said, ‘Trump’s a pig’. I could tell the King wanted to laugh.”

Rod will, undoubtedly, use his Final Encore shows to urge fans to champion all that’s good in the world — despite still coming to terms with his own global impact.

“I haven’t twisted anybody’s arm or threatened to kill them if they don’t give me money,” he tells me.

“I’ve earned it off my own back.

“I want to thank my public for this. They’ve given me the most glorious, unimaginable lifestyle.

“When I was at school, I never dreamed that when I started singing, it would end up like this.

“Me, performing on stage at 81.

“It’s been the best life and I am so grateful.”

THE UK’s best restaurants used to be ruled by cocky French chefs with big hats and even bigger bellies.

But that all changed thanks to a trio of rock ‘n’ roll Brits.

Kitchen mavericks Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal turned the stuffy industry on its head with their trendy establishments, where members of the Spice Girls, Oasis and Hollywood’s finest would compete with high-society folk for the most sought-after dinner reservations going.

New BBC documentary Rise Of The Rockstar Chefs explores the rise of the three men who were blazing a trial — when they weren’t barking at their sous chefs.

Gordon sums them up as “council house rebels with a f***ing cause”, while Marco says: “Chefs have always been naughty. They were naughty before me, and they’re naughty after me.

“But the likes of Gordon and Heston made it rock ’n’ roll.”

According to Gordon, it was his mentor Marco who exhibited the most rock-star behaviour.

The Leeds-born chef won legions of new admirers by posing semi-naked in black-and-white snaps taken by provocative photographer Bob Carlos Clarke for his cook book White Heat.

And some customers couldn’t get enough of Marco, including a female diner on a date in Harveys, his restaurant serving French cuisine in Wandsworth, South West London.

Gordon, 59, said: “Marco left service, ran through the restaurant, ran upstairs, jumped in the cubicle, did whatever in the bathroom, and then jumped through the window of that bathroom.

“He then dropped down the f***ing skylight, back on to my hot plate having done whatever.

“And then she then went back into the restaurant and continued eating her dessert with her boyfriend.”

Marco also had form for fighting with customers, according to Gordon.

During his time running Harveys — Gordon’s first-ever chef’s job — seeing scruffy-haired Marco brawling in the restaurant would be a common sight, especially if a diner had the nerve to point out something was wrong with their meal.

Gordon recalls: “I remember, I think it was my second week, this customer had complained the pigeon was overcooked and Marco said to him, ‘Do me a favour. Dinner’s on me, and what you didn’t spend in my restaurant, buy your wife some new clothes.’

“This guy said to him, ‘Say that again, what did you say to me?’, and then this guy started walking towards Marco, knocks into me, and then they start going at it.

“This customer, he’s like sprawling all over the floor and I’m boning out my pigeon.”

Nick Munier, who was Marco’s maitre d’ at Harveys, where actor Oliver Reed would often be found lying drunk on the floor, revealed what happened if a customer asked a waiter for salt and pepper.

He added: “What we used to say is ‘You’ve ruined your own meal, we won’t be serving you any more food.”

“We’d start to clear the table and everything will be clear and the guest would be left embarrassed with nothing in front of them, and the only thing they could do was leave.”

Munier also witnessed Marco chuck the entire contents of his cheeseboard trolley against a wall because he was unhappy with how it looked.

He recalled: “No one was to clean them and he wanted me to see these cheeses through service, so that next time I don’t make the same mistakes.”

Celebrities were not safe from Marco’s wrath either.

Actor Nigel Havers said he was booted out of The Canteen, which Marco set up with Sir Michael Caine in 1992 in Chelsea Harbour, for commenting about waiting time.

He revealed: “I went there in the first week and it took three hours to get the first course.

“Someone came over and said, ‘How was the meal?’ I said ‘I don’t really remember the food, it took three hours’. Marco looms up and says, ‘Get out of my restaurant’.

“It was scary, and you’re paying through the nose to be harangued by this chef, this mad fool.”

Despite their rock ’n’ roll personas, neither Gordon nor Marco claim to have dabbled in drugs, although other chefs in that era certainly did.

Gordon says: “Chefs were becoming heavy drinkers, drugs were getting involved in the industry.

“Heart attacks every other week.

“Everyone thought you could stay up all night and do drugs and cook.

“That was the opposite of where I came from.”

Marco, 64, added: “I’ve never taken drugs in my life and I didn’t drink until I was 41.”

Gordon and Marco’s tumultuous relationship and rivalry is very much at the core of this three-parter, which also celebrates 60-year-old Heston’s visionary role and how he quietly equalled their three Michelin star haul from his Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire.

The trio meet in person for the first time in decades in the third episode, but it is the coming together of Gordon and Marco which is likely to provide the most drama, given the mighty fallout between them.

The pair came to blows inside Harveys during Gordon’s last service in October 1989.

Marco secretly did not want to lose his protégé, and the skirmish became famous as it was the first and only time Gordon cried in a kitchen.

The F-Word star explained: “I got absolutely pummelled.

“It was almost like, if I can’t have you and own you, I’m going to destroy you.

“There was an issue with the timing, I think it was something to do with the red mullet and I answered him back.

“He was angry, literally two fists, chef jacket buttons flying everywhere, and he’s shaking me on this coffee machine and then a glass bowl of coffee fell and smashed everywhere, and the kitchen went silent.”

When Marco was quizzed about the alleged ruckus, he said: “Not true.”

Gordon continued: “I bawled my eyes out. I was f***ing upset.

“I was in shock that I was leaving and this level of aggression — he knew I could run this restaurant without him and it was a relationship that was coming to an end and he wanted to finish me before I got to somebody else.

“I’ve never forgiven him for that.

“It still brings back incredible moments when you read ‘the chef who made Gordon Ramsay cry’ — why is that a headline?

“Did I f**k up massively and destroy his reputation? Nothing of the sort.

“Was it justified? No, it wasn’t.

“It was just another scenario where he wanted to prove he was better than me and he wanted to dine out on it. You sad c***.”

Marco responded again: “It’s not personal, it’s service.”

Gordon eventually got his revenge on Marco by not only equalling his Michelin stars total but by becoming a household name worldwide.

Both Gordon and Heston profited from the era where the chefs became the stars by landing big-money TV deals, with the former getting further exposure by fronting a cooking show across the pond.

Marco attempted to downplay their achievements, saying in the documentary: “I don’t do TV.

“They like to manipulate, they like manufactured drama — it’s called reality TV.

“Don’t blame me for that.

“Have it, Gordon — it’s all yours.”

But that didn’t stop Marco from hosting ITV’s Hell’s Kitchen for two series from 2007 to 2009 before the show was axed, much to Gordon’s delight given he hosted the debut series in 2003.

Gordon added: “I couldn’t believe my luck.

“I was so happy for Marco to pick up the slack and step into my shoes.

“All that s**t you have given me for doing TV, now you’re following in my footsteps.

“Boy, has the tide turned.

“That was the start of Marco’s demise on TV because Hell’s Kitchen tanked.

“Of all the f***ing people, how many times I’ve told him, do not take sloppy seconds.”

• Rise Of The Rockstar Chefs starts on BBC Two on Thursday at 9pm.

WINTER is coming – and it’s bringing a whole host of scenic travel destinations with it. 

France’s Strasbourg is top of holidaymakers’ hotlists, according to the latest Tripadvisor Travel Index, while Tromsø in Norway is creeping up the popularity scale. 

The travel report revealed the most up-and-coming holiday spots for this season, based on search data for breaks between November 1 this year and February 28, 2027. 

Here Sophie Swietochowski shares her pick of the most popular holiday packages this winter. 

STRASBOURG, FRANCE 

SO much for Paris — the Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg is just as glorious.

It was named among the top experiences in France in the 2026 Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice awards.

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The city’s Christmas market is one of the oldest in Europe, founded in 1570, and is home to more than 300 traditional wooden stalls.  

Strasbourg’s Franco-German cuisine is just what you would fancy during the colder months — hearty and comforting.

Think casseroles and lots of potatoes. 

GO: Five nights’ room-only at the 4* Okko Hotels Strasbourg Centre is from £559pp including flights from Luton on December 27.

Save £100 now with code BLKFRIDAY. See easyjet.com/en/holidays. 

TROMSØ, NORWAY 

THIS area, AKA the Gateway to the Arctic, was crowned second most popular spot for this winter.

While its location means that during winter, the sun never rises above the horizon, that doesn’t mean you need to hunker down inside — far from it. 

Among popular activities to try are dog or reindeer sledding, whale watching, snowmobiling, ski touring and fishing in the icy fjords.  

It’s also one of the best spots in the world to catch the Northern Lights in all their colourful glory. 

GO: Five nights’ room-only at the 4* Moxy Tromsø is from £909pp including flights from Gatwick on January 17.

See loveholidays.com. 

GHENT, BELGIUM 

THE nearby hotspots of Bruges and Brussels typically steal the limelight when it comes to winter getaways. 

And that’s just why Ghent should be top of your list.

The fact it is less crowded means you can explore its Gothic and medieval architecture at leisure, although it’s best to do so at night when the intricate alleyways and twisted spires are illuminated by spotlights, giving the spires an even more dramatic appearance against the night sky. 

Ghent’s winter festival, which operates throughout December and into early January, is magical, with a mini ice rink, ferris wheel and rows of stalls that lead from the canal to the central square. 

GO: Seven nights’ room-only at the 3* Hotel Gravensteen is from £489pp including flights from Heathrow on November 26.

See loveholidays.com. 

SAARISELKA, FINLAND 

IF Tromsø’s coastal location doesn’t tickle your fancy, then Saariselka, where earthy pine woodlands are buried in deep powdery snow, just might.  

Make sure to stay in a glass igloo — after all, this is the place where they were popularised. And what a spot for them.  

From your bed, you have high chances of spotting the aurora borealis painted across the night sky.  

Make sure to test out the longest toboggan track in Europe, which stretches 1.8km from the summit of Kaunispaa mountain.

Then warm up those chilled bones in a traditional Finnish sauna. 

GO: Three nights’ B&B at the 3* Holiday Club Saariselka is from £914pp including flights from Gatwick on November 29.

See tui.co.uk. 

CHAMONIX, FRANCE 

A COSY and typically French resort town, Chamonix has maintained its traditional charm, despite having sparked the big ski boom. 

And unlike the purpose-built ski resorts, this town is vast and sprawling, with lots of wooden chalets dotted around.  

While it is a destination that is known for its skiing, there is still plenty else to do in winter.  

Le Pas Dans Le Vide is an awesome glass skywalk, suspended at an altitude of metres, at the summit of Aiguille du Midi.

It gives visitors the thrilling sensation of floating above the spectacular Bossons Glacier.  

There are also ice caves and ice sculptures and you can dig in to some of the best cheesy raclette in the country. 

GO: Seven nights’ self-catering at the 3* Residence Pierre & Vacances La Riviere is from £551pp, including flights from Gatwick on January 2, plus 20kg luggage per person.

See crystalski.co.uk. 

WHILE Guy Fawkes prepared to blow up King James I and his government with a deadly haul of explosives under the Houses of Parliament, a sprawling country estate 100 miles away was poised to become a crucial yet little-known part of the Gunpowder Plot.

James’ nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth lived at magnificent Coombe Abbey near Coventry and Fawkes’s co-conspirators had planned to kidnap her and install her on the throne as a puppet queen.

An anonymous letter rumbled the London end of the plan while, in Warwickshire, the plotters – led by Robert Catesby – abandoned the kidnapping on hearing about the failure.

To this day, the foiled plot is commemorated with fireworks and bonfires on November 5.

And Coombe Abbey is now a magnificent hotel worthy of its regal connections.

Built by Cistercian monks in 1150, it became the biggest abbey in Warwickshire before being seized during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.

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Later it was sold to nobleman John Harington, who agreed to act as Elizabeth’s guardian, raising and educating her at his home.

In a rather peculiar twist four centuries later, Game Of Thrones star Kit Harington, a descendant of Catesby, played his ancestor in BBC One drama Gunpowder.

Guests arriving at the hotel nowadays pass over its ancient moat then enter through the original stone cloisters, where a pulpit still stands.

You can take a pew on an ornately carved throne-like chair, admire the hanging wall tapestries and marble busts or examine the tomb of murdered monk Abbot Geoffrey, whose cloaked figure is said to still roam.

Fittingly, our room for our night’s stay was The Princess Elizabeth, decked out in deep mulberries and glimmering golds and with an oak four-poster bed set upon a plinth.

Luxurious floor-to-ceiling curtains embossed with the same heraldic design as the wallpaper enhance the royal feel, while the bathroom with roll-top bath and golden taps also adds to the drama.

The hotel lies in 500 acres of parkland, set to host a mile-long light festive trail throughout December.

Little ones will love the Hermit’s Hollow play area and families can enjoy Go Ape adventures.

Nearby Coventry is full of medieval buildings and cobbled lanes.

The ruins of its 14th-century cathedral – bombed during World War Two – are preserved alongside a modern replacement, as a symbol of peace and reconciliation.

Coventry Transport Museum is brimming with bikes and vehicles that have helped shape the world including ThrustSSC, the fastest-ever car.

Lesser known but eye-wateringly beautiful is St Mary’s Guildhall.

Built in the 1340s for traders and crafts people, it’s re-opened after a £6.2million refurbishment.

The Great Hall has hosted monarchs and its intricate stained glass windows and painted wood carvings in the roof are breathtaking.

There’s also a rare nine-metre tapestry from the early 1500s depicting Henry VI, who moved his royal court to Coventry, effectively making it England’s capital.

Uncovering another secret gem was the perfect end to a historic stay.

DREAMING of five-star winter sun without the five-star price tag? Check out Morocco’s wild north-west coast.

The Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort is vast. Sprawling across 250 hectares — roughly the size of 350 football pitches — it sits alongside four miles of empty and pristine Atlantic coastline.

The resort is built in the style of an ancient Moroccan citadel, with ochre- plastered walls capped with crenellated roofline and towers.

Rooms are set around central courtyards and landscaped gardens.

Long reflecting pools, marble fountains and rows of manicured palms are framed by grand horseshoe arches decorated with intricate, carved plasterwork.

With 15 restaurants and bars, an 18-hole golf course, spa and endless activities, my stay revealed a luxury hotel that comes at a surprisingly affordable price, with rooms from £145 a night.

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And you get a lot of room for your money. My spacious, modern room had fabulous ocean views with delightful Moroccan-inspired touches, including hanging lanterns flanking the king-size bed.

Sliding open the balcony doors rewards you with a sweeping panorama of the Atlantic surf crashing against the sand.

Early morning, with a sweet tea in hand, I caught sight of horses galloping along the beach.

Surf instructors were waxing down their boards and lining up life jackets ready for a day of training tourists how not to topple into the swell.

But there was no time to dawdle, with so many activities at my finger tips.

First stop was the resort’s award- winning spa for a double dose of indulgence.

I was treated to a deeply relaxing hot stones massage, followed by a traditional grand hammam ritual. Inside a glowing, marble-clad steam room, I was bathed, scrubbed and polished top-to-toe with black soap, oils and eucalyptus.

Staff said the locals insist on scrubbing down with one of these treatments at least once a week — and after seeing the glow on my own rejuvenated skin, I can certainly see why.

Suitably refreshed, it was time for some high-octane adventure.

And that’s where Mazagan feels less like a hotel and more like a high-end luxury playground.

The golf course, designed by Gary Player, is the longest in Morocco, stretching over 7,400 yards.

Then there is North Africa’s largest casino (housing 37 gaming tables and nearly 400 slot machines open 23 hours a day), a 22ft climbing wall, go-karting tracks, paintball fields, pickleball courts and more.

And at the centre of the maze of courtyards that connects the more than 400 rooms, a glistening pool invites you in for a dip — though I had barely any time to kick off my flip-flops before I was on to the next activity.

I upped the ante with a thrilling quad bike ride along the resort’s flat, wide sands, feeling the salty Atlantic spray as we neared the water’s edge before heading into the rolling sand dunes and scrubland surrounding the resorts.

On longer drives, your guides will even take you inland to zip through the neighbouring eucalyptus and pine forests that fringe the coastline.

And after some serious speed, I switched to a very different horse power with a gentle ride along the beach.

The hotel’s onsite stables are home to local barb and Arab-barb horses.

Historically bred by the North African cavalry and Berber horsemen, these magnificent beasts are sure-footed in the soft sand, calm-tempered and well-accustomed to the heat and Atlantic winds.

Heading out on to the broad, tidal flats we were soon trotting along at a fair pace on the wide open, empty sands before steering our steers towards the coastal forest trails, lined with fragrant mimosa.

All that activity means treating yourself when it comes to food and drink and Mazagan doesn’t disappoint.

Trying just a fraction of the resort’s 15 restaurants and bars, I feasted on rich, fragrant tagines, fresh seafood and mountains of velvety houmous.

Sel de Mer was an absolute highlight. Here, the catch of the day is transformed into culinary perfection.

Select your own from the fresh, tempting line-up resting on a bed of crushed ice and then choose to have it grilled on the plancha or oven-baked, served up with a choice of sauces.

For a more relaxed dining experience, the Beach Barbecue serves up freshly-grilled meats, fish and vegetables while your feet are in the sands.

Alongside the barbecue there’s a buffet of fresh salads, Moroccan cooked salads, couscous and freshly-baked flatbreads.

And for a truly Moroccan touch, Al Firma offers an open-air setting with traditional Bedouin and Berber carpets, low seating and lanterns as well as traditional tagines with vegetables from the onsite farm garden.

I topped it all off with cocktails at the Casablanca-inspired lounge bar — swathed in royal green velvet drapes and playing some live weekend jazz.

With adrenalin-charged activities alongside top-tier pampering, Mazagan delivers a great winter break option without breaking the bank.

IF my algorithm is anything to go by, Gen Z love nothing more than a bit of #selfcare because #selfcareisntselfish and #metime matters.

And as a semi-perennial singleton (and geriatric millennial), I don’t really have much say in the matter.

So it came to pass that, after booking a last-minute week off work, I went on my first ever romantic mini break for two — the “two” being me and my miniature Dachshund, Dora.

After scouring Instagram for options, my non-negotiables — as Gen Z like to say — were: Dog-friendly, remote, not a hotel and, ideally, with an outdoor roll-top bath.

The plan was also to have a digital detox after my screen time had crept up to an abhorrent ten hours a day.

Enter HappenOak Treehouse. Yep, an actual treehouse in rural Cambridgeshire.

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If I couldn’t shut off the world from a giant oak tree in the middle of nowhere, there really was no hope for me.

On a quiet Wednesday afternoon, I made the drive to the pretty village of Balsham for my unique stay for the next 48 hours.

It took two and a half minutes of strolling through beautiful, signposted woodland for Dora and me to spot our arboreal home-from-home.

Tucked away in the delightful Le Creuset-stocked kitchen was a huge loaf and some homemade banana bread. A nice touch.

The highlight, though, was the location. I quickly decided to ditch my iPhone and go for a sunset stroll.

As a tractor ploughed its patch, and birds tweeted, I felt my shoulders drop.

That evening I did some yoga on the decking, and then ran a piping hot bath. It’s hard to explain just how magical this bath felt.

But soaking in bubbles, as fairy lights twinkled and the branches swayed above, I could have stayed in there forever. Well, an hour or so.

Instead, draping myself in one of the fluffy white robes provided, I opted for the outdoor, Finnish-style sauna, managing to last about six minutes before, dripping in sweat, I came out again to cool down.

It is the kind of treat I steadfastly ignore at my gym, insisting I never have time. Here, however, I had all the time.

After, Dora and I decided the best move was to cuddle up in the giant swing chair, watching the world (and the hard-working farmer still on his tractor) go by. No phones, no TikTok, no WhatsApp, no Spotify, no nothing. It was bliss.

That night, I slept like a well-rested baby, waking beneath two skylights showing gently falling leaves.

After breakfasting on homemade muesli provided by the owners — supplies like coffee, milk, olive oil, free-range eggs and seasoning are all included, and there is a farm shop a few miles away for anything else — it was time for a hike.

A gorgeous 12km round trip took me via gastropub The Black Bull, where we nipped in for a replenishing pint and a bowl of water.

Then it was off to the local shop for some pasta and cheese for an easy dinner.

I’d been so bowled over by my stay that by the evening I found myself hunting for homes in rural Cambridgeshire online, with grand visions of handing in my notice and starting a new life off-grid, in a tree.

My sleep on the second night was slightly restless, which I put down to slightly “flat” pillows. Literally my only complaint of the entire stay.

Otherwise, HappenOak is the perfect getaway for those who need to, well, get away.

In a world that runs at 100mph, it is a place to simply switch off. Who knew? #selfcare isn’t actually selfish.