NEW SINGLE: Dancing Queen

Experience more of the magic of Sophie’s Kitchen Disco tour with new single Dancing Queen, Live At The London Palladium.

Sophie said: “The night the Kitchen Disco tour came to the London Palladium was magical. I’m excited to share more with Dancing Queen’s release. You’ll be able to hear the rest soon when the album ‘Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco - Live at The London Palladium’ comes out, now on Nov 25th.”

Stream Dancing Queen now on your favourite platforms.

I first met Mary Berry when she popped out of a cake during a dance routine while I was doing BBC Strictly Come Dancing. Everyone was so excited she was there because I think everyone has a soft spot for Mary.

Happily our paths crossed again at Wilderness Festival where she was filming her recent BBC show, Cook and Share. The episode where Richard makes us all margaritas is on the iPlayer now. They were good - and strong! I visited Mary a couple of weeks ago, at her home in Henley.  

Her kitchen was a hive of activity, with her Christmas recipes being tried out for a forthcoming book. Over tea and cake (salted caramel - delicious!) in the conservatory, Mary talked about growing up in the war years, with sugar and meat rations, and how her mum used to save up their sugar rations in order to make the odd pudding. She told me about her route into TV and the golden advice she was given about smiling and imagining she’s talking to just one person when presenting her shows. I was struck by Mary’s incredible work ethic and her overriding positive attitude to life.  

This is in spite of and alongside her personal experience of every parent’s living nightmare: losing a child.  I was grateful to Mary for sharing her thoughts about what we can do if a friend experiences bereavement – or indeed if we do ourselves.

At 87, Mary remains full of enthusiasm for life, work, cooking, teaching. It was a joy to spend time with her. X

Listen: https://smarturl.it/spinningplates

I first saw Marawa perform as part of a circus show about 15 years ago. I was mesmerised by her hula hooping and roller skating simultaneously to disco music, and I’ve been following Marawa on Instagram for years now.  Her posts are always fun and uplifting.  They are usually of her rollerskating in the sunshine at her home in LA in high-heeled roller skates.  She is also a hula hooper extraordinaire.  

As well as performing all over the world she has broken multiple skate and hoop world records - including spinning 200 hula hoops simultaneously - and is now in the Guinness World Record Hall of Fame.  

Marawa got pregnant at the beginning of lockdown and enjoyed the accidental privacy that gave her, only posting films of her roller skating with a bump, after her son was born.  Now a toddler, her little boy is fascinated by Marawa’s roller skates and she recently got his mini Timberland boots made into skates!  

Marawa has also written a book called The Girl Guide.  It’s aimed at pre-teen girls, to help them navigate body image, periods, spots and moods - it’s kind of fun and serious all the same time - a mix that Marawa carries off beautifully.

 Listen: https://smarturl.it/spinningplates

TV presenter and entrepreneur Sarah Beeny feels like the calm, confident, sensible friend we all could turn to when we’re having a wobble. She’d be logical and straightforward and sort us out. Perhaps she feels like this because she’s been on TV for a couple of decades now, guiding people through property projects and helping them to avoid disasters, pulling no punches along the way.

 Sarah talked to me from her home in Somerset about life in the country with her husband and four boys, and about her philosophy of making decisions and then not regretting them. She also talked about losing her mum when she was ten, and the effect that had on her and her brother. 

 Finally we talked about Sarah’s recent breast cancer diagnosis and how she got her sons to cut her hair when it started to fall out. She is very grateful that her personal prognosis is good, and describes this as a blip! You won’t be surprised to hear that Sarah has a lot of post-blip plans - including a festival at her home in Somerset next year - I’m hoping she’ll book me! X 

 Listen: https://smarturl.it/spinningplates

Olga Fitzroy is a studio engineer who I have really enjoyed working with on some of my own recording sessions. Since then she’s had a little boy called Lucas and our chat centred on what it’s like as a freelancer when you become pregnant, take maternity leave and then try to come back to work in an industry where women are few and far between, recording session hours are long, and people make assumptions about your working priorities having changed now that you’re a mum. 

 Olga won Recording Engineer of the Year at the MPG Awards in 2016 which was such an accolade. She has also campaigned for shared parental leave for self-employed people, and is passionate about employment rights in a society that she observes still sees parenting as a problem for women to deal with. 

 To find out more, go to www.parentalpayequality.org.uk Since our chat Olga has been elected a councillor in Lambeth so she is truly spinning plates now, being a councillor alongside her day job in music studios, alongside being a mother. 

 Listen: https://smarturl.it/spinningplates

Angel Strawbridge is the glamorous businesswoman with the amazing red hair who fronts #EscapeToTheChâteau, now in its 9th series! - which charts her and her husband buying, renovating and decorating a chateau - all while bringing up two little children. 

 I spoke to her on zoom, which made me feel rather jealous, as she sat looking out at the view of their very own moat in the sunshine, while I sat through a thunderstorm in London! We talked about how she’s very dyslexic but loves a spreadsheet; how she works 20 hours a day to get the best of both her working life and her family life, and about how she persuaded her mum and dad to retire to France to live near them, when they first bought their chateau. She also introduced me to the concept of ‘guilt presies’. 

 As you will hear, Angel has an infectious enthusiasm for getting stuck into things. Talking to her made me want to come up with a huge new project and just get stuck in, however outlandish it may be. Warning: she may have the same effect on you. 

 Listen: https://smarturl.it/spinningplates

Konnie Huq is a presenter and writer and a mum of two boys aged 8 and 10. She was also the longest serving female presenter of Blue Peter from 1997 to 2008. The Blue Peter link makes us feel like we are almost related. Like my mum, Konnie loved her time on Blue Peter and time flew because she found every day on the programme was so fun and different. 

We talked about how she and Charlie Brooker got married within 9 months of getting together, how different her two boys are from one another, and how she finds joy in simple things. Konnie and I talked about her children’s books about a character called Cookie Haque (hmm, now who could that be based on?) which she writes in chunks on her phone. 

We also mused on the high expectations people have of parenting these days, when both of us remember long periods waiting in the car while our parents shopped or did errands. And how unthinkable that would be now, when it’s all bathtime and bedtime and fitting around the children instead! 

 Towards the end of our chat we got quite deep and philosophical about the influences in childhood which go on to make the adult. Konnie recognises the little things that her mum taught her as a child that are now very much part of her make up - not wasting food being an important principle which her parents brought with them when they moved to the UK from Bangladesh in the 60s. So, I hope your ears are feeling agile today because Konnie is lively and lovely and has a brain which will take you on some wonderful tangents! Enjoy! 

 Listen: https://smarturl.it/spinningplates

Freida Gormley - originally from Ireland and with a background working for Top Shop - set up the flamboyant interior design business ‘House Of Hackney’ with her husband in 2011. They were doing up their house in East London at the time and wanted to get away from the plain white decor of the noughties. They set up what they themselves were looking for - a place to have a bit more fun with wallpaper and fabrics: think botanicals and fantasy and rich colours. I was an early customer, so when Frieda came to my home to record our chat, she saw quite a bit of her wallpaper on our walls - some of it with added grafitti from my youngest son, Mickey. Oops. 

 Frieda talked about how inspirational her grandmother Peg was to the look an feel of House of Hackney. She remembers how starting their own business was extremely tough financially but meant that they could create their own rules, such as using UK-based manufacturers and more recently, giving their hard-working staff a 4-day week. Frieda and her husband Javvy always loved their annual holiday in Cornwall, but 3 years ago they took the plunge with their two young children and moved there permanently. Frieda told me the intriguing story of the coincidences which led to them buying their new home. The word serendipity comes to mind! 

She recalls that the move from London to Cornwall was very unpopular with their children to begin with, and that as parents they had to re-examine their motives before pressing ahead. But it has since proved a total hit. We also talked about how even at a young age Frieda would reorganise her friend’s bedrooms. She’s always had the eye for interiors! It was a pleasure to talk to her and the perfect place to begin the new series! Let’s go…! Xx 

 Listen: https://smarturl.it/spinningplates

Here she is! The brand new video for Hypnotized. Shot in the iconic Barrowland in Glasgow with 100 dancers helping me articulate my feelings through the medium of dance. Ever was it thus. Shot by the ever-brilliant Sophie Muller, make up and hair by lisalaudat1, styling by Tamara Cincik Work and I’m wearing a fabulous latex creation by Atsuko Kudo.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor “Hypnotized” 

Director: Sophie Muller 

DOP: Robbie Ryan 

Production Company: PRETTYBIRD 

Co-Founder / Exec Producer: Juliette Larthe 

Head of Production: Fiona Bamford-Phillips 

Head of Music Videos/ Exec Producer: Chris Murdoch 

Service Company: LS Productions 

Producer: Sam Barber 

Production Manager: Jack Cowhig 

1st AD: Remo Catani 

3rd AD: Luke Keogh 

Runner/Driver: Graeme King 

Runner: Imogen Bristow 

Work Experience Runner: Ralph Owen 

Work Experience Runner: Lily Owen 

Camera Assistant: Florence Gilbertson 

Lighting Desk Op: Gary Edby 

Lighting Tech: Adam Thayers 

Lighting Tech: Alastair Lees 

Lighting Tech: Ricky Smith 

Grip: Davey Logan 

Grip Trainee: Theo Logan 

On-site Rigger: Jim Stinson 

Choreographers: Frankie Mulholland & Kirstin Halliday 

Hair & Makeup Artist: Lisa Laudat 

Photographer: Kevin J Thompson 

Lead Dancers: Mhari Burley, Kieran Burns, Sgaire Wood, Yasmin Singh, Oliza Howieson, Kathryn Fraser, Samatha María, Connor Totten, Peter Clark, Liam McGrath 

Edit & Grade: Sophie Muller 

Artist Management:  Kat Rullach & Derek Mackillop @ Wallace Productions 

Record Label: Cooking Vinyl