First Dates' Merlin Griffiths teams up with supermodel for an unexpected new project after cancer battle
The barman from the
Channel 4
reality show
will be working alongside
4
Merlin Griffiths and Jodie Kidd have teamed up to host a new podcast
Credit: smartdispenseuk/Instagram
4
The First Dates bartender wants to educate people about British pubs
Credit: PA
4
Jodie is a supermodel turned landlady
Credit: Getty
Titled Three Landlords Walk into a Bar, they will do a deep dive on British pubs from ghost stories to industry analysis and will be chatting with some of the UK's most successful publicans and industry leaders.
"Expect everything from ghost stories in Britain's most haunted pub to tales of the Beatles, building inclusive spaces, and the importance of the perfect pint (of course)," read the announcement on Instagram.
In the accompanying video to the social media post, fans are given a preview of some of the guests and conversations that can look forward to hearing in the coming season.
Jodie shared it to her Instagram stories saying: "I loved doing this podcast."
first dates
The supermodel is landlady at
Half Moon in Kirdford,
West Sussex, who has often spoken out about the importance of pubs to local communities.
'People are always surprised when they find out I run a pub. It's one of the toughest yet most rewarding jobs," she said in a statement about the podcast.
"There's a whole world behind the bar that most punters never get to see – the highs, the graft, the sheer heart landlords pour in."
Merlin who is the landlord of the Dog & Gun in Leicestershire also wants to raise awareness about the pressures facing pubs in the U.K.
Most read in TV
"Being a landlord isn't just about pulling pints and hosting quizzes – it's late nights, leaky pipes, and learning to adapt fast," he said.
"Amidst turbulent times for the industry, we wanted to sit down and explore how Britain's pubs are evolving to stay at the heart of their communities – whether that's finding new ways to get people in the door or embracing game-changing tech to serve up top-quality pints more efficiently and sustainably.'
First Dates star Merlin Griffiths reveals 'life-changing consequences' of cancer battle in new health update
Merlin's new project comes as the bartender recovers from cancer treatment.
He was diagnosed with bowel cancer and had chemotherapy and two operations to remove a tumour in 2021.
Despite getting the all-clear from doctors that he was cancer-free, Merlin admitted to
Since his diagnosis Merlin has been vocal
and has supported various NHS campaigns.
Cancer types, signs and symptoms
Everything you need to know about different types of Cancer
What are
Stomach cancer: Symptoms, causes, and treatments
What does a
What are esophageal cancer symptoms?
Is
How to tell the
4
Merlin's new project comes after his cancer treatment
Credit: Channel 4
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
4 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Kelly Osbourne pays tribute to dad Ozzy who died days after watching her get engaged to rocker boyfriend
KELLY Osbourne has paid a moving tribute to her dad Ozzy after he died just days after watching her get engaged. Kelly 5 Kelly's tribute to her late father Ozzy was shared on Instagram 5 The late Ozzy Osbourne pictured with daughter Kelly back in 2020 Credit: Splash 5 Ozzy seemed very happy at the news of Kelly's engagement Credit: instagram/kellyosbourne 5 Ozzy with Kelly (right) and the rest of the family back in 2004 Credit: Getty Images - Getty The daughter of Sharon and rock legend Ozzy had shared a video of the moment Sid popped the question backstage at her father's final ever Black Sabbath gig. It was confirmed on Tuesday that Ozzy tragically died following a battle with Parkinson's. The Black Sabbath star revealed he in an emotional interview in 2020. Now, Kelly has paid moving tribute to her father after his tragic passing. Read More A heartbreaking statement posted on Instagram read: "I feel unhappy I am so sad. I lost the best friend I ever had." The touching tribute pays homage to song lyrics from Black Sabbath's famous track Changes. Earlier this month, Ozzy was seen unwinding with his family and friends backstage after his But Sid, 48, had an even bigger surprise for Kelly, 40, when he dropped to one knee and asked her to marry him backstage. Most read in Celebrity Stood in front of Sharon and Ozzy, they appeared to have an idea of what was to come as the former X Factor judge could be heard saying to everyone in the room: "You've got to be quiet!" Sid then took the hand of Kelly, who was dressed down in some comfy leopard print trousers and a simple black hoodie. He said to the TV personality: "Kelly, you know I love you more than anything in the world!" Ozzy Osbourne top five greatest moments Ozzy then appeared to give the game away as he jokingly quipped with his signature potty mouth: "F*** off, you are not marrying my daughter!" The group laughed before Sid continued as he said: "I want to spend the rest of my life with you - and ask in front of all of our family and friends, Kelly, will you marry me?" Kelly turned her head as she looked on open-mouthed before Sid began to stand up and place the ring onto her finger. Proud dad Ozzy could not hold back his excitement after the incredible news. The star and Sharon were among those beaming and cheering after the cute moment. The legendary rocker has been married for over 40 years to X Factor icon Sharon , 71 . Ozzy's family statement BLACK Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne has died at the age of 76. A statement from his family said: "It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. "He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. "Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis." Kelly and the Slipknot star had actually been friends for over 20 years before Their son was born later that year, prompting Kelly to tell her fans that becoming a mum 'is the best thing that ever happened to me.' The engagement came backstage as Ozzy played his final ever show with Black Sabbath at Villa Park. The rocker, 76, had curated a day of epic rock music with a series of iconic bands and stars lined up to play before his final farewell set. Called Back To The Beginning, it was frontman and rock veteran Ozzy's It was the first time in 20 years that the original Black Sabbath line-up have performed together. This comes after Loving wife Sharon replied to fans sending their condolences on social media. She commented underneath one message shared by musician Gavin Rossdale. The Bush singer posted a picture of himself with Ozzy on Instagram, with the caption: "RIP OZZY - a great man - a true legend - I met Ozzy through Jack just a few times, but he was so warm and kind and funny and I love that memory. "Sending much love to his family at this difficult time. Rest in power." Sharon wrote underneath "bless you" in acknowledgement of the tribute. The late rock star's wife also replied to BBC Radio 1 DJ Jack Saunders' message of support. "Jack thank you for your tribute to Ozzy tonight, bless you," she commented. Jean Powell, 85, and Gillian Hemming, 80, revealed how "our John" messaged them, saying he "couldn't wait to come back" to Birmingham, following his After Speaking to the She said they got texts from him as he drove down Lodge Road - a street where they used to live close to the stadium. Jean said Ozzy "couldn't believe" the sheer volume of crowds who were walking down their old road to watch him perform. She said: "He was blown away. We had an executive box in the stadium, and when I saw the sea of people waiting to see our John I just broke down. "We didn't really get a chance to chat much because it was such a chaotic visit. But in his last text to me he said he would be coming to Birmingham again. "He said 'I can't wait to come back'. We were hoping to see him this week." Jean said that although Ozzy was ill, the news of his death " She added: "He still had plans and things he wanted to do. We don't know the details of his death, it's still too early. "It's just so sad. I'm just thankful he died in England." Ozzy Osbourne's iconic career The singer then pursued his love of music after hearing The Beatles hit She Loves You in 1963, aged 15. After appearing in a handful of school plays, Ozzy joined Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler in their first group Rare Breed in 1967. When that band split, the pair reunited in Polka Tulk Blues alongside Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward. The group later became known as Black Sabbath and went onto shatter the music world with their whining guitar solos, Occult-based lyrics and Ozzy's screeching vocals. In 1970, the group gained a cult following in both the US and UK after releasing their eponymous first album. Black Sabbath saw incredible success with hit tracks such as Paranoid but discord in the group saw most of the original line-up leave. Ozzy himself quit the band in 1978, with a spiral into drug abuse leading to a divorce from first wife Thelma Mayfair, who he had two children with. It was then he first met a young Sharon Arden, who Ozzy at first wrote off as he believed she would think he was a "lunatic". But the singer could not be more wrong and the pair married in Hawaii in July 1982 before going on to have three children together, Aimee, With Sharon's encouragement and help from her music manager dad Don, he began to carve out a successful solo career. His seminal first album Blizzard of Ozz in 1980 became a multi-platinum success thanks to Ozzy's howling vocals and macabre laugh on hit Crazy Train. Coupled with the Prince of Darkness' insane tour that saw him bite the head off a live bat, a string of successful tracks followed - cementing Ozzy as a rock legend around the world. In 1992, the singer announced his retirement but four years later created the beloved annual music festival Ozzfest with Sharon, which featured heavy metal acts touring the US and some of Europe. Ozzy returned to Black Sabbath in 1999, with the band winning a Grammy for best metal performance for the song Iron Man. They later earned the same award in 2013 after releasing single God Is Dead? from album 13. Thames Valley Air Ambulance confirmed Sharon — married for 43 years — said in a joint statement that he had been 'surrounded by love'. And friends said many big names wanted to salute the bat-munching, self-proclaimed Prince of Darkness, who became a national treasure. Such a service would be held ahead of a smaller private funeral. A source told The Sun: 'There are conversations about a celebration of his life in Birmingham, the city that meant so much to him. 'Artists like Yungblud, who was seen by Ozzy as a musician who could carry on the mantle of what he started all those years ago, is expected to have a role in it. 'There are hundreds of big names who will want to pay their respects and celebrate his life and legacy, as well as thousands of fans who would line the streets to say goodbye.' A Tributes poured in for the legendary singer from across the music world. 5 Kelly and Sid are set to marry after sharing the happy engagement Credit: Getty
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
One Day in Southport: Heartbreaking, and a chilling insight into the new reality
Watching the 2024 Southport riots from across the Irish Sea, there was an obvious and awful sense of history repeating. Just as the stabbing of a child in Dublin in November 2023 triggered racist violence, so the fatal attack on a dance class near Liverpool was seized upon as an excuse for carnage in the UK. Children had died, cities were burning – and British politicians appeared dazed by the scale of what had happened. Twelve months later, Finding Neverland director Dan Reed has painstakingly chronicled these terrible events with One Day in Southport (Channel 4, 9pm). If only a film-maker of equal stature would turn their attention to the anarchy that gripped Dublin seven months previously. Alas, we wait in vain. He begins with a close-up on one of the survivors of the attack – a now 13-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons. 'My vision was going blurry and I ran across to this guy and I said to him: 'I've been stabbed, I think I'm dying,' she recalls of the brutal assault by Axel Rudakubana on the Hart Space, a community hub in Southport, a quiet seaside town 27km north of Merseyside. READ MORE 'I was struggling to breathe, and I saw my sister there and she was saying, 'Please don't die, please don't die'.' Her voice is heavy with trauma, and the viewer's heart will break for her and for the families of the three children who died: six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar, aged nine. What happened next was, of course, shocking but not surprising. Racists, thugs and 'citizen journalists' descended on Southport and whipped up hysteria against a local mosque. With police on the ground seemingly in the dark about Rudakubana, rumours that he was a Muslim immigrant began to spread. He was, in fact, born in Cardiff to a family from Rwanda, which is overwhelmingly Christian. Yet that was of little comfort to the terrified people inside the mosque in Southport. Reed isn't interested in blaming people and wisely avoids portraying Rudakubana as some sort of interesting or complicated villain ( he is now serving a 52-year murder sentence ). He wants to give a voice to the victims of the attack and to understand the anger that turned town centres across Britain into war zones. Those on the hard right tell Reed that their protests are not about race but about working-class people. 'The issue we are now fighting has changed. It ain't about race no more, it is about class,' claims Wendell Daniel, the black videographer who works with Tommy Robinson , one of Britain's most prominent far-right activists. However, chilling footage from around Britain suggests that the 2024 protests quickly descended into mob rule, as we see when another panicking videographer rushes back to his car after thugs surround his Asian wife. No Irish person needs to be reminded about racism in British society. Nonetheless, something has shifted since the pandemic, says Weyman Bennett, co-convener of Stand Up to Racism. Right-wing marches used to attract a certain type, he says – 'Billy No-Mates', middle-aged men, without friends or a purpose in life. Now, they are increasingly joined by women and young people, says Bennett – an entire swathe of society that feels abandoned, and believes people such as Robinson may have the answer. It's a terrifying thought. But then, as anyone who saw Dublin burn in November 2023 will know, it isn't really a thought at all, it's the new reality with which we are all going to have to come to terms and, sooner or later, perhaps, take a stand against.
Irish Examiner
7 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
'Better, tighter, and more urgent': Oasis experts hail the return of the band for unfinished business
When Oasis fans were recently criticised by Edinburgh Council in relation to the upcoming three concerts at Murrayfield Stadium in August, Liam Gallagher famously leapt to the defence of those planning on going along to the gigs. Cultural commentator John Robb is in total agreement with the frontman's sentiments. "I think it's snobbery,' says Robb, also a musician and journalist who recently published a new book Live Forever: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Oasis. 'If they can't cope with the Oasis concerts because of the Fringe, as they suggested, maybe they should have let it go to Glasgow. With them having Irish blood and coming from Manchester, they've always connected with rebel cities like Glasgow.' The Gallagher brothers' parentage is well-known, and Robb stresses that the band's connections to Ireland aren't just something to be wheeled out when they play in this country. Noel Gallagher and John Robb. 'The Irish part was super important,' says Robb. 'There's a quote from John Savage in the book where he talks about Oasis being slightly on the outside. Being Irish you are a natural rebel operating outside the British culture, a lot the attitude comes from there, and the art. It's so mixed in with the Irish blood, it's been good for us English to have that Celtic mix." Tim Abbot is another associate of Oasis who is well aware of their Irish links. The label manager at the band's label Creation Records during their rise, one of his fondest memories of his time with the group was travelling over to Ireland for two shows in Dublin back in March 1996. 'My mum and Peggy [Gallagher, mother of Liam and Noel] got on well, my mum was a teacher. We all went to Dublin for the Point gigs with all the mums and dads.' Abbot is currently touring his film, The Lost Tapes: Oasis Like Never Before, and has just released an updated version of his Oasis: Definitely book, including unseen pictures of the band that he began to shoot and film in 1993. "I shot twenty hours of footage, and I'd say 20% of the Supersonic film is my material,' he recalls. 'It's all hand-held stuff that includes Noel playing an early version of Don't Look Back In Anger and there's footage of them working on Champagne Supernova. It's the early story of the band surpassing everyone and their life on the road. I'm the man in the middle of it all with a video camera." Tim Abbot with Liam Gallagher and Oasis producer Owen Coyle. Abbot also recalls his first time hearing of Oasis, via a late-night phonecall from Creation Records boss Alan McGee. 'He actually called me the night he signed Oasis when he was in Glasgow at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut [venue]. Alan had the band's demo and he said: 'I've just signed this amazing band, you have to have a listen'. I was like 'Dude, it's 2am'.' What was it like to be in the eye of the storm during the band's rise? "It wasn't chaos," suggests Abbot. "If it was, then we managed to control it, we kind of harnessed it... we were all holding on for grim life. In truth, we were a functioning team." Things did get out of control for Abbot when the band mistakenly consumed crystal meth, mistaking it for cocaine before an infamous show at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go in Los Angeles, leading to Noel quitting the band for two weeks. "I did have to go and find Noel and bring him back into the flock,' says Abbot reflectively. It was while taking some time out in San Francisco that Noel wrote one of the band's most loved B-sides, Talk Tonight. "It's almost like two different bands," adds John Robb, "Noel was doing demos a few years before, and that's almost like his style, these more introspective acoustic songs which appeared on the B-sides along with the more raucous tabloid band, it was like two different groups. "It shows how different they are, vocals by Noel tend to be more melancholic and introspective, while Liam's are the opposite, not always, but often. They are almost split personalities in terms of how they do the vocals." When Oasis regrouped after the Whiskey-A-Go-Go debacle, the next big gig in their itinerary was the Glasgow Barrowlands in December 1994, a performance attended by this writer. The gig was seen as a major turning point for the band. "You had to prove it at the Barrowlands; it was one of those gigs," explains Robb, "Oasis were seen as an overnight success but they had two years of being ignored. Most bands have to take baby steps doing three support tours, but with Oasis, after that it was really quick." The Glasgow show didn't run smoothly with Liam Gallagher walking off stage with some throat problems. It was left to Noel Gallagher to perform an acoustic set, playing many of those plaintive Oasis B-sides while promising to return with Liam two weeks later, the promise was fulfilled but there was something special about the first night despite Liam's absence. Both Robb and Abbot agree that The Rain, basically Oasis minus Noel that first formed in 1991, deserve more credit. "Some of that attitude was put down in the early Boardwalk rehearsal days,' says Abbot. "Tony McCarroll was a great drummer and some people coat him off but he was important because the Oasis DNA was Definitely Maybe pre-Alan White coming in on drums." A new generation have discovered early unreleased Oasis tracks such as Take Me. Such was the strength of Noel's songwriting, the band disregarded anything he hadn't written when it came to recording. "Noel had wanted to record Take Me but the band said 'no', they only wanted to do his songs," confirms Robb. Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs, the man who helped create the Oasis wall of sound on rhythm guitar, is said to be one of the writers of the song. He will join Noel and Liam in Dublin as the only other original member of the band. Ahead of the much-anticipated tour, Noel was asked about the potential for a fall-out. 'We're too old to give a shit now, so there won't be any fallouts, there won't be any fighting. It's a lap of honour for the band,' he said. So far so good. As John Robb suggests, Oasis have captured yet another cultural moment, defining the summer of 2025 as much as they did in the mid-1990s. "Heaton Park was the most visceral, thrilling Oasis show I've seen,' says Robb of the recent Manchester leg of the tour. 'The band has never sounded better, tighter, and more urgent as they breathed life into decades-old songs that are all cemented deep into the psyche of a generation. They could have just collected the money and run, but they also had something to prove, and it has driven the gigs to a new level." Live Forever: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Oasis, by John Robb, is available now Tim Abbot is currently touring The Lost Tapes: Oasis Like Never Before. For more info on dates and a new version of his book Oasis Definitely , visit
