Restaurants that don’t exist, fabricated reviews for shows, computer generated videos… It’s so hard to know what’s real anymore.

“Bells to be rung and a wonderful thing to flung...” Half way through You Make Me Feel So Young at a recent show in London, I noticed a table of three, all with their phones in hand, filming me. They did this for most of the evening, in fact. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to be filmed and photographed, I love the attention, but if we spend all of our time behind a lens, aren’t we missing the very thing we’re supposed to be enjoying? 

Imagine watching a movie without music: Jaws without John Williams or Brief Encounter without Rachmaninoff. As good as the script, the cinematography and the actors may be, a film needs the emotional muscle of music.

Here’s a flashback from my days in Stage One, the youth theatre group from my home town of Grimsby, where I got my first experience on stage. I’m playing Joseph, in a loin cloth, condemned to death in a prison cell.

For me multiculturalism is a huge part of what makes London so attractive. And yet, for others this is precisely what puts them off. 

Sorry parents, I know your kids are perfect, but sitting next to a four year old playing Peppa Pig on an iPad without headphones can be rather testing.

We recently moved into a new home in Tenerife. My boyfriend is worried about me because I still don’t know how to use the kitchen tap.

What does it mean to be British? It’s a simple question with many answers and one that’s seems more relevant than ever. I think a good example of a very British statement came from Radio 2’s Ken Bruce.

Tune into BBC Radio 2 this Friday night at 8pm for a special concert with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Recorded at the Chichester Festival Theatre - Ken Bruce invites you to take your partners for an evening at the dance.

Once a year, to mark the end of their world cruise, the six star luxury Crystal Serenity stages a spectacular show with over 30 musicians, acrobats and a cast of singers and dancers. As the ship was docked in Monaco, this year’s theme was the Monte Carlo Casino and I was delighted to perform a tribute to Frank, Dean and Sammy.

If you think life is moving too fast now, imagine how you'd have felt 150 years ago before the phone, the telly or the car had been invented. As the Victorian industrialists mechanised and urbanised, the pastoral idyls of old England were feeling the pinch and it took a group of young painters to come to its defence.