Nikita Kuzmin is the Midnight Dancer

As we approach the start of BBC Strictly Come Dancing 2024 I wanted to let you know about a show Nikita Kuzmin is taking on the road in 2025.

International champion and Strictly Come Dancing star Nikita Kuzmin is thrilled to be presenting his first ever UK solo tour MIDNIGHT DANCER.

Nikita is joined by a sharp and chic cast of talented dancers and vocalists in a show like no other, jam-packed with the hits we all know and love in an evening bursting with happiness, euphoria and of course, world-class dance.

Joining forces with the team behind Oti Mabuse: I Am Here and Johannes Radebe’s trilogy of sell out shows, Midnight Dancer promises to be an unforgettable night of entertainment.

Get ready to see Nikita as you’ve never seen him before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q31XoWrOvjY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSuKkFnwEhU

CALM - Missed Birthdays installation

The charity CALM Campaign Against Living Miserably is close to my heart, and I will assist their cause whenever I can make time for it.

CALM has unveiled their newest installation, Missed Birthdays, in honor of World Suicide Prevention Day. The exhibition runs from September 9th to 11th at Westfield White City.

Over the past ten years, 6,929 young individuals have tragically lost their lives to suicide. This exhibit serves as a pressing plea to take action immediately; to engage in discussions today that can enable more young individuals to envision a better tomorrow. As a component of the initiative, we will introduce a crucial support tool to assist you in supporting the young individuals in your circle.

Each balloon represents a young person who took their own life, and a birthday they didn’t get to celebrate. But there’s always hope. Together, we can end youth suicide.

On each balloon, you’ll also see that a number is imprinted, which represents the age that young person would have celebrated reaching on their next birthday. It’s an important and powerful message that remembers each life individually while bringing each person lost to suicide together to represent its prevalence and how many people have been affected by it.

By coming together, we can collectively put an end to youth suicide. Learn how you can contribute by visiting the installation.

You can pop into Westfield London any time today or tomorrow, to reflect, remember and think about those who have tragically lost their life to suicide and support CALM’s campaign to work towards reducing those numbers to zero.

If you or anyone you know has been affected by suicide, CALM offer resources – including a suicide prevention helpline from 5pm-midnight every day – to help people across the UK access the help they need. You can also access the newly-launched CALM C.A.R.E Kit here.

Mr Bates vs the Post Office: The Impact review — still enraging

Twenty years from now, people will still be talking about Mr Bates vs The Post Office as one of the most important television dramas ever made.

When the four-part series launched, starring Toby Jones as the crusader Alan Bates, ITV could have had no idea how significant the show would be.

They must have known the story, written by Gwyneth Hughes, was both politically shocking and emotionally powerful.

But many pieces of television have exposed real-life corruption and depicted its human cost. This one did much more - it changed the course of events.

The one-off documentary Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Impact followed up those events, revealing not only how the general public rose up to support the campaign but how dozens more former sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were emboldened to come forward.

Even now, it's difficult to grasp how many decent, honest, hard-working people had their lives ruined by the Post Office and its bug-ridden Horizon accountancy software.

More than 900 were accused of stealing sums that often amounted to tens of thousands of pounds - and 236 received prison sentences.

Part of the drama's success stemmed from the way supporting actors such as Monica Dolan and Will Mellor portrayed real-life casualties. We felt we knew their characters personally.

We met more of the Post Office's victims in this devastating documentary. Tony and Caroline Downey, who ran the village stores in Hawkshead, Cumbria, went bankrupt because of Horizon.

After losing their home, they left the country to live in Europe, unable to face their former friends and neighbours. Tony suffered a breakdown so serious that for 20 years he has struggled to work.

Their daughter Katie was affected just as badly by the stress, becoming mute for two years.

In Port Stewart, Northern Ireland, sub-postmaster Lee Williamson was handed an 18-month suspended prison sentence after being falsely accused of stealing £16,000. He too suffered a breakdown and described movingly how close he came to suicide.

Until the ITV drama aired, he thought he would never clear his name: 'I was afraid to talk about it in public, because you're always aware of the stigma.'

The scandal of it is bottomless. Investigators are now looking at the Post Office's 1990s software, a system called Capture that predated Horizon.

It too appears to have conjured up huge financial discrepancies and losses where none really existed.

The former sub-postmaster in Heap Bridge near Manchester, Steve Marston, was given a 12-month suspended sentence for shortfalls of £79,000.

'I used to be a treasurer of the local social club,' he said, 'treasurer of the local football team.

I was trusted. I was well respected. Now we never go anywhere. We just exist day by day. It's been a living hell.'

Thanks to television, he has some hope of getting justice.