Writers Pointless Celebrities, 8th October

Pointless Celebrities on 8th October at 5.55pm is a Writers special.

Taking part are John O'Farrell and Emma Kennedy, Kathy Lette and Kate Mosse, Benjamin Zephaniah and Roger McGough, and Terry Deary and Bryony Gordon.

Win a signed copy of A Pointless History of the World!

The Team Xander Twitter account has an exciting competition starting today (29th September) to win a signed copy of A Pointless History of the World. Simply RT this tweet by 6pm on 6th October to enter.

RT by 6pm on 610 to win #APointlessHistoryoftheWorld, signed by @XanderArmstrong & @richardosman. Tnx @HodderBooks https://t.co/wrEkya1Idx

— Team Xander (@TeamXander1) September 29, 2016

Many thanks to Hodder Books for providing the advance copy, and to Xander and Richard for signing it.

Alexander Armstrong among stars to pay tribute to Terry Wogan on Children in Need Rocks

Xander will join a star-studded line-up including Take That, Ellie Goulding, Rick Astley, Olly Murs, Gregory Porter, Michael Ball, Alfie Boe,and the Vamps at this year's BBC Children in Need Rocks, which will honour Sir Terry Wogan.

Sir Terry, who died in January 2016 aged 77, was life president of Children in Need, with which he had been involved for more than 30 years.

The concert will feature archive material such as one of the popular Radio 2 Janet and John stories which Sir Terry frequently read on his Radio 2 Breakfast Show. accompanied by drawings by Horrid Henry illustrator Tony Ross.

BBC Children In Need vice chairman and controller of Radio 2 Bob Shennan said:

Sir Terry was one of the nation's best-loved broadcasters and it's a privilege to be celebrating his life with BBC Children In Need Rocks. The night promises to be full of fun for music fans around the country.

 The concert is on 1st November. Tickets are available from the Royal Albert Hall and agencies.

Pointless "won't ever move channels", says Alexander Armstrong

Alexander Armstrong has said that he would be "deeply upset" if Pointless were ever to move from the BBC. His comments, to the Press Association, come in the wake of the move of Great British Bake Off to Channel 4.

Xander said he felt sure that Pointless would stay with the BBC, due to the channel's "very strong bond" with the programme's producer Endemol.

He said:

We are already talking about two more years (of making the show) at least, and we won't be moving to Channel 4. We won't be doing any of that.

I don't think it ever would (move). There's something very nice with the nature of Endemol's relationship with its broadcasters. I think it would be exceedingly unlikely.

There's a very strong bond between our production company and the various broadcasters it works for.

Xander's views echo those of Pointless co-host (and Endemol creative director) Richard Osman:

That last tweet was a joke. BBC have been beyond awesome with Pointless from start to finish. They can have us for as long as they want us.

— Richard Osman (@richardosman) September 12, 2016

So, BBC it is. And excellent news that there are two more years of shows in the offing. Now... if only the Beeb would show them....

Without A Song.... full track from Xander's new album available now

Xander's new album, Upon A Different Shore, is out on 28th October. Seems like ages away, right? But don't despair. While we wait, we can listen to one track from it, Without A Song.

It's on Spotify, or if you pre-order the album on iTunes you get it as an instant download.

Enjoy!

News Pointless Celebrities, 1st October

News Pointless Celebrities is on 1st October at 5.30pm. Taking part are Alastair Stewart and Charlene White, Emily Maitlis and Nick Robinson, Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, and Rageh Omaar and Cathy Newman.

Sounds good. Newspeople are typically very well-informed, and very competitive. Should be a fun show.

A Pointless History of the World is out soon

The new Pointless book, A Pointless History of the World, comes out very soon - on  Thursday 6th October, in fact.

A Pointless History of the World is a complete[1] and meticulously researched[2] series of essays on our rich and glorious past. Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman, two of the world's foremost experts on Things Before Their Time[3] take you on a step-by-step journey through history.

From the Big Bang to the Fall of the Roman Empire, from the Ice Age to the Evolution of Language, from Henry VIII to Last of the Summer Wine: all of civilisation is here. A publishing first, this thoroughly comprehensive and highly ambitious quest through Time and Space is interspersed with questions for all the family from TV's most popular tea-time quiz show, Pointless. This is Alexander and Richard's biggest book yet.

The book no historian can afford to be without[4], it comes complete with introduction and footnotes[5].

[1] Highly selective
[2] Largely cobbled together from what we can remember from school
[3] That's not even a thing
[4] Under no circumstances to be used for reference
[5] Um...

This is the Amazon link. Other retailers etc etc.

Crikey boss, it's new Danger Mouse!

The brand new series 2 of Danger Mouse, with Xander as Danger Mouse, premieres from 3rd October, at 6.45pm on CBBC.

Monday the 3rd's episode sees Danger Mouse take on Greenback as a 300-year old mouse, after the Baron speeds up the rotation of Earth. Can DM pull out all the stops and restore the world?

On Tuesday Penfold becomes a fully-fledged celebrity after an act of heroism saving Scarlett Johamster on Help I’m A Hamster in the Jungle puts him in the spotlight, although DM suspects that all is not what it seems.

On Wednesday a CATastrophe hits earth and only DM can stop things from getting too hairy when cute kittens begin replacing humans.

It’s time for Danger Mouse to face the music onThursday when he goes undercover as the fifth member of Quark’s mega-popular (but secretly evil) boy band.

And Friday the 7th's episode is the stuff of dreams as DM takes on Quark again, but this time in his strangest setting yet: Penfold’s dreams!

New Hey Duggee - a-Wuff!

A new series of the wonderful Hey Duggee starts on Monday 26th September, on CBeebies at 8.15am. Xander is the narrator.

In the first episode of the new series, the Squirrels do their Making Music Badge. When the Squirrels find Duggee playing saxophone, they want to have a go too. Several pots, balloons, tins, water and tubes later and the squirrels are making music. And boy, are they LOUD!

Alexander Armstrong and Endemol fast-track episode of Pointless for contestant with terminal cancer

Lucy Booth (right) recorded Pointless last year. Her appearance was due to be shown in July, but was rescheduled by the BBC to mid-September.

By this time, she was sadly in the final stages of breast cancer. A family friend, Sue Winter, wrote to Alexander Armstrong begging him to do what he could to change the air date.

I beg you from the bottom of my heart, Lucy is amazing and is fighting as hard as she can but her options are dwindling fast,

Lucy has really not let it take over her life. Last year when she and her mum went to London to film the show they had a wonderful experience.

I’m afraid that the cancer is now fighting back with extra ground troops deployed throughout Lucy’s body. She is now very poorly.

Please Alexander can you make some calls and have the Booth girls episode shown much sooner than that so that Lucy will be able to watch it?

Xander liaised with production company Endemol, who make Pointless, and a few weeks ago they sent Lucy a DVD of her appearance on the show. She was able to watch it in the hospice with her mum.

When the episode was finally broadcast, it ended with a tribute to Lucy.

Well done, Xander and Endemol, and sympathies to Lucy's family and friends.