Oxford News
BBC legend names new presenter for Strictly Come Dancing
The wildlife TV star has hosted the BBC’s Springwatch nature show for 14 years, having previously worked on The Really Wild Show and Wide Awake Club.
She recently finished as runner-up on ITV reality show Dancing on Ice, competing last year with professional partner Mark Hanretty.
Michaela, who supports Oxford United through her son, who works at the club, recently had an exclusive chat with the Oxford Mail.
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Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan of Springwatch. (Image: Michaela Strachan / X)
Another beloved dance show, which, like Springwatch, is a BBC icon, is Strictly Come Dancing, with the competition programme running since 2004.
Strictly is now without a presenter after both hosts, Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, departed last year.
With speculation rife over who will host the programme later this year, this newspaper asked Ms Strachan who she would like to see take on the job.
After being suggested with hosting it herself and long-time contributor Chris Packham, the 60-year-old laughed and said: “Can you imagine Chris Packham presenting Strictly!
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La Voix (left) and Aljaz Skorjanec during the results show of Strictly Come Dancing. (Image: Guy Levy / BBC / PA)
“Oh my god, that would be worth watching.
“I think La Voix would be brilliant, that’s who I would back. I don’t know whether they would get it, but I think that would be really good fun if La Voix did it.
“I really enjoyed watching La Voix on Strictly last year, so that would be the obvious choice.
“There are some choices that have been talked about that are very obvious, and you think no, come on, let’s push the boat out. Let’s get to somebody different.
“I’d like to see them go out of the box, and it would be highly entertaining.”
Oxford News
Liam Gallagher has Roman temple next door to £4.2m Cotswolds mansion
The Oasis singer was rumoured to have bought a mansion near Cirencester in December last year, having previously rented it for £19,000 a month ahead of the band’s comeback tour.
During the summer, it was reported that Mr Gallagher and his fiancée, Debbie Gwyther, had been phoning around high-end estate agents to buy a new mansion in the Cotswolds.
Mr Gallagher himself confirmed earlier this year that he’s purchased Dockem House in the village of Coates over the Oxfordshire border.
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Now, The Sun has reported that the musician’s new pad is next door to a Roman temple and that he’s a fan of history, making it a perfect match.
The five-acre estate is near Hailey Wood Camp, which dates back to 100AD, and has been buried since the 1980s.
Historic England said that the complex is rare and that only “a number of temple complexes [in the UK] have similar double-ditch enclosed areas”.
The Sun added: “Seven lead ‘curse tablets’, which Romans used to ask the Gods to jinx an enemy, were reportedly found there.
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“Previous owner, World War I hero Major William Daubney, was the first to identify Hailey Wood Camp, an underground temple complex dating between 100AD and 400AD.
“The complex is centred on a square enclosure with other smaller buildings scattered around it and has been buried since the 1980s after the site was plundered for ‘coins and other metal objects’.”
A fan of history, Mr Gallagher was recently asked by a fan on the social media site X what the first thing he does on holiday.
The singer responded: “I unpack and hang up all my clothes in alphabetical order, then I go find out some local history, then I get on the p**s.”
Oxford News
Reports of boys throwing mud from Oxfordshire Starbucks roof
Thames Valley Police has launched an investigation after reports of criminal damage on the roof of Starbucks in Henley-on-Thames.
Officers were called to Bell Street in Henley-on-Thames after receiving reports of criminal damage taking place at around 6.40pm on Monday, April 6.
Witnesses online said they saw four boys spitting, throwing mud and tiles from the roof of the coffee shop, which was said to have been accessed via scaffolding.
No arrests have been made and the investigation is still ongoing.
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A Thames Valley Police spokeswoman said: “If anyone has any information or footage, please share this with us online via our online reporting form or via 101 quoting reference number 43260166483.”
Oxford News
Town outrage as sacks of rubbish dumped by Oxfordshire wood
Bicester locals were furious after photos of the piled black sacks were shared on their local Facebook page, with one person calling it a “disgrace”.
The pictures from Sally Dunkley showed the rubbish at the end of a road that leads into Merton Wood.
The woodland was created in 2002, includes a variety of trees and is home to deer and hares.
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Responding to Ms Dunkley’s post, Shorif Uddin, whose name was featured on a ticket within the rubbish, apologised for the incident.
He added that responsibility for the action lay with a contractor his interior design company paid to dispose of the rubbish.
Mr Uddin said he has refurbished several restaurants in Bicester and often uses a skip, although when they were working on the Anika Indian Restaurant, they had to pile all of it at the front of the shop and pay for it to be taken away.
The pile of rubbish by a Bicester woodland has sparked anger (Image: Sally Dunkley)
He paid £600 for the service and said: “How the rubbish got there is beyond our control.”
The issue of fly-tipping is a particularly sensitive one in the Cherwell district after a 150-metre-long mountain of waste was dumped in a field alongside the A34 in Kidlington last year.
The Environment Agency previously declared a critical incident over the fly-tip, and work is underway to clean the site up.
There were over 80 comments in response to Ms Dunkley’s post about this smaller fly-tip with many people calling for those responsible to be fined.
Others called for the waste to be cleared up by those it belonged to.
The rubbish that was dumped by the Bicester woodland taken away in a van (Image: Shorif Uddin)
Following the social media post, the rubbish was removed by the team at Anika on Monday, April 6, although Mr Uddin was keen to stress it was nothing to do with them.
He said his interior design firm used a waste management company to take the rubbish away when they were refurbishing the Indian restaurant five months ago.
Mr Uddin added that he did not think all the rubbish came from that project.
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He said: “During the minor cosmetic work we did in Anika there was no major work such as plaster board or hard core it was all cosmetic and paint and decor work.
“But as you can see on the pile of rubbish there is hard core which doesn’t belong to us but as the rubbish has my name tag I kindly requested the restaurant to get hold of a van and get the rubbish removed and they were very kind to do this.”
Cherwell District Council has been approached for comment.
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