The race is on…

It’s all about races on Girls Around Town this Sunday – two races to be precise and they couldn’t be more different!

Stage Four of the Tour of Britain comes to town on Wednesday 6 September, bringing with it thousands of visitors ready to line the streets and cheer on the cyclists as they head to the grand finish at Sconce and Devon Park.

But the festivities in Newark begin a day earlier….

For the last few weeks, Louise Clark of A Little Bird Told Me Emporium and Melanie Luff have been busy organising a Craft Market as part of the pre-tour celebrations happening on Tuesday 5 September.

They’ll be joining June and Tina in the first hour of the show to share details of some the gifts and goodies available to browse and buy from the 30-plus stalls open in the Market Place between 4pm and 9.30pm.

Then, from a cycle race around Britain to a horse race around a piazza in Tuscany when writer and blogger Jane Keightley makes a welcome return to the Radio Newark studios to describe her latest Italian adventure. Not as a participant, mind you, but as one of the thousands of spectators watching the historic Palio di Siena  recently…

Dating back to medieval times, this breathtaking spectacle is held twice a year, in July and August. It’s a fast and furious affair with 10 jockeys, riding bareback and dressed in colourful costumes, completing  a thrilling three laps of the Piazza del Campo, usually in under 90 seconds.

Tune in or listen online between 10am and 12 noon on Sunday to find out what’s in store for Newark on 5 September from Louise and Melanie and what’s next on Jane’s Italian itinerary.

Coming soon to a theatre – and a TV – near you

With tickets now on sale for the Robin Hood Theatre‘s upcoming production of Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Rachel Repper will be back in the studio on Sunday to give listeners an insight into this classic of 20th century theatre.

Performed in more than 40 countries across the world since it was first staged in Italy in December 1970, Dario Fo‘s farce comes to Averham at the end of next month.

Based on real-life events surrounding the death of Italian railwayman and anarchist Guiseppe Pinelli,  who ‘fell’ – or was he pushed? – to his death from a police headquarters window, the play is a sharp and hilarious satire on political corruption.

Rachel will be talking about her own involvement in the production, which runs from Tuesday 26 to Saturday 30 September, and she’ll have details too of some of the other shows coming to Averham over the next few months.

Then, in the second hour of the show, the focus moves from theatre to TV…

Different channel, different day and, with the exception of Paul Hollywood, different judges and presenters – whether it will be the same without the ‘Queen of Cakes’, Mary Berry, remains to be seen…

But for the next 12 weeks, fans of The Great British Bake Off will be keeping Tuesdays from 8pm to 9pm clear to watch the contestants battle it out in the iconic Berkshire tent.

Setting the scene for episode one on Tuesday 29 August, June and Sue will be taking a look at this year’s line up. Already described by Paul as ‘the best yet’, they include the oldest contestant ever to take part, a former army officer training to become a stuntwoman, a molecular biologist and a 19-year old student from Hackney known to his university friends as the ‘Cake Boy’!

Tune in or listen online from 10am on Sunday for two hours of easy listening with Rachel and the Girls Around Town

Meet the new girl around town

If you’re a regular listener, you’ll probably remember hearing Rosalyn Palmer on the show back in June, sharing some of the highlights of her varied life with Tina and Sue.

And you’ll no doubt know that homepath Fiona Theokritoff has been been part of the Girls Around Town team July 2016…

After two more slots – on Sunday 10 September and Sunday 8 October – Fiona will be handing over the reins as the show’s wellbeing guru to Rosalyn, who makes her first appearance on the other side of the desk on Sunday 5 November.

Although relatively new to Newark, she’s already built up a wide network of contacts in and around the town. So she’ll be drawing on some of these – and on her own experience and training as a clinical hypnotherapist,  a Rapid Transformational Therapist and a Maris Peer Master Therapist – to bring more experts from the world of wellbeing to your Sunday morning listening.

Watch this space for news of her first guests – in the meantime, from June, Tina and Sue a warm welcome to Rosalyn, the  ‘new girl around town’ and a big thank you to Fiona for being a valued member of the team since last summer…