Criticising Charlie Dimmock for putting on weight is horribly unfair… she still looks great
Had Alan Titchmarsh developed a bit of a belly, would he be targeted in the same way?
CHARLIE DIMMOCK has committed a heinous crime.
She *gasp* has had the audacity to put on weight and been criticised for no longer being the sexpot she was on Ground Force some 20 years ago.
How dare she be so sinful as to grow older and add inches to her bottom?
Seriously, it is a poor show that Charlie is being subjected to such abuse simply for piling on a few pounds.
No one seems to be talking about the growth spurt of her begonias in her new BBC1 show Garden Rescue, it’s all about how she herself has filled out.
It’s horribly unfair.
If Alan Titchmarsh had developed a bit of a pot belly, no one would have turned a hair but because Charlie is a woman, she’s considered to be a fair target.
I noticed this week the same thing happening to talented actress Pauline Quirke.
Like most of us, she has struggled with weight over the years and she’s possibly a few dress sizes bigger than when she slimmed down a couple of years ago.
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Being slightly heavier certainly won’t affect her ability to make us laugh in Birds of a Feather or to tackle dramatic roles in the likes of Broadchurch, where she played a blinder as a sinister murder suspect.
The same thing happened to the fiercely intelligent and highly professional presenters Anne Diamond and Judy Finnigan.
There’s a deeply unattractive glee, notably in certain women’s magazines, whenever a woman in the public eye is snapped looking less than her best and maybe a few pounds over their fighting weight.
It took me until I was over 50 to find a healthy eating plan combined with fantastic exercise classes twice a week that helped me tone up, feel fit and have tons more energy.
I’ve also been able to keep the weight off.
It’s not about being skinny. It’s about being healthy.
It’s not easy.
You need to find a healthy eating programme (not a diet — they don’t work) and an exercise routine that is fun so you will stick to it.
But no one should be made to feel ashamed just because they aren’t as slim as they were back in their heyday.
Obviously if the weight gain becomes enormous and endangers your health then action needs to be taken.
But Charlie is a long way off being considered worryingly overweight.
She’s a wise woman and sensible enough not to be hurt by bitchy comments, but it can’t have been pleasant.
I reckon she oozes as much hearty sex appeal as when she bounced bra-less in tight T-shirts and scanty shorts back in the golden days of the Ground Force water features.
There might be more of her to go around these days, but Charlie looks really contented in her own skin and that’s what is most important.
So leave her alone.
At last! Cameron's kids get Dad back
IT can’t be easy for children growing up in Number 10.
David and Samantha Cameron were mostly successful in keeping their kids away from the spotlight.
Although there was that time he left daughter Nancy behind in the pub when she was eight.
They were very open about the devastating grief of the family when disabled son Ivan died in 2009 aged six.
And this week the ex-PM and his wife decided it would be a family affair when they said goodbye to Downing Street and their cute youngest daughter Florence, right, was the star of the show.
Her dad revealed that when Flo was a toddler, she squatted in one of his office “red boxes” before he went off on a foreign trip and demanded to be taken with him.
Along with her older brother Elwen and sister Nancy, Flo obviously found it upsetting when her father was unable to spend time with all of them due to pressures of the job.
He revealed in his leaving speech that the three of them would give the red boxes a bit of a kicking out of sheer frustration.
It must have been tough to get the work/life balance right. And I am sure he feels as guilty as any working parent for not being around enough when they were tiny. You could also forgive Samantha for feeling a bit frazzled.
She had just 24 hours notice to pack everything up, organise the removal van and quit the place she had turned into a family home over the past six years.
I’m sure part of her will heave a huge sigh of relief now that her husband no longer is on call 24 hours a day with one of the most stressful jobs on the planet.
But she wouldn’t be human if she didn’t miss some of the glitz and prestige that goes with high office.
During her time as PM’s wife as the UK’s “First Lady”, she didn’t put a foot wrong, always looked quietly stylish and coped with the media spotlight with patience and dignity.
It will be interesting to see if as much attention is paid to the outfits and hairstyle of our new PM’s husband Philip May, who has the rather thankless task of being our “First Gentleman”.
And it’s maybe no bad thing that the Cameron children can grow up away from the Westminster bubble and have a relatively normal, albeit privileged life before hitting their teens.
LIVE LIFE FREE OF TERROR
FRANCE is battered and bloody, once more victim of an attack on innocent men, women and children.
This time the weapon was a truck driven through crowds out celebrating Bastille Day. They were laughing, chatting and happily enjoying beautiful Nice.
Going out with your children, family and friends, it wouldn’t even enter your head that someone would be so filled with hate and rage they would commit such an atrocity.
It’s hideous. It’s stomach churning. It’s enraging.
But don’t let the terrorists make you scared. Don’t let them make you cower in fear.
Continue to live your life as usual.
Otherwise they win.
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We must keep on trekkin'
THE release of the Star Trek Beyond movie is bittersweet.
The film itself is a spectacle with some lovely nods to the original series, much appreciated by fans like me, but there is deep sadness behind the scenes.
The film is dedicated to the memory of Leonard Nimoy, the original Mr Spock who died last year, and also to young actor Anton Yelchin who played Chekov in all three of the reboot movies.
He was tragically killed in a freak accident last month aged just 27.
When I spoke to Zachary Quinto this week, who puts in such a fine performance as Spock, he and the cast were still struggling to cope with Anton’s death, but were determined to celebrate a fine young man and actor who seemingly had his whole life ahead of him.
Anton is brilliant in the film, which also stars Idris Elba as a tortured baddie, and there’s a delightful scene showing that Sulu has a husband and daughter.
More good news for my fellow Trekkers – Sky is launching an entire movie channel devoted purely to Star Trek films on Monday.
Bang goes my social life . . .
Careerist Boris is so jammy
BORIS JOHNSON could fall into the River Clyde and emerge bone dry with two fat salmon in his jacket pockets.
He is the jammiest politician in the country.
One minute down and out, the next bounced into one of the highest offices in the land as Foreign Secretary.
I’ve never really bought into the shambolic “cripes, crikey” and jolly hockey sticks persona that is supposed to be oh-so endearing.
I think he is a cold-eyed careerist who desperately wants the top job – and if I was Theresa I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.
I’m not sure what she was thinking in handing him such a plum post.
Perhaps she wants to give him enough rope to hang himself, or more likely needs to show her commitment to Brexit.
It’s perplexing that we will be expecting diplomacy from a man who has in the past snidely referred to US president Obama’s “part-Kenyan heritage” and wrote about the Turkish president having sex with a goat. He has also described black people as “piccaninnies” and implied Papua New Guinea has an “issue” with cannibalism.
He makes Prince Philip sound like a Channel Four head of diversity.
Maybe our new PM feels it is better to have enemies, malcontents and fruit loops in the tent peeing out rather than outside peeing in, but even peacemaker Theresa couldn’t face giving Michael Gove a seat at the big boys’ table.
Boris must be hugging himself with glee to get such public revenge on the man who stabbed him in the front and back, but I don’t think there will be long to wait before our new man at the Foreign Office commits an unforgivable gaffe.
He just can’t help himself.
Cook with Señorita Clegg
POLITICS is a poorer place since Nick Clegg stepped down as leader of the Lib Dems, because it has meant that we haven’t seen as much of his super-intelligent and elegant wife, Miriam.
Happily, she has bounced back into the public eye with the release of a sumptuous cookery book bursting with recipes from her native Spain.
I always reckoned Miriam would make a splendid politician herself. She’s a woman’s woman, utterly charming, warm, open and honest.
On second thoughts, judging by the shenanigans of the last few weeks, all of those attributes probably rule her out.
Her book, Made in Spain, is out on July 28.