PAUL HOLLYWOOD and DAME PRUE LEITH whisk us a merry Christmas with specials featuring a TV reunion and a Bake Off first!

Cheryl Martin lives in Chapel Allerton, north Leeds. The US-born writer and theatre maker is artistic director of Red Ladder Theatre Company and directs their new festive show, A Proper Merry Christmess , which opens in Leeds before going on tour

Food and recipes have always offered comfort to Diana Henry. As she brings out a book celebrating her life as a food writer, she reveals how festive cooking brings her the most joy of all

DAME MARY BERRY on her festive celebration

One day in 1974, actress Prunella Scales travelled to Hyde Park Gardens to visit John Cleese in his flat to discuss a potential role in a new situation comedy called Fawlty Towers. As it happened, Cle

Betty Middleton had only moved in two weeks earlier, but already she was starting to annoy me with her frequent knocks at my back door. “Would you like a slice of my lemon drizzle? It’s home-made!” No