News about Jasper Carrott

Lucy Davis revealed her beloved dog Gracie has died as she shared a heartbreaking tribute.  The English actress, best known for playing Dawn Tinsley in BBC comedy The Office, took to Instagram on Monday to share her grief along with a sweet selection of throwback snaps.  Lucy - who relocated to the States in 2004 - shared adorable pictures of Gracie enjoying the sunshine and spending time with her parents, Jasper Carrott and Hazel Jackson. 

It's one of the longest-running quiz shows ever on UK television, pulling in an average 4m viewers a day and winning a BAFTA and three National Television Awards , as well as becoming a huge international franchise. Not bad for a show that started life as a temporary replacement for Jasper Carrott's long-forgotten Golden Balls. Now, as The Chase enters its 15th year, we've pulled together 35 of its most fiendish questions for our interactive quiz. Think you could beat the Chasers? Find out by trying your hand below...

A lot happened in 2009. Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America, Matt Smith was announced as the new Doctor Who and Michael Jackson's death shocked pop fans around the world. It was also the year a new daytime quiz show took its first steps onto our screens, a quiz show that would go on to be one of the longest-running ever on UK television, pulling in an average 4m viewers a day and winning a BAFTA and three National Television Awards , as well as becoming a huge international franchise. Not bad for a show that started life as a temporary replacement for Jasper Carrott's long-forgotten Golden Balls. That show was The Chase, in which professional quizzers, known as the 'Chasers', attempt to stop contestants winning a large cash prize by correctly answering more general knowledge questions than them. As it enters its 15th year, host Bradley Walsh and the Chasers have come together for an exclusive interview to talk about its phenomenal success.

Jake Thackray was unique; he was a Yorkshire-born chansonnier who sang songs of outcasts, boozers, lonely widows, retired brigadiers and spurned country girls. His beautiful and often hilarious songs have not only been admired by Jarvis Cocker and Morrissey but also by Alex Turner, of Arctic Monkeys fame; Thea Gilmore, Cerys Matthews and Jasper Carrott. Born into a Catholic household in Leeds in 1938, Thackray attended a boarding school in North Wales and was awarded an English degree from Durham University. He then spent three years teaching in France and Algeria. There he discovered the work of Georges Brassens, a celebrated French chansonnier. This tradition dates back to the medieval jongleurs, producing songs that were sometimes bawdy, other times tender or nostalgic, and always irreverent. On his return to England, Thackray taught in Leeds, where he became a fine guitarist, using his skills to calm unruly pupils.

From soul-baring memoirs to a low-budget parody of Jurassic Park, we look at five of the best shows to take in at the Edinburgh Festival this week

Contestants flock to game shows with the hope they can give them a better life - with high jackpots offering an easy opportunity to land some much-needed cash. But for some the risk they might fail to score the winning prize is too much - and they seek to secure their hopes through nefarious means. And sometimes events around those in the show take over from the jackpot-scooping adrenaline, with a darts-playing murderer and ruthless tactics all hogging the limelight on some of Britain's biggest shows.

According to The Sun, legendary comedian Jasper Carrott has reportedly signed up for a television comeback on Taskmaster. Alex Horne, the creator and co-host of Channel 4's game show All About Me, announced that among the 'old-school' comedians, he'd like to sign up for the series. The former Golden Balls host, 78, still does stand-up comedy, but he has kept his gigs more lowkey than in his golden days in the Eighties and Nineties heyday.

EXCLUSIVE: Stephen Bushnall (left), 50, is still an internet sensation 15 years after the first episode of the ITV show first aired on television. The father has become a meme, and the clip on Instagram and Tiktok, where he was deceived by fellow contestant Sarah (right) in the final round of the competition (inset). Stephen, of Hartlepool, County Durham, told Mail Online: "Fifty thousand pounds at the time would have changed my life." And now that I was in a lot of debt, I am still am. It would have been amazing. It would have sorted out a lot of issues if I had played the game properly.'

In a throwback snapshot of herself aged 18 posted on Monday, an actress seemed unrecognizable. The actress claimed that the photograph was taken as she entered a new house when she first started attending drama school. All her attempts paid off as she went on to become a well-known television actress while seated on a mattress on the floor.

Until Jasper Carrott (left), 77, appeared on the television this week as a grumpy pensioner living in Ambridge's Laurels care home, Archers in Ambridge, was baffled. But Archers supporters thought he sounded just like self-made businessman Vince Casey, played by Tony Turner (top right). However, Archers fans thought he sounded just like self-made businessman Vince Casey, who was played by Tony Turner.