So I went to see The Hangover: Part III today with mixed expectations. The first one broke new ground in the movie arena, bringing a fresh concept to a party style movie with the twist of what happens when the sun comes up the next today. I laughed so much that when the second part was announced, I found myself itching to get in the cinema to watch it. (That was 6 months before its release!) Unfortunately, aside from the hilarious scene in a Bangkok Strip Club, I felt that Todd Phillips and the gang were just reproducing the first outing in a different location. The fans wanted more.

And boy oh boy, in Part III, Todd Philips has shown why he had to make the trilogy and answer his critics (myself included) following the second outing.

First thing you need to know is there is no-one getting married, hence no stag do (batchelor party), no mayhem… yeah right!

The film opens in Thailand where Mr Chow escapes his prison cell, worthy of Andy Dufresne might I add, during a riot. A chase through the sewers leads him to jump from a cliff edge, plunging into the Gulf of Thailand.

Alan has not changed since we left him. He is still immature, brainless and damn right funny. His parents are sick of him because he is a constant disappointment, and when it all becomes too much for his father (quite emotional but funny at the same time), it’s decided by his mom, sister and the Wolf Pack that he needs to go to Arizona Institution for an ‘intervention’.

ROAD TRIP! Phil, Stu, Doug and Alan hit the open road but are quickly side tracked, and rammed off the road, by Marshall, a gangster trying to track down 40 odd million dollars’ worth of gold bullion from Mr Chow. We then find out that subtle little hints have been dropped into the previous two movies to build up to this moment.

Always given the short straw, Doug is held hostage until the three amigos can track down Mr Chow, retrieve the gold and return it to Marshall before the sunrises 3 days later.

Cue the ‘hangover’. What follows is pure genius, with a bit of long windiness to prolong the Wolf Pack’s agony. I don’t want to give too much more away but you’ll be treated to a trip to Tijuana, old faces reappearing, seductive lollipop sucking in a pawn shop, abseiling down Caesar’s Palace and finally the finale just outside of Vegas. Oh, and a happy ending too.

All in all, enough to make you feel as though you’re the one with a hangover.

I am pleased to say that this movie is a good one to see, but do take it with a pinch of salt because after all, it is a comedy and therefore, not meant to be judged on anything more than whether it can make you laugh or not.

Salt or Sweet? Definitely Sweet.  

So I was sitting discussing with my colleague (JS) various different topics when we stumbled across old films we used to watch as children. There is not a significant age gap between us, only 5 years, but our choices in favourite films does differ quite considerably.

Once we had finished listing our favourite films, JS touched on the main actor in one of her films (The Indian in the Cupboard) and how she used to have a crush on him when she was 3 years old! I was more shocked at the age of her first crush then the fact she had a crush on Henri from the film.

After controlling my laughter, JS added fuel to the fire by declaring two further crushes: the first, Neville Longbottom from Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone and the second, Buzz McCallister from Home Alone. This send me into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, some of the others joined me. JS literally smiled and joined in with us.

The dreaded question fell on me when on of the girls asked me who I had a crush on when I was younger? I could honestly say I went blank and could not think of a single crush at such a young age.

So now I've had time to think about it, I think it only fair I declare my crushes from childhood films:

1. Allie from The Karate Kid Part I (She also appeared in Back to the Future)

2. Andy from The Goonies

3. Jessica from The Karate Kid Part III

So there you have it, my three choice.

Keep reading and I'll keep you posted on my life as The Odd One Out.

If there is anyone who knows how to help theatres up and down the country as they try to weather the dire economic outlook this year, it is Bill Kenwright.

The man at the top of the UK’s largest independent theatre company and the Everton FC chairman – a bit random in many people’s eyes – launches his latest jukebox musical Save the Last Dance For Me in Kent this week.

He gave me a long, in-depth interview earlier this month, in which he stated he loves provincial theatres and actively chose Dartford’s Orchard Theatre to debut his new show.

Here he talks about why he is launching a new production when others are closing – he closed Blood Brothers after 24 years in the West End last year because it was not making any money – and what troubles face theatres at the moment.

Why did you choose to launch Save the Last Dance For Me in Dartford rather than a big West End theatre or one in a larger city?

“I started off 40 years ago as a provincial theatre producer and that is not a derogatory term in my book.

“[I see myself as] a provincial theatre producer who has big Broadway and West End successes. I love the audiences out there.

“The letters and warmth I get are amazing. They seem to appreciate what I am about and they let me know when it’s bad, too, believe me. They let me know when I’ve got something wrong – and so they should.”

When do you know whether a show is going to be a success?

“You know whether it is going to be a flop about 20 seconds after the curtain goes up and you know pretty quickly if you got it right from the audience.”

So after the success of Dreamboats and Petticoats, is a similar type of musical like Save the Last Dance For Me not too much of a risk?

“You never see a show that does not cost half a million, so that is a bit of a risk.”

And how quick do you get the money back?

“It can be very quick but I’ve got some shows that have been out there two years which still haven’t recouped. It can be forever.”

So why do you stick with them?

“Because I think they will recoup one day. It is called a nervous hit. When it is not quite a flop and not quite a hit and just, is there. The audience are enjoying it but you are not making a lot of money and you decide you are going to live with it for a little while.

Was that what happened with Blood Brothers in the end?

“No. Blood Brothers was losing money in the last year but it had made so much money over the years that I didn’t mind.”

Are people stuggling to go out to the theatre now?

“Yes I do think times are very tough financially and now you have got all the colossal distractions of what you can see on your TV, your DVD and you iPads. It is extraordinary what is out there.

For people to go and see shows is an effort. That is why you have got to try to find something that an audience responds to.”

Save the Last Dance For Me runs at Dartford’s Orchard Theatre from Wednesday, January 16 to Saturday, January 26. Visit www.orchardtheatre.co.uk.

The Government may not get it, but the exciting new Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury is a great example of investing for growth.

It was a bold decision by the City Council to back a £25m project amid credit crunch and signs of a looming public spending crisis.

Yet it had the faith to press ahead, relying on ingenuity, passion and determination to raise the money from numerous sources without raiding the council tax coffers. Private individuals and charitable foundations injected nearly £5m, and the soon-to-disappear South East England Development Agency chipped in a couple of million.

It could have gone horribly wrong, provoked local cynicism and banner headlines denouncing council profligacy on the “fancy” arts instead of spending on hospitals and schools.

But no – it went ahead with near unanimous backing from all quarters.

And what a good job it did. This is cultural regeneration at its best. It recognises Canterbury as a city of culture and the central role a theatre can play in every citizen’s life. It is also a legacy to future generations. And it will earn big revenue as well as kudos for the city.

It is a civilising symbol – a winning combination of traditional theatre design inside with contemporary external architecture – that will repay its initial investment many times over. Well done to all involved. And also to Prince Edward whose thespian talents were well to the fore on stage on opening night.

There is a lesson here for Maidstone, the County Town which has dithered and dithered over a theatre project for decades. Years ago, it could have shown the boldness that Canterbury has demonstrated in spades. Now it is well behind Dartford and Bromley, let alone Canterbury. It missed its cue, and the age of austerity is hardly the best time to stage a revival.

They say if you can remember the 1960s then you weren't there.

Perhaps the O2's new nightclub Proud2 is pushing for a similar slogan, judging by the incredible party they threw for their press launch on Thursday.

Yes Thursday. Four days ago and I still can barely remember anything past 11.30pm from that night. The occassional free bar is a wonderful perk of the journalistic world but they never lose their devastating potential.

And on Thursday, it felt like they caused Armageddon for my liver.

Ok, so I fell fowl of having a few too many glasses of champagne and can barely report on The Bees, Nero and The Mystery Jets, pictured left, who performed on the night to the, shall we say, enthusiastic crowd.

That doesn't make me a criminal but it did make me ponder my attitude towards drinking.

Did I go out with a couple of my mates on Thursday with the intention of getting mind-bogglingly bladdered at the free event? No I didn't. Did we decide we were going to take advantage of the free booze on offer? You bet!

There lies the problem. Although we claim to know our limit, all notion of moderation went out of the window once what was on offer became free.

Was my shaky camera work at the opulently laid out and impressive club a sign of unprofessionalism? Or did I just have a few too many on a night where I was letting my hair down?

Perhaps we deserved the raging hangovers (mine suffered at work) the following day. But should we feel bad about it?

I was still at work at 8am and able to report on what was going on. Work hard, play hard is a philosophy that has served many before me well and will serve many well in the future.

Should I have felt naughty for arriving at my desk bleary-eyed the next day, even though I got on with the task in hand? Answers on a postcard please.

****

In Strictly news, Tom Chambers appears to be the main star set to grace the stage at the New Marlowe Theatre when their first programme of events gets underway in October.

He will don his dancing shoes once again for Top Hat, the first ever stage version of the 1935 film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Tom was never my favourite Strictly Come Dancing champion. Lisa Snowden or Rachel Stevens should have won that year but no one could deny he was a charmer.

Also Tom made no secret of claiming Fred and Ginger were his dancing idols during his run to the glitterball in 2008.

Which surely means his toe-tapping antics will be a coup for the new Marlowe, who will stage the show before it goes on a West End run.

I’m so sorry to any of you that were looking for yesterdays blog, but I had to disappear early yesterday to say a final farewell to a good mate’s father, Ted, you will be missed and Zubi, I’m thinking of you mate!

It’s Kentish express Thursday so a little look at the papers later on but in the meantime it’s on with today’s game, actually having said that, as I missed yesterday why don’t I give you a top five from then. It was British places in songs and your clue was Jimmy Osmond’s classic ‘long haired lover from LIVERPOOL’

5. LONDON calling; The Clash

4. LAMBETH walk (Oi)

3. WATERLOO; ABBA

2. MARGATE; Chas and Dave

1. Cry me a RIVER (Nr Canterbury); Justin Trousersnake

Keeping on a similar theme, we went with place names in America and there were literally hundreds, but not enough room so here is the top ten;

10. Is this the way to AMARILLO; Tony Christie

 9. 24 hours from TULSA; Gene Pitney

 8. An Englishman in New York; Sting

 7. HARLEM Shuffle; Rolling Stones

 6. PHILLADELPHIA freedom; Elton John

 5. NUTBUSH city limits; Tina Turner

 4. Last train to CLARKESVILLE; The Monkees

 3. MIAMI; Will Smith

 2. Viva LAS VEGAS; Elvis

 1. Blue ridge mountains of VIRGINIA; Laurel and Hardy

 Other interesting snippets from today’s show were; Kirstyn’s obsession with trying to get rid of some old out of date cooking oil. I must admit, I didn’t think it could go out of date, but what do I know? She asked my advice and I told her to dig a hole and bury it in the garden, she wasn’t impressed. But I thought we get the oil from the earth so why not repatriate it, it makes perfect sense. But the funniest part of all this was she was struggling to find a word for the container that the oil came in. She was gesticulating with her hands to try to show me the shape, but it wasn’t helping. We were coming up with all sorts of words, but in the end it turned out to be that very under used English word, bottle. That’s right, bottle, she couldn’t think of the word bottle, honestly she’s a one off she really is.

My column makes its long overdue return to the Kentish Express after a little rest of the festive season, hurrah I hear you scream. Even if you only buy it just to see the picture of me in one of my biggest fashion faux pars of all time, I won’t spoil the surprise for you. Also there is a great story of one on my neighbours who gave up part of his liver to save his grandson, he’s a top man and its just a lovely happy story (EastEnders, take note). Plus a little story about my little mate Sophie Ashdown, who, as we speak is having breakfast with all the Disney characters in Disneyland Paris and she celebrates her birthday. She deserves all the happiness she can get, the bravest girl I’ve ever met.  

Coming up for your pleasure I have today’s list of songs and something (which isn’t quite a merge, it’s just songs connected to a particular subject). Also for your pleasure my brilliant ‘Just For Men’ story and Kirstyn’s random ‘sometimes I think she’s on another solar system’ comment, so don’t stop reading just yet.

First up, today’s game was songs and times of the day and week, I won’t explain, I’ll just show you the outcome.

I don’t like MONDAY’s (Boomtown Rats)

Ruby TUESDAY (Rolling Stones)

WEDNESDAY (Tori Amos) Never heard of it personally

THURSDAY’s child (Tanita Tikram)

 FRIDAY I’m in love (The Cure)

SATURDAY nights alright for fighting (Elton John)

SUNDAY girl (Blondie)

So there’s your day’s of the week, let’s break it down even more;

21 SECONDS to go (So Solid Crew)

It only takes a MINUTE (Take That)

Happy HOUR (Housemartins)

A hard DAY’s NIGHT (Beatles)

What’s the story MORNING glory (Oasis)

Down in a tube station at MIDNIGHT (Jam)

YESTERDAY (Beatles)

TOMORROW never comes (Ronan keating).

So there is an advert on the box for Just For Men, which is basically men’s hair dye. So the gist of it is a beautiful women knocks at the door. Man sees her through security peep-hole and she asks to borrow milk. There is no milk in fridge, but what’s worse, he sees himself in the mirror and notices how grey he is. So rather than answer the door, he runs out the back, down the shop and buys the hair dye and some milk. Quickly applies the dye then opens the door eventually to hand over the milk and of course, the lady likes what she sees. I suppose the moral of the story is, beautiful women don’t like blokes with silver hair, how greyest!

And finally, Kirstyn’s ‘jaw dropping moment’. We were discussing one of our birthday boys, who happens to have turned sweet sixteen. I was saying all the things he could now legally do, smoking for instance, not that I condone that kind of behaviour. He could also ride a scooter or moped under 50cc and if he wanted to, he could get married. Well, you may have actually heard my jaw hit the floor when she told me she thought that boys could get married at ANY age. There is nothing more I can add, I’m still speechless.

It’s the first ‘Monday Morning Surgery’ of the New Year and we had a few visitors, but not many with gripes or groans or mopes or moans, you were just celebrating life frankly. That is apart from John, on his way home from a nightshift, in fairness he wasn’t really having a moan, he was just slightly perturbed. Strangely enough, John was at the same ‘do’ as me on Saturday night, namely Keith Wynter’s 50^th birthday bash. Well, on the way home he was feeling a bit peckish so him and the Mrs decided to stop at a particular fast food establishment. I must point out at this stage that the restaurant was shut; only the drive-through bit was open. As they got there, two people were standing by the order intercom trying to get a burger, but to their dismay, they were denied because they didn’t have a vehicle. Is it just me or is that a bit odd, surely a sale is a sale, it seems a bit pernickety. There may be some law or insurance reason that I don’t know about, so if anyone can correct me then please do, but until then I’m going to be a bit disappointed with them. Fortunately our dear listener friend felt for their plight and got them the required fast food on their behalf.

Do you know when sometimes you wish you’d never said something? That happened this morning when I did a very spontaneous throw away comment on the back of a song. The song in question was Michelle Gayle’s ‘sweetness’ and I simply said that she used to play Hattie in EastEnders and was Ian Beale’s love interest, uuugghh! Anyway, on the back of that I simply said I haven’t bothered watching it recently because the new blooming ‘baby swapping’ story is SO ridiculous and that’s when the floodgates opened. I took call after call from people backing me up and saying how sad it was that Samantha Womack (or Janus as I remember her) who plays Ronny Mitchell seems to be taking most of the flack in ‘real life’, it’s ridiculous. Firstly, don’t blame her, blame the producer and script writers and secondly, she’s an actress playing a part, what is the matter with people? I have to say, I had a similar reaction from a couple of people many moons ago. I was working with Chris Evans at the time on the radio and he was also doing the brilliant TFI Friday. I had a phone call from Danny Baker asking if I wouldn’t mind coming down to the studios and playing a role in the programme, no problem I thought. It you remember, it was quite an irreverent kind of programme, a bit off the wall, and they asked me to be ‘the man who likes to be booed’. So, I got in to make up, learnt my lines, did a rehearsal in preparation for the live event. Basically, the man that likes to be booed would come on, say three things that would get the crowd booing, then thank them for being a great audience and get off. It went that well, that I did it another three weeks and should have only been a one off. One of my lines, just so you get the gist, was I can’t wait for the European Championships when Germany spank England. Cut to three weeks later and I’m in the pub having a beer when I get attacked by two blokes who took umbrance to that line. So what I’m trying to say, is I feel for Samantha and also, don’t take TV so blooming seriously for goodness sake.

OK, so the snow has wrecked just about every single travel route in Kent.

I joined the hundreds of commuters stuck on the gridlocked A2 yesterday (Tuesday, November 30) until I swerved off the pandemonium onto the hard-shoulder for about 300 yards (very naughty I know) and took the next junction off the motorway and made my way home through the country lanes.

London is slightly different. You can actually get from A to B, albeit at a snail’s pace in some instances. I know from the ear-ache I’ve been getting from my commuter dad and brother that there are no excuses for city workers heading into the capital. The trains are slowly running from my home town of Gravesend into the Big Smoke but I know delays have been much heavier for commuters from other areas of Kent. We have all heard stories of people stranded on trains on their way home on four-hour journeys.

So it is with this knowledge that I fear for anyone going to see Arcade Fire at the O2 Arena tonight (Wednesday, December 1) or tomorrow. Although I appreciate travelling is tough at the moment, I’ll be hacked off if the venue is half empty for a set from one of the best live acts in the world at the moment.

A gig is nothing without atmosphere and while tonight’s performance is sold out and tomorrow’s (which I am going to) has only some additional seating left for sale, I fear the worst for the attendance levels.

What would the Canadian outfit think of what happens to this country when we get a few inches of snow? Of course, the UK’s budget for dealing with this level of snowfall is much smaller than that of the North Americans but that will not stop the sniggers from our cousins across the Atlantic. It might also dissuade Arcade Fire from playing over here at this time of year again.

To be honest I was a bit miffed when I heard their headline sets at the Reading and Leeds Festivals this summer were poorly attended. This was largely down to scepticism from ticket buyers about the Montreal band getting bill topper status when they had only released two albums.

Yet when they released their mind-blowing third effort The Suburbs in the spring, it should have silenced the doubters and made for a sensational gig. Let’s face it, the other two headline acts were Guns and Roses, whose frontman Axl Rose showed up an hour late, and the brilliant but slightly dated Blink 182.

So for anyone out there umming or arring about whether to brave the cold and hop on a train to the O2 (I am not advocating driving – this is clearly not safe at the moment) then this is a call to arms. The spirit of rock and roll should implore you to support your favourite band no matter the obstruction or journey time.

It is not as if you’ll be suffering delays for a train that is going to take you to work, where you don’t want to be anyway, is it?