Innholdsfortegnelse for 12/11/2023 i The Big Issue

I have a thing about Mrs Brown’s Boys. Stay with me. I know it’s not quite The Bear, but frankly, what is. Still, there is something about that show that hits the spot. Really, stay with me. It’s easy to knock Mrs Brown’s Boys. I’ve seen it happen. Imagine! When the Christmas TV schedule was announced last week, there was a national collective groan among many as Mrs Brown’s Boys made the list again. It’s indicative, for many, of all that is wrong with TV – hammy, obvious, repetitive. But I’d argue if that’s what you think, you’re coming at it wrong. Of course it’s broad. And there have been some questionable plots in recent Christmas specials (I’ve seen them all). But there are several other key parts to it.…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Christmas cheer I wanted to tell you how much we’ve enjoyed doing your Christmas Kids Cover competition this year with our Year 7 children (11-12 years). At the minute, we’re reading the novel Stone Cold by Robert Swindells, in which the main character is homeless and, as a result, we have looked at articles from The Big Issue which pupils have found really insightful. It’s certainly helped to broaden their views and understanding about such a serious social issue. Lindsay Hamilton, deputy headteacher, Ovingham Prudhoe (more on page 20) Natural leaders? Paul McNamee, in his piece about education [Issue 1592, 27 November], states, “the aspiration should be to make state schools…

In episode seven of the final series of The Crown, a flashback scene shows the teenage Prince William selling The Big Issue on the streets of London with Princess Diana. A young Kate Middleton, out shopping with her mother, buys a copy from him and their eyes meet. There’s a spark between them. An attraction, though William, an awkward adolescent at the time, looks a little flustered. The Big Issue bringing together the future king and queen. What a story! The next time they meet, William and Kate are at university in St Andrews and the spark that first ignited between them during a brief transaction, the sale of The Big Issue overseen by both of their mothers, eventually bursts into a flame. The rest is history. The Royal Family,…

KIDS’ BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2023 Lions and griffins and ghosts, oh my! These were the unmissable kids’ books of 2023 Age: 0-6 King Lionby Emma Yarlett (Walker Books, £12.99) Loneliness and being misunderstood are common subjects for children’s books; authors know that childhood can often be difficult, especially if you feel you don’t fit in and can’t make friends the way everyone else apparently can. This book takes a clever approach to tackling that emotional anxiety – its alienated, misunderstood character is a mighty lion, ostensibly a majestic, powerful creature who can have anything he wants. But what he wants is a friend. And that is a difficult task when everyone is scared of him and withdraws when he appears. It takes a special kind of empathy and courage…

Complaining about Christmas TV is a grand tradition that I’ve been indulging in since I was a child. Even now – when there’s so much content available that you could binge it until the end of time and still not even make a dent – you’ll never find anything you want to watch (apart from maybe Ghosts.) But I guess that’s the point. Christmas telly is a gentle festive panacea. It’s pixelated wallpaper, a burbling sound in the corner, a big rectangle to fixate upon. We don’t need surprises. We know Bruce Willis will save the Nakatomi Plaza and Kevin’s parents will eventually figure out where they left him. A nd even if we’re watching a new series of a much-hyped drama, we’ll be in a Quality Street stupor anyway…

ALFIE BREW, 28 It’s been good on my pitch recently. It’s been wicked, I really enjoy it. I’ve been doing it for two years and it gets me out there talking to people about my mental health issues. I suffer from bipolar and paranoid schizophrenia, so communicating with people and getting the support from my clients is the reason that I sell the magazine. Christmas on my pitch is fantastic because I’ve got three dogs and everybody loves them. They’re called Bambi, China and Wrinkles. I’ve had Bambi for several months, I’ve had China for a year and Wrinkles is just a puppy so I’ve had him for three months. They help my mental health too. They’re well behaved and having them around helps with everything. I’m originally from Worthing…

For those who knew me as a teenager, one of my defining features was that I adored Christmas. From the annual Facebook post on 14 September informing everyone there was only ‘100 days until Christmas!!!’ to the endless recommendations for movies, markets and music I would give to my friends, I embodied the festive spirit. One of my favourite parts of Christmas has always been the decorations and, living in London, I have no shortage of light displays to drag my partner along to on freezing night-time walks. But the holiday decoration I’ve always loved the most is the Christmas tree. To me as a child, having a Christmas tree in your home signified opulence. In every Christmas film I watched, families living in mansions would gather around a lavishly…

KIDS COVER COMPETITION This year’s entries to the Christmas Kids Cover Competition were arguably the best ever. Hundreds and hundreds of fantastic festive entries flooded in, riffing on this year’s theme: WELCOME, making it almost impossible to pick a winner. But after much deliberation, six-year-old Arnold Sam from Epsom, Surrey was crowned this year’s winner, his picture of a very jolly Christmas tree and a joyous Santa filling us with Christmas spirit. Arnold said: “When I heard this exciting news, I felt so happy and really proud that my drawing will be on the cover of The Big Issue. The magazine helps people.” Arnold is passionate about art, and heard about the competition from his teacher Lily. “He loves drawing and this opportunity was especially exciting for him,” said Arnold’s…

By 16, I’d retired from one career. I retired on my 16th birthday – thanks to some PR person in London for coming up with the line “on a high note” – to concentrate on my O levels. So I was stuck in the BBC in Bangor in north Wales for what seemed like a week doing TV for America and all around the world explaining that my voice had broken. The scary thing was, I had no plans. Literally none. I was back in north Wales concentrating solely on playing tennis and my girlfriend at the time. Tennis took over my life for a while. I played for about five hours every day around school. I played for north Wales in mixed doubles. But I didn’t know what I…

WONKA CHALAMET, CHOCOLATE AND A COMIC CRITIQUE OF CAPITALISM Mathew Baynton and Simon Farnaby on the biggest film of the festive season Sing it from the rooftops: Wonka is magic. If you see someone skipping down the high street in the next few weeks, it could be they’re feeling the spirit of Christmas coursing through their veins. But most likely, they’ve just seen Wonka at the pictures. Timothée Chalamet is the very definition of charm as Willy Wonka, while Calah Lane is all heart as his new, young orphan pal Noodle. The supporting cast gathers the very best of British comedy talent – from Blackadder’s Rowan Atkinson to Peep Show’s Olivia Colman and Paterson Joseph and Ghosts’ Mathew Baynton and Simon Farnaby (who also co-wrote the film). Every line of…

NOW AND THEN Pop life begins at 40 The year is 2124 and humankind survives on a scorched Earth. The sun it burns and the rivers run dry. Men in futuristic bondage gear roam an apocalyptic landscape in clapped-out cars, shooting each other with crossbows over the last dregs of a bottle of Highland Spring. There are robots. Bad robots. Nobody can figure out where it all went wrong. And yet one unalterable truth remains – one unblinking beacon of hope and certainty in a strange and hostile world. Aunt Pat still gets you the latest NOW That’s What I Call Music! CD for Christmas. And a Terry’s Chocolate Orange. For exactly four decades, the fat boxes of NOW compilation CDs and cassettes have bulged stockings more unambiguously than the…

The night before he was due to fly from Dhaka, Pritom Shahadat found out he would have nowhere to live when he arrived in London. He was travelling to the UK to study law, and the agency which had helped arrange his visa was supposed to have arranged a room for him to stay. Without knowing where he would sleep when he arrived, he boarded the flight to Abu Dhabi and then on to Heathrow. He met another Bangladeshi man en route, who was also searching for housing, and together they arrived at the airport late at night with their luggage and were picked up by one of his new acquaintance’s friends. “Suddenly [the driver] got a phone call from one of his friends,” recalls Shahadat. “They said they might…

Peter Aldous, who as MP for Waveney has Lowestoft within his constituency, had invited me to visit a series of projects in his ancient former fishing town. On a kind of hunting trip for projects that help get people out of the emergency of need and hopefully on to a fuller life, I could not resist. Especially as I had never visited Lowestoft and am a glutton for seaside towns. I was not disappointed. Lowestoft is a historic port and has a great future in terms of energy; a whole new business world is being created around wind, and Suffolk has its fair share of that. Also tidal power will presumably be harnessed, especially in a world dedicated to getting our energy from anything other than fossil fuels. Among others,…