The Londoner: Amfo in 'positive' Red Nose summit

Claro Amfo reveals Red Nose changes | Anita Rani's riverside regret | Shappi Khorsandi's unorthodox school run | La Roux goes in for the kill
Clara Amfo
Getty Images
5 February 2020

Clara Amfo held a private meeting with Richard Curtis and Emma Freud to discuss her concerns about Comic Relief, the DJ has disclosed. Amfo, who co-presented last year’s Red Nose Day, says their conversation, in Curtis and Freud’s Notting Hill home, has informed changes that will take effect in this year’s Comic Relief.

The charity, co-founded Curtis, has come under fire in recent years for promoting a “white saviour” narrative in its charity appeal videos for various African countries. “The conversations we had, yeah, they were long,” Amfo told the Fortunately podcast. When she was asked whether those conversations were ever uncomfortable, she replied: “It depends how you define uncomfortable, because I’ve got no problem with confrontation if it’s going to get s*** sorted out.”

Amfo continued: “We had a really emotional, civilised, transformative and, I think, genuinely positive conversation about the storytelling and about how the show is done. If anything I felt quite empowered because I thought, ‘Isn’t it so great that I’m in a time I can have this conversation in your house, in Notting Hill.’”

Freud, the director of Red Nose Day, confirmed to The Londoner: “It was a very important meeting for Richard and me.

“We were really grateful Clara came and talked to us with such clarity, patience and honesty about the situation we are so keen to improve.”

She added: “It was one of many conversations, which have led to us modernising the way we tell the stories of our recipients.”

The Londoner understands that during next month’s Red Nose Day, recipients will feature much more prominently in the appeal videos.

Amfo also explained why she wanted to have a sit-down conversation before she presented Red Nose Day in 2019. Describing Curtis and Freud as “very loving and very passionate people”, she said: “We had a real conversation around the execution of the show last year before I agreed to do it.”

Dart offers Anita the golden shot

As Anita Rani hosted the British Photography Awards last night, she rued the shot she didn’t snap.

“It was in Totnes. It was a beautiful, balmy summer’s day and I was about to do my first-ever wild swim in the River Dart,” the Countryfile presenter told The Londoner. “As I was heading down to the river with the crew, there in front of us was a couple sunbathing… naked. As they saw us coming, the bloke got up and started doing cartwheels…"

Rani was impressed. “Apparently it all goes in Totnes”.

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Andrew Hunter Murray, a journalist and comedian, last night launched his dystopian novel The Last Day. He told us he found it “depressingly easy not to be funny” when it came to his (successful) attempt to write serious fiction. “A lot of comedians like to say they can’t help but be ‘on’ all the time. Not me.”

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When comedian Shappi Khorsandi was 11, police advised her dissident Iranian father to check under his car for bombs, she said at an Intelligence Squared and gal-dem event last night. “He was like, ‘I’m not a mechanic, I’m a poet’ I’ve got no idea what the underneath of a car is meant to be like... get in! Get in!’”

Yasmin joins the Gardener's party

(L to R) Jenny Halpern Prince, Astrid Harbord, Chloe Delevingne, Tamara Beckwith and Josephine Daniel
Dave Benett/Getty Images for Guc

Models Yasmin Le Bon and Malin Jefferies lit up Gucci’s Sloane Street boutique this morning for a Lady Garden Foundation’s breakfast. It wasn’t just about coffee and canapés, the event is aiming to raise funds for researching gynaecological cancers.

Gucci will be making a donation, which will go towards research at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation. The event was co-hosted by the likes of campaigner Chloe Delevingne and gallery owner Tamara Beckwith.

Jenny Halpern Prince, co-founder and chair of the Lady Garden Foundation comments: ‘The funds secured from the partnership will go towards the extremely valuable task of researching into gynae cancers to make women #silentnomore.’

The pair help front the Foundation, which encourages women to stop beating around the bush and start talking about female health. Restaurateur Thomasina Miers, co-founder of Wahaca, also made the morning do. Made in Chelsea stars Rosie Fortescue and Georgina Toffolo joined the breakfast as well. And all attendees enjoyed an appetite-enhancing 30 per cent off all items in the store. Tuck in...

SW1A

Rebecca Long-Bailey says she and Angela Rayner would make a great team, though she herself is more Left-wing than her “bestie friend” flatmate. She told the TyskySour podcast: “It’s about celebrating the differences that we’ve got within the party,” before adding, “provided that everyone accepts the policy direction that I want to take forward as leader.” All differences are equal, but some differences are more equal than others.

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Worried about Valentine’s Day? Never fear, someone will be having a less romantic day than you. Chancellor Sajid Javid, for instance, who is planning to spend the day at a Pensioners’ Fair in Bromsgrove.

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“The UK is leaving the EU. Your business doesn’t have to,” reads an Estonian government ad in Westminster. Tube station, which offers Estonian e-residency to commuters wanting to run businesses in the EU. Take Baltic control.

Passing the menu test with carnivOrr

The late Deborah Orr, who died last October, was celebrated at the launch of her memoir, Motherwell, yesterday. Novelist Linda Grant recalled one of her first lunches with Orr, who ordered a “very large bone covered in meat”. She told Grant in disgust: “The last person I took out to lunch said, ‘I think I fancy something salady.’ Salady!”

Speaking to the audience at a Waterstones event in Piccadilly, Grant added: “I got the impression I’d passed some test and the other person hadn’t passed.” That’s a proper interview.

Quote of the day

'Nothing against Ellie Goulding, but I'm never going to write music that's boring enough to be on TVs all over the UK'

La Roux goes in for the kill.

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