THE old ones are the best it seems.

Here at Echo Towers we have racked up a few hundred years in showbiz this week. Hilary Porter and I have laughed out loud with Des O'Connor and interrupted Jimmy Tarbuck's game of golf on the Algarve. We've visited Dire Straits bassist John Illsley's New Forest pub and heard all about the antics of Ken Dodd.

Illsley is releasing a new album Long Shadows, Ken Dodd is returning to the South Coast for his usual Easter date and Des O'Connor and Jimmy Tarbuck are due to pack out Mayflower Theatre with their live on stage tour.

These showbiz legends are still creating a buzz despite being of a certain vintage.

They've also got a certain gravitas about them that just doesn't exist with your 21st century reality TV star.

Sir Roger Moore, probably my favourite interviewee of all time, took the trouble to call me to thank me for the article - a virtually unheard of occurrence, which showed a touch of class on his part.

That's not to say, there's no young talent out there for us to talk to.

This week I also had a chat with Zoie Golding, the gifted Eastleigh choreographer who goes into male dominated environments such as men's prisons and traveller camps and changes lives for the better through dance.

Just a few minutes later it was the turn of another Hampshire success story, 20-year-old Southampton dancer Kai Widdrington who is appearing in Strictly Come Dancing star Brendan Cole's new show, in the city on Sunday.

There's plenty of talent out there, but whether our current crop of TV variety stars can make a career out of it is another matter.

I just wonder how many of them will be filling venues or releasing new material in 50 years time?

This may be a reflection on my tiny brain, but I can't even remember who won Britain's Got Talent last year or who was on the X Factor live tour last month.

Having turned to Google, apparently the BGT winner was a dog. That says it all really.

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