Essex Stars Hit The Desert!

Last month, nine of the country's biggest celebrities gathered together to take part in a Comic Relief fundraising adventure. In previous years, we have seen David Walliams swim the channel, Christine Bleakley jet-ski across the channel, Helen Skelton row the Amazon and who could forget Gary Barlow, Chris Moyles, Fearne Cotton, Cheryl Cole and other celebrities climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in 2009. A new year brings a new challenge, and 2011 was the year of the desert trek...

On 21st February, the BT Red Nose Day Desert Trekkers arrived in Kenya to start their mission. Scott Mills, Craig David, Peter White, Lorraine Kelly, Ronni Ancona, Nadia Sawalha, as well as Essex's own Olly Murs, Kara Tointon and Dermot O'Leary have all now returned safe and sound after what was probably one of the hardest week's of their lives.

After five very long days in the scorching sun and heat, the nine celebrities were obviously extremely exhausted but also very proud of the gruelling exhibition that they had completed. Our very own Olly Murs said that he 'wasn't prepared' for the extreme heat that the celebrities had to face, saying that it was a much harder task than he had expected.

From interviews on the radio, it seems as if the group of 9 got on very well with one another, with no reports of arguments just yet! To find out more, tune into BBC1 tonight at 9pm to see the group as they trekked across the desert in Kenya.

Also, be sure to tune into the Red Nose Day show on BBC1 tomorrow from 7pm to find out the total that the group managed to raise. All the money that they have fundraised will go towards aiding blindness across Africa.

To sponsor the trekkers, please go to:
http://bit.ly/feM7LH

Essex wins at the NTAs!

The annual National Television Awards took place this week at the O2 Arena with the ceremony broadcast on ITV. Hosted by Colchester's Dermot O'Leary, he started off the celebrations for the evening.

The show opened with a performance from our very own Stacey Solomon, who captured our heart's last year on X Factor, as well as last Autumn on I'm A Celebrity. Solomon performed with her fellow campmate, Shaun Ryder. Stacey started the performance singing 'Feeling Good', formerly by Nina Simone - a song that she performed whilst competing in The X Factor alongside Joe McElderry and Olly Murs. Ryder then joined her on the stage to sing Happy Mondays hit 'Step On'.

Stacey was soon on the stage again whilst collecting the award for Entertainment Programme, that was deservedly won by 'I'm a Celebrity'. Stacey graced the stage again towards the end of the night whilst presenting the award for Most Popular Serial Drama to Eastenders.

However, Stacey wasn't our only X Factor star performing at the ceremony. Matt Cardle took to the stage to perform his Christmas Number One hit single, When We Collide. Singing and playing the guitar, Cardle wow-ed the audience with the incredible voice that won him last year's X Factor. He also took to the stage alongside Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole to collect the award for Talent Show, that X Factor beat Strictly & Dancing On Ice to.

The Inbetweeners picked up the award for Digital Choice - a new award that is awarded to the best TV show on digital channels. Alongside fellow co-stars Simon Bird (Will) and Blake Harrison (Neil), Essex boy Joe Thomas (Simon) collected the award with his girlfriend and co-star Hannah Tointon, also of an Essex background and sister to Strictly Come Dancing winner, Kara Tointon. Joe Thomas attended King Edward Grammar School for boys (KEGS) in Chelmsford before attending Cambridge University.

Congratulations to all the winners from the night, especially to I'm A Celebrity, X Factor & The Inbetweeners.
Roll on The Brits on the 15th February for some more Essex award-winners!

Kara lifts the Glitterball!

Eastenders actress, Kara Tointon, lifted the Strictly Come Dancing glitterball last night after winning the show with dance partner, Artem Chigvintsev. Having consistently received the top scores each week with the judges, the actress from Leigh-On-Sea was a deserving winner of the hit BBC1 show.

After dazzling the judges and the audience with her rumba from the previous week, Kara received an almost-perfect score of 39 out of 40 from the judges, with Craig Revell Horwood failing to give the pair a score of 10 due to 'an illegal lift'. The other judges and professional dancers failed to see an illegal lift but Mr Nasty still failed to give the couple the perfect score that they deserved.

Despite this, Kara and Artem reached the final two and waltzed their way to the glitterball trophy! The waltz was the only dance that this loved-up duo had failed to perform but managed to amaze the audience, who responded with yet another standing ovation.

Following weeks of training with one another, Kara and Artem had developed a very close relationship, with Artem announcing in a previous week that he would wait until the show was finished to ask Kara out on a date. He felt that it would be too 'complicated' for the pair to be in a relationship whilst still dancing on the show. The pair shared a loving kiss at the end of the show, with their fellow contestants and the audience responding with a cheer!

Congratulations to Kara and Artem!