Talking Shop: Stars at Christmas

ALAN DAVIES QI panellist MICKEY ROONEY Hollywood legend KT TUNSTALL Scottish singer JODI PICOULT Bestselling author SUZI QUATRO Rock star

NINA WADIA EastEnders actress SCOUTING FOR GIRLS Indie-pop scamps JOHNNY BRIGGS Soap star GISELE SCANLON Goddess Guide author ROXANNE PALLETT Emmerdale actress

ALAN DAVIES - ACTOR AND COMEDIAN

How will you be spending Christmas?
With my in-laws in Northumberland. I've never spent Christmas day at my own house. Last year we went to Adelaide to see my aunt and cousins.

Brussels sprouts: Good or evil?
Good! I love them steamed and sometimes post-steam I stir fry them with a bit of curry powder. Lush, if a bit trumpy.

What's the worst Christmas gift you've ever given?
I once gave someone a scarf that they used to line a dog basket so I don't think that went well...

Can you tell a Christmas cracker joke?
What's orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot.

What have you done this year that you hope Santa won't find out about?
He's not the boss of me!

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MICKEY AND JAN ROONEY - STARS OF HOLLYWOOD AND PANTO

How will you be spending Christmas?
Mickey: We'll be doing two shows a day so we'll have to sneak out for Christmas dinner. Hopefully I'll find a turkey.

What's your favourite Christmas film?
Mickey: I love Scrooge from A Christmas Carol.

What's the worst Christmas present you've ever given or received?
Jan: I gave someone a toilet roll of crossword puzzles and he wasn't happy with me! The worst present I've been given was a half-used bottle of perfume... And it wasn't a very big bottle.

What will your New Year's Resolution be?
Mickey: Just to keep going and enjoying life and wishing happiness for the world.

Mickey and Jan Rooney currently star in Cinderella at the Sunderland Empire.

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KT TUNSTALL - DRASTIC FANTASTIC SINGER

What are you doing this Christmas?
I'm going up to Edinburgh and I'm really looking forward to it. It's a wonderful place to spend the Christmas period. It's gorgeous - lots of hunky men playing bagpipes everywhere. It's lovely!

Who cooks the Christmas lunch?
My mum and my big brother cook Christmas dinner. Everyone's got an assigned job; I'm quite lazy, so my job is to stick cloves in the onions to go in the bread sauce. The bread sauce is may favourite part!

And then I'll do table layout and napkin folding... a bit of napkin origami.

My mum makes an unbelievable Christmas dinner. It's my favourite meal of the year. But unfortunately I don't eat her turkey anymore because I'm vegetarian.

Brussels sprouts: Good or evil?
Probably the most evil little things that have ever graced this Earth. Long may they recede from existence! They're on the table but they don't come anywhere near my plate.

You've got to have them though; I might miss them if we didn't have them at all.

Have you done anything this year that you don't want Santa to find out about?
No, I think I'm all right actually.

What presents are you hoping to get?
I think my mum's getting me some cushions, and I think I deserve them! Soft furnishings, eh? Rock and roll...

KT Tunstall's Drastic Fantastic album is out now.

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JODI PICOULT - NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR

Where are you spending Christmas?
At my house. Fortunately, as I type this, we are getting a foot of snow... so it will be a White Christmas.

Unfortunately, my house is under major reconstruction and most of our windows have been replaced by plywood, and we have no natural light. It's a bit like living in Batman's batcave!

Who cooks the Christmas dinner?
I do. If it left it up to my husband, we'd have beefy macaroni!

What have you asked Santa to leave in your stocking?
I'd love an iPod Touch from Santa. Feel free to tell my husband, too.

What song is guaranteed to get you dancing at the office Christmas party?
As a writer, my office party would be very pathetic, since I'm alone in my attic writing! But I've always harboured a secret wish to sing Santa Baby in a fur-trimmed red miniskirt.

Mince pies or eggnog?
Eggnog. Doesn't mince have something to do with meat? No-one in America eats meat pies!

Jodi Picoult's novels include Salem Falls and My Sister's Keeper. Her latest, Nineteen Minutes, is out now.

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NINA WADIA - EASTENDERS' ZAINAB MASOOD

How will you be spending Christmas?
In Canada with my husband's family.

Who cooks Christmas dinner in your house?
I do. And sadly I take it very seriously and wake up at 6am to get the turkey in the oven.

Brussels Sprouts: Good or evil?
God created Brussels Sprouts so evil had a taste.

What's the worst Christmas gift you've ever given?
A salon pampering day... for my friend who turned up bald at our Christmas party suffering from alopecia. It was too late to change the gift. Luckily she has a sense of humour.

What's the best film to watch on Christmas Day?
Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life.

Mince Pies or Eggnog? Both, of course!

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GREG CHURCHOUSE - SCOUTING FOR GIRLS GUITARIST

How will you be spending Christmas?
With the family at home in London.

What have you asked Santa to leave in your stocking?
A Christmas number one. I know Pete the drummer thinks it's a sure thing. So much so that he's put a bet on it.

What's the worst Christmas gift you've ever given?
Probably a mix tape to a girlfriend because I was unbelievably poor.

What song is guaranteed to get you dancing at the office Christmas party?
Last Xmas from Wham! It's quite possibly the greatest and the worst Christmas song ever.

What have you done this year that you hope Santa won't find out about?
I had a small diva hissy fit about skinny jeans. Because I'm tall and skinny they always seem to want to try to put me in them and I loathe skinny jeans with a passion!"

Scouting For Girls' self-titled debut album is out now.

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JOHNNY BRIGGS - CORONATION STREET'S MIKE BALDWIN

What's the worst Christmas present you've ever received?
I was about 10 and my mother and father gave me a book called Black Beauty, an orange and some cashew nuts. I've hated Black Beauty ever since and I've not been that keen on oranges. Or cashew nuts.

What about the best gift?
When he was younger, my son Anthony made a calendar with pictures of him as a baby up until he was 10 years old. That was the best.

Will you be making any New Year's Resolutions?
When I got divorced I had about eight boxes of paraphernalia in the back of my car. Then I went to the palace to pick up my MBE and the policewoman at the gates had to look through my car. She found all this stuff - pot and pans, vases, lamps!

She let me go as it would have taken her too long to look at everything, so my New Year's resolution is to clear out my car!

What's your favourite Christmas film?
High Society or HMS Defiant, which is a film I did with Alec Guinness.

Johnny Briggs is starring in Cinderella at Manchester's Royal Opera House.

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GISELE SCANLON - AUTHOR, THE GODDESS GUIDE

How will you be spending Christmas?
At home on mum and dad's farm in Listowel, Ireland, baking a gingerbread house with my six-year-old Godson. For a gingerbread house all you need is a truck full of royal icing and a lot of patience. A few pints of Guinness in the evening should help me unwind and spark off yet another wave of drunken nostalgic Crimble chat.

Brussels Sprouts: Good or evil?
Goooooooooooood! Cut a cross on the base, parboil in water, half, drain and brown on a pan. Gorgeous.

What's the worst Christmas gift you've ever given?
Really beautiful bath products to a friend who only has a shower.

Can you tell a Christmas cracker joke?
What do call a sleeping bull? A bulldozer. There are many, many more in my arsenal! What do you call Dracula's father's dad? Granpire.

What song is guaranteed to get you dancing at the office Christmas party?
The Pretender by Foo Fighters

What's the best film to watch on Christmas day?
Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder. It's pure Christmas nostalgia.

Mince Pies or Eggnog?
Mince Pies and Chantilly cream, or creme chantilly (use the French and impress your friends). Simply whip the cream with sugar and flavour with vanilla or brandy.

But there's more... Come inside, me old muckers, and there shall be Godiva candied chestnuts crushed and folded into whipped cream and dusted with shattered meringue; selection boxes; tins of Quality Street and all manner of declasse delicacies from days of yore!

Gisele Scanlon's The Goddess Guide is out now.

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SUZI QUATRO - LEATHER-CLAD ROCK STAR

How will you be spending Christmas?
In England at home with my children, Laura and Richard, granddaughter Amy, husband Rainer and ex-husband Len.

If you could have one Christmas present this year, what would it be?
A nice bottle of port.

What's the worst gift you've ever given?
Years ago I gave Len a shell suit... he loved me so much he actually wore it!

Have you done anything this year that Santa shouldn't find out about?
Not much, really. I never feel the need to cover my tracks... but possibly having a little red wine in the middle of the night when I couldn't get back to sleep. (Shhh... don't tell anyone!)

Can you tell a Christmas cracker joke?
All my jokes are Christmas cracker jokes - I'm famous for it! For example: Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Oswald.
Oswald who?
Oswald my bubble gum?

Suzi Quatro's autobiography, Unzipped, is published by Hodder & Stoughton.

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ROXANNE PALLETT - EMMERDALE'S JO STYLES

Who cooks Christmas dinner in your house?
My mam, Monica. She makes the best mashed potatoes!?

What have you asked Santa to leave in your stocking?
Surprises!! I love anything to do with music, make-up or chocolate!!

What's the worst Christmas gift you've ever given?
I didn't have much money one Christmas when I was younger and I gave everyone freebies from hotel bathrooms. Everyone got shower caps, nail kits and shower gels! It's the thought that counts!

Can you tell a Christmas cracker joke?
What did the burglar get for shoplifting a calendar? Twelve months!

What's the best film to watch on Christmas Day?
I love National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation for a giggle and Little Women for a tear jerker!

Mince Pies or Eggnog?
Mince Pies, hot and with ice cream!

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