Doris Visits 2024. The cruising Aikman's to Gavin and Stacey - past stories & future cruises - the year started in South Africa on the Viking Neptune and ended up as unexpected GoogleBox-like stars with a hyper viral video... 7 million views in just days.
Expanding Family
Now we are blessed with two grandchildren, we do not take contracts to work on circa twelve cruises + a year. Even when there is a new book to promote, and last year there were two, although, 4 Murders, A Wedding, and A Cruise was only released days before Christmas. Now both Grandchildren are at school with multiple clubs, we have accepted five cruises to be guest speakers on on 2025 already.
Our year ended with own children surprising us the most this year. Luke came up with more inventive family outings then Laura shocked us all as we sat together and watched TV on Christmas Day night. She WAS back in Gavin and Stacey. She secretly filmed our reaction, and Matt next to her did the same - his camera is in our end of year 2024 round-up. The Independent was first to pick up on her posting of the film, then Sky News. The video on Doris Visits own Jean screaming OMG has hit nearly 7 million views, which has to go down as Doris's (Jean's) biggest film ever.
Press coverage
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Screenshot[/caption]In updated articles, since the screening of Archie at the weekend, The Mail has got some of the history correct.
It somewhat retells that she was taken out of school to present the Mysti Show, as Mysti, for BBC Saturday morning TV. Many G&S fans will have grown up watching that. They failed to connect that Jason Issacs (Cary Grant) and Laura went to the same school!
But, she did not meet her husband Matthew Kennard (TV writer) in Bluestone 42 as they suggest. I am pretty sure that was a chance meeting in Harrods.
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Screenshot[/caption]The Mirror concentrates on the story in our film, of the wedding dress, but does not know how the Beatles song was chosen to walk down the aisle to.. revealed by Jean in our end of year review. Nor do they go into how the BBC smuggled her away from filming 'This City Is Ours' with Sean Bean to do their other show G&S.
The Birmingham Mail missed an own goal - the fact that Matt was a nurse in Doctors, and he and she were co-based in Birmingham for nearly two years. There is a frenzy to interview her now and she will be on THIS MORNING before we rush off skiing as a family to Tignes.
The Doris Visits 2024 from the Aikman's - from cruising to Gavin and Stacey
So, in this we tell a few facts that others have missed in our own year run down, which started in South Africa on the Viking Neptune. As the result of the war in the Middle East, cruise ships on World Cruises knew long before they announced it, that they would not be heading back via the Suez Canal. Ships scrambled to book ports on the route the long way around, that is heading south in the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and up the African coast past the Canary Islands.
Viking Neptune
We decided to go with an offer on the Viking Neptune, starting at the port of Cape Town in South Africa. We stopped in Namibia, Senegal, and looked for the Soul Buoy in mid ocean, but he had gone missing. All weather buoys are named after music - Soul Buoy sits at ZERO ZERO. That is just off the African coast. Zero longitude, zero latitude. We would have travelled all the way back to Greenwich if Jean had not accepted a gig on the Neptune - so in Tenerife we had to disembark and fly to meet the P&O Ventura.
P&O Ventura
We revisited a Coruna, went to Vigo and Porto, then ended in Cherbourg. All the ports were videoed and it was such a busy edit time that my new book stalled in a queue of jobs. This summer we were determined to release a new list of cruise route films, where we show the ship and the ports along its route.
River Cruise to the Wine Country
In the summer, Luke. and Laura took us on a cycling tour of St Emilion and a stay in Bordeaux. It was a joint special birthday present and we loved it. I was trying to film while cycling and crashed. They laughed, which is the sympathy an old stuntman gets.
QM2
The Queen Mary 2 still remains one of our all time favourite ships. There are few ships where you can party this hard, where the band plays on live until after midnight and seventeen live musicians play together on stage in synchronisation to the Cunard Orchestra recorded at Abbey Road studios, playing on the large screen behind them. Our contract with Cunard took us back to Bruges and Cherbourg a few times - enough for us to wander up and find the beach at Blankenberge. But we got to see the new ship, compare, and enjoy. The ship tour is here.
Queen Anne
This was something we had been looking forward to for years, and we were not disappointed. Neither of us expected Cunard to reproduce the old past but were keen to see how they would move their classy cruise image into the future. I thought it was inspirational, clever and intuitive. It was like Michelin Star modern club, or to be extreme one could say new money as opposed to old money. The design, style and approach were right up our street. For those who prefer the QM2 they still have it. We have BOTH! The Ship tour is here.
P&O Britannia
We decided to complete the year in the sun - and we don't mean the newspaper although Jean did that too! Because of changing schedules we got to spend a week with the number one comedy magician and old buddy, Manuel Martinez. We also had a week with mate Chesney Hawkes, who has had three chart hits this year - so, he is no longer the 'one and only' hit. His show is without doubt one of the best cabaret dining shows you can see - up with Madeleine Bell for us. Britannia ship tour. Also, Britannia Route and ship.
Caribbean Cruise Route
We started in Curacao, the Bonaire in the ABC islands. Both are Dutch islands and amongst our favourite in this sea. We went to St Vincent, which is something I wanted to report on for cruisers. There is only one white sand beach in St Vincent (there are a couple of yellow sand, then the rest are dark sand, unlike the sister island Bequia which is beach paradise). We have been telling of this beach for years, how to get there by bus for two dollars, and the Tri Tri fishing in the new moon. Sandals have built a top class resort there, but despite the gate, the beach is public and you can just walk in. By watching the two videos you can see the beach before and after. Finally, when taking a walk around all the sites I used in my first book, Cruise Ship Heist, I got photo bombed by the most charming young lady.
In Grenada we shot a pop video section for Chesney as well as making a film of the water taxi, and he and Jean doing Titanic on the front. It St Lucia we went to a public beach in a resort, a great day at Windjammers. Previously we had been to other beaches and the rain forest. Then in Antigua we walked to find the beach 'near' to the port. It was great but a bus to Anse Beach is easier, as is the bus to Nelson's Dock Yard. Our final port visit was the third Dutch island, Sint Maarten. The port has expanded but the beach was the same. We had so much fun we did not feel the need to visit the French side again. The year ended in Barbados. We filmed the entrance procedure to Barbados and the ship as there are so many new cruisers.
4 Murders, A Wedding, and A Cruise
After I had written the second book, Cruise Ship Serial Killer, and started a maritime detective agency - I made a list of topics. A terror attack on a ship was always top of the list, and has been ignored for seven books. Sex trafficking was the third book as it was a well researched subject which I had directed a movie on years before, winning Best Director in the USA and awards around the globe. A terror attack was hard because whilst it is such an easy target to write for, it is historically not something that happens. The only real record of anything like it is an Israeli ship being attacked by opposing fundamentalists. I wanted to come up with a threat that was both modern, current, and viable. One so simple it scared the pants out of the industry - but I knew that would never be enough so the on-off wedding sub plot had to be powerful. Inevitably in any crime book there is a murder - singular. However, after editing what is now my runaway most popular book, 4 MURDERS, A WEDDING, AND A CRUISE we realised there were two murders, so added the 's'. Then, that there were three, then counted four. It had to happen Christmas Day to provide the inevitable dramatic ticking clock - and now I realise I have written a Christmas movie. One so easy to shoot - so I am currently writing the first draft movie script as well as having laid down the first few chapters of book 9 - Revenge Cruise. 4MWC is available free to those on the Kindle Library.
Christmas and New Year
We always do an end of year show, and this was the best ever outing yet. We had a gift of to visit Trishna's Michelin Star Restaurant from Ollie, Sarah, Ryan, Krystina, Leane, George, and Jo. And after we went to the best show ever - Come Alive! What a show.
This is our extended family - the ones we ski with, party with, but they have yet to come cruising. Hidden in there is our daughter, Laura. Doesn't Luke's daughter Heidi look like her. She told none of her returning to marry Smithy in Gavin and Stacey. That made two weddings in almost as many days with her marrying Cary Grant on ITV. Headlines we keep offering the newspapers. We watched the video she made of Jean go viral and hit 7 million views. The work that gave her in dealing with all the contact and requests is something that at 70, Jean and I are pleased to have stepped back from. We can enjoy it, but don't have to be in it.
Tonight, we are off to see the New Year in with Martin and Linda Clarkson. Martin was a guest Doris Visits presenter this year with his film on the new battery operate Havila Ship, and his tour of Norway. There we will see the many from Chorleywood who bought us the amazing meal out at Michelin Star restaurant KAI.
Have a great 2025
The world throws us problems, we try and jump over them. Jean and I with you the best 2025 possible. Please use the chat groups and share your memories positively so this at home can feel like they are cruising. We join the Aurora in Belize, then the Arcadia in Singapore. I am writing a screenplay of 4MWC and have started book 9.
