Show is looking for older people from Norfolk to take on new challenges

Melinda Kirkbride, one of the inspirations for the Mustard TV and Hostry Festival feature, Never Too Late. Photo: submitted. (Image: submitted)

Our sister TV station, Mustard TV, is looking for people to appear in a new feature on The Mustard Show which will celebrate life after 50.

Called Never Too Late, the feature – being created in partnership with the Hostry Festival – will give the lucky six who are chosen the chance to experience something they have always wanted to do but never thought possible.

It might be you have always fancied treading the boards at the theatre but have yet to make your stage debut, or perhaps you would like to overcome a fear of heights by taking to the skies in a hot air balloon.

Whatever you your challenge is, The Mustard Show would like to hear from you.

The six people with the best ideas will be picked to feature in the Never Too Late slot on The Mustard Show throughout the summer before taking to the stage at the Hostry Festival for an event in October.

The Mustard Show presenter Helen McDermott, who just last week challenged herself to revisit her younger days as an aspiring popstar and film a new video for her 1970s song Eleven Out Of Ten, said: 'We are looking for people who refuse to let age be a barrier to them and, however big or however small, they are looking to take on a challenge. We also want them to come and talk to us about their experiences of taking that challenge on.

'It may be that they want to take up a new skill, they may want to learn an instrument, or they may want to change their work completely.

'My mother wanted to be a painter. Having always worked in a factory then in a shop, at 80, when she had the time, she took up painting. She really loved it and her paintings were great.'

Kate Wincup, series producer for Mustard TV, said: 'We're really excited at Mustard to team up with the Hostry Festival for such a fun project.

Norfolk is the perfect place to showcase that it really is 'never too late' to try your hand at something new. Our very own Helen McDermott is the perfect example of that, joining our team and fabulously throwing herself into every thing that comes her way. Since Mustard started two years ago, we've met some remarkable people in the area, that have achieved some amazing things, so we're very pleased to hopefully help more of our region's fantastic older people have fun and achieve a dream.

'Whether it be a secret thespian that's always dreamt of treading the boards in a theatre production, or a fun-loving granddad that wants to sky dive, we want to hear from them.

'We're looking for fun-loving characters that wouldn't mind being accompanied by a friendly camera crew while they tick something off their bucket list.'

Anybody who is aged 50 or over can apply to be part of Never Too Late online at www.mustardtv.co.uk/nevertoolate

People can also email production@mustardtv.co.uk with their name, age and contact details, and outline the challenge they would like to set themselves and why. Alternatively people can call Mustard TV on 01603 772567.

The deadline for applications is the end of April.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR'S LATE MOTHER WAS AN INSPIRATION

The Hostry Festival's artistic director, Stash Kirkbride, says his late mother, Melinda Kirkbride, was one of the inspirations for Never Too Late:

'My late mother, Melinda Kirkbride, was creative director of Kurzner Enterprises in Tombland, Norwich.

She joined the company in 1982, bringing with her the idea of the Pancakes Too! Restaurant, to go alongside

the already much loved Pizza One.

She worked closely with Hy and Valerie Kurzner, setting up the hugely successful Hy's Night Club, and the relaunching of Boswells into a live jazz venue. She and her team ran this legendary 1980s/90s entertainment family of businesses in the heart of Norwich, and in early 2001 she retired from her position of being managing director of all the above.

'She had had a highly successful career and she decided at 60 that it was 'never too late' to re-train in something entirely different. She went on an intensive course to learn how to practise colour puncture therapy. This was a little known form of colour therapy using light source from a specially designed torch, applied in a series of patterns to the body. She hired a room at the Natural Health Clinic on Exchange Street in Norwich, and her new interest and passion in life had been found. I know, if she were still with us she'd applaud this new partnership project with The Hostry Festival and Mustard TV.

Both Melinda and Helen McDermott knew each other well, and, like Helen, my mother knew all about making the most out of life.

Never Too Late will supply a chance for people to get a taste of something they've perhaps always wanted to try – not a promise of a new career, but an opportunity to re think outside the box, a taster course in something different.

With Helen presenting reports on Never Too Late on Mustard TV over the coming months, as well as the event at The Hostry Festival on October 27 and 28, I know all those who take

part in this project will have a ball.'

The two-day Never Too Late event at the Hostry Festival on October 27 and 28 will see each of the six Never Too Late participants profiled on stage at Norwich Cathedral's Hostry.

The Hostry Festival, based at Norwich Cathedral's Hostry, will this year run from October 17 to

31, and the full programme of events will be announced later in the year. Visit www.hostryfestival.org