First, an email from REG:

Dear Cam
Please can you post HAPPY CHRISTMAS to everyone who supports and logs onto The REG Temple:

“Wishing you a great and glorious Christmas and peace filled New year. Thanks for all your much appreciated support. Big cheers and chin-chin.
Richard”

And now for the above pic – With the good fortune and generosity of Joan (for providing the original pic) and the creative talents of both Amy (hat) and myself (banner) – and not forgetting the very wonderful REG himself for posing for Joan in the first place – we at the Temple present to you our exclusive 2003 Christmas website greeting card!

Merry Chistmas and a Happy New Year to each and every one of you out there!

Here’s to a happy and productive 2004!

24th December 2003

Mirror readers ballet treat

2,000 Mirror readers enjoy star-studded Royal Ballet premiere .. and have a ball.

By Damien Fletcher

It was a Christmas night to remember for 2,000 Mirror readers as they mingled with the stars at the Royal Opera House.

To mark 100 years of the Daily Mirror, the Royal Ballet offered our readers special tickets to the gala premiere of Cinderella last night.

They were able to enjoy a magical performance alongside celebrities such as Richard E Grant, Julia Sawalha, Kacey Ainsworth, Judy Finnigan and Richard Madeley.

It was special too for Wayne Sleep, performing at the Royal Opera House for the first time since 1991.

He said: “The crowd was much more demonstrative than usual.”

Wayne, one of the Ugly Sisters, added: “They were doing pantomime boos when we came on.”

He said the night proved everyone could enjoy ballet: “You could hear a pin drop during the serious bits.”

Richard E Grant said the dancers were so athletic he felt guilty for eating so much at Christmas. “It really looks so incredible.”

Absolutely Fabulous star Julia said: “I haven’t been here since I was about eight years old and it was absolutely beautiful.” Channel 4 chatshow host Richard Madeley added: “When you see ballet on the television, it’s boring. But when you see a ballet for real, it’s so dynamic.”

Wife Judy said: “I cried twice. It was visually ravishing.” And it was not just Judy who was moved. Their 16-year-old daughter Chloe added: “It made me cry three or four times. It was beautiful.”

Kacey Ainsworth, who plays Little Mo in EastEnders, could not stop grinning. She said: “It was really lovely. The ending made you go ‘ah’.”

Readers, who took advantage of the special centenary tickets, were also thrilled with their night out.

Linda Keill, 61, said: “I travelled from Kent and it was worth it. I didn’t think I would be into ballet but I am now.”

Emelia Fisher, 15, who was with her mum Sue, said: “I am learning to dance ballet and I wanted to be up there.”

The Martin family travelled from Maidstone in Kent. Daughter Katherine said her first time at the ballet had been “amazing”.

She added: “The sets, the costumes, the dancers. It was like a fairytale.”

As the final curtain came down, it felt like we had all been privileged to go to the ball.

For those of you who haven’t yet seen the final installment of “The Scream Of The Shalka” I recommend you do so while it’s on the BBC Doctor Who website. It’s been quite an adventure and REG has been every bit “The Doctor” in my opinion!

Navigating my way to the BBC website every week to see “The Scream” has given me the bulk of my Doctor Who fix the past month, as I’ve still yet to locate the “Doctor Who Channel” on American TV (If indeed there is one?)

Prior to arriving in the States last month I was very fortunate at being able to tune in to Australia’s ABC TV and see many of the old episodes from 1964 onwards – some I’d not seen in 30 years or so! The ABC had been repeating them on primetime TV as part of their tribute to 40 years of Doctor Who.

I’m still working my way through the dozens of REG Doctor Who screen captures and I should have them all up on the site fairly shortly. In the meantime, just surf on over to the BBC Doctor Who website and catch the exciting conclusion to “The Scream Of The Shalka”.

I’ve just uploaded all the pics from REG’s appearance on “The Kumars At Number 42” which were expertly screen-captured by Sue W. This is the first set of new pics organised by the TGP (Temple Gallery Project) team as we steadily work our way through as many of REG’s films and television projects as we’re physically able to! Many of these pictures, and many of the ones to come, you might not have had the opportunity to see before.

I’ve decided that because there’ll be so many new pics added to the site I won’t be putting any special captions to them at all and most, if not all, of the older pics will “lose” their captions as the Gallery is updated.

But fear not caption-lovers, as I will be setting something up sometime in the not-too-distant future especially for you! Stay tuned for further news.

For now, however, you can check out the new Kumars pics by clicking on the appropriate link in the Temple Gallery.

Joan spotted Richard at a fundraising dinner for RAPt in the ES magazine from Evening Standard’s Friday’s edition someone had left on the train. For those of us not “au fait” with acronyms, RAPt stands for the Rehabilitation of Addicted Prisoners trust and they held a fundraising dinner at “Tamarind”, which REG and other celebrities attended.

Luckily for us, Joan dutifully took the page home and scanned it for us to use on the site. To see it, click here.

Thanks Joan.