ManchesterOnline

Afrika! Afrika! @ Trafford Centre

STARS from stage, screen and sport flocked to the Manchester premiere of circus adventure Afrika! Afrika!

Take That stick to pop

TAKE That have spoken out for the first time about their new album.

TV gardener's golden day

IT WAS billed as the year Tatton went tropical - but it was a good old-fashioned English garden that scooped the top prize at the RHS show.

BB9: Pair continue to fling

LUKE and Rebecca have continued their Big Brother fling, sharing another secret kiss under a duvet.

Summer in the city

THIS summer, Bulmers has teamed up with the Manchester Evening News to squeeze the best out of the Great British summertime.

The Dark Knight (12A)

WITH a record-breaking opening weekend in America tucked under its utility bat-belt, Christopher Nolan's dark, brooding sequel swoops onto these shores amidst a storm of hype and feverish anticipation.

What's on: Pick of the day

CHECK out our guide to the best action from the city's entertainment listings here.

Watch out Glastonbury!

COULD Manchester be on the verge of staging its own annual Glastonbury-style pop festival?

Elbow make Mercury shortlist

BURY indie-rock veterans Elbow have capped a wonderful six months with a Nationwide Mercury Prize nomination.

BB9: Three face eviction

THREE housemates have been nominated to face this week's Big Brother eviction vote.

Arena return for Crows

US alt-rockers Counting Crows will return to the M.E.N. Arena for the first time in over five years, it has been confirmed.

Crown Matrimonial @ The Lowry

I SUPPOSE Hyacinth Bucket modelled herself to some degree on Queen Mary. As the last of the royals to stay aloof from the urge to be public property, all we really know of her is that she was dignified and discreet.

City debut for Shadow Puppets

FANS despondent at The Last Shadow Puppets initial decision not to include Manchester in their string of autumn shows will be pleased to know we’ve been included as one of four additional UK dates.

Judge George wows the fans

TEEN dance sensation George Sampson couldn't have been happier when his former dance school pals scooped top prize in a talent contest at the weekend.

Dance music fundraiser

A POTENTIAL second Versus Cancer concert could happen before the end of the year - but with a distinctly dance music flavour, my spies tells me.

Think you're funny? Prove it!

THE CityLife Comedian of the Year was the first and it's still the best!

Roy's eyes have it

ADMIT it, how many of you turned to this page and exclaimed, `Oh it's the fella who used to present Catchphrase on the telly?'

Guitar Hero: On Tour (Nintendo DS)

GET ready to transform your traditional DS into a full-blown musical instrument with an ingenious add-on that allows handheld gamers to experience the musical fun of the Guitar Hero series.

Search for boyband member

FORMER Take That guru Nigel Martin-Smith has scoured the region for the last two years looking for young lads with enough charisma and talent to make up the members of new five-piece band ASBRO.

Are you Reviewer of the Month?

WOULD you like to eulogise or vent your spleen about a recent music gig, comedy set or theatre show you have recently witnessed? Then enter M.E.N. Online's Reviewer of the Month competition.

The B-52s @ Academy 1

KOOKY is a word too easily attributed to every band that appears with over the top eye make-up and hairstyles that break with convention, but it’s should be a picture of the B-52s that defines the word in any dictionary.

Jay-Z @ M.E.N. Arena

JAY-Z and friends electrified tens of thousands in an M.E.N. Arena show.

Kylie @ M.E.N. Arena

SHE may have ditched her tiny corsets, but Kylie Minogue was the ultimate showgirl as she made her triumphant return to the M.E.N. Arena.

Lady Boys Of Bangkok @ Sabai Pavilion

IT’S a little hard to imagine that this devilishly entertaining show is part of a tenth anniversary tour, that a group of transvestites from Bangkok have become such a popular feature on the entertainment scene.

Hay Fever @ Royal Exchange

WRITTEN in just three days by a young Noel Coward who was yet to become rich and famous, Hay Fever has long been acknowledged as one of Coward’s greatest plays and a great English comedy.

Ways To Look At Fish @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

THE sins of the fathers… with a twist. Three generations of fatherhood come together in one day, with bitterness, enlightenment, love and eventual reconciliation. And amidst it all, the embattled mum retains her hope and belief.

Lay Down and Love Me Again @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

ALL the way from Toronto for an energy-sapping one-man show comes the remarkable, if bewildering, James Howell.

Fourteen @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

DESPERATELY mixed up serial runaway Anne-Marie is the Fourteen of the title, years old that is. But she has enough emotional problems to last anyone a whole lifetime.

Daisies @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

LUCY – rather nervous and much given to verbal spouting – seems a nice girl, though very free with her sexual favours.

Fully House Trained @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

PACKING 14 comedy sketches and four risqué (not to say filthy) TV commercials into an hour, writers Peter Collins, Neil A Edwards and Graeme Flynn have a go at a range of targets, from the TV agony aunt who needs serious help herself to a GCSE course on computer hacking and covering porn site tracks.

Watching Stars @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

THEY met in a night club earlier in the evening. Now they’re on a bench overlooking the city, exploring each other’s past history, circling around the subject of sex. They’re apparently two people with no clear idea of where their lives are going.

Charley’s Aunt @ Dunham Massey Hall

THE ancient walls of Dunham Massey Hall have looked down on many open air productions, but none so rib-ticklingly funny as Brandon Thomas’s farce, Charley’s Aunt.

Human Habitation @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

FRESH out of psychiatric hospital, Blackpool lad Michael (Ben Worth) is settling into a squalid flat in down town Manchester. Michael is a young family man with two kids – only his mind shoots blanks.

Mercy/Cracked @ Buxton Festival Fringe

BORN out of the harsh contemporary world of housing estates troubled with unemployment, crime, violent behaviour and drugs, this powerful double bill from the Fringe award-winning Northern Gap Theatre makes disturbing and gripping drama.

Dave & Jeff Versus the Crazy Corpse Loving Consultant From Cardiothoracics @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

AS well as the longest title in the festival, Stephen Michael Lowe’s comedy is probably the silliest show in sight.

ContreCoup @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

THE eagerly-anticipated new play from M.E.N. Theatre Award-winning Ross Andrews, winner of an M.E.N. Theatre Award for his The Judgement Of Mr. Jenkins and nominated last year for Eating Out, is a surprising and sobering dark comedy.

Granny Must Die @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

IAN Townsend’s enormously entertaining comedy opens with Granny (Carla Stokes) selling her soul to the Devil in return for eternal life.

The Colorado Session @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

HIGH-powered lawyer Jacqueline (Harriet Plewis), obviously addled by drugs and grief, is still addicted to absent film-maker boyfriend Ethan (Alan Lane).

Grass @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

WRITER Mark Whiteley, from Oldham-based touring theatre company Hard Graft, based his hard-hitting but highly entertaining comedy drama on a real-life story he was told by a young offender.

A Dog Called Redemption @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

LIFE and love against the odds are celebrated in Matthew Landers’ engrossing comedy-drama.

The Impossibility Club @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

REUNITING the writer (Mark Griffiths) and star (Nicola Harper) of last year’s 24:7 hit, The Lullaby Witch, The Impossibility Club starts off with an intriguing, initially amusing premise but takes it in a much darker direction.

Quadruped @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

WRITER Robert Shore describes this elegantly-contructed, constantly-surprising triptych as an “evolutionary drama” and it’s certainly a tale with a sting in it.

Lands End @ 24:7 Theatre Festival

LONDON is drowning, most of Cornwall is submerged, the globe is plagued by strange phenomena and the civil authority is in chaos.

BB9: Lowdown on the men

THESE are the male contestants remaining in the new series of Big Brother.

BB9: Lowdown on the women

THESE are the female contestants remaining in the new series of Big Brother.