The famous Blackpool Illuminations, six miles of multi-coloured light bulbs which annually manage to somehow entice thousands of unemployed Mancunians to the run-down north-western shanty town, have this year been switched on by comic and chat show host Alan Carr.
Earlier, plans for Radio 2 disc jockey Chris Evans to broadcast live from the Blackpool Tower had to be abandoned due to high winds. Evans blamed a garam masala he had eaten couple of hours before.
Carr, who lived in Blackpool as a teenager, fondly remembered the occasion when he and Lionel Blair had rescued a man threatening to commit suicide by jumping off the resort's North Pier. "He was hanging off the pier saying he wanted to die," recalled Carr. "But we managed to reach down and pull him off." Carr said the man seemed to enjoy it as much as he and Blair had.
