Centralian Advocate, Tuesday, August 27, 2013 — 15

Television WeekYour handy 7 day lift-out

Tina twinkles her toes

Tina Arena will be a big star attraction on Dancing With The Stars this year

Luke Dennehy

TINA Arena will be the big name on this

year’s Dancing With The Stars.

She has signed on the dotted line for the

Channel 7 series, which starts soon, and is

already in Melbourne getting ready for

the show.

The singer said she had always wanted

to learn to dance properly.

‘‘I have always admired the discipline ofdance but never trained, so I thought thiswould be a great opportunity to learn todance and spend some time back inMelbourne with my family,’’ Arena said.

‘‘I’m also very aware of the fact thateveryone who has participated in theshow here and abroad has had an amaz-ing time.’’

Arena, who doesn’t believe she is agood dancer, said she was ready for thegruelling training.

‘‘I’m also psyching myself up for thebody pain that’s about to slap me in theface,’’ she said.

‘‘I’m a singer and a musician — defi-nitely not a dancer. But I’ll give it a shot.

‘‘I grew up watching MGM, FredAstaire, Ginger Rogers . . . why not?’’

The singer said it was great to beworking on Aussie TV again.

‘‘Yes I’ve been doing TV for 38 yearsnow, which is frightening, but I startedwhen I was seven, eight years old.

‘‘This is something new for me and Ienjoy challenges.’’

Arena will soon release a new album,Reset, and is writing a book.

‘‘It’s my first album of English originalsin more than a decade,’’ she said.

‘‘I’ve had two French albums, whichhave been really successful and reward-ing, but it’s great to be focusing on newmusic at home again.

‘‘The book is finished and comes out inOctober . . . phew!’’

Kylie tipfor VoiceKYLIE Minogue (pictured)could be following in sisterDannii’s footsteps on realityTV after emerging as afrontrunner to join theBritish version of The Voice.

Minogue is in talks to starin the third series of theBBC reality TV singing con-test, according to TheHollywood Reporter.

The publication cites aninsider as saying the popprincess has been short-listed to appear on the show,although she has yet toofficially sign on.

If confirmed, the Austral-ian pop star — a self-confessed fan of realityshows — will join Black EyedPeas frontman will.i.am andcrooner Tom Jones on thejudging panel.

Minogue joined sisterDannii on Sunday’s episodeof The X Factor Australia inthe mentoring chair, de-livering a ratings hit for theSeven Network.

Demi inGlee clubDEMI Lovato (pictured) istaking her big voice to Glee.

The 21-year-old singer-actor will appear in multipleepisodes of the show’supcoming fifth season.

Glee star Lea Micheletweeted last week that shewas excited that two of her‘‘very best friends’’ — Lovatoand Broadway vet PhoebeStrole — would appear onthe Fox show, and thankedcreator Ryan Murphy formaking it happen.

The show was recently hitby tragedy after star CoryMonteith died of a drugoverdose.

Monteith, 29, who was dat-ing co-star Michele, wasfound dead last month in aVancouver hotel room afteroverdosing on heroin andalcohol.

The new season of Gleepremieres September 26 inthe US.

Ten’s latest offspring — is it aWonderland or is it in la-la land

A scene from the wedding in Wonderland’s debut episode

Melissa Overman

CAN Wonderland replace the holeleft in our hearts by Offspring?

Network Ten is sure hoping so,considering the popular drama isnow on hiatus until next year.

The timing could not have beenbetter for Ten’s big debut with mostmen glued to the televised sport,leaving women across the countryto indulge in Wonderland in all itschick-lit glory.

Yep fellas, this one definitely isn’tfor you.

The first episode — which waswatched by 948,000 viewers lat week— served up all the pillars of a goodrom-com including a beachside set-ting, wedding, proposal, breakupand make-out session as well as abunch of characters with compli-cated back stories.

Whether or not it was the pro-ducer’s intention, the wedding ofSteve (Tim Ross) and Dani (JessTovey) which was the crux of theopening episode was suitably cheesyand predictable.

Hideous, blue bridesmaid dresses.Tick. Self-obsessed bride in uglyspandex. Tick. Best man speechwhich inappropriately mentionssex. Tick.

But what viewers probably

weren’t expecting was the gloriousmoment when the best man’sslightly delusional girlfriend pro-posed to him by singing OliviaNewton Johns I Honestly Love Youin front of all his friends. Gold.

This moment and his subsequentrejection of her proposal leads tothe unravelling of their relationshipand a bet between the best man,Tom, and his mates that he won’tsleep with any more of his flatmates

for a whole year.

Enter Miranda who is not onlySteve’s sister but you guessed it,Tom’s sexy new flatmate.

While there were some genuinelyheart-warming scenes, intriguingcharacters and laugh-out-loud mo-ments, the general feeling fromthose on social media was ‘‘meh’’.

But like all first dates you have toget past the formalities before youfind out whether the person is

worth pursuing or at least buying asecond cocktail for and next week’sepisode looks great.

Episode two promises to delve intothe sexual tension between thelovable but fallible Tom and his newflatmate Miranda which with time,might just prove a worthy substi-tute for Nina and Patrick after all.Or at least an attract ivebenchwarmer.

What you need to know if youmissed it:

n Wonderland is the apartmentblock the characters live in.

n The show is set on Sydney’sbeaches and you will wish longingfor summer every time the cameracuts to an aerial shot of golden sandand aqua waves. Plus, you canexpect many scenes with charactersin bikinis or boardies.

n Someone always cries in thetoilet at weddings.

n Miranda Beaumont (AnnaBamford) has broken up with herfiance and now moved in with herbrother’s best friend, Tom Wilcox.

n Tom is nursing his own brokenheart after breaking up with hisgirlfriend but he can’t sleep withMiranda, remember, because he’lllose his much-loved car in a bet.

Wonderland airs again on Net-work Ten at 8.30pm tomorrow.