The late Dianne Oxberry, who tragically died in 2019 just 10 days after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, is to be honoured with a new award at the This Is Manchester Awards.
The fifth annual awards, which celebrates local businesses and individuals from across Greater Manchester, will take place this November, with The Manc as proud media partners.
And this year, a new award has been created in honour of the broadcaster and weather presenter, with the full support of Dianne’s family.
The This is Manchester Awards (TIMA) announced the Dianne Oxberry Special Impact Award this week, which will recognise an individual who has faced adversity and won and, by doing so, has left a lasting legacy across the region.
Dianne’s widower Ian Hindle attended a special event to announce the new award, alongside TIMA hosts Jenny Powell and Scott Thomas.
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One of her last-ever presenting jobs was at the inaugural TIMA awards in November 2018, prompting the event’s organisers to reach out to her family and ask to create a long-term legacy in honour of her memory.
Jenny Powell and Scott Thomas. Credit: Supplied
The new award announcement coincides with the first anniversary of the launch of Dianne Oxberry Trust’s ‘Spread the W.O.R.D’ campaign, which aims to raise awareness of some of the main symptoms of ovarian cancer.
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Dianne’s husband Ian Hindle commented on behalf of the Trust: “Our goal is to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of this disease, to help improve speed of diagnosis, and hopefully lead to improved outcomes so more families have more time together than we had with Dianne.
“Our community is the key to this. We are normal people, members of the North West community, reaching out to others in the area. We can only shout loudly with the support of people in the North West – local people helping local people.
“The community in this region is amazing at pulling together and doing just that…and we can’t thank our supporters enough for helping us spread the word, and – most importantly – save lives.
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A new award has been created to honour the late Dianne Oxberry. Credit: BBC
“Our values align perfectly with that of the This is Manchester Awards and we were touched that they wanted to honour Dianne in this way.”
TIMA founder Ziara Siddique said: “We were incredibly fortunate to have Dianne Oxberry present the very first awards alongside Roger Johnson back in 2018.
“Her passion for the city and, for the spirit of the awards was undeniable – now in our fifth year and established as an annual legacy event, the time feels right to recognise that early support and we’ve been incredibly humbled by the reaction we’ve received from her family and close friends in helping us shape this award.”
Nominations across the 15 highly-contested categories are set to open next week.
The This is Manchester Awards will take place on 9 November at Lancashire Cricket Club – a new location chosen to accommodate the greater number of guests.
Featured image: Supplied
Manchester
Olivia Dean proves she deserves all her flowers with a captivating performance for BRITs Week 26 for War Child
Clementine Hall
BRITs Week 26 for War Child continued in Manchester last night, with Olivia Dean taking over a beautiful candle-lit Albert Hall… and it was a night we won’t forget.
I don’t need to tell you how utterly brilliant Olivia Dean is.
It’s something I’ve known for years (humble brag), but luckily it seems the entire world has caught on over the past few months.
I’ve been lucky enough to see Olivia five times now, and from watching her joyfully shake here banana-shaped maraca on a small stage at Glastonbury in 2023, to swishing her olive green satin gown at one of the country’s best venues last night – her indisputable talent remains.
Images: The Manc
The Art of Loving, her sophomore album, came out in September last year and features global hits ‘Man I Need’ and ‘Nice to Each Other’.
The record is a perfect analysis of love in all forms. Her heartfelt yet humoured lyricism explores its constant ups and downs, but perhaps the most prominent theme of love throughout is self-love.
And this is so clear as we watch Olivia beam from ear to ear as she makes her way through a setlist that is a celebration of her entire discography.
Of course, we heard all the fan favourites from the new album including ‘Lady Lady’ and ‘So Easy (To Fall In Love)’, but we were also treated to some of her older songs like ‘Echo’ and ‘UFO’ that initially brought her into the limelight.
A highlight for me was Ladies Bathroom which saw the gigantic disco ball hanging above us kick into gear, which as you can imagine at the gorgeous Albert Hall was a real sight to behold.
The entire evening underlined why smaller, grassroots venues are so bloody brilliant and deserving of our support now more than ever.
Image: Supplied
No pushing, no overcrowding, we were all there to revel in Olivia’s greatness and we all knew how lucky we were.
This was no doubt a very special show, a complete one-off in aid of BRITs Week 2026 to raise money for War Child, which Olivia joyfully announced that we had raised £270,000 for that night.
It’s no surprise that Olivia Dean is one of the most exciting artists in the world right now, oozing class, charm and impeccable talent.
We’ll be watching with our fingers crossed as she attends the BRIT Awards on Saturday evening with an impressive (and very well deserved) five nominations.
If you’re lucky enough to have tickets to her upcoming tour then just know how much fun you’ll have, but you’ll never have as much fun as Olivia does on that stage.
You can find out more about the remaining War Child performances here.
Featured image – The Manc Group
Manchester
A new ’boutique’ chicken spot has opened in Manchester’s Northern Quarter
Danny Jones
A brand-new chicken spot called ‘Le Coq Boutique’ has just opened in Manchester city centre, serving out of a popular Northern Quarter bar.
Is this the best name we’ve ever heard in our time writing about food and drink? It just might be…
Opening from inside The Social NQ on Thomas Street (formerly known as Smithfield Social), their new resident and poultry-centric kitchen is a bit of a pun on the classic French sportswear label, but having now been versed in the word about the bird for ourselves, we can confirm it’s much more than that.
For starters, the only thing more decadent than the roasted meats are the sides and cocktail menu, which features everything from chunky hash browns and some of the richest sauces you could ask for.
As you can see, the most chicken is well and truly the star of the show here, but what they have done is find unique ways of innovating and experimenting with it.
For instance, if you’ve never had a cocktail with chicken fat in it, here’s a place you can try one.
Honestly, this isn’t our first rodeo with this very particular kind of drink – but for those of you that haven’t, we promise, it really is quite good.
Aside from surprisingly saline kicks beside the salty marg rims we’ve become more accustomed to over the years, there are some very nice drinks on the menu.
But we’ll be honest, if you’re a sucker for the famous ‘chicken wine’ – a.k.a. La Vieille Ferme, if you want to be all formal – we imagine you’ll be sticking to plenty of this.
Having already spent many a weekend, be that afternoon or night, at the old Smithfield over the years, now that it has this fine new in-house food offering tacked on, we suspect we’ll be going back a lot more.
Whether you want lots of crispy chicken skin or prefer it smothered in gravy and various other kinds of savoury jus, if you’re an unadulterated mothercluckin’ chicken lover, then you’ll have a great time here.
As the team has joked in the comments under their first few social media posts, while it isn’t technically mandatory to wear the vintage 80s brand upon visiting, it is “expected”, with “bonus marks and shots” and promised for your efforts.
It’s also worth noting that they have an exclusive launch offer for those who sort a booking early, so we wouldn’t wait around if we were you.
Let us know what you think if you visit anytime soon.
Daisy Jackson -
4th May 2023 
