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You can take an escorted 235ft climb to the top of the Big One in Blackpool next year

If you're brave enough, that is.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 24th November 2020
Blackpool Pleasure Beach

The Big One is one of Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s most well-known and popular roller coasters.

The steel roller coaster ride first opened to the public on 28th May 1994 as the tallest and steepest roller coaster in the world, and it proudly held that record until July 1996, when the Fujiyama roller coaster opened at Fuji-Q Highland in Japan and took the top spot.

Standing at a whopping 235ft above sea level, the Big One is still currently the tallest roller coaster in the United Kingdom though.

With its sheer height, numerous twists and turns, sharp elevations, changes in speed, and rapid drops, the Big One has undoubtedly earned itself a reputation over the years as a ride that only the most daring of our society will take on.

It’s also provided the perfect activity for someone looking for a challenge, but it turns out that just riding the roller coaster isn’t the real challenge after all.

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The ultimate challenge is to climb right to the top of it.

And yes, it’s 100% legal too.

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Blackpool Pleasure Beach
Blackpool Pleasure Beach

In fact, Walk the Big One – the chance to take an escorted climb up the 235ft lift hill of one of the world’s tallest rollercoasters – is actually listed as an official activity on the Blackpool Pleasure Beach website, and there’s plenty of opportunities to get stuck in next year.

If you’re looking to try your hand at something you’ve never experienced before after the second national lockdown draws to an end, how does this sound?

It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted.

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The Walk the Big One experience has a maximum of six walkers per climb – each over 12 years of age and a minimum height of 1.32m – who are provided with safety harnesses and protective clothing, and are asked to wear sensible shoes or boots.

A standard ticket is priced at £65, and you can bring two spectators free of charge.

A range of dates and session times are currently available to book for the experience, starting on Friday 26th March 2021, and taking place on numerous Fridays throughout the year until October.

You can find more information, T&Cs and book to Walk the Big One here.

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Paddy McGuinness teases potential return of Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere

Danny Jones Danny Jones Max and Paddy return

Right, we don’t mean to alarm you all, but Max and Paddy might finally be coming back after nearly 20 years. In other entirely unrelated news, there is a god.

We only ever got one solitary season of Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere, but it only took six episodes for it to leave us with lasting memories of rolling on the floor laughing and quoting lines all these years later.

The Phoenix Nights spin-off went on to be not just a cult favourite but an iconic British sitcom that rivalled the show that spawned it, cementing both Peter Kay and Paddy McGuinness as even greater household names than they already were.

Cut to nearly two nearly full decades later and Paddy himself has teased that the hit Northern comedy might not be done after all. Battle stations, people — we’re on the campaign trail now.

Speaking to Capital Breakfast this week, McGuinness came on to the subject of Max and Paddy return, saying that “the interesting thing about Max and Paddy, and Phoenix Nights is now, we are kind of all of an age of the people we played back then.”

He admitted that while they “do talk about it and what have you” and would love to see the full cast return someday, he just “can’t see it at the minute”.

However, he did go on to insist “never say never” and, more promisingly, that the comedy duo’s comeback, specifically, could very well be on the cards.

“Like Max and Paddy, for instance, we wrote a couple of Christmas specials, and we’ve still got them”, says McGuinness. “We never got around to doing one for whatever reason back in the day. But we’ve actually got them.”

Read more:

The 49-year-old went on to clarify that more than one script has already been written for some time, but they’ve just been kept on the backburner given that he is admittedly “inherently lazy” and likes “doing as little as possible”, it just never came to fruition.

“If you’re doing a scripted comedy show, it does take a long time. So to do something like [this], you have literally got to blank out 12 months of your life.

“He [Kay] is on tour. I’ve got all kinds of stuff going on, and it’s just sort of going ‘right, let’s get together. Let’s get our diaries together. And let’s blank out for that time'”. We don’t know a single person that wouldn’t want to see a Max and Paddy return in some form.

While hosts Roman Kemp and Siân Welby urged people to get flooding them with texts and posting all over social media, the former Take Me Out presenter joked it “won’t make a blind bit of difference.” Come on, Paddy, don’t let us down now.

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Featured Image — Channel 4

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Lidl’s iconic trainers have been spotted back in Manchester stores

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

Lidl’s sell-out trainers are once again back in its Manchester stores – and streetwear enthusiasts are already filing in in their droves to stock up.

The shoes, which usually sell out within days of going live, have hit shelves once again – and are already re-selling for hundreds online.

The iconic £14.99 trainers, which come in the budget supermarket chain’s signature red, blue and yellow colourway, have previously been amongst the Lidl’ clothing range’s most popular items.

When they first launched in 2021, the trainers were priced at just £12.99 but ended up selling online for upwards of £1,000 as sneakerheads outbid each other on Ebay and Depop for the last few pairs.

Now they’re back in a new look – and it’s fair to say that lidl shoppers are just as excited the second time around.

Image: The Manc Group

Donning the retailer’s logo on the tongue and heel, the new-look trainer design focuses on a white shoe with brightly-colored insets and seaming.

Read more: You can now get a full English in a loaf of bread at Ancoats General Store

Items from the range are already on eBay for £150 – so you’ll need to be quick if you want to cop anything for yourself.

Previously released as a one-off, the trainers are being sold in both women’s and men’s sizes, with women’s ranging from sizes 4 to 7, and in men’s sizes 7 to 11 and a half.

Read more: Amsterdam urges young British men to ‘stay away’ in new tourism campaign

As well as the trainers, Lidl’s in-demand clothing line has previously featured sports socks (from 99p), men’s swimming shorts and a foldable shopping bag.

Featured image – The Manc Group

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