One of the hottest actors on the planet right now, Aimee Lou Wood, has described her perfect day out in Manchester – and this woman really knows her stuff.
The Stockport-born actor is currently starring in The White Lotus, which will air its final episode of the season this weekend.
And in an interview with Elle, the 31-year-old star has spilled the beans on how she’d spend the ‘ultimate day out’ in Manchester.
The local lass has shouted out several independent businesses across Ancoats and the Northern Quarter, including some Manc favourites too.
Aimee Lou Wood said her perfect Manchester day would start with coffee and breakfast at Idle Hands, an independent coffee shop that’s also famed for its brunches and its pies.
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She said in her interview that it does the ‘best’ coffee, adding: “And they also have cherry pie, which is really delicious, which I try not to have for breakfast. I try and have an actual breakfast meal.
“They have this thing called divorced eggs. I would eat the divorced eggs and then possibly have the cherry pie.”
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Idle HandsKerb wine bar in AncoatsErst in AncoatsThe Norah Store in AncoatsSome of the Manchester spots Aimee Lou Wood recommended. Credit: The Manc Group
From there, Aimee Lou said she’d hit the many, many vintage shops around the Northern Quarter, name-checking favourites like Blue Rinse, Cow, and Pop Boutique.
“They always have amazing leather jackets and that’s my fixation, is leather jackets,” she said.
She then told Elle: “Later on in the day, I would stay in the Northern Quarter, but then maybe I would go to Ancoats, which is really really cool now, and I would go to Erst, which is an amazing restaurant. It’s the bread. The bread there is just so good.
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“But also, ooh, my friend’s shop! The Norah Store, which is in Ancoats, which is an incredible little shop, and then next door to it is this little wine bar, natural wine bar, called Kerb.
“And that is kind of the perfect day. It’s an amazing day.”
Aimee Lou Wood also said: “I love Manchester, so much.”
BBC is casting for next series of The Traitors and wants Mancs who are ‘good at lying’ to apply
Emily Sergeant
The BBC is currently casting for the next series of The Traitors, and is looking for some deceptive Mancs to take part.
The Traitors is pretty much a cultural phenomenon at this point, let’s be honest.
Producers describe it as a ‘game of trust and treachery’, and there’s always plenty of twists, turns, shocks, and surprises along the way – but do you reckon you’ve got what it takes to play? If so, the BBC is currently casting for the next series of the popular show, and is calling on people in Greater Manchester and across the UK to apply.
Applications are currently open to ‘fun, smart, and strategic players’ who are over 18 years of age and have the right to legally reside in the UK.
The first series of the smash-hit BBC reality competition show proved pretty popular when it premiered back in 2022, but the second series took things to a whole new level, and truly seemed to capture the attentions of the nation like no other – with millions of viewers tuning in to watch the three episodes each week.
Currently, you may be one of the millions watching The Celebrity Traitors, which airs each week on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
But in case you haven’t seen it, The Traitors is, put simply, a competition series that’s built on strategy, suspicion, and deception, where a team of players are tasked with competing in a series of missions – with the more missions they complete successfully, the bigger the prize pot gets.
However, hidden among the players are the ‘Traitors’, who meet in secret and decide who to eliminate from their fellow players known as the ‘Faithfuls’.
The aim for the ‘Traitors’ is to stay undetected until the end, while the aim for the ‘Faithfuls’ is to banish all of the Traitors before the game ends.
Up for it? You have until 31 May 2026 to get your applications in online here.
Featured Image – BBC / Studio Lambert Assossiates
TV & Showbiz
A first look into the highly-anticipated TV soap crossover ‘Corriedale’ has just dropped
Thomas Melia
The wait is nearly over for TV soap fans, as producers behind the highly-anticipated ‘Corriedale’ crossover have just dropped an exclusive first look.
Whether you’re team Coronation Streetor team Emmerdale, this show has all areas covered as it merges both the iconic TV soaps into an hour-long special.
Now, it feels like Christmas has come early as pictures of two very distinctive cast members smiling next to each other while filming the crossover episode have been released.
In the newly-released images we can see Vicky Myers, known for playing the assertive and dedicated DS Lisa Swain, representing the Manchester-based production Coronation Street.
Vicky Myers (DS Lisa Swain) and Danny Miller (Aaron Dingle) pictured together ahead of upcoming TV soap crossover Corriedale / Credit: ITV Press Centre (Supplied)
Stood by her side is Danny Miller known for his role as the complex and vulnerable Aaron Dingle in Leeds-based hit soap Emmerdale.
Both can be seen on-set and are pictured in front of a white trailer filming for the upcoming Corriedale special.
Although the shows are set just a one hour’s drive away from each other, separated by The Pennines, this soap special marks the first time that characters from each drama will have ever crossed paths.
Most details for this soap crossover are being kept very tight-lipped although filming kicked off in September with this latest update marking the first-ever major cast announcement for Corriedale.
ITV Executive Producer for Continuing Drama Iain Macleod said: “It’s beyond exciting that filming is under way on Corriedale.
“There is a massive buzz around both the Leeds and Manchester sites and the images coming out of the shoot are utterly spectacular. And that’s before we’ve even got to all the brilliant transpennine interactions between characters from the different shows!
“As a soap fan myself, I think my head is going to explode when the episode airs next year. It will be mind-blowing, historical and unmissable.”
Corriedale is coming to our TV screens in early 2026 and heralds the start of a new soap power hour with 30 minute episodes of both Coronation Street and Emmerdale to air every weekday.
Daisy Jackson -
4th April 2025 
