Alesha Dixon – a statement on the 33-year old singer’s website today confirmed that she is to leave the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing and go to rival ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent.

The statement said: “Alesha has decided not to return to Strictly Come Dancing after a successful three-series run and will instead be joining the Britain’s Got Talent panel, alongside Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and David Walliams.”

The singer added: ”After three incredible years on the Strictly Come Dancing judging panel I have decided that it is time to move on. Strictly Come Dancing will always hold a special place in my heart as it has been such an amazing experience, both as a winning competitor and as a judge. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved in the show, the production team, my fellow judges, and a very special thank you to the fans for their support.”

The BBC have said that they wish her well for the future and that they are looking forward to announcing a new judging panel in due course. This seems a little like it may have been said through gritted teeth we think and they will surely be a little cheesed off at losing one of their ratings winning panel from the hit dance show.

It looks like being a very busy and successful 2012 for the singer as she has also recently been revealed as the face of Weightwatchers in a new series of ads in which she showcases the slimming achievements of 180 different Weightwatchers members. During the ads Alesha also sings a new song, Do It Our Way (Play). which has been specially composed for the campaign. The ad campaign started yesterday on New Year’s Day no doubt timed to coincide with all those New Year’s resolutions around losing weight and going on a diet after overindulging at Christmas.

Sherlock – the 2nd series of the BBC’s homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective began last night.

As with the first series we are going to have 3 movie length episodes in the new series. Last night’s opener was called “A Scandal in Belgravia” and as all Sherlock Holmes fans will know was a play on the title of Conan Doyle’s original story “A Scandal in Bohemia”.

We were introduced in last night’s episode to Irene Adler, known to the original Sherlock Holmes, and also Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock, as “The Woman”, and played by a rather saucy looking, and often naked, Lara Pulver. Lara was probably best known prior to last night as Erin Watts, the section chief in the final episode of Spooks. After last night we are sure that many more people will recognise her as having played the dominatrix who bewitched the famously cool Sherlock. In the words of Conan Doyle: “In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.”

As in the first series of Sherlock it is Benedict Cumberbatch playing the famous detective with Martin Freeman acting as his trusty sidekick Dr Watson. Both actors seemed even more comfortable in their roles last night than in the first series and their relationship grows ever more complex and multi-layered.

Last night has set a very high standard not just for Sherlock but for all British crime drama of 2012 to follow. Although there are only 2 more episodes for us to enjoy in this series they should both be crackers as they are based on 2 of the most famous Holmes stories. Next time we see the duo take on “The Hound of the Baskervilles” and the final episode of the series sees the famous confrontation with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls.

If the series leaves you wanting more then we recommend you go back to the original Conan Doyle tales for a fix of Sherlock. If you don’t want to read the books yourself but would rather have them read to you then we suggest you try the excellent set of audiobooks read by David Timson. If you just want more Benedict Cumberbatch  and Martin Freeman then you will have to wait for the new Hobbit film starring Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Cumberbatch as Smaug the dragon.

Critics’ Choice TV Awards – yesterday evening’s award show brought further glory for detective series Sherlock which took the award for Best Miniseries with Benedict Cumberbatch taking Best Miniseries Actor.

The awards were held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills and the winner of the night’s biggest prize was the psychological thriller Homeland which took the Best TV Drama Series award. The show’s star Claire Danes also picked up the award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Carrie Mathison the bipolar CIA agent looking for a terrorist in the heart of America.

It was thought that it would be another good night for Mad Men which won 3 awards last year but as it turned out the only award it picked up this year was for curvy Christina Hendricks in her role as the office manager Joan Holloway. It is the second consecutive year that she has walked away with the award.

We also had another quite unexpected British winner on the night with Cat Deeley picking up an award for Best Reality Show Host for her work in Fox Network’s So You Think You Can Dance. Cat shared the award with Tom Bergeron who hosts Dancing With The Stars.

One person we did think might take away an award on the night is Damian Lewis, who plays Marine Sgt Nicholas Brody in Homeland but in the end Lewis lost out to Bryan Cranston who stars in the crime drama Breaking Bad. Damian got the chance to meet President Obama in March this year when he was invited to a special state dinner. The President is a huge fan of Homeland and has said that it is his favourite tv show.

Another possible British winner was Lara Pulver who was up for the Best Actress in a Miniseries award for her role as Irene Adler in Sherlock but in the end she too lost out, this time to Julianne Moore who won for her role as the 2008 vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin in the HBO drama Game Change.

The Critics’ Choice Awards are seen as the precursor to next month’s Emmy Awards which are the US television industry’s most prestigious awards.

Royal Ascot Fashion - today saw the opening day of Royal Ascot and after some problems in previous years racegoers this year had to abide by some stringent new fashion guidelines.

Anyone lucky enough to secure an invite to the Royal Enclosure had some fairly tough rules to follow. Women are banned from wearing fascinators and their skirts and dresses have to be of modest length and no shorter than just above the knee. In previous years women have just been advised that miniskirts were unsuitable.

Other fashion no-no’s for the Royal Enclosure are strapless, halterneck and off-the-shoulder dresses as well as those with spaghetti straps or any strap thinner than one inch wide. Just in case people were in any doubt bare midriffs are also banned this year.

Men do not escape from the fashion police if they are heading for Ascot’s Royal Enclosure and must now be seen in black or grey morning dress together with a waistcoat. Ties are of course compulsory and you are not even allowed any leeway by wearing a cravat.To go with their morning dress the men must also wear a black or grey top hat and only black formal shoes are permitted.

In the grandstand area of the course things are less formal although men must still wear a suit and tie and all women must wear a hat or a fascinator.

To make sure that everyone abided by the rules today there were a number of what the course described as dress code assistants but we prefer to call fashion police. They were kitted out with wicker baskets full of lots of ties for the men if they had forgotten and pashminas for the ladies in case they should be showing too much flesh

Amongst today’s celebrity racegoers were TOWIE’s Lydia Bright in a tight-fitting scarlet dress from Hybrid that showed off her slim figure and Danielle Lineker in a stylish black and white dress with black shoes and bag. These two got almost universal praise today for their choice of outfit however another celeb seems to have split opinion on whether her outfit was a hit or a miss. Britains’ Got Talent judgeAmanda Holden wore a floral cream Azagury dress. The designer is a firm favourite with Kelly Brook, Katherine Jenkins, Mylene Klass and Helen Mirren as well as previously being a favourite of Princess Diana. She matched this with a cream Aspinal bag but the part of her outfit that has most divided people is her choice of headgear. She wore a DeDe Valentine hat which has been described by some as stylish although the Huffington Post thought it made her look like Little Bo Peep.

Another outfit that got people talking was the one worn by model and wildlife presenter Anneka Tanaka-Svenska with a huge hat designed by Louis Mariette that seemed to be made of 2 large birdcages, a number of pink roses and lots of white feathers. We are sure that she was glad today wasn’t too windy or she would have ended up somewhere down by the car park!

In case anyone was interested in the horses then we can report that the world’s top rated racehorse, Frankel, won the Queen Anne Stakes. This was no surprise to either the bookies or anyone in the crowd that had seen him race before. Today’s victory took his total number of consecutive wins to 11 and the level of dominance he has shown in earlier meetings and his form in training meant that it was not a big pay-day for you if you backed him as his odds were a staggeringly mean 10 to 1 on.

It appears that the economic woes have not yet reached this part of Berkshire as over the next few days racegoers are expected to consume 170k bottles of champagne, 10k lobsters, 5k oysters and 18k punnets of strawberries. Nice work if you can get it!

Original Painting Of World’s Most Reproduced Print To Be Auctioned – the original painting of The Chinese Girl by Vladimir Tretchikoff is to be auctioned in London in a few weeks time.

Tretchikoff was born in Russia in 1913 but moved to China in 1917 at the onset of the Russian Revolution. He later moved to Singapore before finally settling in South Africa after the Second World War.

The Chinese Girl is probably better known to many as The Green Lady and was painted by Tretchikoff in 1950. The painting is actually Tretchikoff’s second attempt at this theme with the original version (using a different model) being destroyed when his South African studio was robbed.

The model for The Chinese Girl was a 17-year old girl called Monika Sing-Lee who Tretchikoff spotted working in a Cape Town launderette owned by his uncle.

The picture was hugely popular with the general public in the 60′s and 70′s but was always looked down on by the art world and Tretchikoff became known as the King of Kitsch. He said before he died in 2006  that he believed around half a million full size copies of The Chinese Girl had been sold. In addition to this the image was used on many other items such as mugs and tea towels as well as being sold in a smaller format reproduction. Although selling well around the world, the work was particularly popular in the Uk and The Commonwealth.

The original painting was bought by a woman in Chicago whilst Tretchikoff was touring the US in the 50′s and it has remained in the same family ever since. Prior to coming to London for the auction the painting will be on display in New York and Johanesburg.

The painting is being sold as part of an auction of South African art at Bonhams on 20 March. The Chinese Girl  has a guide price of £300-500k and is sure to surpass the record price for a work by Tretchikoff which currently stands at £337k. This was achieved by his picture Portrait of Lenka (Red Jacket). a semi-nude work featuring his lover and muse Lenka (real name Leonara Schmidt-Salomonson).

Nude Sherlock Star To Appear In Bond Biopic – Lara Pulver, the actress whose character captivated Sherlock Holmes when she appeared nude in front of him, is to feature in a new biopic of James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

The 32-year old actress caused a bit of a stir in the series when she appeared naked in front of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock character. Her character of Irene Adler was taken directly from the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories. Adler is the strongest of the female characters in the Sherlock Holmes stories and it is believed that he based Irene on the real life character of Lola Montez, an Irish dancer who was the lover of Ludwig 1 of Bavaria. The King eventually bestowed upon Montez the title of the Countess of Landsfeld.

As well as making a big impression on his Sherlock character it is thought that in reality Lara’s naked performance impressed actor Benedict Cumberbatch as the pair were said to be romantically linked last year.

In the new Ian Fleming biopic Lara is to play the part of Ann O’Neill. Ann became Fleming’s wife in 1952 after her divorce from her second husband Viscount Rothermere. This marriage broke down due to Ann’s affair with Fleming, who she had known since before the marriage took place in 1945. Even as early as 1947 it seems Ann and Fleming had rekindled their romance as she stayed with him at his Jamaican Goldeneye estate when she had in fact told her husband she was staying with Noel Coward at his neighbouring property.

The new biopic will star Dominic Cooper in the role of Ian Fleming  as well as also featuring Samuel West and Anna Chancellor. The Show is being produced for Sky Atlantic and filming is expected to start later this year in the UK and Bulgaria.

Lara has recently been talking about her breakthrough role as Irene Adler in Sherlock and said that she would love it if she could make a return to the series as the whip bearing dominatrix. From the reception the character got first time round it would certainly be a popular return.