LIGHTS ON ... Wirral.

The spotlight is on you.

Last week I applauded the New Brighton Coastal Community Team for the "Brighten New Brighton" attraction which saw the much-loved, iconic Perch Rock lighthouse re-lit so to speak.

I hope other areas of Wirral also make our other lighthouses tourist attractions.

Wirral should be rightly proud of its culture and heritage.

I say a big thank you to all the people who turned out to see the switch on and ribbon-cutting on Saturday.

I spoke to many of them who had braved the cold.

Sadly, the planned lantern festival – part of a full day’s events – was pulled at the last minute.

As famous Wirral resident King Canute discovered when he took on the watery elements you can’t hold back mother nature.

It was the wind that blew away this aspect of the celebration.

It is hoped that the lantern festival will be back, God willing, but can somebody please check the weather forecasts?

And while we are praising all that is good about Wirral, here's some clapperboard ... action!

I still believe there is potential for a Merseyside Film Office.

Liverpool is the most-filmed city outside London. Working with them would be great for the image and economy of the Peninsula.

Next month sees two celebratory films. Port Sunlight’s Gladstone Theatre will screen Wirral on Film (May 24) featuring never seen before film material from the NW archive.

And Remembering New Brighton Baths - an evening dedicated to the famous landmark, will be hosted by the Light Cinema on May 26 in aid of Claire House.

Splashing indeed.

*

ONE of my pet hates is seeing a sign at a Merseytravel ticket office "pay at your destination."

Staff who get free transport maybe don't realise that for we mere mortal commuters it makes for a stressful journey.

At the other end you have to explain.

Now if I see such a sign I take a photo on my mobile complete with the time and date.

But this week I had to laugh when a female backpacker saw a sign and looked puzzled. "Pay at my destination?

"But I am going to Oslo."

*

NICHOLAS Lyndhurst, the star of Only Fools and Horses and New Tricks is an intelligent actor who is also a very private man.

He is as far removed from plonker Rodney in the sit-com.

I once attended a celebrity television launch on a boat in the Thames. I sought out Nicholas.

Alas, when I asked him a question he simply told me to look up the cuttings archive in my newspaper office.

This was 1992 BG (Before Google).

So it is good to hear that Nicholas has come out publicly to support next month's "Make May Purple" which is the annual Stroke Awareness campaign.

Any campaign that highlights what to in an emergency and can save lives deserves all our support.

Nice one Nicholas.

*

I AM very impressed with all the sixties' stars who are still rocking and rolling. Paul McCartney is currently playing concerts lasting three hours.

Merseybeat bands such as The Searchers and The Swinging Blue Jeans being two Merseybeat bands.

Another 60s star is boyish looking Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, going out on a pop package tour who spent many years on Merseyside.

He is now based in the States but makes frequent visits here singing hits such as Something's Telling Me and No Milk Today. 

Peter is a television presenter in the states and I recall bumping into him in San Francisco when was doing an outside broadcast vox pop interviewing people getting off the ferry to Alcatraz, the famous prison.

Microphone outstretched he asked people what they thought and then he stopped me.

"Alright la," I said. "Hi Noone!"

"Oh no," he shouted in a scouse accent ... "Cut! Liverpudlians get everywhere." 

Then he reminisced about Merseyside and our fab ferries.

*

AND finally I hear Jeremy Clarkson and his sidekicks are still struggling to find a name for their new programme.

They can't use Top Gear as it is BBC copyright. So how about Vrooms with a View?

Peter Grant