Saga Ocean Cruises has announced a celebrity entertainment line-up for 2022 and 2023 including Jools Holland and Alfie Boe.
Also on the list to entertain cruise passengers later this year and next year are celebrity chefs Phil Vickery and Kevin Woodford.
Composer, pianist and broadcaster Jools Holland returns to the Saga stage on six cruises between February and September 2023. He will perform popular sets including Barrel House, Take Me, Peace in the Valley and How sweet it is in the 444-seater Playhouse Theatre.
The cruises he will appear on are: Colours of the Canaries, departing February 2; Arctic Norway and the Northern Lights, departing February 18; Venice and the Treasures of the Adriatic, departing April 9; Contrasts of Scandinavia, departing May 21; Islands of the Western Mediterranean, departing August 20; and Ancient Cities of the Eastern Mediterranean, departing September 4.
Opera singer Alfie Boe, who has led the cast of Les Miserables for nearly a year and achieved platinum album sales in the UK, will perform on the line’s Morocco and the Islands of the Atlantic cruise departing November 15, 2022, on Spirit of Discovery.
Chef and presenter Phil Vickery, who appears on ITV’s This Morning show, will join the Cape Verde and the Canaries cruise departing on November 19, 2022, to give a live cookery demonstration and a question and answer session to guests.
Vickery, who has appeared on numerous TV shows including Ready Steady Cook and his own series Phil Vickery’s Pudding Club, has written 19 cookery books and is an authority on gluten-free products and recipes.
Also on the line-up is Kevin Woodford, chef and TV presenter, who will perform a ‘Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook’ masterclass and ‘A Question of Food’ question and answer session with guests on the Flavours of the Western Mediterranean cruise, departing October 31.
Woodford originally trained as a lecturer in professional cookery and has presented shows including BBC Holiday, Ready Steady Cook, Can’t Cook Won’t Cook and the Reluctant Cook.
Saga Cruises chief executive Nigel Blanks said: “We’re delighted to welcome back Jools Holland – he’s a huge favourite with our guests – as well as Alfie Boe, Phil Vickery and Kevin Woodford, who we know will be enormously popular.
“We also revamped our onboard shows in the theatre and Britannia Lounge earlier in the year, and our popular dance hosts have been reintroduced to accompany guests on the floor, so our entertainment really is something special.”
The shows are all in in additional to the entertainment line-up already announced for each cruise.